August 16, 2022 - To maximize clarity and efficiency in crisis communication in the new school year, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools employees spent Thursday training with the I Love U Guys Foundation in their Standard Response Protocol.
SRP provides a set of common language for school personnel, law enforcement, students and families to use to clarify situations as soon as they become public knowledge. It includes five tiers of instructions for different incidents at different levels of severity. These tiers include “Hold”, which just requires clearing the hallways, “Secure”, which requires everyone to get inside the building, “Lockdown”, which requires everyone to hide and stay quiet in locked classrooms, “Evacuate”, which requires everyone to get out of the building, and “Shelter”, which refers exclusively to sheltering from natural disasters and hazards.
“If and when something happens in one of the school buildings, this way everyone will know what to do and will have an idea of what’s going on,” said Jonathan Wilson, Chief Safety, Security & Emergency Management Officer for WS/FCS. “It’s all about making sure that everyone is on the same page.”
I Love U Guys was founded in 2006 by parents grieving a daughter lost to a school shooting, with the name "I Love U Guys" serving as a reminder of her final text to them. The organization is on a mission to keep children from having to worry about crises at school as much as they possibly can, and it’s a mission that WS/FCS shares. The training session at Elevation Church was packed wall to wall with principals, assistant principals, school resource officers and even representatives from other school districts. I Love U Guys Executive Director John-Michael Keyes says that a full community buy-in on the training is essential to getting the most out of SRP, so seeing that commitment in Winston-Salem was an encouraging sign.
“All of this stuff works when we get everyone in the room,” Keyes said. “It’s not just about learning the programs. It’s about forming the teams.”
WS/FCS remains committed to ensuring student safety and there is no reason to expect an uptick in incidents in the 2022-23 school year. The adoption of SRP is not meant to worry families. If anything, the hope is that all stakeholders in the district can breathe easier with this system in place.
“I think it will help ease some of those concerns in our community and among our students as well,” said Sergeant CE Neblett of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
For more information on SRP, go online to https://iloveuguys.org/The-Standard-Response-Protocol.html.
