Gov. Tony Evers Urges Students, Parents To Focus On Safety At School

As summer comes to an end and school systems across Wisconsin get ready for another year, safety remains a top priority. Gov. Tony Evers is urging parents to discuss with children the importance of staying safe. He wants to encourage students and parents to have an emergency preparedness plan as part of their back to school planning.

“While folks across our state are getting ready to kick off another great school year, we want to make sure we’re talking with kids about safety before they’re back in the classroom,” he said in a press release this week. Evers continued to say that by taking the time to talk about potentially dangerous situations, kids can have a safe school year.

A few school systems have made some changes to their safety plans. Chad Wiese, executive director of building and administrative services with the Madison Metropolitan School District, said they have installed new classroom door hardware and a new phone system with reverse 911 capability, and have improved access control to their schools to prepare for potentially dangerous situations like active shooters.

“We’ve completely refreshed all of our emergency procedures and all of the materials related to the day-to-day operations in terms of how to respond to emergency situations,” Wiese explained.

One emergency procedure involves drills for weather or intruder situations. Weise said the district will do training once the school year starts.

“All of our schools will go through twice annual code red drills and every staff member will be trained on emergency procedures starting the school year,” said Weise.

Other districts are taking similar precautions. The Racine Unified School District does active shooter response training every year. Stacy Tapp, chief of communication and community engagement with the district told WPR that they began training in 2017 with school leadership. In 2018, they trained staff and students.