C.O. school officials talk safety
In the wake of the most recent school shooting, safety is no doubt on every parent’s mind. When they send their kids to schools, they’re expecting it to be a safe place. But more and more, we’re seeing that anything can happen.
Central Oregon school districts have safety measures in place and are working to make schools even safer.
Rainier Butler, the Redmond School District’s public information officer, said Thursday that every school does drills, including lockdowns. Each sets their own schedule and frequency. Redmond High School does three lockdown drills a year, including active shooter scenarios.
Butler said the date of the drills varies with what’s going on in the world. For example, if a lockdown drill was scheduled for the day after a school shooting, it would be rescheduled to avoid any trauma it might cause.
Right now, three of the 13 schools in the district have secure lobbies: Sage Elementary, Redmond Early Learning Center and Tumalo Community School. The district is hoping to secure a $70 million bond which would provide safety measures for all schools.
“It’s forefront in our minds,” Butler said. “Safety and security leads this bond measure, and maintenance after that, then efficiency, but safety and security — that’s what we’re thinking about every day.”
The district also has a text and email notification system in place.
Julianne Repman, director of communication and safety for Bend La-Pine Schools, said their schools do a variety of drills, including a lockdown in September, a lockout in November and shelter in place in December. Each school can also add additional drills.
A text alert system is also used with lockdowns, evacuations and fires, but not lockouts.
Staff takes extra time in response to different events, making sure students know how to react.
“Even today, we have schools that are sitting down with students and saying, ‘Hey, let’s just go over this. Let’s talk about what it is you know about lockdowns. What are you going to do? Where are you going to go? What are you going to do if your teacher is not in the classroom?’ So, those types of questions,” Repman said.
The district’s latest, $268 million bond, which passed last year, will cover the cost of securing lobbies for all schools. The work will start this summer and wrap up in 2022.
