Lansing school district safety plan includes use of threat assessment teams

Lansing Central School District presented its annual school district safety plan to the Board of Education at the Sept. 23 meeting.  The plan highlights the use of threat assessment teams and lockout drills designed to protect the privacy of students experiencing health concerns. 

The plan was submitted to the New York State Education Department on Oct. 1, in compliance with a statewide deadline. Lansing Central School District (LCSD) residents had a 30-day public comment period during the summer to provide feedback.

A copy of the 2024-2025 LSCD Safety Plan can be found here: 

https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/lansingschools/Board.nsf/files/D9DSFD7273BA/$file/2024_2025_DISTRICT_SAFETY_PLAN.pdf

The 83-page plan outlines the following:

• District-wide Safety Team: A team of stakeholders that can include School Board members, superintendent or a representative of their office, administrators, teachers, designated supervisors, other staff, parents or caregivers. They are tasked with developing the plan for school closure, evacuation, early dismissal and sheltering.
  
• Building-Level Emergency Response Team (BLERT): These building-specific teams communicate with the overall district-wide team and first responders. They also conduct building-specific drills.
  
• Incident Command System (ICS): This establishes a hierarchy and assigns roles to stakeholders during an emergency.
  
• Staging areas: Outlines where emergency moves like evacuation and media briefings take place.
  
• Critical Incident Response Kit: Establishes critical needs during an emergency, including emergency care cards, master roster of all classes, daily attendance list, master bus schedules, bell schedule and faculty info. Also includes sheets and emergency contacts, maps of school, school phone lists, flashlights, pen and paper, first aid kit, latex gloves, defibrillator, among others.
  
• Also listed are the types of requisite training staff need and updates to said training, medical emergency prevention and preparedness resources, crisis phone contacts, how to interact with the media, and how to communicate to parents and caregivers.
  
• The plan also includes resources to identify and prevent emergency incidents based on clinical and academic studies and proven strategies.
  
• It also features response protocols and procedures for emergencies like anthrax incidents, bomb threats, building collapses, weather events, bus accidents, crime scenes, death or death by suicide, fires, gas odors, hazardous materials exposure, hold-in-place, lockout, lockdowns, missing students, public demonstrations, sexual assault, and the presence of dangerous weapons and threats of violence.
  
• The plan also has a section that details how the district would deal with the fallout of an emergency event.

At the Sept. 23 meeting, LCSD Superintendent Chris Pettograsso said the district requested feedback from LCSD residents. Residents were able to submit comments anonymously. 

“We received two individual responses and one email response. Three total,” Pettograsso said.

Generally, the feedback was positive, the superintendent noted. 

“‘The plan is very thorough. Thank you for all you do in keeping our students safe,’” Pettograsso said, reading one of the pieces of feedback submitted.

An element Pettograsso highlighted were the lockout drills, which are different from the more commonly known lockdown drills. 

“There is a lockout now, where the campus is locked, but you’re not traveling,” she said. “We would use these in a non-emergency situation, typically a student medical concern in the hallway and you are protecting their privacy trying to make sure we get them to an ambulance and then you move on.”

With every plan, Pettograsso added, the district is also supposed to highlight sources for concern in the community and outside of the school district’s campus. Previously some of those have included salter trucks salting roads during the winter in preparation for winter storms and some of the town of Lansing’s now-defunct power generation facilities. One of the additions to this year’s plan is the proposed Dandy Mini Mart, a convenience store planned for the corner of East Shore Drive and Ridge Road (Route 34 and Route 34B).

“It is a truck stop that will now be a hazard once it is built because it is going to add more trucking to our community,” Pettograsso said.

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ezvelazquez.

In brief

Local visual artist Zara Gervais’ new exhibit will be on display at the Lansing Community Library until the end of October. Gervais’ art draws inspiration from a childhood surrounded by art, architecture, and design. Their work aims to convey humanity and emotion through colors and textures, often portraying relationships through circles. Gervais challenges associations and encourages you to reconsider the meaning of colors through the interplay of color and shape. The exhibition will be showcased in the library community room.