Schools work with city in new safety efforts

Mentor Schools and city officials highlighted a desire to focus on collaborative safety efforts, including the presence of police officers in schools.

Mentor Schools routinely works with the City of Mentor to ensure the security of students and hopes to increase similar efforts in the future. According to Superintendent Bill Porter, part of the effort involves frequent and regular drills — including fire, active shooter, lock-down and scenario based. He also mentioned a plan to have the city access school security cameras in the event of an emergency.

“The city has played such a positive role in helping us to establish and introduce some safety initiatives for the district,” Porter said. “We’ve done a lot for years and the city safety forces, particularly fire and police, have been there every step of the way.”

One of the ways these efforts are enacted is through the placement of Mentor police and School Resource Officers in area schools. Porter said that one hope was to have more schooltrained officers around by the start of next school year.

“There’s just a need for more officer presence at school buildings,” Porter said. “...it’s just because of the state of things, statewide and nationally, it’s something we have to pay attention to.”

City officials also expressed considering a shared, long-run goal with the school board of placing resource officers at each Mentor school. This would involve specific training of officers.

According to Kristen Kirby, Mentor Schools director of community relations, Shore Middle School and Memorial Middle School have had constant officer presence this year. But they’re not the only Mentor schools to have officers on duty.

“Right now, we have four Mentor Police Department officers in our district every day,” Kirby said. “One of them is an officially trained School Resource Officer... Additionally, we always have a second officer on duty at Mentor High School during the school day. And, new this year, we have an officer on duty in each of the middle schools each day.”

Kirby expressed that safety is priority No. 1 for Mentor Schools and that their partnership with the city is strong and ongoing.

“We meet regularly with both the Mentor Police and

Fire departments to discuss safety initiatives and improvements we can continue to make,” Kirby said, “and that includes discussions about officers in our schools. Our community’s safety experts are key in helping develop our safety plans and safety goals under the district’s strategic plan.”

The focus on safety doesn’t just stop at the physical aspect. Social and emotional health are another focus for building a safe school culture. According to Porter, mental health experts are in the schools every day and staff, counselors and teachers are prepared to assist students who are struggling with something.

“Our students need to feel safe in order to learn,” Kirby said. “When we talk about safety, we are not only focused on physical safety - but also social and emotional safety elements as well.”

“There’s just a need for more officer presence at school buildings . ... it’s just because of the state of things, statewide and nationally, it’s something we have to pay attention to.” — Mentor Schools Superintendent Bill Porter