Dear Friends,

When I started in professional education 20 years ago, the worst thing we as teachers had to worry about was a student skipping class or the occasional fight, but that all changed almost 15 years ago when the unthinkable happened in Littleton, Colorado. Since that day, all too many times, violence has erupted in schools and we have been forced to change our thinking on how we can keep students safe in our halls. We are very fortunate that at DeSales we had the privilege to have members of the United States Air Force conduct a threat assessment of our school and programs and, as a result we have created a School Safety Committee whose sole purpose is the improve the safety of all who enter our halls. Our School Safety Committee has been very busy indeed re-vamping our Incident Response Plan, recommending the unification of our school locks, the installation of a camera based security system and scheduling a First Responders Drill here at DeSales.

One of the greatest tools that we have as a school is education. I know that sounds redundant, but the more we inform our students and drill them in proper practice in the event of an emergency the more efficient they will be. To that end, over the rest of this year and moving forward we will be, just as we do fire drills, practicing lockdown and lockout drills. The lockdown and lockout procedures, as well as all of our school safety procedures, are outlined in our Incident Response Plan (IRP) that is posted in each classroom. If you would like to look over this policy or you have any questions about it please do not hesitate to get in touch with me and I will be happy to review the IRP with you. The next two recommendations from our School Safety Committee were modifications to our facility.

If you were to walk down the halls of the school, stop at and want to enter any of the 100 plus doors within the building there would be a myriad of keys to search through. As a result, DeSales has purchased two master key systems that will allow for a unification of locks that have the potential to help first responders in the event of an emergency. The exterior doors will be on one master key system and the interior on a separate system. Each of the doors in the building will have both a master key that will only be in Mr. Rich’s and my possession as well as an individual key that can only open that door held by the teacher whose room it is.

At the same time that we are installing those locks we are working with Amherst Alarm to install a 16 camera observation system throughout the campus. Initial designs for the system call for the installation of eight exterior and eight interior cameras that are strategically placed in pre-determined locations. These cameras are all wired into a one terabyte recorder and viewable on two 42” monitors placed in the Main and Principal’s Offices. Due to our current working relationship with Amherst Alarm we were able to secure an excellent system that is expandable to 36 cameras and will allow us exceptional coverage of our campus.

Finally, thanks to Chief Sherriff’s Deputy and DeSales dad Mr. Steven Preisch, DeSales Catholic School in conjunction with the Niagara County Sherriff’s Department and local first responders, will be conducting an active shooter drill on April 16th at 9:00 AM. This drill is designed to help local first responders hone their skills as well as acquaint them with our campus. There will be more information to follow on this drill so please stay tuned.

In conclusion, I wanted to share a quick reflection with you. Many years ago I heard a colleague say that his job as a teacher was to make sure that every child he interacted with was safe and I could not agree more. Every day I want your and my children to come to DeSales and know that they are safe and they are loved.

As always if I can answer any questions about this or anything please give me a call or just stop by.

Peace,
Scott