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Let's Talk About School Safety

2/26/2018

Columbine. Sandy Hook. Marjory Stoneman Douglas. When tragedies such as these occur, we grieve for the families whose loved ones have been killed and for the witnesses and survivors who have been impacted by the devastating loss of life. In addition to grieving, many of us also consider our own surroundings, and we ask ourselves: “Could something like this happen to us?” “Should we be doing more to ensure our safety?” “How can we best protect ourselves?”

Our school leaders ask those same questions, not only when school shootings occur but on a regular basis. Sanford’s focus on the security and well-being of our community has been a major factor in contributing to the outstanding safety record we have maintained for nearly 90 years. While our track record is stellar, we understand that bad things can happen in good places. To that end, we are vigilant in developing and executing strategies and programs to protect our school community.

Some of the safety initiatives that we have introduced during the past few years include:

Adding key card entry at the Middle School and Sports Center
Installing camera surveillance and recording equipment in several areas on campus
Bolstering our crisis management program by increasing the frequency of strategic meetings, plan reviews, and drills.

In the coming months:

Thanks to a generous donation from a current family, our entire campus will utilize key card-entry secured systems.
We will continue to add surveillance cameras to capture the happenings throughout our large and beautiful campus.
Our Crisis Management Team will review data, including the results of our February 21st intruder-on-campus drill, to determine the effectiveness of our crisis management plan and to assess whether changes in our protocols are warranted.

All of these efforts are intended to make our already-safe school community even safer.

A few months ago, a new parent stopped me in the parking lot with a look of alarm and said: “Mark, there is a state police vehicle by the Sports Center. Is everything alright? What happened?” I smiled and told this mom that the vehicle belonged to current and alumni parent Keith Lamey, who is both a Delaware state trooper and Sanford’s Middle School wrestling coach. Keith drives to practice, often straight from work. “Oh,” she replied, “I guess it’s a good thing that car is here.” I agreed.

Keith is one of several members of our local law enforcement agencies who are also Sanford parents. I’ve always taken it as a point of pride that police officers choose Sanford for their own children. Police officers, who view our community and campus through a professional lens, visit Sanford and see a safe and secure campus.

Please know that every adult on campus takes his or her responsibility to keep your children safe very seriously. We will continue to keep safety at the forefront of our priorities.

During our next Home & School meeting—on Wednesday, March 7th, at 8:00 AM—we will talk about campus safety. We hope that you will join us to discuss this very important topic. You will be receiving additional information about the meeting in the next few days.

If you ever have questions or concerns, reach out to me, your child’s division head, or any of our school administrators.

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