SAFE AT SCHOOL

FALL 2018

SHIELDING OUR KIDS

THE TRAGIC SHOOTINGS last spring in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas, have intensified the anxiety of parents, students and teachers everywhere. To date, there has not been a mass shooting at a U.S. Catholic school, but this has not made administrators complacent. Prayer may be our first and last line of defense, but when it comes to the lives of our children, it cannot be our only one.

“We just updated our crisis response protocol,” says Associate Superintendent Michael Coppotelli, who participated in a school safety committee for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York. “In coordination with law enforcement, each teacher has received updated training. Schools are required to do four lockdown drills and eight evacuation drills per year. No one wants this training to ever be applied to a real situation, but should the unthinkable happen at one of our schools, our teachers, staff and students are prepared.”

The first step is to prevent a crisis from happening at all. “Many of our schools and outdoor areas have cameras and intercoms,” says Coppotelli. “Schools are locked during the day.” The district has relationships with state, county and local police, and officers visit schools regularly. Each school submits its safety plan to the superintendent’s office, and practices are constantly under review.

It’s impossible to say with certainty that nothing will ever go wrong. “The safety of the kids is our top priority every day,” Coppotelli says. God is the children’s main protector, but the teachers and administrators are doing everything they can to help Him.