Dear District 41 Community,
Over the past several months, schools and school districts across the country have experienced false reports of shootings in their buildings. These hoax calls are known as “swatting” and are intended to create chaos and draw a large law enforcement response. Find out more about swatting here.
While Illinois schools in our area have not yet been subjected to these hoax calls, we want to make you aware of our protocols should an incident occur in our schools.
If an emergency occurs in our schools, parents will be notified through all contact information that is on file in Skyward (email, phone, and text message). A major incident is considered to be any event that would require first responder involvement from multiple agencies and may include students being evacuated from their school and transported to an offsite location.
If a major incident occurs at your child’s school, we will first inform you that an incident has occurred. When you receive this notification, the following steps should be taken immediately:
1. Do not go to your child’s school – this interferes with the ability of first responders to do their job effectively and could potentially put you or others in danger.
2. Locate your driver’s license or another form of photo ID – this will be required to pick up your child at the reunification site.
3. Allow school district and law enforcement officials to assess the situation and determine if the threat is valid. Once this occurs, administrators and law enforcement will determine the best site to relocate students safely. You will receive communication as soon as students are safely transported to an alternate location and reunification details are available.
Please talk with your child(ren) about the seriousness of making false threats. District 41 and law enforcement take false threats seriously and students making false threats will be charged accordingly.
Student and staff safety is a top priority of District 41. We are continuously reviewing our safety practices and training our staff so we are prepared in the event of a major incident.
Sincerely,
Dr. Melissa Kaczkowski
Superintendent
