On Wednesday, September 27, Superintendent Michael Bennett hosted Greenville’s second annual Community Engagement Session on School Safety. Roughly 15 parents and guardians attended the session. Mr. Bennett began the evening by briefly going over the events of Wednesday’s unplanned lockdown saying, “Today was an example of why we drill, practice, and prepare.”
He then touched on the importance of school safety, a sentiment that was shared with those in attendance. Mr. Bennett discussed in detail the safety features in place at Greenville, including those that are mandated by the State and those that the District chooses to go the extra mile and put in place. He later introduced School Resource Officer Deputy Rogers and reinforced the importance of the District’s partnership with local law enforcement.
The presentation then shifted to go over the Standard Response Protocols that are practiced at Greenville and throughout New York, noting “drills have become more complex because of the society we live in.” Parents in attendance learned each of the five responses, what students are taught to do in these situations, and what the adults are trained to do. Before opening the floor for questions, Mr. Bennett explained what parents can expect from the District in terms of emergency communications.
Questions from those in attendance and responses from Superintendent Michael Bennett are listed below:
Q: How do lockdowns get called, and who is in charge when there’s a lockdown?
A: Lockdowns can be initiated in a limited number of ways. We have buttons throughout the school, phone numbers that can be dialed from any school landline, as well as a remote system that can be accessed by a limited number of people in the District. In the event of a lockdown, I am the incident commander until law enforcement arrives, then my capacity shifts more to a communications role.
Q: So, do administrators need permission from the Superintendent to call a lockdown?
A: Absolutely not. Any administrator or secretary can call a lockdown if they witness a situation that requires a lockdown as the response. Time means lives in a lockdown situation, and we do not have time to spare.
Q: You mentioned that we learned a lot from today’s lockdown. What did we learn in terms of communication from today?
A: We learned that we need to be quicker in our initial communication. Today, we waited until we had all the details of what caused the lockdown to send a message to families. In the future, we will send a message notifying families of the lockdown and follow up with the details of how and why. Parents need this information fast. We ask you to trust us with your kids, and part of that trust is ensuring accurate communication and in a timely manner.
Q: Will you be alerting student drivers of lockdowns in the future?
A: This is something that was brought up when we debriefed today and it is something we will look into. We currently have the ability to notify parents via text messages and phone calls, we have to see what it would take to add student drivers to that list.
Q: What if kids are outside during a lockdown? I was told they’re supposed to run into the woods.
A: While in school, students are always outside with supervision, whether that be with a classroom teacher, an aide/monitor or a teaching assistant. Our staff is instructed to lead students away from the school. With the installation of our blue light system that alerts people outside of a threat within the building, we will look to set predetermined rally points for students and staff to gather if they are outside during a lockdown. I do not ever want to be in a position of telling a parent that we can’t locate their child, so we do not encourage or teach students to run into the woods during a lockdown.
Q: After a lockdown, how do we communicate “what if” situations that could have occurred?
A: We can’t plan for every “what if” situation, but if we could, we would. We will look to provide talking points to teachers about what they can do in future situations.
Q: You said communication was slow today. What did that timeline look like?
A: From the time the lockdown was initiated, to the time parents received their first message from the school, was 18 minutes. Far too long.
Q: Deputy Rogers mentioned he received a call from dispatch within 30 seconds of our lockdown system alerting them of a problem. Why did they call him, and not immediately dispatch officers?
A: It’s possible they immediately dispatched officers, we don’t know. The thing about emergencies and technology that you have to remember is that if there is something wrong, people are trained to call 911, even if they call and hang up dispatch usually receives multiple phone calls. In a lockdown situation, law enforcement isn’t responding to the incident driving the speed limit, they are virtually flying here, putting their lives on the line along the way. So when dispatch received a lockdown notification from our school, but did not receive an influx of 911 calls notifying them of the situation, they contacted Deputy Rogers, who was already on campus, to get the details about what their officers would be responding to. Within three minutes, it was determined there was no threat within the building, and Deputy Rogers called other responding officers off.
Q: You said the high school has a new system that blares “LOCKDOWN” over the loudspeaker - does the elementary school have this system as well?
A: Yes, one of our initiatives this year was to make emergency responses the same district-wide. The elementary school has the exact same system.
Q: Can we prepare the elementary school students, especially the younger ones, for a lockdown drill? And will we be notified before a drill?
A: Yes, absolutely we can prepare students. We will have a drill next week. However, we do not plan on announcing the date of the drill because we do not want parents to keep their kids home because they know we’re having a drill. Kids need to drill for these situations. These drills saves lives.
Q: You talked in your presentation about reunification. Will parents know where to pick up their kids if they have to be reunified in an emergency?
A: For safety reasons, we do not release our reunification locations to the public ahead of time. However, in the event of an emergency that requires reunification, we will make it abundantly clear where and how to pick up your child. Additionally, please know that we have a plan A, B, and C and a system in place for this.
Q: What’s the bar to relocate children? At what point do they move from one place to another?
A: That’s one of those situational “what if” questions, and it truly depends. If that were to happen, we would work with law enforcement to determine if it is no longer safe where students are, and to move them to a second location and reunify with their parents. But please know the tremendous amount of coordination and resources it would take to move kids, we do not make that decision often or lightly, but absolutely will when necessary.
Q: How much training do teachers and staff receive on emergencies?
A: Our training begins every year on our first Superintendent’s Conference Day where we go over what to do in an emergency. In addition, there are a number of state-required emergency trainings staff members must complete annually. After that, principals go over any updates to safety measures in their faculty meetings and via emails so staff members can stay up to date.