School Safety in our District

Stephan Derout, District Safety & Security Manager / 360-709-7059

The safety of our students and staff has and always will be our top priority. Some of the work our District has done to ensure school safety includes:

• We conduct safety drills, including active shooter and other internal threat drills, to ensure that if we were faced with such a situation, we could act swiftly in response to such an act. Our local law enforcement and first responders are strong partners and have completed extensive training as well, including using schools for training drills.
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• We partner with Tumwater Police Department and have two School Resource Officers assigned specifically to our campuses.
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• Each of our schools has developed a Comprehensive Safe Schools Plan with plans for numerous crisis situations, including armed intruders.
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• All building renovations are designed for school safety. In addition, we are in the process of conducting campus security reviews at each campus to identify any vulnerabilities we still need to address.
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• Anonyous tips can be sent through our Tip Reporting System. Tips can be sumbitted via text, web, email or phone.  
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• We have implemented a Threat Assessment System for the purpose of preventing targeted violence. The appraisal of risk in a threat assessment focuses on actions, communications, and specific circumstances that might suggest that an individual is engaged in planning for an event. Each school has a team that has been trained to address concerns and assess the potential danger or safety issues in the building.
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• Beyond our district-funded counselors, psychologists and other social/emotional supports that are available to students, we have Community Schools Coordinators in our schools that are funded by TOGETHER! (a non-profit community partner). These coordinators are able to connect students and families with needed services, such as mental health services, that we may not be able to provide in the schools. We also have been able to partner with SeaMar to provide some additional mental health services on our campuses.