Genesis 6:5 says, “The LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” That description of Noah’s day seems to be fitting of our time as well, doesn’t it? It used to be that violence happened somewhere else, in places we didn’t go and at times of day when we were home sleeping. It happened to someone else. We were able to stick our
heads in the sand and ignore the news stories of violence. Then Excel became the scene of a crime, as did a church in Texas. Story after story has now been told of these kinds of tragedies. We ask ourselves, “Is it safe anywhere, anymore?” The answer, in a sense, is yes and no. The reality is that no, there is not any place that is impregnable to crime. The answer is also yes, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and they are safe.” Ultimately we must trust in God for our safety. It’s easy to trust devices--seatbelts, airbags, locks, and anti-virus software. Using these is wise, but looking to them for safety is misplaced trust. We desire that Newton Bible Christian School be a place where we trust God for safety, but also a place where we have been wise in planning for student safety.
With this in mind, the school board recently approved a school security plan. Having a plan is prudent and necessary for the day in which we live, but, in my opinion, the most important part of the page is the verses across the bottom. Psalm 91:1-2, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
A school security plan gives us a procedure to follow when we do safety drills. We are required by the state of Kansas to do three safety drills during the school year. These drills serve a broader purpose than preparing students to respond to a safety threat in our building. Just like fire drills teach children to exit from a burning building, safety drills should provide children with a trained response to a dangerous situation.
Each safety drill is different, but might include these steps. Teachers receive an alert from the office. Classroom doors are locked. Students and teachers talk about how they would evacuate the room if necessary. We also have soft balls that we use for practice countering since we will not be throwing textbooks across the room during a drill. The whole drill takes only a short time. We do not want to scare our students with these any more than we would want to scare them with a fire drill. These drills can be scary even for older students. If your child is nervous about safety drills perhaps walking through these steps in conversation with you will help alleviate some fears.
You may also wonder what types of situations may cause a school to lockdown. We have two levels of lockdown in our security plan. The first is when we do not consider the situation to be an emergency. This would be a response of preparedness because there is someone we do not know on our property, or there is a security threat in the community. Any situation that has the potential to become dangerous or require students to be accounted for in a safe place, could prompt a non-emergency lockdown. If there were to be a dangerous person on the school property, we would respond with what we call an emergency lockdown. During this kind of lockdown, teachers take steps to ensure student safety in response to real danger, and law enforcement is called.
It’s not something we enjoy talking about at school. We care deeply about each of our students and staff, and thinking of any one of them being in a dangerous situation is difficult. The issue of safety is a broad one and could be concerned with many topics including the playground, parking lot, bullying, natural disasters, or chemicals we use in the building. We can make policies and perform drills, but our lives and the lives of those we love must be entrusted to a God who controls what we cannot. We must say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.”
~Mrs. Sharon Regier
NBCS Principal
