District Revisits Emergency Plans

Oskaloosa Community School Administration

by Amy Langdon

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The nation was shocked last Friday when a gunman shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary and killed 20 children – all just six or seven years old – as well as six teachers and administrators. As the community mourns, school administrators around the country are revisiting emergency plans, hoping to make sure what happened in Newtown, Connecticut doesn’t happen at their schools. I stopped by Oskaloosa Elementary School to see how they’re dealing with the tragedy.

School Resource Officer Craig Alexander says a big part of keeping the school safe is building relationships with the students.

“The main thing is I’m around the kids, I get to know the kids. I teach DARE in 2nd grade and 5th grade and 6th grade so I’m around pretty much since 2nd grade and I get to know them, build that relationship so if they have issues, they have problems, they feel comfortable coming to me and talking to me,” says Alexander.

But if the unthinkable happens, Alexander says the key is to plan ahead.

“There’s a plan, obviously the school has a plan. We do drills to prepare, for officers, for the school, the staff and the kids, so that way they’re aware in case there is a threat or emergency that they’re concerned about that they keep safe,” says Alexander.

Superintendent Russ Reiter doesn’t release specifics of the emergency plans to provide as much security as possible to the students, but he says the plans are in place.

“With regard to what happened in Connecticut on Friday, it really forced us to go back and review what we’ve already got in place, knowing that each and every year routinely we go through our process, we look and revisit, making sure what we have in place is effective,” says Reiter.

Reiter says he’s gotten a few calls from parents asking about safety protocols at schools. He wants to assure parents that safety is the district’s top priority.

“We’re going to continue to be very vigilant, making sure we do the best we can. We’re going to continue to look at our locking system. We’ve got new video cameras that are up, more video cameras that are coming in,” says Reiter.

All to make sure if the worst happens, the schools will have done everything possible to keep students safe.

The front doors at all Oskaloosa schools are unlocked, but Reiter says the school remains safe because all visitors have to access the school through one entrance.

Alexander says Oskaloosa Schools routinely do one or two lock-down drills a year, but they haven’t done one yet this school year.