By Meghan Carbary &
Christiane Daily
Staff Writers
Brandon High School Principal Michael Ferguson along with other school officials have a daunting war time task: establish student safety while maintaining calm.
In the classroom, students are going about their normal daily activities.
“We have kept the mindset of not panicking,” Ferguson said. “Kids need their regular daily activities to continue so as not to dwell on the issue of war.
“If the war comes up in a history lesson, or in a classroom discussion they will talk about it,” he continued, “but otherwise, it hasn’t had much effect.”
In a recent letter sent home to parents in the Brandon School District, Superintendent Bart Jenniches addressed the issue of safety in school.
The letter assures parents that their children are safe, and that each school in the district practices a thorough School Safety Plan. Each building has a procedure in place to deal with a ‘Code Red Alert’ or a necessary ‘lock down’ situation. If an emergency occurs will follow a Crisis Plan and comply with the directives issued by national, state and/or local authorities.
Brandon School officials are restricting watching the war on televisions in classrooms with the exception of Channel 1 which has limited news coverage. Parents, say school officials, should educate children about the war, and the events broacasted on national television.
Similarly, since the outbreak of war, the Goodrich School district has addressed efforts to keep students safe.
“We have tightened our communications with police and fire departments. Our channels are open with them,” said Goodrich Superintendent Ray Green, during the Monday, March 24 Board of Education meeting.
Green went on to explain that if an emergency did occur, the school systems has an emergency crisis team to contend with the situation along with teachers and administrators.
“In red alert cases, we have set up a hotline for parents to call and follow directions from there. We will also announce it over our emergency channels.”
Shirley Kautman-Jones, board of education trustee, posed the question of what to do if the parking lot started to fill with cars of concerned parents looking for their child.
“The fire marshal may tell us to lock the doors and we may not be able to let the students go. It’s a good idea to lock the doors anyway so unknown visitors are not coming and going.”
Green said ideally he hoped that parents would follow directions from a recent letter sent home to parents.
“If an emergency situation occurs, we want parents and students to be reunited, but safely.”
Jerry Lawrason Goodrich Middle School principal emphasizes the safety factor.
“Our crisis team has met, and has also developed appropriate emergency actions. We are first and foremost, looking out for the safety of the students.”
Lawrason also mentioned that some field trips have been cancelled, and the school will do what they can to work with parents about refunds.
“We are aware of the dangers with field trips, but we have to let the parents do the overall deciding.”
All educators from elementary to high school said they will talk with students as events unfold and plan accordingly.