At JCS, the safety and well-being of our students and staff are our highest priorities. As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment, I am writing to inform you that our School Resource Officers (SROs) will be visiting our Kindergarten through 3rd grade classrooms on Monday, March 23rd.
The goal of these visits is to familiarize our students with Officers Dennett and Robichaud and to discuss our school’s safety procedures, specifically focusing on our "lock-down" drill protocols. The officers will visit classrooms for about 15 minutes at a time. We believe that by building connections between JCS students and our Norton School Resource Officers, students will feel more comfortable during our routine safety drills and any time that they see Officers Dennett and Robichaud at our school.
What to Expect: Our SROs will use age-appropriate language when visiting each grade level on March 23rd. They will explain:
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The Procedure: What students and staff do during a lock-down.
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The "Why": How these steps keep our school community safe during an emergency.
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The Partnership: How teachers, staff, and officers work together to look after everyone in the building.
We understand that safety discussions can be sensitive for young children. Please be assured that the SROs, teachers, and staff will not be discussing any scenarios involving school shootings or violence. Our focus is strictly on the procedure of the drill and the general concept of staying safe during an unexpected emergency. This is very similar to how we already work with students to practice for fire drills.
All JCS teachers, staff, and SROs are committed to ensuring that these lessons are handled with the care, sensitivity, and transparency. We want our students to feel prepared and safe, not anxious or scared. We are currently working with Officers Dennett and Robichaud to schedule the actual lock-down drill for either Monday, April 6th or Monday, April 13th.
If you have any specific questions regarding these visits or our safety protocols, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mr. Barrette directly. We value your partnership in keeping our school a welcoming and safe place for all of our students.
