School Safety

Once upon a time schools and school district property were considered exceedingly safe spaces. Not so much anymore. The nation’s eyes were rudely opened in April, 199, after the massacre at Columbine High School. Since then, there have been too many of these school tragedies.

The Croton Police Department takes these incidents seriously and uses them as tools to learn and improve its own potential response.

As a community we are fortunate that the Police Department and the School District enjoy a good collaborative relationship. Every officer is familiar with all district buildings and have the proper tools to access any building at any hour. While we live in a safe community generally it’s clear that no town is totally safe.

As a matter of practice, the Croton-Harmon School District performs random lock down exercises to keep the students and staff sharp, and they notify the Police Department when they are taking place. In addition to the district’s efforts, the police department also routinely practice Active Shooter drills. Both drills are to offset what is known as a “perishable skill”. The students may need to be reminded as to their responsibilities during a lockdown and likewise the police need reminders in best practices should the worst ever happen here in Croton.

All officers have had extensive training in school safety and active shooter specifically at the Police Academy and take refresher courses bi-annually. The Department follows the national training standard as stipulated by the FBI. Because there is more than one law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction in the village, it is imperative that a national standard is followed so that in the event of an incident, all agencies are on the same page.

While no community is immune to the threat of terrorism, the Croton Police are taking the proactive steps necessary to protect our children, the teachers, and staff within our schools.

Additional information:

Our Police Department is a member of Police Allied with Communities and Schools / PACS. This is a collaborative group consisting of all stakeholders in the community charged with school safety, to include the School Board, the Croton Police Department, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, and Village Board. They work and train together to implement the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES Regional Safety Services “Prevention, Preparedness, Partnerships, and Pathways Forward School Safety Benchmarks. “

Such benchmarks include but are not limited to:

• Threat assessment teams for each building, trained in a district-wide model. These teams meet regularly and have district level support and oversight.
• All school staff, parents, students, and community and are trained to an appropriate level of understanding in reporting all behaviors of concern. There is also an anonymous reporting system.
• Districts and Building Safety establishes clear communication and operating protocols between schools and law enforcement. Teams meet regularly for training, to review drills, and perform tabletop scenarios. All teams are trained to operate under an incident command system, with a primary and secondary person identified. Non incident events are utilized to allow such leaders to practice their roles.
• Schools create a parent guide to help them best understand all measures taken to keep children safe, to give parents a clear understanding of school expectations of parents during an emergency, and to give parents an avenue to share up to date contact information.
• Officers are given an increased orientation of all buildings.
• Support is given to ensure all technology needed to keep the schools safe is up to date, to include the ability to call 911 from any location within each building.
• Drills are mandatory and an integral part of the plan.
• Districts have signed memorandums of understanding with neighboring districts for mutual aid/ support in an emergency.
• Threats are delineated into different assessments and how and when they are applied and who is responsible for each.
• A Hazard Identification Risk Assessment is completed every 3-5 years, or when there is a specific identified threat or hazard.
• A comprehensive safety Audit is completed every 3-5 years.

All school buildings are mapped in detail to assist all school personnel and first responders.

Additional steps are in place, although not all information is for public consumption. Some information is withheld to maintain safety and specific school personnel and first responder response information.

All training is free to the School District and the Police Department.

This article was written by members of the Police Advisory Committee as part of the Community Information Project.