By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — The School Department will be introducing new safety protocols to students this winter.

Superintendent Tom Geary said during the Lynnfield Public Schools District Safety Presentation held in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium on Dec. 11 that the District Safety Team works to “organize, oversee and manage school safety using a collaborative team-approach.” The team consists of school administrators along with representatives from the Police Department, Fire Department and the Department of Public Works.

“We formally meet bimonthly as a group to discuss relevant and timely issues and debrief on other happenings as needed, but in reality we talk weekly and even on a daily basis regarding safety and security,” said Geary.

Middle School Principal Stephen Ralston, who has been a member of the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council’s School Threat Assessment and Response System (STARS) Team for the past 19 years, said the School Department has adopted the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM) this year. Ellen and John-Michael Keyes founded the “I Love U Guys” Foundation in 2006 after their daughter, Emily, was killed while SWAT team members were responding to a hostage situation at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado.

“John-Michael Keyes founded the ‘I Love U Guys’ Foundation because he wanted to work with communities, schools, law enforcement and so forth to have a more organized way of responding to not just the worst-case scenario tragedies, but all types of crises or events that might happen in a community,” said Ralston. “It’s not just schools.”

Ralston said over 50,000 schools in the United States, Canada and 11 different countries have adopted the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s protocols.

After the Administrative Leadership Team was trained with using the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s protocols before the start of the academic year, Ralston said a trainer from the foundation gave an overview of the new protocols to staff members during a full-day professional development day on Nov. 5. He said the SRP’s program entails using protocols called “Hold,” “Secure,” “Lockdown,” “Evacuate” and “Shelter.”

Summer Street School Principal Karen Cronin said the “Hold” component of the SRP entails having students and staff “remain in their classrooms.”

“Everything would be going on as typical in that classroom, but we really want the hallways to be clear,” said Cronin. “The one piece where students might need a little bit of training, especially if they are in the middle school or high school, is if they were transferring from one classroom to another or are walking through the hallways. They would go to the nearest classroom that is occupied.”

Cronin said there are a variety of reasons why a school be put into a “Hold” such as a medical emergency.

“You can put an entire building into a ‘Hold’ or just put a section of a building into a ‘Hold,’” said Cronin. “We essentially want that hallway to be clear.”

Cronin said the “Secure” component of the SRP seeks to prohibit people from entering or exiting a school.

“There is no entering or exiting from students, staff, visitors or anyone,” said Cronin. “Everything is functioning as normal in a school building. It’s not a ‘Hold,’ so people are walking through the hallways if classes are passing. It’s just securing the entrance of a building. The reason why we might do that is there could be activity going on in a neighborhood or surrounding areas. It could be that an animal is loose on the playground or the surrounding campus, and it is just better to keep everybody inside to keep them safe.”

Lynnfield High School Principal Tricia Puglisi said the “Lockdown” protocol of the SRP involves preparing for a “more significant event.”

“If there is a significant threat within the school, we would call for a ‘Lockdown’ at that time,” said Puglisi. “What the teacher would do is immediately close the door, make sure the door is locked, move all the children from any eyeline from the hallway and any glass areas in the room. We would also turn off the lights. The idea behind this is if an intruder is coming into a building for a harmful reason, they are not going to spend their time trying to get into a classroom if it seems there is nobody in there. The idea is to get the kids out of sight, to be quiet and to be locked into that classroom. Students are not to leave. The way a ‘Lockdown’ is lifted is when police come to the door and let us know that it is safe to move forward.”

Huckleberry Hill School Principal Lauren King said the “Evacuate” component of the SRP is a “very structured way to move students from one place to the next.” She said first responders will notify staff members where they are going to be evacuated, and staff members will then notify students where they are going.

“We could evacuate to the gym or evacuate to the playground, depending on what is happening,” said King. “It is a very controlled manner and it is a safe way to get students from ‘point A’ to ‘point B.’”

King said the “Shelter” component of the SRP involves responding to a hazardous situation.

“It could be an environmental threat like a tornado or a chemical spill,” said King.

Ralston said the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s Standard Reunification Method (SRM) entails reuniting students with their families at a particular location.   

“The SRM really helps us map out an organized way that we can reunify students with their parents and guardians,” said Ralston. “In those cases, we would certainly communicate with families on where to go. This helps keep things organized and accounts for all students. Obviously, we want to have an organized means of reunifying students with their families.”

In addition to the new “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s protocols that have been adopted, School Resource Officer Alex Doto said the district has used the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate) Protocols for a number of years.

“ALICE strictly covers a school threat event if there is an armed intruder in the building,” said Doto. “All of the kids have participated in drills and have received training about this.”

Doto said the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s protocols are similar to the ALICE Protocols.

“There is nothing that we are going to be teaching the kids that they don’t already know when it comes to a school threat event,” said Doto. “The good thing about the ‘I Love U Guys’ is it is an all-hazards approach.”

Doto said the Police Department participates in school threat training programs “several times a year.”

“Unfortunately, it happens way too often and we have to prepare for those events,” said Doto. “Hopefully it never happens here, but we have to be ready.”

Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico said students will be introduced to the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s SRP and SRM protocols during assemblies early next year.

“Our hope is that as our students work on this and internalize this, it will be part of something that they just understand how to do,” said Federico. “At each school and each grade level, it will be done in a way that makes sense for that age group.”

Federico encouraged parents and guardians to log into the PowerSchool student information system to make sure their contact information is up to date.  He said it’s important for parents to have “multiple contacts” included in the system.

“That is really helpful if we need to have a reunification at a different place,” said Federico.

Federico also encouraged families to share important information about any potential threat with school officials and the Police Department.

“Sharing that information is important,” said Federico. “I know sometimes people can be hesitant to make that call or reach out. Please do that. It is always better to make a call and share information.”

For more information about the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, residents can visit iloveuguys.org.

Geary said during the School Committee’s Dec. 10 meeting that students will be introduced to the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s protocols during assemblies in January. He said the assemblies will be “age appropriate.”

“The idea is to roll out the process fully in February,” said Geary. “This has been in the works since last spring, so there has been a lot of planning involved.”

School drills

Ralston said during the District Safety Presentation that there are 10 drills at each school over the course of the academic year. He said there are four building evacuation drills, two lockdown drills, two medical and behavioral health emergency response plan drills and two bus evaluation drills at each school annually.

“When we are doing our drills, we are assisted by the Lynnfield Police Department, the Lynnfield Fire Department or sometimes both,” said Ralston.

Ralston said evacuation drills sometimes include “twists” such as blocking an exit in order to prepare officials, staff and students for “different scenarios.”

Lead Nurse Toni Rebelo said medical and behavioral health emergency response drills are also held.

“We go through the whole thing from soup to nuts,” said Rebelo. “We actually call 911, EMS comes in and we run through the whole scenario to get a feel of what it would be like when those emergencies arise. After each of these drills, we debrief as a group.”

Geary said school officials appreciate the collaborative relationships they have built with the Police and Fire Departments. He thanked Doto, Police Chief Nick Secatore, Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis and Fire Lt. Jeff Fiorentino for the support they have provided to school officials and staff members.

“Open and collaborative relationships don’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen in every town, but we have it right now in this town,” said Geary. “It’s great. Communication and trust is key between the departments and families.”