Every year, the Illinois School Safety Drill Act requires each school to conduct a minimum of three fire drills, one bus evacuation drill, one severe weather/shelter-in-place drill, and two lockdown drills with local law enforcement participation.
Rebecca Jurs, principal of Lily Lake Grade School in Maple Park and the emergency preparedness director for Central Community Unit School District 301, said that the district conducts more drills each year than the specified amount.
Jurs gave an update on the safety procedures being followed at the schools during the recent District 301 board meeting.
All schools in District 301 are now equipped with BluePoint Alert Solutions, a user-friendly, rapid notification system for law enforcement, Jurs said. Just as a fire alarm is pulled in the event of a fire, the BluePoint alarm can be pulled in the event of a potential armed intruder. BluePoint alarms are located near fire alarms.
“BluePoint helps to protect students and staff from a potential danger or active threat,” Jurs said. “A message is announced throughout the school that the building is in lockdown and the authorities have been called.”
Jurs said that principals are not the only ones who can activate the BluePoint system.
“We have learned from the tragedies in Sandy Hook and Newtown that the most critical incidents happen in five to ten minutes,” Jurs said. “We have let staff know that they don’t have to wait for administration’s approval to pull the alarm.”
Jurs said that every district employee has been uploaded into the BluePoint system. Staff members wear lanyards with the BluePoint fob.
All substitute teachers and lunchroom workers are issued lanyards for when they are working in the building. District bus drivers are made aware of what to do in the event of a lockdown. Once one school goes on lockdown, all the other schools in the district are notified.
By giving teachers and staff the chance to text or email during a lockdown, Jurs said they might be able to help the first responders who are coming to the school. Before they even enter the building, first responders are made aware of where the alarm was pulled.
Shelter-in-place at a school means finding safe places with no or few windows and taking refuge there. Any students and staff taking part in any outdoors physical education activity would be called inside. Staff would be given directions over the intercom or by email. The building’s entrances would be monitored so that nobody would enter or exit the building during the shelter-in-place.
“A shelter-in-place could be called if a bank robbery had taken place in the area,” Jurs said.
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She said while she was working at another district, a shelter-in-place was called because a raccoon had wandered into a school and staff wanted to keep students out of its path until it was removed from the building.
While a shelter-in-place generally helps to protect students from potential danger outside the building, a lockdown offers protection from possible danger already inside the building.
During a lockdown, Jurs said that window blinds should be closed, doors are locked, classroom lights are turned off, and students are told to hunker down and keep quiet. The hallways are kept well lighted.
Jurs said that drills are protective actions that help to keep people safe. It is important to conduct drills on a regular basis.
“The things we practice over and over will become memory,” Jurs said. “Staff takes every building lockdown seriously, and the kids know what to do.”
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.