New Trier officials give overview on security, including new tech that accounts for students

With the new school year nearly a month underway, New Trier High School leaders took time at Monday’s Board of Education meeting to highlight safety and security protocols, including some that are new.

Superintendent Dr. Paul Sally said during the Sept. 16 meeting that a more comprehensive report is expected in December, “but we just wanted to provide a little bit of a reminder and overview today.”

The update comes nearly two weeks after the Winnetka campus went into a “hold” in response to “an emergency” with a student, something Sally briefly mentioned during Monday’s meeting.

One of the more notable additions to New Trier’s safety procedures is the adoption of the Raptor Alert app, which is being “phased in with staff,” said Denise Dubravec, Winnetka campus principal/assistant superintendent.

Raptor is a real-time app that “allows us to be able to account for all students in the schools,” Dubravec said, adding that it can also track staff, substitutes and visitors.

In an emergency, she said teachers can pull up their class rosters on the app and take attendance, marking a student as either present, absent or missing. Emergency responders can also be called through the app, which has a messaging system to let users know if there is a situation, such as a lockdown.

Dubravec said the district is also working with the I Love U Guys Foundation, a nonprofit that helps schools create safety protocols.

With the organization, Dubravec said New Trier has adopted its language and icons for various emergency situations that may happen in a school, and a poster of that language is in every district classroom.

Sally went over the terms and what they mean.

• A “lockdown” is defined as an active threat on school grounds, where students are instructed to run and hide from the situation.

• A “secure” is something that is happening in the community off school grounds, and nobody is allowed to enter or leave the buildings until “we learn more about what’s going on,” Sally said. Severe weather has led to secures being issued in the past, according to Dubravec.

• A “hold,” like the one issued on Sept. 5, is more “localized,” Sally said, adding, “There are times within the school day when we might need to clear the hallways and keep students in the classrooms,” which can be necessary for providing space for staff and potentially first responders to deal with a situation. “And the idea of a hold is you stay in your space and you continue your activities that you were doing, whether it be teaching, whether it be in the cafeteria, in the library.”

He added that New Trier takes a four-layered approach to security: community partners; physical safety measures and daily procedures; emergency procedures and readiness; and, what he called “incredibly important,” connection, support and prevention.

“This is how we keep kids engaged,” he said. “(They) have an adult that they can connect to so that communication can happen, either because an individual themselves feels like they need some support or that their friends need some support.”

New Trier also has a safety committee, a director of campus safety, school resource officers and a security consultant. Staff, including substitute teachers, undergo safety training every year, and the district is also always examining its procedures for updates.

“We want to continue to learn and hear about ideas that are out there that professionals who are in this work across the country can bring to us,” Sally said.

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