School safety in time for the 2022-23 school year

School safety is a priority in East Meadow as the district adopted its school-wide safety plan.

Ahead of the upcoming school year, the safety plan was presented by Superintendent Kenneth Card at the school board meeting Aug. 24 outlining some of the key components to keep students, faculty and staff safe.

Card’s plan includes the addition of the RAVE App, a panic button app that allows administrators fast connection to first responders, the implementation of ScholarChip, ID cards that allow students to scan into a building, and the implementation of blue strobe lights.

The safety plan is reviewed by the District-Wide Safety Committee, which is made up of representatives of the school board, parent organizations, teachers, administrators, school safety personnel, local law enforcement and emergency agencies.

The committee meets four times a year, and their job is to discuss the safety plan and make recommendations for updates if needed. They also discuss the effectiveness of the district’s protocols at the different levels.

There are requirements for the school safety plan. All districts are required to prove to the New York State Education Department that all district and school staff completed annual training on the building level emergency response plan, and that all school safety training must include areas on violence prevention and mental health.

School districts must have a chief emergency officer, confidential building live emergency response plans, and the plans must be shared with law enforcement. The district-wide plan must be made available for public comment and posted on the district website.

Card discussed measures that will be taken in order to keep students and staff safe. One key measure is having single points of entry in schools and stronger visitor management protocols.

“Invariably whenever I share this someone will ask this question, ‘well you know the other day I was at the high school and I entered through the side door,’ and my question back to the person who shares that to me is always this, ‘did you notify somebody that you were able to enter through that side door?” Card said at the meeting. “Usually it’s not until after the fact when something happens tragic that people remember to tell us we were able to get through a side door.

“We need to know about that.”

Along that same line, student arrival and dismissal entrances and exits have been reduced and are fully staffed.

According to data from the K-12 School Shooting Database, of all the school shootings that occurred since 1970, the top two time periods where the shooting occurred was morning classes (376) and afternoon classes (214). Sports games was third with 213 shootings, and dismissal was fourth with 202 shootings.

Card reported the RAVE app will be downloaded by all administrators and the launch of ScholarChip at the secondary schools will be launched on Oct. 3.

“The benefit of ScholarChip is that it allows us to check kids in and check kids out and ensure that they return when they should,” he said.

Blue strobe lights are coming to high schools in mid-fall to alert students and staff who are out to lunch to not come back because something is happening inside the school building.

Other safety measures included “Park Walk and Talk” by local officers, a program where they come to the school for regular visits, and each school practicing drills (fire drills, bus drills, sheltering and early dismissal, and lockdown).

Card also talked about the differences between the five emergency response code designations: shelter in place, hold in place, evacuate, lockout and lockdown.

“It’s very confusing if you don’t work in a school building and if it’s not part of your everyday communication,” Board member Jodi Luce said. “A lockout is external, normal movement throughout the building. Lockdown is internal, everybody stays in their room, they take cover in their room, external and internal locks go into place.”

A lockdown, Card added, will never be called unless there is an active shooter in the building.