Happy Friday.
Happy Friday, indeed.
What a relief to know it will be the weekend soon.
Guess we'll lead off today's Note with the lock-down...
Lock-down
First of all, let me again say, "Thanks."
You did well. Our kids did well. Everyone. Every one of you and your kids were safely sequestered behind a closed door mere seconds after I instructed you to lock-down.
I'm supposed to meet with members of Flagstaff PD along with folks from FUSD admin later today to "debrief" with them about what happened here on Wednesday afternoon. I will be sure to share-out to you anything important or relevant that I learn.
Meantime, we learned a few things ourselves the other day about locking-down this place in the event of an emergency. I'd like you to review the following by way of refining our lock-down procedures going-forward:
- We now know for-reals that such a situation could occur at any time during the school-day. I think we should better prepare ourselves and our students for such by drilling lock-downs and fires at more complicated and chaotic times of day. I hope to begin doing so soon, after we let the dust settle a little bit. Be prepared for that.
- Also, regarding the time of day in which such a lock-down situation could occur, we now know that if we are compelled to lock-down during a time of transition (recess, lunch, RTI, specials, magnets), we may have students who are locked-out of classrooms without a staff member to supervise them. Ideally, this would never happen. But it could. And on Wednesday it did. During our lock-down this week we had seven students in a closed (and possibly unlocked) classroom. Alone, without a teacher or staff member to attend to them.
- Hearsay indicates that these students passed-by several classrooms that were in the process of locking-down on their way to their homeroom. This shouldn't happen. If, as you are closing your door, you observe any student in your vicinity you must grab them and immediately and lock them in your room, regardless of whether or not they're yours or give you the impression that they are headed elsewhere. They cannot be allowed to proceed. Lock them in with you regardless of their protests.
- Talk with your students now about the urgency to seek out the nearest classroom, work-room, or office with an adult in it immediately in the event of a lock-down, especially if it occurs during a time of transition. But also tell them to stay quiet and stay put if they find themselves in an unsupervised area during a lock-down (again, hearsay seems to indicate that Flag PD found--and assigned one of their officers to, reducing their SWAT team by one--our unsupervised students during their initial sweep after about 5-10 minutes because one of them cracked open the classroom door to peek. A bad idea, to say the least).
- Lock your door knobs! Check them each morning. Keep them locked all day. Every day.
- We will be issuing back-of-the-knob keys to all parapros and aides soon. Subs already have them on the back of their temporary badge.
- It has always been our policy, though perhaps not our persuasion, that those who are left-out on the playgrounds when a lock-down is called are to immediately evacuate our campus for the safe area that's been established at Flagstaff High School. The police were told during our initial emergency call that we likely had students at FHS and were mobilizing to meet them there when we were informed by Marshall staff that there were no students in the safe zone, despite the fact that this situation occurred at lunchtime when the playground was full.
- That's because all of our students, teachers, aides and parapros returned to the building. Doors were held open. Children and adults alike were waved into open doors and hallways, overriding the keycard lock-out we had initiated manually via the emergency panel in the office because the caller had stated that they were "in the building with a gun" ready to "hurt hundreds of children." I know it's counter-intuitive to run away from Marshall in the event of a lock-down. But that's what you must do. Otherwise, you run the risk of heading right back into the line of fire. That's what happened on Wednesday, and it would have been better if it hadn't.
- I met with all our playground aides on Thursday to review this procedure with them.
- If you haven't already done so, you and your students should walk the path to the safe zone as soon as you possibly can. Be sure everyone knows where to go. It might be wise to instruct them that they should make every attempt to find a grown-up to go with, but that they may need to run this path without an adult in the event of a real emergency. Police will always be dispatched to meet you there, but again, in the event of a real emergency, in may take some time for them to arrive. Wait there. No matter how long it takes. Someone will come for you eventually. Never, ever should anyone return to the school from the safe zone until you have been told to do so my me, a member of the Marshall crisis team (Amy, Janelle, or Jessica), FUSD administration, or the police.
- I have made a few changes and revisions to our lock-down procedures. Immediately review for yourself, and share with your students, the key components of our updated lock-down procedures. Put in your Outlook or Google calendar a reminder to do this repeatedly on a regular basis.
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Special classes
Teachers, please let our special-area teachers know ASAP if you are not planning to bring your students to Art, Music, PE or Technology during the final week of the school year in order to allow them to plan for collaboration and other activities during that time.
Calendar
Week B
- Tuesday, 21 Apr.
- Science Council in the Science Lab, 4:00
- Friday, 24 Apr.
- Regular School Day (snow-day make-up)
- Lock-down Drill -- POSTPONED
- Fisk shower @ Kohl's, 3:30
