Dear Parents/Guardians,

A directive from the Peel District School Board with respect to school safety, highlights the need for individual schools to develop protocols to effectively respond to an extreme type of critical incident. This type of incident could be the need to recall staff and students into the building by ringing the bells three times or to deal with the presence of an intruder in the school building who would be intent on causing a physical harm, possibly through the use of a weapon.

As always, in any such situation of threatened violence, our priority is the safety of the children and adults on the school premises. Research has shown that in the event of a school attack, the perpetrator will be deterred by a locked classroom door. During such an emergency, it is the expectation at Larkspur that, in response to a prearranged signal, all students and staff would immediately go into classrooms or portables and the doors to those locations would be locked by the teachers. At the same time, procedures would be initiated with the police and Board personnel to enact pre-arranged emergency responses.

In the event of an extreme critical incident, the words INITIATE LOCKDOWN PROCEDURE will be broadcast over the P.A. system. This announcement will alert individuals to seek refuge in the nearest classroom or portable teachers to lock the doors of classrooms and all individuals to remain inside those locations until further notification which could be for minutes to hours, as has happened.

In all of our preparations for this emergency protocol, we have been quite cognisant of the need to assure students that they are not currently in any danger. This is a similar situation to a fire drill where we must all be prepared if an emergency should ever occur.

Sincerely,

Mr. J. Livingstone, Ms Ozma Masood, Ms. Joyce Cairns,

Principal Vice-Principal Vice-Principal

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