New policy tabled until April for school safety measures
The Polk County Board of Education tabled a new policy that means to ensure that everyone is aware of updated school safety plans, and that if they see something they find suspicious they immediately report it to administrators.
The new safety policy is part of an ongoing effort over the past years to increase the amount of security measures in place to keep students, faculty, staff and even visitors on campuses across Polk School District safe at all time, and keep those who aren’t supposed to be at school away from the property and classrooms.
School board members voted to allow the policy to remain on the table for review and any fixes that might need to be corrected until their April combined session in a unanimous vote during the March work session of the school board.
The new policy specifically requires that an annually updated school safety plan for each campus that Superintendent Laurie Atkins will be required to keep up, and include procedures for each school on handling a variety of natural and manmade disasters, threats or acts of violence and terrorism.
“School Safety Plans should address security issues in school safety zones as defined in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of O.C.G.A 16-11-127.1. School Safety Plans should also address security issues involving the transportation of pupils to and from school and school functions when such transportation is furnished by the school or school system and school functions held during noninstructional hours,” the policy stated.
Atkins added the policy also is meant to ensure that each educator in a school understands what plans are in place for an emergency situation, so they know what to do in the event there is an issue.
School board member J.P. Foster, who presented the new policy during a committee report in the board’s March work session, said it was imperative that one addition to the policy at the end requiring reporting issues among students, faculty, staff or visitors.
The policy specifically states: “all employees, certified and classified, who have reasonable cause to believe that a student(s) or person(s) has committed any act or threat of violence
or threatens any potential act of violence, shall immediately report the information to the school principal and/or Superintendent immediately. It is the responsibility of the principal, along with the Superintendent, to utilize District resources (PSD Police Department and other law enforcement partner and personnel) to investigate each incident.”
Foster said that “I can’t emphasize that enough. Immediately. That’s not open for interpretation.”
If employees fail to do so, they face immediate disciplinary actions that include termination.
Foster told McGee in the back of the meeting room during his committee report that he shouldn’t be shy about asking for anything he might need to ensure the safety of students, faculty and even visitors to Polk School District campuses.
“I don’t want you to be shy about asking about training in or out of state. If it’s legit, bring it to the attention of Laurie, and see if we can get things done in training that you think applicable and worthy,” he said.
Foster also stressed the need for immediate communication to administrators a second time
before the board took a vote to table the policy, which will be back up for final approval next month. He also said that if administrators don’t already have it handy, they need McGee’s number programmed into their phones.
“Intelligence needs to be evaluated and investigated thoroughly,” Foster said. “That’s where we’re at in today’s climate in our schools.”
School safety improvements began with the introduction of additional security cameras and certain schools had entrances controlled by electronic locks controlled within a school’s front office. Now all schools have entrances that force visitors to the front office and nowhere else on a campus, new locks on each classroom door, and limited access to campuses through fencing and other measures to separate children from outsiders who might not have good intentions when they’re visiting a facility.
Additionally, the introduction last year of the Polk School District Police Department also provided each campus with one school resource officer in place for student safety.