Editor’s note: The following statement was released Feb. 16.

This week we have been sickened, angered and moved to tears by

another school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 of our fellow students and teachers dead.

We are moved by the stories of heroism: the young football coach who dove in front of a bullet to save a student, and the geography teacher who perished while protecting his class.

And we pray for the students who have to somehow find a way to “move on” in a culture of fear and trauma; an inheritance left to them by politicians too cowardly and greedy to take measures to keep school children safe.

Astoundingly, this is the 18th school shooting in the past five months in the U.S.

The Tyrrell County Board of Education has put into place numerous safety protocols and resources to keep our students and school community safe. Please see the attached list.

We feel safe in our schools because of our size, our ability to know each student, and our caring approach to building relationships with students and families. But we always have to consider the possibility of a tragedy happening HERE, in our small system.

Next Monday morning (Feb. 19) district administrators will be meeting to review safety procedures and areas where we can improve our safe schools plans.

We are considering the addition of an anonymous tip line for students who are concerned with what they are seeing on social media, and additional safety upgrades to building entrances at

Columbia Early College High School.

The safety of our 600 students is our top priority in Tyrrell County Schools; let’s continue to work together to keep our kids safe!

 

Tyrrell County Schools Safety Measures

 

• 106 centrally managed surveillance cameras
• Stop Arm camera systems on all yellow buses
• Cameras installed on all buses
• Two way radios on all buses
• Synovia GPS Tracking on all buses
• Remotely Operated Entry locks with video intercom at TES and CMS
• TES intercom system in all spaces within the school
• District-wide IP phone system with one-button emergency intrusion feature enabled on key administrative stations, sends alert announcements to all handsets, even those in use
• Web filtering and monitoring tools for all web traffic
• Gaggle student email automated key word/phrase filtering and human monitoring system
• Blackboard Connect alert call system w/emergency call feature dials multiple contacts per student
• Network firewall appliance prevents network intrusion that can compromise sensitive student and personnel records
• Anti-bullying web form allows anonymous reporting of suspected bullying
• District School Resource Officer
• Strong relationship with the Tyrrell County Sheriff’s Department
• Strong relationship with the Tyrrell County Department of Social Services
• Crisis Teams & plans in each of our schools
• A School Counselor at each school
• District School Social Worker
• District School Nurse
• Certified First Responders throughout the school district
• District wide alarm system reports directly to monitoring center and Sheriff’s Department