Pike County School Corporation

To Members of the Pike County Community:

The following school security measures have been placed into effect at all five Pike County School Corporation schools:

• All exterior doors should remain locked through the day including the front doors.

• Do no prop open any exterior doors for convenience.

• All visitors, parents, salespersons, etc. must sign in and out of the building and wear an ID badge or sticker.

• Office personnel shall check all bags, purses, briefcases, etc. carried in by all visitors.

• All student threats must be immediately be reported to Superintendent Blake.

There have been no threats made to any school employee or student in the Pike County School Corporation to prompt these actions. This is merely a precaution due to the past nationwide school violence incidents.

Dear Pike County School Parents and Guardians,

In light of the current world situation, and as we join together to support our President and our fighting forces around the globe, we wanted to provide you with some information about the efforts our schools make to provide a safe a secure learning environment for all of our children. Please take a moment to read this information and please phone the Principal of your child's school if you have any questions.

Everyday Security: The Pike County School Corporation has a set of Emergency Guidelines in place that all of our schools use. The guidelines help teachers, administrators, and staff to deal with a wide range of possibilities. The safety of your child is our top priority because it is the essential foundation for academic achievement.

Lockdown: One of the procedures in our Emergency Guidelines is what is known as a lockdown. What this means is that we lock all of the external doors as well as taking indoor precautions at a school as a extra precaution based on some event that is happening outside of the school. IF you hear on the news that any Pike County School is in a lockdown mode, this means that everything is being addressed at the school for your child's safety but that we are taking an extra ounce of prevention. If you need to come to the school during a lockdown, please be prepared to show a Photo ID before you are permitted to enter into the building. We count on your support for this extra precaution if and when it is necessary.

Communications: We have found that our telephone lines (even cellular phones) get overloaded and jammed during an emergency. PLEASE DO NOT CALL the school if an emergency arises. We will do everything possible to keep you informed via the media IF we have a special message to share. Otherwise, we will implement our Emergency Guidelines as needed, to ensure that all of our students are safe until they can come home or, until they can be released to you.

Getting Home: During an emergency situation, our schools work with the local police agencies and National Weather Service to ensure that it is safe to transport a student home during any emergency that occurs at, or near, the close of a school day. IF the information that we have indicates that it is safe to transport your child to your neighborhood at, or after, the official end of a school day, we will do so. Please make a plan with your child now to have an alternative location for them to go to in the event that an emergency delays your return home. IF there is no one in your neighborhood to provide an alternative location, please inform your child's school in WRITING that they are to be kept at school in the event of an emergency. If an emergency make a neighborhood unsafe and police agencies inform us about this problem, students from those neighborhoods will be kept at school until someone can pick them up. Please notify your child's school if someone other than you will be designated to pick up your child at school during an emergency.

Security and Learning: All schools in the Pike County School Corporation will do everything possible to reassure students that they are safe. We know that parents and guardians will talk to their child regularly about questions or concerns. Please call your child's school to share how we can help when you know that your child is concerned. Working together, we will place the well-being of each student at the top of our list.

Please get in touch with your child's Principal or Teacher if there are additional ideas that need to be shared. Pike County Schools are eager to work the parents/guardians to reassure each student as we work on academic excellence in secure schools.

On occasion, your child may tell you that they have practiced a lockdown drill during the school day. This is done to train the students on what to do during this procedure. It is practiced at each of schools during the school year and they are very similar to our fire drills and tornado drills.

Each school has been instructed to have a trained School Safety Specialist in their building. Each school has a safety team assigned and they meet during the school year to discuss new ideas, practical exercises and scenarios to better ourselves of potential incidents that may arise.

Sincerely,

School Resource Officer

Pike County School Corporation