Jennifer Armenia
Case Study 3: School Safety Plan
ISLLC Standard 3
A school
administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students
by ensuring management of the organizations, operations, and resources for a
safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.
Questions:
1)
Were all
faculty members aware of procedures for lock down situations if one was to be
called?
2)
Did the
principal use proactive measures in order to ensure a safe learning
environment?
Description of Situation
All schools have to have
safety procedures in case of a fire, tornado and more recently in case it is
necessary to have a lock down. Recently
at the elementary school there was a custody issue that took place over a child
in kindergarten. The parents were going
through a separation and fighting over their younger son in kindergarten, the
older daughter in 4th grade was not in the custody battle. The family was of middle eastern decent and
the father wanted the son to take him back to his native country. This father did not respect women and any
time he came to the school is was extremely rude to the teacher and other
females in the building. The mother had
a court order that she had custody over her son. When this order was given the father was
furious and came to the elementary school to get the child. He was not allowed to take the child since
the school knew about the custody issue and began yelling at the
principal. The assistant principal (who
happened to be male) had to explain the situation to the father. The father said he would get his son
tomorrow. Because of this situation and
the father threatening to pick his child up not matter what, a faculty meeting
was called and the faculty in the school was made aware of the situation. Lock down procedures were discussed and
safety precautions to keep all the students safe were also reviewed. The principal informed the faculty of safety
precautions such as keeping all outside doors locked, keeping our classroom
doors closed and closely monitoring all students especially during
transitions. Situations such as what to
do if you are at recess or in the hall when the lockdown is called were
discussed and solutions to any foreseeable problems were created. All the teachers in the school were to make
sure they had keys to their classroom incase of a need for a lockdown. A plan was also made to protect the child
that was at risk of being kidnapped along with a plan for keeping other
students safe if the father was to come to the school tomorrow.
Answers to Questions
1) All faculty members along with custodial and
cafeteria staff were aware of lockdown procedures. The principal called the faculty meeting in
order to review lock down procedures and answer any questions that faculty members
had about what to do in case a lockdown was needed. Plans were made to handle students in
transition as well as what to do if your class is at recess when a lockdown is
called.
2)
In this
case the principal used proactive measures to protect all students. She made sure the staff was aware of the
situation and knew how to protect their students if a lockdown was needed. Her number one concern in this matter was
protecting the students in the school.
Evaluation of
Case Study
The level of performance in this case study is accomplished. It was evident that the safety of the children were the principal’s major concern during this situation. All her precautions made it evident that the most important thing was the children’s safety. The principal very easily could have handled this situation without informing the staff of what was happening but she wanted to make sure all the staff was aware of the situation in order to protect the children. She called a faculty meeting just to review lock down procedures and inform us of the specific situation in our school which may have caused a lock down. The principal was proactive in this situation and made sure all measures were taken to protect the school and ease the minds of the teachers in the school.