Superintendent Smith Back-to-School Safety Message
Dear parent(s)/guardian(s) of Walla Walla Public Schools’ students:
Safety has and continues to be our district’s top priority. Over the last few years we have taken many important steps to help further safeguard our school community to ensure a safe environment for our students, staff, and visitors. This Parent Safety Kit is intended to provide you with valuable resources in support of our collective school safety efforts.
The foundation of our district’s safety plan focuses on three pillars: prevention, response, and recovery. As part of our prevention efforts, Walla Walla Public Schools works closely with local law enforcement and regional agencies, regularly conducts emergency drills, hires campus safety officers, maintains a full time Sheriff’s Deputy on staff, and utilizes many tools for internal response and stakeholder communication. In addition, we have implemented a Safe School’s Tip Line, a Hear Something Say Something Campaign, and independent campus safety audits. We also support various student-led groups and initiatives in order to foster a safe and inclusive environment.
Walla Walla Public Schools regularly participates in drill exercises and advanced training to ensure everyone is able to respond swiftly and appropriately if an incident occurs. Table-top simulations with local first responders, reunification drills, unified threat-response plans, and CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events) and ALICE (Active Shooter Civilian Response) trained experts on staff help ensure our response efforts are sound.
The district has made great strides in its recovery and communication efforts over recent years. Our pledge to you is that we will always err on the side of communication if a situation occurs on any of our campuses involving a threat or safety event. In such emergency situations we will communicate information to families as soon as possible via our School Messenger phone system in addition to the district’s social media and other communication venues.
If you have any questions about our processes, preventive safety measures or response plans, please contact the appropriate school administrator or the district office. My colleagues and I welcome your input and ideas as we continue to refine our practices to ensure the safest environment possible for students and staff. Additional information is also available on the district’s Safe Schools Plan webpage at:
Safe Schools webpage
Sincerely,
Wade Smith, Superintendent of Schools
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