Valley View School District 365U has announced additional safety measures in the wake of Friday's school shooting in Newtown, CT.
The measures include locking classroom and school doors, prohibiting food from being brought in and requiring each school to hold an "active shooter" drill this week.
Random "magnetic wand" searches will take place on a regular basis at the two high schools and five middle schools.
The district is revisiting its visitor procedures, and Bolingbrook and Romeoville police have agreed to step up their patrols in school neighborhoods for the foreseeable future.
"Please know that the first, and most important, priority for Valley View Community Unit School District 365U has always been, and will continue to be, the safety of our students and staff," Superintendent James Mitchem wrote in a letter to the community Monday.
Valley View already has a "top-notch security network in place," Mitchem wrote, including a comprehensive, nationally recognized Crisis Management Plan that incorporates ongoing lockdown drills, administrator and staff training and elaborate school safety procedures covering every imaginable scenario.
The district employs dozens of fully trained, full-time security personnel. Schools also restrict access through a variety of methods, including security holding areas at both high schools, buzzer-access at many of our schools and security cameras in both schools and on all of our buses.
While the district is confident in its current measures, the following security measures have been added:
- Increased presence of VVSD-trained and employed security staff in our schools.
- Until further notice, the doors to every classroom in the school district will remain locked while class is in session.
- The main entrance doors to all school offices will remain locked throughout the day.
- Each school will hold an “active shooter” hard lockdown either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
- Random “magnetic wanding” searches will take place on a regular basis at both high schools and all five middle schools.
- We are reviewing current visitor procedures for the lunchroom to create more safeguards. While the review is underway, there will be a moratorium on adult access to students during the school day and for before school breakfast programs. We understand many parents value this special time with their children and want to find ways to ensure these opportunities continue to exist. However, until further notice, all such activities have been suspended.
- We are reviewing current visitor procedures for former students who will only be allowed access to buildings before or after school, and only if the visit is pre-arranged through the school office.
- Parents who come to school to pick up children must wait in the office until a school staff member brings the child to the office.
- Everyone who enters a school will be required to provide identification and sign in
- From this day forward, no food shall be brought into any school and shared with students. VVSD will no longer allow birthday treats, classroom rewards, snacks or any other food to be brought in from outside and shared with other students. This means parents cannot attend holiday parties this week nor can they provide food to share with others. You will receive further guidance from your building Principal.
- Both the Bolingbrook and the Romeoville Police Departments have agreed to provide more frequent patrols in our school neighborhoods for the foreseeable future.
- Our School Safety Department will re-visit each school’s annual safety audit to determine what, if any, additional safety procedures need to be put in place at each school.
- Interviews will be conducted at each school to seek additional suggestions from administrators and school staff.
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Today our sons came home with a letter from you regarding new safety measures at our schools post the tragic events that occurred on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT. Although we understand the reasoning and intentions we feel that it would have been better to have discussed these actions with the parents before any changes were made. The letter presented changes to our children's daily school life's without any feedback from the parents. This alone has upset us and many other parents that we have spoken with. We feel that the parents should have been given the opportunity to sit with yourself the board and local authorities to discuss safety and security measures especially since they affect our children's learning environment. With all of the concerns being raised we request that an emergency meeting be setup as soon as possible, preferably before the holiday break and in the evening where all of the school district parents can be available to review the proposals of the school board and local authorities to bring clarity and understanding to your actions.
1. What training and credentials are required by the security staff? 2. Who are the security staff and can they be identified to the parents like the teachers? 3. With the classroom doors being locked, what process/plan is in place for the safety of the children in case of a fire or other such events and how do they meet state and local fire and safety codes? 4. What will be changed for visitors to the school now that the entry doors will be locked? What security system will be out in place? 5. How will the lock down drill be conducted and how does it differ from the current lock down procedure that is already in place. How does this plan meet state and local safety regulations? Will it be identified as an "Active Shooter" lock down?
6. What will be the detail of the random magnetic wanding and how will it be carried out for students, teachers and other staff members? Will they follow similar processes as the TSA at airports? Male vs. Female, adult vs. Child, who will be present during searches etc. What are the altercations with an identified or false positive risk? 7. How will situations be handled when a parent requests to have their children leave school earlier? Come in tardy? Emergencies, etc? 8. What is the reasoning behind the banning of birthday treats, classroom rewards, snacks and other food brought in? 9. When the school safety department re-visits the safety audit please provide an open communication to the parents so that they can be reviewed and understood or questioned.
Relying solely on the administrators and/or security to solve the problem is ineffective. It makes more sense to bring in the ENTIRE community of Bolingbrook. After all, it's our children, our tax dollars, and our community. Even still, I do appreciate Dr. Mitchem's effort to keep our kids safe. I believe his heart is in the right place. Hopefully he will consider a town hall meeting and invite parents to attend and offer input, as well as religious leaders to assist in prayer and guidance.
Not all of these changes were necessary to implement immediately; best practice would have been to make a public announcement of upcoming changes, then base the final decision on the reaction from the community. I do, however, think that all of these changes came with the absolute greatest intention...to ensure the safety of your children.
More importantly, prayer should be at the top of the list.
Religion has nothing to do with ensuring public safety; take the kids to private school if that's what you're after.
However, I do hope VVSD would consider a town hall mtg and invite the community to join in a conversation about school security and the safety of our children. Plus, having religious leaders there to provide prayer and support can only benefit those in attendance. This is not the time to get angry, frightened, and/or lock down our schools. Take the time needed to develop a logical plan.
What does a 6 YO learn from 2 days off? Can they even understand that they can't pretend to shoot guns? I can see a 9yo or older understanding but c'mon a 6yo?
Kids play cops and robbers all the time and its never inappropriate. Kids learn such words from friends and sometimes even family so to freak out and punish a child so excessively does nothing to improve on what has happened. You are a POS for implying that.