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Safety and Security » Safety and Security

Safety and Security

There is a relatively new epidemic attacking schools known as "swatting."  Swatting incidents have risen exponentially recently and target schools for the sole purpose of inducing panic and instigating a response by law enforcement.  Poth ISD administrative staff have been alerted to the likelihood of that happening to one of our campuses and provided resources to handle such an incident.
 
What is Swatting?
Swatting is false reporting of an emergency to public safety by a person intending to get a (“SWAT team”) response to a location where no emergency exists. The calling party will often report they are involved or nearby as a witness to a home invasion, active shooter, or hostage situation, attempting to muster the largest response possible. Often, the law enforcement response is substantial, with police confronting the unsuspecting victims at gunpoint, only to learn that there is no real emergency.  
Those who attempt to cause a swatting incident use several techniques, including caller ID spoofing, TTY relay technologies, and social engineering. These actors will often have a reasonable scenario and will sometimes include personal information. These actors have various reasons; sometimes it is for “fun” and viewed as a prank to the actor, while other times it is used as retaliation against a real or perceived issue with the victim. Several public figures and celebrities have been the victims of swatting.  These calls come from two sources:
  • Direct to the PSAP–Calls from spoofed devices with the caller directly providing information to a trained call taker.
  • Relayed from a third party–Call from the caller to an untrained person at a relay service such as Telecommunications Relay Service, or even an innocent “Good Samaritan” using social media. 
 
Swatting-related news articles:
 

Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.

 
 
The quote above is attributed to Nelson Madela and certainly rings true today. Without our collective Poth ISD community, our campuses would not be as safe and secure as they are.
 
In a time of statistically increasing violent episodes targeting innocents, the administration of Poth ISD seeks ways to balance the inclusion of our community and families with the safety of our students and staff. We genuinely appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we continually improve our facilities and procedures to accomplish that goal.
 
On this page, you can familiarize yourself with the resources our school team is utilizing to improve upon an already healthy and safe school district. If you have any questions or ever have any concerns you think may affect the safety and security of our students and staff, please reach out to any campus administrator or to Josh Wadsworth at 830-484-3330 x 4004 or [email protected].  
In the event there is an active attack incident at our school, parents should know the following:
  1. There will be no admittance to school buildings.
  2. The district will make every effort possible to communicate real-time information to parents through Remind and Facebook.
  3. Please do not try and text or call your child's teachers.  They will be overwhelmed in the moment trying to account for students, keeping kids calm, and managing their own stress levels.
  4. Please be aware that misinformation leads to speculation and panic.  Even if you are on the phone with your own child, understand that they only know what's happening in their immediate vicinity and can only speculate beyond that.
  5. First responders will be pouring onto campus, so any additional traffic will complicate and impede their response efforts.  For that reason, please do not come to campus.  Traffic routes and parking availability are already constricted, so any additional traffic will exponentially increase the time it takes for an agency's response.
  6. Moreover, please do not try and assist in the response efforts.  Law enforcement officers responding to an active shooter will not be able to discern a parent with a gun from a perpetrator.  Officers firing on an armed parent will only compound an already tragic event.
  7. Poth ISD guardian volunteers (armed staff members) have trained extensively over the past few years with law enforcement, military operatives, federal agents, and emergency medics to provide a competent and capable joint response with our local law enforcement agencies.  
  8. Directions for picking up your children will disseminated following the incident.
Although it goes against every instinct as a parent, please stay clear of the campus.  Rest assured that district personnel are doing everything possible to minimize risk to students and staff and provide an efficient resolution to the crisis.

Mission

To protect students, staff, visitors, and property by coordinating, collaborating, and integrating activities that allow us to better mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters or emergencies occurring in Poth ISD.

Vision

To educate students, parents, and staff about their ongoing role in preparing for emergencies through education, drills, training, and exercises.  By creating a culture of preparedness, the safety and security office looks forward to reinforcing relationships and interdepartmental communications throughout the district.

Business Continuity and Emergency Management | Pacific University

 

Prevention/Mitigation 

Visitor screening through the Raptor Technologies system

Requiring identification from all visitors who enter the school 

Training staff and students on the Standard Response Protocol (SRP)

Training staff and students to be situationally aware and to report any safety concerns

Conducting Safety and Security Audits per Texas Education Code requirements

Preparedness Activities

District and campus emergency operations plans 

Coordination with local, state, and federal authorities and first responders

Coordination with regional school partners

Mutual Aid Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding to support collaborative efforts

Drills and exercises to train staff and students on proper emergency response actions 

Stop the Bleed Training for all staff and 7-12 students

Response Actions

Utilization of Raptor Technologies to immediately initiate SRP and notify 911 dispatch

The use of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS)

Effective public notification systems including Remind

Application of the SRP and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM)  

Collaboration with local and state response agencies

Contract with Wilson County to station deputies who monitor all campuses and facilities

Enhanced Guardian plan to vet, train, and arm staff volunteers 

Recovery Efforts 

A District-Wide Continuity of Operations Plan 

Crisis counseling and mental health support teams for staff and students

Reunification of students, staff, and parents

Plans to resume school support services such as food services, transportation, health services, and remote learning options

District-wide collaboration to quickly restore facilities and campuses to resume operations after an incident 

DPS IWATCH PROGRAM | Navarro Independent School District
 
Protecting Texas students, faculty, and schools requires everyone’s support. iWatchTexas encourages students, administrators, parents, and concerned individuals to report anything that may trouble you: no concern is too small. By alerting the proper authorities to incidents that concern you, we can take steps toward preventing rather than reacting to school violence.
 
Click the image above or the link in the menu on the right to make a report.
Visitor Procedures
Our school would not be the healthy, productive, and successful environment that it is without generations of families that have devoted their time and energy on our campuses investing in their children. In spite of the world around us, we still want to encourage that same level of participation and remain a campus that is welcoming and inclusive. In order to do that and ensure the safety of our students and staff, we have modified the procedures visitors should follow.
  1. All visitors must check in at the front offices of our campuses with a state ID.
  2. The secretaries will scan your ID and maintain possession of it until you check out. 
  3. You will be issued a decal that must be worn and visible at all times. You will turn this in after your visit when you pick up your ID.
Please do not go directly to the cafeteria or any satellite buildings without checking in at the office first. If you do, you will be asked to report back to the office, regardless of the brevity or nature of your visit.
 
Regarding assemblies such as pep rallies, plays, awards ceremonies, and the like, campus principals are finalizing procedures that will be the best marriage of community inclusion and safety we can reasonably make. When complete, those procedures will be shared out with our extended Poth ISD family.
 
We appreciate your patience and cooperation
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Key Contacts
Safety and Security Lead:  Josh Wadsworth [email protected]
School Nurse:  Kayleigh Zidek [email protected]
Transportation Director:  Casey Shults [email protected]
 
STOPit Safety and Wellness Solutions | STOPit Solutions
 
STOPit is a completely anonymous reporting platform that affords anyone in the Poth ISD family the ability to anonymously submit concerns over a student that may be in crisis or need help from school staff. Poth ISD hopes that this instrument will provide our students, staff, parents, and community an instrument to use to advocate for one another when directly reporting to staff may be of concern. We encourage anyone that may be worried about a child in crisis to use this platform as a means to assist that child and make our school a healthier place to learn.
 
 
STANDARD RESPONSE PROTOCOL
K-12 Standard Response Protocol Toolkit | Texas School Safety Center
The Standard Response Protocol (SRP) is a universal framework to responding to any sort of incident that may threaten the safety of our students and staff. SRP provides the language by which our students will drill for and respond to incidents on campus.
Below you will find a handout that explains the different responses and how they may be deployed.
School Guardians
Poth ISD will continue to arm select staff volunteers, commonly known as "guardians," across the district. Beginning this year, guardians have been thoroughly vetted and extensively trained to respond to an active threat on school grounds. Guardians are tasked with the directives to 1) defend the lives of the students in their respective classrooms if teaching, and if not teaching, 2) to move to and engage the threat in order to prevent the killing or injuring of our students and staff. Guardians train regularly throughout the year with law enforcement and private security professionals. 
 
 
Safety and Security Committee
The following people have volunteered to serve our district as members of our safety and security committee. Collectively, these parents, school staff members, and first responders bring a wealth of expertise in safety and security to the table. All of these people are wholeheartedly invested in our collective safety as residents of the community, parents of students, and family to students and staff alike.
 

Clint Garza

President, Board of Trustees, Parent

Erika Urbanczyk

Secretary, Board of Trustees, Parent

Josh Wadsworth

Director of Learning & Assessment

Casey Shults

Transportation Director

Jennifer Krudwig

Teacher, Poth Junior High

John Dziuk

Teacher, Poth High School, Parent

Cheryl Cantu

Teacher, Poth High School

Sam Salas

Parent

Jonathan Hosek

Parent

Lacey Kotzur

Parent

Cindy Stafford

Wilson County Emergency Management Coordinator

Jason Miller

Texas Department of Emergency Management

Steven Wiatrek

Councilman, City of Poth, Parent

Gerald Sanchez

Poth Police Dept.

Steve Martinez

Poth Volunteer Fire Department

Jeff Dugi

Wilson County Sheriff's Dept., Parent

William Miles

Captain, Wilson County Emergency Services, District 4

Brandon Biggins

Sergeant, DPS
Mass Communication
Remind
Poth ISD will continue to use the Remind platform as the primary method for contacting families en masse about school events and issues.
Facebook
Social media is a powerful communication tool and Poth ISD will continue to leverage that resource through the use of Facebook for community messaging.
Relevant Links
Poth ISD Health Services
I Love U Guys
Poth ISD Facebook
Remind
Stop the Bleed Online Course
National Alliance on Mental Illness