During an emergency, the safety of students and staff is our number one priority. We recognize that families and staff have immediate concerns and will want information as soon as possible. Information can quickly circulate on social media sites and news platforms, but staff members may be handling the initial incident response or may be directly involved in the emergency themselves. In an emergency, the ultimate priority is to keep staff and students out of harm’s way while working with law enforcement partners to resolve the incident. The district’s leadership will work with schools during an emergency incident to get information out to the public and staff as quickly and accurately as possible, while also providing incident command to the emergency.
Threats to school safety can vary widely to include fires, earthquakes, gas leaks, active shooter incidents, or even a wild animal roaming campus. If staff or students observe something concerning, they are empowered to take initiative and respond individually in implementing Standard Response Protocol procedures based on the information they have at the moment. Information may change, and therefore, the SRP actions might change.
Bend-La Pine Schools follows the I Love U Guys Foundation Standard Reunification Method. The Standard Reunification Method (SRM) is a structured protocol for reuniting students with their families following circumstances at the school that do not allow for an organized student pickup on-site. This approach makes reunification less chaotic for everyone and allows for schools to account for all students.
Reunification locations will not be shared in advance in order to make sure that staff have time to set up the location, secure the site, and account for all students. It is important to understand that the first priority during the reunification process is the safety of students. Families will be notified of the location once all students have arrived. The location will be announced through multiple communication channels. The student’s parent, guardian, or authorized emergency contact person in the district’s student information database, will be required to have their photo id to pick up any student from an off-site reunification location.