After the recent school shooting in Texas I reached out to Lincoln County School Safety Coordinator Sue Graves to see how safe our Lincoln County Schools are. Sue stated "We take safety very seriously here at Lincoln County School District. Over the past 21 years that I have worked here, we have put many, many safety measures in place to work to provide safe environments for our students and staff. It hasn't happened all at once, but we have intentionally added layered safety & security strategies each year that address a variety of potential hazards and threats."
The School District has a comprehensive all-hazards emergency plan that was developed with all five law enforcement agencies and all eight fire departments in Lincoln County. Sue said this is not a plan that just sits on the shelf, they use it to manage emergencies and drills most every day in one or another of the district's schools. There are also training videos that correspond with each of the emergency protocols in the emergency plan. Some are specific for school staff and others are also for students.
Lincoln County also has a district-wide drill schedule that is more robust than the state law requires for school drills. Drills are practiced each month, most months they do more than 1 drill. Each school has a safety team that runs the drills and manages emergencies as they occur. This team also debriefs after drills to see what went well and what improvements can be made. Each school has a threat assessment team and a clearly defined processes the team uses to assess and manage threats. There is a district support team that consults and provides support for their threat assessments. Each of our law enforcement agencies are active and vital team members in our threat assessment process.
Graves was also instrumental is establishing the use the statewide School Safety Tip Line called Safe Oregon so that students and families can have several opportunities/mechanisms to report safety concerns. The information for this is printed on the back of student ID cards and is on each of our school websites. All classroom doors can lock from inside the classroom. Sue stated why this is so important. "When I first started working here, teachers would have to walk out into the hall in order to lock their door from the outside." Over time she said they have replaced every single classroom door knob so that it locks from inside the room. All teachers have a key to lock their door and substitutes are also issued a key.
All schools have an electronic access control system so that exterior doors are locked during the school day. Staff have ID badges that double as keycards so they can get in. Visitors buzz a doorbell at the main entrance. With each new safety measure we add, we are reducing risk. With each drill we do, we are getting better prepared to respond to emergencies when they do occur." Graves added "When students and their families have a safety concern, they too can help prevent emergencies and improve safety at school by reporting their concern. Safety is truly everyone's responsibility and we must all join together to work to provide safe and healthy schools for all of our children and youth."
Here is a link to the safety section on the website where you can find more detailed information including a video describing our lockdown procedures: https://lincoln.k12.or.us/resources/family/safety/
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