The Emails Sent to Cary-Grove High School Parents regarding Code Red Exercise
Here is the original District 155 email:
INITIAL EMAIL:
Dear parents:
At Cary-Grove and across District 155, we make your child’s safety our number one priority each day.
As a parent, I can assure you that we understand our responsibility to return your child safely at the end of each day.
While we take many preventative steps to keep our building secure, we also practice our response should a crisis arise.
Some examples include
- meetings with first responders,
- a comprehensive crisis response plan, and
- simulations.
We are planning a code red simulation on Wednesday, January 30. We feel it is important to explain the simulation to you in advance so that you and your child might be able to better understand what will take place on Wednesday.
A Code Yellow ockdown was held in October, 2011.
The simulation will take approximately 15-20 minutes, during which time teachers will secure their rooms, draw curtains, and keep their students from traveling throughout the building. Please note that we will be firing blanks in the hallway in an effort to provide our teachers and students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire.
Our school resource officer and other members of the Cary Police Department will assist us in sweeping the building to ensure that all students are in a secure location during the drill.
At the conclusion of the drill, we will take some time to process what occurred and then we will return to our normal classroom routine.
I encourage you to discuss the drill with your student both before it happens and after.
These drills help our students and staff to be prepared should a crisis occur, but it may cause some students to have an emotional reaction.
In those cases, your voice may provide reassurances of the drill’s importance.
Additionally, we have trained social workers on staff who can speak directly with your child should he or she need added support.
Should you have any questions, please contact me or any member of the Cary-Grove’s administrative team. Together, we can keep our school a safe place for your child to learn and grow.
Sincerely,
Jay Sargeant, Principal
FOLLOW-UP EMAIL
Dear Parents,
In response to the small number of concerns we have received about the upcoming Code Red Lockdown practice, I want to clarify some of the details that may not have been clear in my initial email.
Complete information about the drill is available on the Cary-Grove website.
It is important to understand that the drill will start with an announcement over the public address system.
At which time, the teachers will direct the students to their designated safe areas and follow our building protocols.
Administration and law enforcement personnel will be in the hallways to monitor the process.
Once everyone is secure, I will again use the PA system to announce that blanks will be fired by our Student Resource Officer, a member of the Cary Police Department.
We will repeat this twice during the lockdown from two different areas in the building.
After which time, I will use the PA to end the drill.
Following the drill, a discussion will ensue between the students and their classroom teacher.
We will utilize this feedback as a building and police department to assess our security and make any necessary adjustments to our building plan.
Our sole purpose for utilizing the blanks is to fully prepare our students and staff.
Please understand that Cary-Grove High School does not plan safety drills in a vacuum.
Instead, we rely on the expertise of first-responders in order to provide the best training possible to keep our students and staff safe should an actual crisis situation arise.
While we hope that no school will ever hear the sound of gunfire in the future, Cary-Grove High School and the Cary Police want our building to be able to react as quickly as possible in the event that an actual emergency occurs.
As always, our goal is the safety and security of your students while they are here at Cary-Grove High School. If you should have further questions or concerns about our drill with the Cary Police Department, please do not hesitate to contact one of the administrators in our building.
Respectfully,
Jay Sargeant, Principal
Cary-Grove High School
