School Safety

School Safety
Posted on 04/05/2018

Dear Wildcat Family,

 

As we reflect over the tragic events in Parkland, Florida, the safety of our schools has certainly been on my mind as well as our Central Office, school administrators, faculty, and staff. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those who were affected by those tragic events. Anytime this type of tragedy occurs we always look at ways that we can better prepare for unforeseen events. I would like to take just a moment to share with you just a few things we currently do and/or in the process of undertaking.

 

  1. School systems are required by the State to conduct one Code Red drill (lockdown) per semester within the first six weeks of each semester. As a system, we go beyond that and perform a Code Red drill (lockdown) once a month. These drills are held at different times of the day in order to be prepared regardless of when an unforeseen event could occur.

  2. Two School Resource Officers (SROs) are assigned to the school system with their primary responsibilities being at the Junior High and High School. Our SROs do visit our elementary schools during the week.

  3. All exterior doors are locked during the day with the exception of the one main entrance door at each school. This will change over the coming weeks as you will see our schools equipped with a secure access door at the main entrance. These doors will operate on a “buzz in” system such that visitors will have to be given access to the building by school personnel. We have secured a vendor and the work will start in the very near future.

  4. There are hundreds of cameras located within our schools to monitor our buildings in real time and these cameras record events in order to be able to retrieve past footage when necessary.

  5. At the beginning of each school year, school staff thoroughly go over the school’s safety plan during professional development days in order to ensure that action plans are followed and updated as necessary. Furthermore, we are in the process of additional training in conjunction with local law enforcement during our scheduled professional days.

 

Again, these are just a few of the things we do or are in the process of doing as a school system to assist in creating as safe a school setting as possible. In terms of what is my highest priority for school safety as the Superintendent of Scottsboro City Schools, I believe our efforts should be focused on securing funding for a minimum of one SRO or Security Personnel for each of our schools. As we speak, I am pouring over ideas of how to make this happen and know that it is at the top of my list of needs for our system. I am, however, not in favor of arming all of our teachers on campus. I believe there is a better way.

 

As always, please do not ever hesitate to contact me or other school administrators if you are aware of any issues that could potentially affect the safety of our schools and its students. The more we know, the better able we are to provide as safe an environment as possible. I thank each of you for your support of the Scottsboro City Schools. 

Dr. Jose Reyes, Superintendent
Scottsboro City Schools

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