October 4, 2018
Dear Families:
The safety and welfare of our students and staff are our highest priorities. To provide schools an opportunity to practice emergency response procedures, the District has planned a variety of drills as a follow up to the building level assemblies that were conducted in all of our schools regarding threat preparedness and active shooter scenarios. Starting the second week of October, the District will conduct active shooter drills led by the District’s Safety and Security Consultant, Mr. Robert Fatula of Gittings Security.
The purpose of these drills is to make our students aware of the appropriate response in the time of an emergency. This includes responding to an “Active Shooter” scenario. Please make note that no gunshots/blanks will be fired during these drills at any time.
We previously shared with you, via the school newsletter, the Indiana Reporter, that the District has taken a variety of steps to increase our preparedness and awareness regarding these type of unfortunate events. The goals of the training drill are to improve our ability to protect students, save lives, and reduce injuries. As part of the District’s plan, I feel it is necessary to conduct these school-wide drills to help staff and students understand the topic as well as be prepared to the best of our ability in the case of an active shooter scenario.
As a district, we deliberately do not publish every detail of our safety plan as we feel that would make our schools more vulnerable to a person who might want to do harm to our children. However, we can tell you that we routinely review our internal procedures in every building and have gone over these procedures with our staff members. We will complete active shooter drills at each of our schools during the week of October 9-12. When we do these types of drills, please know that we always communicate with our students in an age-appropriate manner.
In closing, we are committed to doing everything it takes to keep our students safe. Please be advised that students will be dismissed at the regular time on the day of their building level training. These drills are a part of our overall safety plan. If you feel that the topic of “Active Shooter” is too sensitive for your child, please contact your child’s school by October 8 to request that they be removed from the drill. Each school will have a location for those students who wish not to be a part of the day’s conversation.
All the best,
Mr. Michael J. Vuckovich
Superintendent of Schools