Superintendent Message on Parkland Tragedy

[Edward Favre]

A message from Superintendent Jeff Patterson:

We are all grieving the 17 precious lives lost in Parkland. Our hearts go out to the victims’ families and the Parkland community as they cope with this senseless tragedy. As we are so painfully aware, a mass shooting can happen anywhere. It is our job as a school district to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our students. To that end, I want to share with you some of the strategies we have in place to help address the physical and emotional well-being of our students:

• We train staff at every school building in the ALICE method of how to deal with an active shooter/intruder. This training is provided by the Lakewood Police Department. We work directly with our Mayor and Police Chief. We are fortunate to have highly skilled and trained officers at our disposal. Just last week Channel 5 ran a report that highlighted our training. (Channel 5 report)

• Schools conduct emergency drills in the event of an intruder.

• We monitor social media and have an anonymous tip line that students or adults can leave messages about concerns and we will soon be implementing a texting app as well.

• Students have access to mental health services at all of our schools if the need arises.

• We opened a new medical clinic at LHS that provides students access to physical and mental health professionals during the school day.

• Key staff members have been trained in mental health first aid.

• We have anti-bullying programs at both middle schools.

• Administrators receive advance training for crisis situations.

We will continue to work with our law enforcement officials and security experts to make sure that what we are doing is enough to provide our students schools in which they feel safe, and comfortable about reaching out to one of our staff members when they or someone they know needs help.