Parents and community members of the Titusville Area School
District have worked together for nearly two decades to develop and implement
school safety plans to provide a secure and comfortable environment for
students and staff. From these
discussions, the district has building level safety and security committees,
performs regular safety audits, and tests, reviews and updates safe school
plans. In addition, Internet safety
instruction is presented annually to all students, as well as protection from
cyberbullying.
With the recent national school security tragedies, we have
heard from concerned parents about the measures in place at our schools.
In 2012 the district installed video surveillance/security
system in all school buildings. This
includes interior and exterior cameras, exterior door alarms, and a secure
building access monitoring system. All
schools are locked during the school day with only main entrance access to the
public. All visitors “buzzed’ into the
building, must sign in at the office and receive a visitors badge in order to
enter the school.
The district staff has been trained to identify and work
with students who show signs of needing some type of intervention or
assistance. A variety of resources are
in place to lend support to students through the Student Assistance Programs at
all schools. Our teams work with parents
in an effort to assist students with things such as conflict resolution,
problem solving and peer mediation.
Resources include in-school counseling and other referrals a student may
benefit from.
School emergency plans address a wide variety of threats
such as natural disasters, terrorist threats or attacks, violent incidents and
public health emergencies. In 2014 the
district began centralizing information for emergency preparedness electronically. This All Hazards Plan and various tools allow
district administrators, police and first responders remote access to our
security cameras in real time, to view floor plans of each building with 360°
photographs of each space, and to access major infrastructure functions such as
main power shut off valves, fire and alarm systems.
Our administrative team is trained and follows the emergency
management protocol of Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. Prevention efforts are to identify potential
hazards and vulnerabilities.
Preparedness includes working with police, emergency management and
first responders to develop plans and protocol to prepare for possible emergencies. Responding effectively to contain and resolve
an emergency with our partners.
Recovering and healing following an emergency to restore a healthy and
safe learning environment for our students and staff.
The district regularly reviews safety and security at the
district schools and is in the process of updating the security cameras and
door security. In addition, the
Pennsylvania State Police have been asked to analyze our current security
measures and make recommendations. Community
input will be sought on this topic and others through the upcoming
Comprehensive Plan meeting and/or survey.