Sheriff’s Office talks safety for area schools
Published 12:08 am Wednesday, April 15, 2015
- St. John the Baptist School and Sheriff’s Office officials discuss safety and security last week.
LAPLACE — The St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District is working with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office to make sure its campuses are safe for students and staff.
Lt. Blane Rome Jr. and Sheriff Mike Tregre, right, scout out locations to station deputies outside LaPlace Elementary School in the event a shooter enters the building. The St. John the Baptist Parish Public School District and St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office are planning a small-scale active shooter drill at the end of the school year.
Sheriff’s Office officials are visiting the district’s campuses and will provide an assessment and recommendations for each school site.
“From there, we will address our areas of concern and bolster our areas of strength,” Superintendent Kevin George said. “Safety is priority No. 1.”
Officials from the Sheriff’s Office visited LaPlace Elementary School Thursday, which will be the site of a small-scale active shooter drill involving the Sheriff’s Office and school staff at the end of the school year.
A larger drill involving staff, students and all parish emergency responders is in the works for the end of the summer.
Lt. Blane Rome Jr. said one of the biggest problems that can occur during an emergency is the Sheriff’s Office and school district may not know what to expect from each other.
Planning sessions such as these and a presentation he is preparing for school officials next month about what to expect from the Sheriff’s Office during emergencies make a world of difference when split-second decisions must be made with whatever information is on hand at the time, school and law enforcement officials said.
At LaPlace Elementary, Rome said school officials are off to a good start by limiting access into the school through the front entryway and by locking gates.
The Sheriff’s Office also made recommendations to improve security and offered advice for school staff about what should be done in an emergency, such as the best place for students to hide or ways to evacuate if a shooter enters the building.
“We try to put ourselves in the mind of the bad guy to identify our weaknesses,” Sheriff Mike Tregre said.
The Sheriff’s Office is also in the process of refurbishing radios that can be patched in to the Sheriff’s Office frequency to provide to the school district for use during emergencies.
Other safety improvements are also planned for the summer.
