As many of you noticed, I haven't been on
campus much this week. Tuesday, I had surgery on my shoulder to remove a calcium deposit.
I'll be back at school next week. Since I was home, I was able to watch
the tragedy in Connecticut unfold.
I thought this might be a good
time to share with our OHE families what safety measures are in place
for our campus. The first safety measure is that all of our exterior
doors are kept locked, and all visitors report directly to the office so
that a badge may be issued. Also, ID's are checked through the district's
Raptor program. This system identifies individuals with certain
criminal records. If the system identifies a person, the office staff
has specific procedures to follow.
If an unwanted visitor does come
on campus, the campus would go into "lockdown" mode. Just like with
fire drills, this is something that is practiced throughout the year. In
fact, we had one last week.
As you can imagine, being
married to a police officer, safety is a priority. Every time I see
something on the news, I evaluate if the system in place at OHE would
have worked. For example, after the fire in Oak Hill last year, I
immediately returned and assessed the system we had in place. I decided
it needed to be tweaked and I shared the changes with the staff.
Obviously, we can't practice every emergency situation. But I do feel the systems we have in place, put student safety first.
If you have specific questions related to safety procedures, please don't hesitate to ask.
