Parents, teachers prepare for crisis
Updated: January 16, 2013
The Sandy hook shooting sent shock waves across the country.
It was a wake up call for the Charleston school district. Now they're making plans to regain peace of mind.
This is all through a crisis planning committee.
They've always had one. But since this tragedy, they've decided to expand it out- and include the whole community.
Now this group includes police officers- firefighters- teachers and parents. Together, they all walked through all of the hallways of every school in the district today.
They looked for creative ways they can be proactive and help to secure their buildings. We talked to a dad who was a part of that group today.
He has two kids in grade schools in the district. He says it's important that parents were involved this year, because they can see things that teachers might not.
"Our most valuable assets are our children. You have to trust that for those 6/7 hours a day that they're not with you that they're safe and being taken care of. I feel totally confident that my kids are being taken care of by this school district." parent Jeff Vanatta said.
The district couldn't give us specifics about the ideas they came up with today, but they did tell us that they have a very long list.
Charleston isn't the only district keeping an eye on safety.
Champaign's superintendent says she'll be meeting with champaign police to look over security. Danville's district just had a shooting drill last Saturday.
Police ran through a realistic scenarios with teachers in classrooms. It's something they've done for ten years.
Catlin's superintendent is working to add cameras throughout their building and adding magnetized locks on doors.
