School Safety
Throughout the school year, our staff and students will conduct safety drills. These drills include Fire/Evacuation drills and Lock Downs. These drills are designed to encourage safe behavior and actions during emergency situations.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
RE: Lockdowns
As you are likely aware, our school practices lockdowns as part of our emergency
planning/preparedness cycle. Staff and students are familiar with lockdowns, but we wish to
increase your knowledge of our procedures.
It is important to understand that school staff will implement a lockdown and call police if/and
when there is any reason to believe that imminent danger to students and staff may exist. At this
stage, everyone in the school will move to a secure location, safe from harm. Police will respond
to the school and no one will enter or leave, until the situation is resolved.
The first instinct of parents/guardians is to either phone the school directly or your child, or to
attend directly to the school. You are asked not to do any of these, but instead to understand and
follow the procedures outlined in this letter.
Experience has shown that roadways need to be kept clear for responding emergency vehicles, and
parents and others attempting to drive to the school can slow police and other emergency responders
from getting to and securing the area as quickly as possible. Therefore, if you hear that a
lockdown is occurring at your child’s school, do not attend to the school. Instead, you may attend
to your schools’ designated Parent location (insert designated parent staging location here) to
receive information which will be provided by police and school representatives. These locations
are selected as being far enough from the school to maximize your safety and that of others. Please
be assured that every effort will be made to keep you informed as to what is happening during the
event. Experience has shown that incorrect information often circulates during an event when it
does not come directly from the police or school board. Please note that, for safety reasons, some
situations may require that some information be withheld until the situation is resolved. (In
lockdown situations you may also contact the school board by calling 403-652-3001.) After the lockdown,
you may be asked to go to the school or to wait where you are until your child is brought to your
location.
We also ask that you not attempt to phone your child. In a lockdown, everyone must remain quiet,
and a ringing cell phone may draw undue attention to the secure location where your child and
his/her classmates are.
Aside from lockdown procedures, your child’s school may also implement a precautionary “Hold &
Secure” if there is an unrelated emergency situation occurring outside the building or in the
neighbourhood that could potentially present a danger to the school. In this situation all doors to
the school are locked and monitored to allow any students from outside entry into the school.
Classes will generally continue but no one will be allowed to enter or leave the building until the
situation is resolved. We also ask that you do NOT attend to the school unless asked to do so by
school board staff.
