Student and Staff Safety is Paramount
For this reason, the District exercises a host of crisis prevention and planning tactics.
Staff Crises Prevention Training
All staff take on-line training modules through SafeSchools.
Drills are conducted at each school to prepare for crisis. Trainings include: fire, tornado, intruder and evacuation.
Each building has an active safety committee to address safety plans and needs unique to respective buildings.
All staff takes the S.A.V.E. Yourself training to prepare for potential active shooter crisis. Staff also administer training exercises that are age-appropriate for their students.
Crises Planning Procedures
The Sioux City Community School District has a crisis guide, which has step-by-step plans to address all potential crises. While we recognize that every crisis is unique, this guide serves as a starting point to assist in reacting to each crisis scenario. The crisis guide is not a public document. To ensure that individuals with ill intentions cannot anticipate our response to the crisis, we keep this guide confidential.
In the event of a crisis, the District office is the first to be notified and a group of District officials begins to assess the threat based on the steps outlined in the crisis guide. Determining the credibility of a threat is unique to each threat. Every threat is taken seriously and the first step is always to determine the credibility of the threat. The parties that may collaborate on assessing threat credibility include District administrators, school administrators, School Resource Officers, and law enforcement. Determinations from this assessment help us identify the level of the threat and the best course of action to keep students and staff safe. In the event of a “high-level” threat, law enforcement takes over the situation and informs the District of actions to take.
Crisis Response Communication
Immediately after the threat is assessed, District officials determine actions that must be taken to maintain the safety of all staff and students. Once these plans of action are determined, communication to families begins promptly. The District has a multi-faceted approach to communicating updates in the event of a crisis. Parents may receive communication via text or phone messages. Staff can be notified by phone call, text message, and email. Once staff and families of the District have been notified, then messages are posted on social media, the website, and in collaboration with our local media partners.
Some families may inquire why updates may appear on social media or the news before an official District communication is shared. Please know, these advance messages on social media and news sites do not come from the District as a source.
The news stations often break the news based on what they might hear on a police scanner.
Social media updates may come from a variety of sources, but individuals need to be educated when consuming news on social media. “Fake news” is a sensation of social media and if an update is not coming from an official District source, please cautiously read the update. Rather than hitting the share button – be a change agent. Report what you read. You never know, you could be the first person to report it.
Following crisis drills and even crisis response, please be our partner in speaking with your children about their experiences. We must all work together to prepare for and respond to crises in a manner that helps our children feel safe and secure.