Post by WeNeed3 on Feb 26, 2009 7:43:33 GMT -5
School officials keep your child's safety a top priority
By Molly Kozik | Daily Herald Columnist
Every Monday morning I spend two hours at Fearn Elementary School in North Aurora listening to 24 first graders read. I'm always eager to get to school every week to see my daughter Mary and her classmates.
One day in early February our reading was interrupted by a half-hour science presentation in a nearby classroom. Mary's teacher Amy Talkington invited me to join the class in the inflatable "star dome" which was set up in the school's music room for a multimedia presentation about space exploration and stars.
Midway through the talk an urgent announcement blared over the school's intercom system.
We were in a "lock down".
The children's eyes bugged open but they remained quiet and attentive as Mrs. Talkington instructed all of us to crawl out of the dome and quietly follow her to our designated safe place. She locked the door from the inside and we remained until we heard an announcement telling us it was safe to return to our classroom.
I've been in fire drills and tornado drills when I was a student. (Perhaps I even did a nuclear bomb drill or two but I don't remember them.) But I have never been involved in a lock down drill before.
Nowadays students are expected to be prepared for fires, tornadoes, nuclear attacks - and intruders.
Just over a year ago a former student entered a classroom at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and killed five students.
We mark that anniversary remembering the victims and thinking about how to keep ourselves and our children safe from attacks like the ones that took place at NIU and at Columbine High School in 1999.
After my lock down experience, I wanted to find out more about what the school district is doing to keep our children safe.
First I talked to Pete Kerl, the assistant superintendent for operations for District 129, who explained how the school district trains for and responds to emergencies of all kinds. He also asked me not to publicize the safe zones located in the schools.
"If we ever have an intruder in the school our primary objective is to get the kids out of sight and lock the doors. We want all the students as inaccessible as possible," Kerl said.
"When we have to lock down a school we are buying time to get law enforcement on site," Kerl said. He told me that each school in the district has a safety representative and that the district's safety committee meets once a month.
Schools are required to have three fire drills and one tornado or "shelter and place" drill per year, Kerl said. He added that lock downs had been advisory but a law was passed this year that required one drill per year.
"We make sure they are spaced out through the year and try not to have fire drills in real cold weather," he said.
As we talked, Kerl suggested that I talk to Miriam Wade-Hicks at West Aurora High School. As the director of the district's crisis team, Wade-Hicks was the "expert" in safety procedures, Kerl insisted.
And he was right. Wade-Hicks spoke passionately and informatively about the safety of our children in district schools.
Wade-Hicks said the district received a grant a few years ago and as a result she receives best practices information from the U.S. Department of Education and heads the Readiness and Emergency Management System (REMS) for the district.
"Each school has a representative on the REMS team that meets monthly," Wade-Hicks said. "We look anything that unsettles or affects a school. We come up with scenarios that can affect a school like weather, utility failures, faculty deaths and we decide what would have the greatest impact on the school and what is most likely to actually happen."
She said that schools large schools like West High with 3300 students and over 250 staff members must have security measures in place for visitors on campus.
Visitors to West High present their drivers licenses and write down their license plate numbers to give the guards at the front desk to do a quick background check on the visitor. All West High and district middle school students and faculty wear ID cards on lanyards at all times during the school day.
Just this year parent volunteers and visitors at Fearn also turn in their drivers licenses when entering the building for any reason.
"It used to be that at quaint elementary schools, the parents would have a relationship with the secretary at the front desk and have easy access to the schools," Wade-Hicks said. But now the elementary schools recognize the need for security too.
"Sometimes parents get upset and angry that we don't give them free access to their children," she added. "But they need to understand that we have to give up convenience for security. We want parents to support our efforts in protecting their children."
Ask at the front desk at your school to find out who your safety committee representative is. He or she can help answer any questions you may have about the safety procedures at your school.
www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=273736
By Molly Kozik | Daily Herald Columnist
Every Monday morning I spend two hours at Fearn Elementary School in North Aurora listening to 24 first graders read. I'm always eager to get to school every week to see my daughter Mary and her classmates.
One day in early February our reading was interrupted by a half-hour science presentation in a nearby classroom. Mary's teacher Amy Talkington invited me to join the class in the inflatable "star dome" which was set up in the school's music room for a multimedia presentation about space exploration and stars.
Midway through the talk an urgent announcement blared over the school's intercom system.
We were in a "lock down".
The children's eyes bugged open but they remained quiet and attentive as Mrs. Talkington instructed all of us to crawl out of the dome and quietly follow her to our designated safe place. She locked the door from the inside and we remained until we heard an announcement telling us it was safe to return to our classroom.
I've been in fire drills and tornado drills when I was a student. (Perhaps I even did a nuclear bomb drill or two but I don't remember them.) But I have never been involved in a lock down drill before.
Nowadays students are expected to be prepared for fires, tornadoes, nuclear attacks - and intruders.
Just over a year ago a former student entered a classroom at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and killed five students.
We mark that anniversary remembering the victims and thinking about how to keep ourselves and our children safe from attacks like the ones that took place at NIU and at Columbine High School in 1999.
After my lock down experience, I wanted to find out more about what the school district is doing to keep our children safe.
First I talked to Pete Kerl, the assistant superintendent for operations for District 129, who explained how the school district trains for and responds to emergencies of all kinds. He also asked me not to publicize the safe zones located in the schools.
"If we ever have an intruder in the school our primary objective is to get the kids out of sight and lock the doors. We want all the students as inaccessible as possible," Kerl said.
"When we have to lock down a school we are buying time to get law enforcement on site," Kerl said. He told me that each school in the district has a safety representative and that the district's safety committee meets once a month.
Schools are required to have three fire drills and one tornado or "shelter and place" drill per year, Kerl said. He added that lock downs had been advisory but a law was passed this year that required one drill per year.
"We make sure they are spaced out through the year and try not to have fire drills in real cold weather," he said.
As we talked, Kerl suggested that I talk to Miriam Wade-Hicks at West Aurora High School. As the director of the district's crisis team, Wade-Hicks was the "expert" in safety procedures, Kerl insisted.
And he was right. Wade-Hicks spoke passionately and informatively about the safety of our children in district schools.
Wade-Hicks said the district received a grant a few years ago and as a result she receives best practices information from the U.S. Department of Education and heads the Readiness and Emergency Management System (REMS) for the district.
"Each school has a representative on the REMS team that meets monthly," Wade-Hicks said. "We look anything that unsettles or affects a school. We come up with scenarios that can affect a school like weather, utility failures, faculty deaths and we decide what would have the greatest impact on the school and what is most likely to actually happen."
She said that schools large schools like West High with 3300 students and over 250 staff members must have security measures in place for visitors on campus.
Visitors to West High present their drivers licenses and write down their license plate numbers to give the guards at the front desk to do a quick background check on the visitor. All West High and district middle school students and faculty wear ID cards on lanyards at all times during the school day.
Just this year parent volunteers and visitors at Fearn also turn in their drivers licenses when entering the building for any reason.
"It used to be that at quaint elementary schools, the parents would have a relationship with the secretary at the front desk and have easy access to the schools," Wade-Hicks said. But now the elementary schools recognize the need for security too.
"Sometimes parents get upset and angry that we don't give them free access to their children," she added. "But they need to understand that we have to give up convenience for security. We want parents to support our efforts in protecting their children."
Ask at the front desk at your school to find out who your safety committee representative is. He or she can help answer any questions you may have about the safety procedures at your school.
www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=273736
