Emergency Procedures

School Safety at West Fargo Public Schools

If you base your perception of safety in schools solely on what you hear in the news, it isn’t surprising that many people in our community and across the nation think that schools are dangerous. However, research done by the National Center for Education Statistics through their School Survey on Crime and Safety indicates that the trends for violent crime and serious violent crime in schools have been declining since the early 1990s. Their data sources indicate that students are not often the victims of violent and serious violent crime in schools, physical bullying victimization has been on a downward trend, schools have reported fewer incidents of violent crime and serious violent crime, and school homicides, in comparison to other youth homicides, are relatively rare.

These encouraging findings do not mean that West Fargo Public Schools does not take threats of school violence seriously. School safety is a topic that we talk about more often than people realize…and more often than we would perhaps like; it does not take an incident or even a threat for school staff to begin conversations about school safety, but when situations occur across the nation, we are reminded of the importance of those conversations. They also remind us of how an informed community is a responsive community. While it would be inappropriate for the district to share every detail of our emergency preparedness efforts, we want to ensure that our learners, families, and educators have confidence in our district’s ability to provide a safe learning and working environment. We hope that these short descriptions of the pillars of our emergency preparedness efforts provide that assurance.

Emergency Response & Drills

A school crisis can take several forms, including chemical spills or gas leaks, winter storms, learners in crisis, or an active threat in or near the school. The nature of a school crisis dictates what sort of response protocol school officials will put in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of learners and staff. When a situation arises at your child’s school, it is important to know these terms:

Hallway Closure: This response is enacted to clear the hallways and provide privacy and support for a learner in personal crisis. There is typically no danger to other learners and staff during this particular response. Classroom instruction continues as normal during this response.
Lockdown – Human Threat: Lockdown procedures are enacted in response to true threats either inside or near the school. All interior and exterior doors are locked, and then depending on the nature of the incident, classrooms may decide to barricade or evacuate. Learners will not be released to parents while a lockdown is in progress.
Shelter-in-Place: Learners take shelter in designated areas to protect them from hazardous materials or severe weather. No entry into or exit from the school will be allowed until an all-clear announcement is made. Learners will not be released during a shelter-in-place.
Evacuation: Learners are moved safely away from areas impacted by circumstances causing the physical structure, air quality, and/or the learning environment to become unsafe. No entry into the school will be allowed until an all-clear announcement is made. Learners will not be released during an evacuation.
Reunification: In the event of certain emergency situations, learners will be taken from an evacuation rally point to a reunification site. This occurs when reentry into the school facility that same day is not possible. When this response is enacted, school officials will provide information regarding the learner’s specific location to parents/guardians. This may be communicated via a variety of sources in our district, including the website, through Blackboard automated phone calls, texts, and/or email messages, and by our local media outlets. Learners will be released only to parents/guardians who are documented as emergency contacts and who present a picture ID such as a driver’s license, military ID, or passport. This procedure is necessary to account for the whereabouts of all learners. The reunification process can be time-consuming, so parents are urged to be patient.

The response protocols that we implement in an emergency come from Cass-Clay Unified School Response (CCUSR), a community collaborative between every school district and first responder agency in Cass and Clay Counties.

West Fargo Public Schools conducts drills in each of the areas described above (plus fire and tornado drills) several times each year in the schools across our district. These drills serve as an educational opportunity for learners and staff alike; they also ensure that the procedures we have in place are feasible (and practiced) in the event of a real emergency. Learners and staff are asked to take these drills seriously, and to respond as they would in a real situation. When each WFPS school completes their 10 safety drills each year, they utilize resources from CCUSR as training tools.

School Resource Officers (SROs)

Threat Assessment

Security Infrastructure & Equipment

Parent/Guardian Expectations

While not one of our official preparedness pillars, the responsibilities that our parents have during school emergencies is also a critical component of our response.

In a school emergency, the first instinct as a parent is to pick up the telephone and start calling the school or rush up to the school to get your child/children. The truth is this only complicates matters from a safety and security standpoint. Here is a brief list of tips for parents to follow in an emergency:

DO:

Stay close to your phone and email.
Monitor local radio and TV reports for regular updates and instructions.
Rely only on official communications from the school.

DO NOT:

Rush to your child’s school, as your presence could interfere with emergency responders
Phone your child or your child’s school. Staff and learners are discouraged from using cell phone communication for safety reasons. It’s important to keep lines of communication open for emergency response. Staff will be focusing on learners’ safety, rather than answering calls.

Prior to an emergency, parents can also assist the district by ensuring that their child’s emergency contact information is complete, accurate, and current. This will help the school and the district communicate pertinent information to you in a timely manner.

Cass-Clay Unified School Response (CCUSR)

West Fargo Public Schools participates in Cass-Clay Unified School Response (CCUSR), a community collaborative between every school district and first responder agency in Cass and Clay Counties. This seamless response among school districts and first responders, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries, is our greatest defense.

CCUSR acknowledges that in times of crisis, effective and consistent plans and procedures are vital to minimize physical and mental harm to students, staff, visitors to our schools, and our community as a whole. The resources developed by Cass Clay Unified School Response are considered “best practices.” Equal representation among professional disciplines and jurisdictions was considered in the development of these plans.

West Fargo Public Schools is committed to this unified effort, as we see the value of being part of a network of professionals who can work together to share information, learn from each other’s experience and identify ways to empower staff to achieve an even greater level of safety and security in our schools.

Questions?

If you have questions or concerns about our district’s safety protocols, you are encouraged to reach out to your principal. If they are unable to answer your question, they may pass you along to our district’s Director of Health, Safety, & Public Relations. At West Fargo Public Schools, school safety is a portfolio that everyone carries.

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