Safety & Security

 

VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ADDS TO DISTRICT SECURITY MEASURES

The district uses the Raptor Visitor Management System in all our schools to strengthen the comprehensive measures already in place for the safety of students and staff. Knowing who is in our buildings is important and the Raptor system will allow us to do that with greater accuracy by electronically screening visitors, contractors and volunteers in the schools each day. 

Upon entering district buildings, visitors are asked for an ID to be scanned or manually entered into the Raptor system. Acceptable IDs include a Driver’s License, Military-Issued ID, Mexican Consulate Card and Passport ID Card. Parents or guardians who do not have a government-issued ID can provide an alternate form of photo identification and school staff will manually enter the information. Raptor checks  visitors’ names, including known aliases, and dates of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not unknowingly entering our schools. Although no other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency, the district will also be using custom alerts to identify restraining orders and restricted/unsupervised parent visitation orders when applicable. The process takes just a few seconds.

Once entry is approved, Raptor issues a badge that identifies the visitor with photo, name, date and the purpose of the visit.  As is current protocol, everyone coming to the school will still need to show a photo ID every time they visit. Procedures for school events with large numbers of volunteers will be communicated directly by your child’s school.

This new addition to our safety protocols joins with the other elements of our safety plans to work toward a safer school environment for all of our students, families and faculty.  Although we do not detail the specifics of our district and school safety plans for security and tactical reasons, we wanted to share with families some of what we have in place so there is greater understanding of our layers of protection. While not a comprehensive list, the following are a few of the safety measures in place and in progress districtwide:

• Hardened entrances with staged access to the buildings.

• Security monitors at every building with direct radio access to police dispatch.

• Cameras in all hallways, entrances and other specific locations throughout the district that police and safety forces can access remotely.

• Dedicated on-duty Solon police officers specifically assigned to rotate among the schools. 

• All city safety forces have master key and fob access to enter all facilities and locked interior doors.

• Ground-level intruder/ballistic-resistant glass districtwide by the start of the 2024-25 school year.

• Prop-open door sensors on all entrances by the start of the 2024-25 school year.

 Thank you for your support as we continue to enhance the school safety protocols in our district.

 

SCHOOL SAFETY: BUS AND SCHOOL SAFETY DRILLS

Solon students receive ongoing safety training at school and on our buses. To start the year, Lewis, Parkside and Roxbury students learned about how to safely wait at their assigned spot of safety (at or near their stop location) and how to safely cross in front of the bus by watching for driver directions and hand signals. The bus drivers also reviewed in detail, with specific examples, the on-board safety rules, including staying in their seats, not leaning across the aisle, no eating or drinking on the bus and keeping all of their belongings, including their backpacks, on their laps. Students in grades 5-12 also receive on-board safety reminders from the drivers to start the school year. 

Next week, all K-4 bus riders will participate in bus evacuation training upon their arrival at school, practicing evacuations from the front and rear doors of the bus. Prior to the drills, the teachers review the procedures with students using a video outlining the process. Orchard and SMS students will participate in the same drills later in October and SHS students will practice the evacuations on November 10. 

Students at all seven Solon schools will continue to participate in the state-required school safety (lockdown), fire and tornado drills this year. At the beginning of the year, teachers review the drill procedures with students so they know what to expect. The first safety drill of the year is announced to students and staff in grades Pre-K to 8, with reminders to students about what to do when the drill notification sounds. During all drills, staff are notified immediately through multiple internal communication channels that it is in fact a drill. We notify our families at the same time so everyone is aware together that it is just a drill. Families are notified for all Solon Schools safety drills as that is how we test our communication protocols. 

Please do not opt out of text messages if you receive them as this is one way we would communicate with you directly in the case of an actual emergency.