Security protocol subject of Ten Sleep School Board Meeting

TEN SLEEP – The Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Directors met Monday evening to discuss a variety of agenda items, with security protocol taking top priority. With 160 school shootings and more than 1,000 school lockdowns across the country since 2013 (according to non-profit gun safety research group Everytown for Gun Safety), school security has become a focal point for many districts across the nation, utilizing and sharing resources with national, state and local enforcement and emergency agencies.

Ten Sleep School Counselor Chawna Wiechman and instructor Jarred Bower briefed the district board on current protocol and efforts to improve the security guidelines, based on a program created by the “I Love You Guys” Foundation. The Colorado-based foundation was created by John–Michael Keyes to provide free security action plans to schools after Keyes’ daughter, Emily, was killed during a school shooting in Bailey, Colo., in 2006. In addition to providing free materials, the foundation offers a certification program for school staff, students, and local responders.

Utilizing the foundation’s Standard Response Protocol (SRP), Wiechman explained to the board that the four basic steps to any scenario are relatively simple: lockout, lockdown, evacuate and shelter. Under these four categories, any scenario facing the district or community could be dealt with in a coordinated effort.

The lockout phase, as outlined and defined by the foundation, “recovers all students from outside the building, secures the building perimeter, and locks all outside doors.” This protocol could apply to any external threat, including police action in the community, a vicious or wild animal in the vicinity, or an industrial, chemical or biological accident.

Lockdown, as defined by the SRP, involves the locking of classroom doors, turning off the lights, and placing students out of sight of all windows and hallways. Under this phase, outside doors are not locked so that emergency responders can easily access the interior of the school to engage any threat.

During the evacuation procedure, students are taught to leave all belongings except for personal phones and follow their teacher’s instructions to safely and covertly leave the premises. As mentioned by Weichman, this could be accomplished through exiting either doors or classroom windows, at the teacher’s discretion.

Shelter, or “shelter-in-place” as defined by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) is the common practice of falling back to the school’s designated shelter in the event of earthquake, tornado or tsunami-type events.

Weichman, along with District No. 2 crisis team members Superintendent Jimmy Phelps, Principal Russ Budmayr, Bower, Janet Collen and Neysha Lyman, have been instrumental in creating a comprehensive crisis action plan for the district, based on the SRP model. The Washakie County Sheriff’s Office has worked previously with the district to create a coordinated response plan, with the addition of both the Worland and Ten Sleep fire departments, and emergency medical technicians in Ten Sleep.

In addition to coordination of the SRP, the Ten Sleep crisis team has created information packets for parents, developed emergency kits for all student transportation for student activities including all buses, and is currently working to revise the student release procedure and work in coordination with local businesses to make them aware of the off-campus procedures in case of a community emergency.

The SRP is a currently available for review and free download courtesy of the “I Love You Guys” Foundation at http://www.iloveuguys.org.