Lynn teachers return with students’ safety in forefront

LYNN – Another school year got its start in Lynn Tuesday as teachers and principals reported for their first day of work, highlighted by public safety and professional development workshops.Hundreds of teachers from all of the city’s schools passed through the doors of English High Tuesday, receiving valuable information on policy changes and procedure from school administrators.Perhaps the largest draw of the morning was School Safety and Security Officer Robert Ferrari’s public safety seminar, where teachers reviewed lockdown and evacuation procedures for the upcoming school year.Teachers filled the auditorium, and most members of Superintendent Nicholas Kostan’s administration team were also in attendance to brush up on safety procedures.Students and teachers experienced mock lockdown drills last year, but Ferrari and his staff have made even more advances in public safety methods since that time.Teachers Tuesday learned what to do when a student is hurt, how to describe someone to police if they have to call 9-1-1, how to identify a police officer trying to enter the school and what to do in case of a mass evacuation.Police have been working on the comprehensive safety system for more than a year, making blueprints of each school and updating the buildings’ security features.”We believe in this system. It is a good system,” said Ferrari. “This creates that safe environment where we all know that we are on the same page.”Ferrari referenced real-life crisis situations such as the Columbine High School shootings and several incidents from last year, including a fatal shooting in a Cleveland high school.The goal is to learn from the mistakes made in the past and avoid situations that can put anyone in danger.Teachers were urged to take attendance as soon as a lockdown or evacuation is held, as in many cases the assailants are actually students who left class. Ferrari also explained what type of information is useful when describing someone to police, and what can be more confusing than helpful to officers.Gone are the days of classes evacuating a school only to go outside and line up in front of the building or in the parking lot.The police have spoken to churches and community centers in the vicinity of each school to discuss the possibility of using those facilities as safe houses if a school must be evacuated.During in-school demonstrations last year police not only practiced lock-down procedure, complete with armed officers searching the school, but firefighters were on hand to review escape routes.Every teacher knows the standard route out of their classroom, but firefighters stood in the way of that route holding signs that say “fire,” so that teachers learn multiple alternate routes out of the school buildings.”This is something that no one really wants to worry about or wrap our heads around, but it is real,” said Ferrari. “It is a little bit of a reality check to see our guys come in with guns drawn, walking down the halls in formation looking for a shooter.”Police are still in the process of making master keys to each school for all of their officers, and are working to perfect the identification card system for teachers at the school’s doors.Teachers spent most of the workday in professional development Tuesday and are preparing for the arrival of most students today. High School sophomores, juniors and seniors will report Thursday and pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students will report Monday.