Students Participate in Homeroom to Discuss Crisis Plan
Arrowhead students were informed Wednesday on the “run,fight, hide” plan.
On Wednesday, April 11th, Arrowhead students participated in a 40 minute homeroom to discuss school safety and recommended procedures in the instance of a school shooting or intruder.
The school wide, teacher lead, session touched on points and procedures necessary if the school were to experience an unsafe situation.
According to students and staff, the session began with short video that touched on three main points: run, hide, and fight. The video urges students to first run if they have access to a safe exit, then to hide if no exit is available, and to fight intruder if necessary.
After the video, students went through various scenarios where they asked questions that pertained to the current room they were in. For example questions asked by teachers included “Are you in an outside room, and breaking a window gets you out? How would you break that window?”
The questions asked lead to an open discussion with homerooms, that touched on issues and what to do in those instances.
Junior Della Ghering said “ I’m glad we were able to learn more about it, but i think having drill would be extremely helpful for all students”
According to the document given to Arrowhead staff, it is important for students to understand that they should try and remain calm in this situation and stay off phones and as quiet as possible.
Once authorities arrive their job is to find the main cause of the crisis and to protect and help students. It is also important for students to understand they should keep hands visible, and avoid pointing or yelling.
Currently Arrowhead teachers and staff are using the “Run, Fight, Hide” program in both crisis drills, classroom discussions, and in real life situations. For more information on this program please visit https://www.ready.gov/active-shooter.
Arrowhead staff is also informed on Alice which is another active shooter response system. Alice, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate, is the number one active shooter response system for all organizations including schools and businesses. For more information on this program please visit https://www.alicetraining.com/ .
Arrowhead Principle Greg Wieczorek said “ we did this homeroom in order to make students feel more safe and comfortable with the possibility that this could ever occur. We used the run, hide, fight method with students because it’s more logical and easier to remember for students. We will continue to practice lockdown drills, but having an active shooter drill is too dangerous in that if a student is not informed it is a drill there could be a bad outcome.”
For any questions regarding school safety please see Deputy Pete Freyer, Becky Gordon, Debra Paradowski and/or Principle Greg Wieczorek.
