Sulphur Springs | Safety
Sulphur Springs Independent School District is incorporating the Standard Response Protocol into the safety plan at all campuses. This protocol makes it easier to respond appropriately to an incident on campus.
At Monday night’s meeting of the SSISD Board of Trustees, Assistant Superintendent Rusty Harden and Officer DeeDee Self explained SRP and gave some background.
Self piloted SRP at Barbara Bush Primary School this past year. It worked well enough to go district-wide this year, Self and Harden reported.
“It’s something the state is going to have all districts move to next year,” Harden said. “So we’re ahead of the game by moving to SRP this year.”
Under SRP, staff and students are taught to take specific actions in response to different situations or scenarios that may occur—lockout, lockdown, evacuate, shelter and hold. Each action has its own unique logo and public address system announcement, along with simple, clear instructions.
This simplifies the process of training and drilling, gives continuity to students, makes it easier for parents to understand and reinforce the protocol, and allows first responders to respond more quickly.
A lockout, where all exterior doors are locked and no one is allowed to enter or exit the building, would be initiated (generally by law enforcement) in the event of an unknown or unauthorized person or a dangerous animal on school grounds, criminal activity in the area or civil disobedience. Classes would continue without interruption.
A lockdown would be initiated for a threat inside the school building, such as an intruder, active shooter or a violent student or parent or a dangerous animal inside the building. Classroom lights are turned off, doors are locked and everyone moves out of hallway sight lines and maintains silence.
An evacuation would be called if students and staff need to move from one location to another designated point in the event of a fire, bomb threat or other emergency.
Shelter would be called in the event of a specific hazard, such as a tornado, earthquake, wildfire or Hazmat situation. The announcement would give specific instructions to move to a shelter area, shelter in place or seal the room, depending on the nature of the threat.
Hold in the classroom would be called when the hallways need to be kept clear until a situation is resolved, such as a fight. Students in class simply remain there until the hold is lifted, disregarding scheduled passing periods if necessary. Students who are out of their classroom at that time would report to the classroom closest to their location and remain there until free movement is allowed.
“Basically SRP is just getting all law enforcement, first responders, staff and even our parents on the same page, using the same lingo,” Self explained. “That way when any of us respond to a school, we all know what it means and what they’re doing.”