Safety Preparedness
The safety of every member of our St. Agnes-St. Dominic community is our top priority. Our team has developed a comprehensive safety plan that includes a gated campus with access controlled entry to buildings, armed security officers, surveillance cameras throughout campus, and an emergency communication system. We are continuously evaluating our plan and examining ways to make our campus even safer.
Standard Response Protocol
A critical piece to our school safety planning is a uniform campus-wide response to incidents that may occur. This includes weather events, fires, accidents, medical emergencies, intruders and other threats to school safety. At SAA-SDS we have adopted the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) created by I Love you Guys Foundation as a guide for our school safety response plan.
The SRP outlines a common language that is used to direct educators, students and first responders on how to proceed during various emergency situations. It is action-based, flexible and easy to learn. We conduct monthly drills following these protocols to build clarity, confidence and predictability for everyone involved.
The premise is simple: There are five specific actions that can be performed during any incident: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, and Shelter. When communicating these actions, each is followed by a Directive. It is important to note that when the school communicates with parents about any incident that may occur, these actions will be referenced.
HOLD: The Hold action is used when the hallways need to remain clear. Students and staff are required to remain in classrooms or stay out of access areas.
Ex.: a medical issue that needs attention
SECURE: Secure is called when there is a threat or hazard outside of our campus. All students and staff are brought into the secure building and exterior doors are locked.
Ex.: a dangerous animal on campus, criminal activity in the area, local school in lockdown
LOCKDOWN: Lockdown is called when there is a threat or hazard on our campus. Individual classrooms and office doors are locked with lights off, students and staff are moved out of sight. Ex.: an intruder, dangerous animal inside the building, report of a weapon
EVACUATE: Evacuate is called when there is a need to move people from one location to another for safety reasons. Emergency evacuation sites can be on campus and off campus depending on the situation. Ex.: a power outage, bomb threat, fire
