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Clinton Schools Leader Calls Schools Still Safest Place For Children

As we're about a month removed from the devastating shooting at the elementary school on Newtown, CT, school leaders continue to learn about what they need to do to keep their campuses secure.

Most schools have revisited their plans in place should someone pose a threat to a school, and Clinton Schools are no exception. Superintendent Dr. Jeff Holmes explains all the schools of the district lock down all but one entrance to the building once the school day begins. He says this isolates every person that enters the building to the one entrance that is continuously monitored.

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Clinton has a couple very old buildings that were built during a time when in school violence was even rarer than it is today. Dr. Holmes feels they need to get those buildings up to code and he hopes to begin working on creating a single entrance that takes people entering the school from the outside during the school day. That entrance would then connect to the office, and they would be isolated there before being granted access to the rest of the building.

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Stepping up crisis drills is another goal Dr. Holmes has for the schools. In talking with administrators from Normal Community High School about the incident they had this fall, Dr. Holmes learned having practiced what to do in that situation helped not just the teachers, but the students know what to do.

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DeWitt County Sheriff Jered Shofner has been very proactive in connecting with the County's school district leaders and working with them on their plans and how his department fits into those plans. Dr. Holmes says during this year's spring break, the Sheriff and his deputies will be touring the Clinton school buildings learning the layout in the event, the safety of the children and staff of the schools are threatened.

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Other things the school district is considering as a safety measure is what Dr. Holmes calls "panic buttons", or commonly known as silent alarms that would notify the proper authorities.

With all these potential safety measures and the shooting in Connecticut, Dr. Holmes feels schools are one of the safest places for children to be.

Other than practicing emergency situations through drills, the Clinton Board of Education has only had preliminary discussions about these other safety measures.

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