New Security Measures Are Underway At Jenison Public Schools

Summer break is over for kids in West Michigan and this week students started heading back to school for another year of learning.

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With the start of a new school year Jenison Public Schools is implementing new security measures for everyone's safety.

The goal is to get students, parents, staff, and first responders all on the same page in case of an emergency

Jeff Steigengea who is the director of security for Jenison Public Schools explained the reason for the new safety measures.

”As we know, most things fail because of communication, This is going to make it clear so that we don’t have any failures or lack of communication.”

Jenison Public Schools is the first school district in Ottawa County to use the new safety measure.

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Eventually, they will be used at all public schools across Ottawa County and throughout the entire state.

One part of the new safety measures is to have everyone use the same terminology. This is to improve communication in the event of an emergency situation.

The five new words that are being rolled out included:

Hold: This is essentially a stay in place. This could be used for a medical situation in the hallway, for instance.

Secure: New for staff, this means there’s an outside threat that’s not in the building. It may be an incident down the street that requires everyone to come inside the building, where everything can function as usual.

Lockdown: This means there’s a threat inside the building.

Evacuate: This would be used in the event of a fire or a threat that requires students and staff to exit the school.

Shelter: This means there’s a tornado or natural situation that requires moving to a specific area within the building for better protection.