Keeping students safe

Almost every day when we open the paper we are reminded that we live in an ever changing world. This combined with the fact I have personal accountability for the safety of 13,000 students every day has greatly influenced my thinking on school safety and security.

I am extremely thankful that the Iowa City Community School District is making rapid and significant improvements in school safety and security. These improvements include both implementing ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) and implementing physical building improvements.

ALICE provides a flexible set of principles that can be adapted to any violent situation. It is considered a best practice and has been developed based on the findings from past national incidents. The traditional approach of lock down and 'hope for the best” is no longer sufficient. Like anything in life, training and practice are required to really master a new skill. To this end, our staff has completed both classroom training and practical preparation via active shooter training.

The number of physical safety and security improvements being completed is impressive: intruder locksets, electronic door access, intercoms, front door camera, room numbering plan, building security systems, camera surveillance systems, window blinds, district wide radio systems, fencing, fire system improvements and more. If we ever need them, likely a number of these improvements combined with ALICE training will collectively provide a positive outcome.

All of this can be done while also keeping our schools open and accessible. Many of these improvements are invisible to our students. In most cases new procedures just become the 'new normal”.

The third and perhaps the most important element to school security is developing and nurturing a very strong school culture. Our school cultures require high expectations that do not accept violence or bulling. Our school cultures require great staff/student relationships: these relationships enable strong communication and they enable being 'in touch” with each other. By being 'in touch” with each other I mean people can tell and will notice changes in behavior that may indicate 'asking for help” or that action may be required. We have strong school cultures today, and I am thankful to our principals, staff, and students for this great achievement.

Now, if we are honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge there has been resistance to implementing many of these safety and security improvements. Sometimes the resistance has even been significant. Certainly robust debate is always encouraged; however, I am personally thankful that the pace of improvement has been at historical levels over the past year.

I hope we continue to make significant progress here while enabling strong and open school cultures that our students deserve. Thank you for your personal support for our community, teachers and our students! Please take the opportunity to thank district leaders and staff for delivering a safe and secure learning environment.

' Chris Lynch is a member of the Iowa City Community School Board. This column represents his personal opinions and not necessarily those of the board. Comments: chris.lynch@iowacityschools.org