Skip To Main Content

School Safety

Providing a safe learning environment is the district’s top priority.  As a proactive step, Santa Fe ISD Police Department has developed safety and crisis response procedures.

Throughout the school year, schools will conduct a variety of practice drills during the school day to ensure that all people are familiar with their roles and responsibilities. Additionally, all schools have identified secondary sites and reunification (student pickup) procedures in case it becomes necessary to evacuate the school premises. If a safety situation occurs, the district may utilize parent callouts and the district website  www.sfisd.org  to communicate information to parents. Remember to follow our Facebook page for updated information.

THE STANDARD RESPONSE PROTOCOL (SRP)

Santa Fe ISD has adopted the I Love You Guys Foundation's Standard Response Protocol.

The "I Love U Guys"

The Standard Response Protocol (SRP) is based not on individual scenarios but on the response to any given situation.

Like the Incident Command System (ICS), SRP demands a specific vocabulary but also allows for great flexibility. The premise is simple - there are four specific actions that can be performed during an incident. When communicating these, the action is labeled with a "Term of Art" and is then followed by a "Directive." Execution of the action is performed by active participants, including students, staff, teachers and first responders. 

Secure (Lockout) is followed by the Directive: "Get Inside. Lock Outside Doors" and is the protocol used to safeguard students and staff within the building.

Lockdown is followed by "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight" and is the protocol used to secure individual rooms and keep students quiet and in place. 

Evacuate is always followed by a directive used to move students and staff from one location to a different location in or out of the building. 

Shelter is always followed by a type and a method and is the protocol for group and self-protection.

Hold is followed by the directive “Hold in your classroom” and is the protocol to hold students and teachers in their classroom, even if there is a scheduled class change, until the clear message is announced

These are described in more detail below. 

 SECURE (LOCKOUT)

A  Secure occurs when there is a threat outside of the building. The PA announcement would be "Lockout, get inside, lock outside doors" repeated twice.  

Once the building is secure, classroom instruction and business conducted within the building continues as normal.

 LOCKDOWN

A Lockdown exists when there is threat inside the school, such as in the event of an active attacker.

The PA announcement for a Lockdown is "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight", repeated twice.

Upon hearing gunshots or being alerted to the threat, you must keep calm and make quick, rational choices regarding your safety, and the safety of the students in your charge.

The recommended plan is to AvoidDeny, & Defend.  

AVOID

If at all possible, we want to avoid the situation by any means possible. If an opportunity exists to get out, run. If you are outside of the building and hear gunshots inside, run as far from the building as possible, seeking cover and concealment.

DENY

If we cannot avoid the situation, we need to deny the attacker the ability to make us a victim. We accomplish this through lockdown procedures.

It is recommended to perform a quick hallway peek, bringing those near your room inside. We want to avoid the situation of having students and staff left in the hallways with no opportunity to seek refuge.

Once inside, lock your door, and turn off the lights. Stack or push furniture in front of the door to harden your room, and make it less attractive to the attacker. Statistical data from previous school shootings, to date, point to the fact that attackers have bypassed rooms with locked doors, in search of a softer target.

Move the students out of the line of sight of the classroom door window. A green placard designating "Indian out of sight zone", has been placed in each classroom by your campus police officer designating the area of the room which is out of sight.

Keep students quiet, and as calm as possible. Once the building is in Lockdown, ignore all fire alarms and PA announcements of an "All Clear"

DEFEND

Should the attacker gain access to your room, you are now placed in a position to defend yourself. Past school shootings have shown that hiding and hoping or playing dead is not an effective survival strategy. Develop a warrior mind set, and attempt to channel fear into anger. Fight for your life and the lives of your students by any means necessary. What you do does matter.

Once the threat has been neutralized, the police will conduct a thorough search of the building. This can be a rather lengthy process. Each classroom has been equipped with an emergency bucket. The bucket contains a stop the bleed kit containing a tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, and bandages. In addition, there is bottled water and toilet paper. The bucket itself can serve as a temporary toilet while the lockdown continues .

Once the search is complete, and the building safe from further threat, police officers will systematically enter and evacuate the classrooms to awaiting busses for transport to the family reunification center. While being evacuated, follow all directions of the police and keep your hands raised at all times.

 SHELTER

Shelter is utilized for hazardous material incidents such as gas leaks, train derailments, and chemical spills. Shelter is also utilized for severe weather events such as tornados in the area. 

The PA announcement is subject to the type of threat, and a method for protection. An example would be "Shelter! Seal the room. This is a hazardous material event". 

 EVACUATION 

Evacuation is utilized for situations when students and staff may need to be moved from one location to another. 

The PA announcement would state “Evacuate to your designated location”.  Each classroom has an evacuation route posted inside their classroom.  It is your responsibility, as the teacher, to advise your students of the route and location.  This may be the same location used for a fire alarm. 

 HOLD

A Hold occurs when an administrator finds the need to have students remain in their classroom.  For example, an altercation in the hallway may demand keeping students out of the halls until it is resolved.  Another example may be in a medical emergency when EMS has to arrive and busy hallways may impede the arrival of EMS.

The PA announcement would state “Hold in your classroom” repeated twice.  Teachers will rapidly sweep the hallway of nearby students, lock the classroom door and hold the students, until the all clear message is announced.  Even if there is a scheduled class change.  While conducting business as usual,

Reunification/Child Pick-up

 In the event that a decision has been made that a school must be evacuated and emergency personnel report that the danger or threat has passed, and the area is safe for children and parents, reunification procedures will be initiated.   The district/school will identify the locations, time, and checkout process for parents to pick up children.  The district website will be one of the tools used to communicate instructions with parents.