RRSD Safety Updates

This will be a very large update designed to provide a lot of information for those of you who want it. In the near future we hope to separate this into several different communications for easier access, but for now I felt it best to keep it to one large communication. To assist those who may not want to read the whole update, the following topics are subtitled in this update for easier navigation to help people find what they are most interested in:

• Safety drills and safety trainings. This will cover training and safety drills staff and students participate in each year.

• Updates on recent and ongoing safety improvements in the RRSD.
• Threat assessment protocol. This will cover what we do when we receive word of a potential threat of violence relating to our students, staff, or school.
• What you can do. This will include tips and tools families can use to help us keep our schools safe.

The safety of our children in schools and society is a significant area of concern for families, communities, and school employees. The purpose of this communication is to share with you what we are doing at the RRSD to improve student and staff safety.

While safety is a top priority, the administration team and the school board are under no illusions that our schools are or can be perfectly safe. We are limited by the design and location of our schools, as well as external factors beyond our control. RRSD schools were built in an era when protection from floods, fires, gas leaks, and threats of violence were not significant considerations. It would take financial resources beyond what the district and the community could afford to bring our schools up to the standards of a modern build. Even if we could bring our schools up to the standards of a modern school design centered on safety, the most modern and safely designed schools are still vulnerable. Our goal is to do the best we can with the buildings and resources we have.

Safety Drills and Safety Trainings:

• Once per month each school will perform a fire drill with a building evacuation.
• Twice per year each school will perform an earthquake drill.
• Twice per year each school will perform a safety threat drill which includes aspects of instruction on lockdown, lockout, shelter in place, evacuation, and other appropriate actions that can be taken when there is a safety threat. These drills are conducted with involvement from our local police and sheriff's offices.
• ALICE instruction (Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate active Shooter Preparedness | ALICE Training® Solutions ) is given to all staff and students to educate them on how to respond to a threat of violence in the school.
• Whenever a school needs to take a safety threat action like a lockdown, lockout, shelter in place, or evacuation that is not a planned drill, families will be notified within 24 hours.

Updates on Recent and Ongoing Safety Improvements in the RRSD:

• At the JSHS, all exterior doors have had new locking hardware installed. Exterior doors remain locked during school hours. Along with the new door hardware, the school office has the ability to lock all external doors with the push of one button in the case of an external threat.
• Thanks to an approved bond by the voters of the RRSD, work will begin this fall to create single points of access at both campuses of the elementary school. This work will include new fencing along with vestibule entry points with locked doors. Once completed, the only way into the schools during the school day should be by passing through these locked vestibules monitored by school staff.
• The RRSD has established reunification points in the community that we will use if we need to evacuate students from our campus sites. In the case of a site evacuation, these reunification points will be communicated to families with instructions for how to get your child. More details on this were provided in a communication last year and can be found HERE (Eng.) or HERE (Sp.).
• The School Board has emphasized the need for all staff to be trained in First Aid and CPR. The vast majority of school districts require only a minimum number of staff to be trained. We are currently at 88% of staff trained in CPR/First Aid and believe we will meet 100% by October 12.
• Last year the school board approved the hire of a school marshal. Our onsite school marshal now helps us with safety plans, addressing threats, and security issues.
• Because of a new system the RRSD is putting in place this fall, all staff will have the ability to push a button or enter a code to initiate an instant notification to law enforcement, ambulance, or the fire department for situations that warrant it.

Threat Assessment Protocol and Responses to Threats:

Whenever there is a rumor of a threat or an actual threat directed at students, staff, or schools, we get asked a lot of questions about how we respond to those. Because of student confidentiality laws, we can't share specific details with families about what happened to or what is being done about a child who may have made a threat. This is understandably frustrating and can leave a family wondering if anything is being done at all. To help with this, I am going to go into detail about our typical response to threats. If a threat of violence has been made by a student, it should be assumed that the following is our procedure for addressing said threats.

• As soon as administration are aware that a credible threat has been made and are able, notification will be sent out to the families of the child or children who made the threat and for whom the threat was directed. This notification will take place within 24 hours unless the school is under a gag order or there are laws that prohibit this communication.
• Threats involving weapons, destructive devices, or serious harm are immediately referred to the school marshal and local police offices for support. Law enforcement follows their own protocol to make sure there are no imminent threats of violence. Home visits and conferences with parents of a child that made a violent threat are part of law enforcement's approach to these matters.
• Actions are taken to make sure any potential threat is handled quickly. School administration begin an investigation to gather more facts and try to make sure there is no imminent threat. Students believed to be a potential threat are removed from the general setting and put under observation until we are sure there is no immediate threat.
• A Level 1 threat assessment team which can comprise of our school marshal, school administration, select school staff, and our behavioral specialist meet to review the situation and decide if the child making the threat should be referred to a Level 2 threat assessment team. A student suspected of making a legitimate threat of violence will not be allowed back into school until cleared by the threat assessment team process.
• If a Level 2 threat assessment is deemed necessary, this brings in a larger team of specialists from the county. These specialists are from behavioral health, DHS, Jackson County Sheriff's office, the District Attorney's office, and more. This team will review the case and determine what needs to be done for the student making the threat and for other staff and students to ensure everyone's safety. A student referred to this level of assessment will not be in school until cleared by this team, or until specific conditions are met to ensure all students are safe.
• A student who made a credible threat of significant violence will not be back in school until specialists in the field of behavioral health and law enforcement have deemed that student is safe to return. If the child is able to return, extra measures decided by the Level 2 team will be in place for the student, family, and school to increase the safety for everyone.
• When a threat is made against one student or a small group of students, the families of the students who were threatened will be contacted within 24 hours. If a threat is broader or more generalized like a threat against a class, the school, or a larger group of students, all families and staff in the school will be notified within 24 hours.

What You Can Do:

• Talk about the importance of school safety with your child. Make sure they know how to report a threat of violence and to whom they should report.
• Utilize the SafeOregon tipline at https://www.safeoregon.com/report-a-tip/ to anonymously report threats of violence.
• Make sure any weapons in your home are safely locked away and inaccessible to your child in accordance with ORS 166.395
• Keep track of your student's mental health. Reach out to your teacher or administrator if you have concerns about your child's mental health so we can connect you to supportive resources.
• Be involved in and monitor your child's social media activity.
• Trust that we have your child's safety as a priority and be a partner in creating a healthy and respectful attitude towards school, staff, and other students.

I hope this resource helps families have a better understanding of what the RRSD is doing to improve the safety of your child. Thank you for partnering with us to keep schools a safe place to be.