At a recent meeting, Dr. Jennifer Carvajal-Hageman, Director of Student Services, presented Milford School District Board of Education with details on upgrades to school safety. The district has upgraded emergency response guides and incident command structure as well as created rally points for all schools.
“We have identified hard corners and labeled them,” Carvajal-Hageman said. “We have vision panels installed across the district and added safety bags to all classrooms and offices. We have constables in all schools plus two substitute SROs who join us tonight for our presentation. We continue to collaborate with Milford Police Department, DEMA and the Delaware State Police.”
According to Carvejal-Hageman, the district collaborates with community stakeholders in creating a reunification plan that is currently in process. There is now an individual classroom safety plan, a smaller version of the district-wide emergency response plan. This allows teachers to create their own individual classroom safety plans, and the logistics involved should there be an emergency or critical incident.
“We have developed several different targets hardening and systems in our schools that will keep everyone safe while also allowing us to have continuous communication with first responders and immediate communication with the main office” Carvejal-Hageman said. “The first should be completed by the end of this school year and is the audio enhancement system. This is multi-faceted, connecting bells with intercoms, classroom audio and safety as well as the WebEx phones.”
Carvejal-Hageman stated that the new audio system would promote inclusivity in classrooms with teachers wearing lanyards that serve as a microphone. This allows the teacher to project so that hearing impaired students can hear more clearly. The lanyards also have an emergency button that will allow teachers to request assistance from both first responders and the main office.
“The next safety standard we are implementing this year is the Lockdown Intruder Alert button. This is in two locations of each school and is connected to the audio enhancing system,” Carvejal-Hageman said. “When an employee hits the lockdown button, everyone in the building is notified there is an intruder in the building, and they need to get to safety. It will automatically lock doors so nobody can come in from the outside. If a teacher ran out to grab something and they didn’t know there was a lockdown, they cannot get back into the building.”
The alert will also immediately notify first responders and an audible message is announced internally. Repeaters have been placed across the campus with radios that will have district wide access.
“The next tangible item we are adding for safety and security is a weapons detection system,” Carvejal-Hageman said. “We are working toward purchasing the open gate security metal detectors that are fast, automatic and non-invasive screening devices. They weigh about 25 pounds and will are mobile. They can also be used indoors and outdoors. These will be used at the discretion of administrators at the schools, mostly for external events with visitors coming into the buildings or on the campus.”
The Perryweather application has been implanted in the district where there are sports fields. The weather alert system is installed on top of the Carry-Simpson Building and provides real-time weather forecasts.
“Anytime there is a weather event like lightning strikes or tornadoes, it will send out a mass notification,” Carvejal-Hageman said. “We are trying to figure out how to send that mass notification, whether it is texts or speakers at the various fields, but it will allow us to clear the area and notify everyone when the weather event has passed.”
The district is also using the PREPaRE Framework, which has the national backing of the National Association of School Resource Officers as well as the National Association of School Psychologists. The framework will be used for staff training. The district has launched SAFEDe application which allows anonymous reporting for staff, students and families who see a need for help in various areas. The most important reason to launch the app is to allow the reporting of possible safety threats, including social media posts of a threatening nature without fear of retaliation as the report is anonymous.
“The behavioral process that was approved in May, we have compiled data for this year and I think what we are doing, although it sounds punitive, is actually a de-escalation process to allow students to talk through a situation while also bringing parents into the fold to get supports,” Carvejal-Hageman said. “Of the 19 we have done this year, 11 of them were considered transient and two were considered not a threat. Five were considered serious and substantive while two were very serious.”
Carvejal-Hageman explained that “transient” threats were those that were more “heat of the moment” situations that did not require a more robust investigation. District staff have also undergone CPR and “stop the bleeding” training.
