School Safety Update

 

DDTwo Families and Staff,

 

I would like to take a moment to address some recent threats that have been going around our district, state, and country over the last few days.

I would like to start by thanking all of the students and parents that have reached out via email, phone, our StopIt anonymous reporting tool, and Facebook Messenger. While we have received many reports containing the same information, it is important that we all do our part to report concerns when they arise. I am grateful that our community is engaged in the effort to keep our schools and district aware of what they are hearing.

Unfortunately, school families around our state and nation have experienced an outburst in threats to their schools this week. Many of the screenshots that we are seeing are duplicates of what has been sent around our area and other places. It is also unfortunate that some of the students in our community have decided to repost those screenshots in their school Snapchat groups and pass them off as though they are direct threats to our schools. Be assured that if law enforcement can determine the source of those specific posts, both law enforcement and the district will pursue all means of discipline for those individuals. Parents and guardians, please take this time to discuss with your student the serious consequences of spreading this type of misinformation.

The district works closely with our local law enforcement partners as well as our federal law enforcement partners to determine the source and credibility of all threats. And while none of these threats over the recent days are credible or were originally specific to Dorchester School District Two, we still take them seriously as do our law enforcement partners.

Our district has implemented several precautions that exceed state requirements to ensure the safety of our students and staff. These include classroom door locking mechanisms to prevent doors from being left unlocked, the use of weapons detection systems in our high schools, which we are expanding to our middle schools; regular active shooter and lockdown drills, and the implementation of the Raptor Emergency Management application, like the panic buttons used in Georgia recently. Additionally, we have armed school resource officers in all of our schools and additional district security personnel in many of our buildings.

As a parent of two DD2 students, I understand the importance of keeping our students safe, and I am grateful for the vigilance our community has shown.

 

Thank you,

Preston Giet

Director of Security