School Safety
 

As a parent in our school system, I immediately thought of my three boys when I received word of the school shooting in Connecticut in December. I cannot begin to imagine the horror and excruciating pain that must be felt by the parents of the students fatally injured. More than any other consideration related to a child’s education is a parent’s desire for their child to be kept safe and secure. I can say with a high degree of certainty that our faculty and staff understand that desire and work daily to protect our kids to the best of their ability.

Despite our best efforts, the tragedy in Connecticut provided a heart wrenching reminder that we can never let our guard down, and the safety of our students has to remain at the forefront the entire time children are entrusted into our care. To that end, our school administrators have actively begun revisiting our safety plans to make sure our faculty and staff are well aware of how they should respond in case of an emergency. We have begun doing more lock-down drills so both our faculty and students understand how to respond appropriately. The Bremen Police Department has been extremely receptive to working with us to improve upon our plans, and we will utilize their expertise in the immediate future to help us better protect our children. We have a tremendous Resource Officer in Leslie Pike, and she has increased her presence at all of our schools as well as provided input to our administrators as we enhance our safety plans. Additionally, we have examined areas where we need to do a better job of securing doors at all of our campuses. Also, we are currently reviewing different products on the market which utilize a more extensive visitor check-in system to better screen our visitors.

As mentioned, all of our schools have extensive safety plans in the case of many different types of emergencies. I do not want to publicly disclose those plans for obvious reasons but I do want to make sure that our parents realize extensive thought has been put into the development and understanding of our safety plans.

Finally, I believe we have a tremendously safe school when I compare it to so many others but I am not naïve enough to believe nothing could ever happen here. When I envision those brave staff members who gave their lives in Connecticut to protect their students, I see that same level of dedication in our own staff. They take the responsibility of protecting students in their care very seriously, and I know they would do anything within their power to keep our children safe. I believe that as an administrator in the system but more importantly, I believe that as a parent.

We want our parents to feel reassured about our students safety so please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for allowing us to teach your children, and I assure you we will do everything we can to protect the children you hold so dear! God Bless!

David Hicks