Safety Resources

Bend-La Pine Schools offers the following safety resources to help keep parents and students informed. The information was provided by our partners in law enforcement and safety.

On this webpage, you will find information about:

• Emergency alerts
• Student physical safety
• Internet safety
• Fire safety
• Gun safety
• Biking and walking safety

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Emergency Alerts

Bend-La Pine Schools

To receive alerts for school weather closures and delays as well as in cases of emergencies - sign up for our text alert system - BLconnect. Learn more at our Alerts & Updates webpage

Deschutes County

Sign up for Deschutes Alerts to receive emergency alerts for the county. Sign up by visiting the Deschutes County Alerts webpage. This service is provided by the Deschutes County 911 Service District.

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Student Safety Tips

• Know and follow the school's safety policies (review your school's student handbook as well as the district handbook)
• If you walk to school, walk with a friend or family member
• If you drive to school, always secure your vehicle
• Carry your keys in your hand when walking to your car
• Never carry large sums of money with you
• Always tell your parents where you plan to be before and after school
• Report all suspicious activity, whether on or off campus - Contact an administrator, staff member or use the SafeOregon tipline
• Immediately report any information about a student with weapons
• Always be aware of your surroundings
• Be familiar with the general layout of the buildings and walkways (walk around campus during the day to familiarize yourself)
• Walk in groups and say in well lit areas
• Carry a whistle with you (if you find yourself in danger, you can use it to draw attention and it cannot be used to harm you)
• Avoid high risk situations and seek help from an adult if you find yourself in a situation that makes you uncomfortable
• Refuse to participate in negative or criminal behavior
• Follow instructions of school employees, law enforcement officials, or other emergency response personnel
• Refrain from teasing, bullying, and harassing other students and be tolerant of their differences

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Gun Safety Tips:

Gun owners and non-gun owners alike are encouraged to take these simple steps: Stop, don't touch, run away, and tell a grown-up.

What are policies related to weapons at Bend-La Pine Schools?

The seven member Bend-La Pine School Board unanimously passed a resolution in November 2019 to update the school district safety plan to include information to parents and guardians on the importance of safe gun storage.

Additionally, after Senate Bill 554 went into effect in September 2021, Bend-La Pine Schools adopted stricter gun policies. The Board of Directors approved a revised policy in December 2021, that states bringing a gun on a school campus - even with a concealed carry permit - could result in a year in prison, a $6,250 fine or both, under the new state law.

Does your child know what to do if he or she finds a gun?

Local law enforcement recommend the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, which provides parents with helpful, free materials to teach their children how to be safe when in the presence of firearms. Geared toward children pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, the program teaches concepts like stop, don’t touch, run away and tell a grown-up through song, videos and fun activities.

Parents can also visit the Oregon Health Authority's website for safe storage and firearm safety tips.

Gun locks are often available to citizens free of charge from many local agencies. Law enforcement say that every day is a good day to ensure firearms are stored securely to help keep families safe and prevent gun theft. To get a free gun lock, contact the Bend Police Department (541-322-2960 or [email protected]), Redmond Police Department (541-504-3473), Deschutes County Sheriff's Office (541-388-6655), Crook County Sheriff’s Office (541-447-6398 and select the Records Division) or the Prineville Police Department (541-447-4168).

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Internet Safety Tips for Parents

These tips come from the FBI — Safe Online Surfing and Think Before you Post. For more information about Internet and media safety, check out Common Sense Media

Establish rules for Internet use:

• What sites can your child visit?
• Who can they talk to?
• How long will they be on line?
• Where can they use a computer?

Keep computers in a common room:

• Parent and guardian supervision can be an effective method of protecting children online

Stay informed:

• Learn everything you can about the internet
• Take an interest in learning what sites your kids visit
• Learn some of the common language used in chatrooms

Research Parental Controls:

• Learn about the available blocking, filtering, and parental controls for your computer and internet and when to use them

Internet Safety Tips for Students

Tell your parents when you are going online and talk to them about what you're doing online. If someone you don't know tries to arrange a meeting with you, immediately notify your parent or guardian.

Don't give out personal information, including:

• Name
• Age
• Address and telephone number
• Parent/guardian's name
• School name
• Passwords or other login information used online

Be careful when uploading photos:

• Personal photos should not have revealing information, such as school names or locations
• Look at the backgrounds of the pictures to make sure you are not giving out any identifying information without realizing it
• The name of a mall, the license plate of your car, signs, or the name of your sports team on your jersey or clothing all contain information that can be used to determine your location

Make use of privacy settings on social networking sites:

• Set it so that people can only be added as your friend if you approve it
• Set it so that people can only view your profile if you have approved them as a friend

Don't post personal information about friends:

• Remember that posting information about your friends could put them at risk

Fire Safety - Sleepovers

From Bend Fire Department: Before your child spends the night at a friend’s house, we encourage you to take time to ask about fire safety.

Over the years, there have been disastrous house fires that have taken the lives of multiple children. Many times there are children who are staying in the home for a sleepover — and many times the home has no working smoke alarms and the family has no escape plan.

It may be uncomfortable, but before any sleepover, parents need to ask: Does the home have working fire alarms and does the family have a plan for how to escape a burning house?

Make it a life priority of yours that you will NEVER leave your kids anywhere — in particular a sleepover — without making sure that the smoke alarms work.

Here are some facts from the National Fire Protection Association:

• Smoke alarms provide an early warning of a fire, giving people additional escape time. In 2009-2013, smoke alarms sounded in more than half (53%) of the home fires reported to U.S. fire departments.
• Three of every five home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms (38%) or no working smoke alarms (21%)...often with the batteries missing (see below).
• The death rate per 100 reported home fires was more than twice as high in homes that did not have any working smoke alarms compared to the rate in homes with working smoke alarms (1.18 deaths vs. 0.53 deaths per 100 fires).
• In fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate, almost half (46%) of the smoke alarms had missing or disconnected batteries.
• Dead batteries caused one-quarter (24%) of the smoke alarm failures.

Fire and Life Safety

Students and staff practice emergency drills (Lockdown, Secure, etc.) and fire drills (10 times per year, per school) annually. These drills and tests ensure students and staff have the skills that they need to respond to varied emergency situations and test our school life safety systems ‘live’ monthly.

Building staff and contractors have worked to ensure that our physical building systems are working properly. For example, during inspections our teams identify impaired smoke dampers, a towel or tape muffling a strobe or low batteries in an alarm. Our teams are trained and capable of looking for these and other impairments and/or inoperative devices and to fix them on the spot, order parts for correction, or to bring in contractors to correct the issues. Additionally, our teams work to educate staff of the necessity of properly maintaining systems in their classrooms and work spaces.

In 2018-19, we added third-party contractors to the team. Working alongside our maintenance department, they spend time each year testing fire alarm systems to identify and correct any systems found to be impaired in our schools.

As of June 2019, testing is complete at most district sites. Testing will be complete at all sites in the Fall of 2019.

Our fire alarm testing program helps to ensure student and staff safety and preserve assets. We have a long history of compliance with fire code. We believe our students and staff are safe from fire and smoke exposure, thanks to early alarm/notification, student and staff evacuation, and fire department response – and our local fire marshals’ agree. Additionally, all schools are equipped with “smart” self-diagnosing devices systems that provide alerts and/or alarms if a fault is sensed – even a dirty sensor.

If you ever have a question about our fire inspection findings, we encourage you to check out the public reports at the local fire department or to call us directly. Though we do not notify parents of every issue we find and correct, we are happy to share them if you are interested. That said, you can be assured that significant concerns will be shared with you as soon as possible.

We are champions of fire safety. We believe that safety is everyone’s responsibility and hope that you, too, will join us in modeling what’s right to our students in their schools, community and homes.