Whitefish schools to review intruder lockdown procedures

The Whitefish School District issued a letter Monday reminding parents that the school has several measures in place that are designed to keep students and staff safe.

In a letter addressed to Whitefish families, Superintendent Kate Orozco said, “In the aftermath of the Connecticut tragedy, we wanted to send you a brief message to let you know what measures we have taken in our schools to address the needs of our children, teachers, and staff.”

The reminder comes in the wake of the Dec. 14 school shooting in Connecticut that left 26 dead, including 20 elementary school children.

Orozco said teachers Monday morning received information on helping students cope with tragic news and noted the district has systems in place to respond to crisis situations.

“Please know that the well-being and learning of each of our students is truly our mission here in Whitefish,” she wrote in the letter.

The district’s Quick Response Team is expected to meet this week to review emergency procedures, she noted.

The team, led by high school principal Kerry Drown, is made up of district staff members with the purpose of reviewing and improving emergency procedures, like lockdown measures and evacuations.

Drown said the team, which first formed in 2004, meets on a periodic basis and has created a procedure for dealing with a number of emergency situations at the schools, from death of student or staff to fire evacuations to intruder lockdowns.

Following the Connecticut incident the team will hold a meeting to review its procedures and specifically look at lockdowns. In the case of an intruder entering the building, a lockdown calls for students and staff to go inside classrooms, lock doors, turn off lights and remain quiet.

“We’ll come together and review our procedures,” Drown said. “We’ll take the unfortunate incident like what occurred in Connecticut and we’ll run through our procedures for lockdown. We want to make sure it works and if it doesn’t we’ll make changes.”

Under state law, the schools are required to participate in eight drills throughout the year that practice the procedure in different emergency situations.

“Every situation is unique,” Drown said. “We have a general model and fill in the details and choreograph the situation.”

In addition to the district QRT, each school has set staff members who serve as part of the building’s QRT and have assigned roles during an emergency.

“What we don’t want is to be in the moment and coming up with the answers,” Drown said. “We need this level of organization.”

The district has taken steps to be proactive about school safety. At each school, staff wears identification badges, as do substitute teachers.

All doors besides the main entrance to the school remain locked. Upon entering the school, visitors are required to check in with the main office and pick up a visitor pass.

“We try to protect our students,” Drown said. “We do have a plan and practice by performing drills. We discuss the plan and meet with staff. No plan is perfect, but we try to be as proactive as possible.”

The school district has posted information on its website about how to talk to children about the national tragedy. The information is on the district’s website at www.wsd44.org and is under the news and announcements heading.