SHS Staff Gets Crash Course in Safety Protocols

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From Sunnyside Sun

There are new procedures and protocols being implemented in the Sunnyside schools to keep students safe in a threatening situation. That’s according to Safety and Security Coordinator Salliejo Evers, who conducted the first staff training at Sunnyside High School yesterday. She said staff is familiar with lockdown procedures, but there are now lockout and active shooter procedures being implemented in the schools, as well.

“What we had in the past was a generic lockdown procedure,” said Assistant Principal Wally Shearer. He said yesterday’s meeting emphasized procedures for different “what if” scenarios. “I hope to god we never have to do it (implement active shooter procedures),” said Shearer.

Evers said lockout procedures would be used in a scenario where the threat or an incident occurs outside the school buildings. There have been many lockdown situations in the past that would have only required a lockout protocol had the schools used it at the time. Such an incident might involve police seeking a suspect involved in a robbery at a nearby store.

“The lockout procedure will be most common,” said Evers.

Staff and students will be notified of any threat via the school’s InformaCast system, she said. With a lockout procedure, all outside doors and windows will be secured and “…business will be conducted as usual…instruction will continue,” said Evers. Shearer said students, however, will not change classes because SHS is a multi-building school.

Evers said, “We’re safe inside (during a lockout procedure).”

A lockdown procedure will be implemented if a threat or incident occurs within a school building, she said. Staff and students will need to quickly move inside classrooms, securing doors and windows in a lockdown scenario. Evers said the threat may be as incidental as a fight, but it is important that staff and students are in a safe area, out of the line of sight from hallways. She told the staff that the students should be standing and spread out.

“It is easier to move if you are standing,” Evers noted.

Sunnyside School Resource Officer Joe Chiprez told the staff that students who are not a part of the regular role within a class should also remain standing, but separate from those who are part of the class.

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