Safety and Security

Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning

Access to mental health support is a critical component in preventing violence and increasing school safety.

Formal Threat Assessment Program

The district continues to set the standard in school-based threat assessment programs. Working in concert with building administrators, school-based threats are triaged by law enforcement and specially trained safety and security department personnel, including Certified Threat Manager Kelle Hansman, a core member of the Safety and Security Department. Note: CTM Kelle Hansman is one of only 233 CTM’s worldwide and brings invaluable experience and expertise to the district. Law enforcement assists with determining the credibility of the threat and whether to pursue criminal charges.  The district conducts its own investigation and initiates a threat assessment in accordance with school-based threat assessment procedures. The formalized threat assessment process helps guide the district’s response to each threat, ensure the safety of staff and students, provide appropriate interventions and supports, and fidelity in response efforts.

Physical Security

Since the passage of the February 2020 capital bond BSD has constructed security vestibules at eight of our schools, including Bellevue High School, Chinook Middle School, Highland Middle School, Sherwood Forest Elementary School, Somerset Elementary School, Spiritridge Elementary, Medina Elementary School, and Woodridge Elementary School. Security vestibules, considered a best practice in school physical security, are an easy way to ensure that visitors entering the school campus do not have unfettered access to our classrooms and the interiors of our schools. A security vestibule funnels all visitors through the main office before being allowed access to the interior of the school. This process, coupled with locked exterior doors, an effective visitor management system, employee badging, and alert staff, provides for another security layer and point of screening to detect and deter visitors who might have ill intent.

BSD has also constructed security bollards, or safety posts, adjacent to walkways and entry points at Clyde Hill ES, Highland MS, Sammamish HS, and Wilburton ES to protect students, staff and visitors by creating clear lines between vehicle traffic and walkways. They prevent vehicle-pedestrian accidents and intentional acts of violence by stopping drivers from coming onto school property.
 

Other physical security measures at BSD schools include:

• Single point of entry with limited building access
• Door locks, alarms, and panic buttons
• Access control measures to include locked classroom doors and auto-lock exterior doors
• Electronic visitor management system
• Employee ID badging
• Regular and random physical security audits conducted by the Safety and Security Department to drive compliance with physical security procedures
• Security cameras
• Annual Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) audits of school sites to analyze the built and natural environment, access control standards, physical maintenance and upkeep, make recommendations to deter potential criminal activity and advance physical safety at our schools

School-based Safety Teams

Multi-disciplinary school-based Safety Teams to assess risks and recommend safety improvements at the building level.  Members from these teams attend quarterly district-level Safety Team Roundtable meetings to discuss and share important safety updates, reinforce physical security expectations, discuss lessons learned from recent incidents, and provide relevant training. 

SafeSchools tip line is available for students to report information anonymously.  Students are ready and willing to share information with school authorities and others when they can do so anonymously and without fear of retribution.

Staff Training

Staff, students, and community members are our most important safety resources and are in the best position to immediately respond to an incident until professional emergency responders arrive. Providing staff, students, and community members with lay-person emergency response training is crucial to our approach to safety. Beginning with the 2023/24 school year, school-based staff received mandatory life safety training. Schools are set on alternating schedules to accomplish this training.  

Schedule A training includes training in Active Threat Response and Suspicious Activity Reporting. Schedule B includes training in Reunification and Emergency Response Roles. School-based staff receive the alternating Schedule A and Schedule B life-safety training modules on a biannual basis for refresher and ongoing preparedness.  

Advanced Life-Safety Training 

In addition to the mandatory life-safety training for school-based staff, the department developed and delivered the Safety Academy 201 training class, an advanced version of the popular Safety Academy 101 training class. These classes are designed to help prepare staff to be leaders in an emergency response situation. The SA 201 training class includes advanced instruction in: Communications During a Disaster; Fire Safety and Suppression; Search and Rescue; and a discussion of the Earthquake Risk in the Region. It also includes intensive hands-on skills stations involving an active threat response/lockdown scenario, improvised tourniquets, and search and rescue with the triage of injured individuals. This class is open to all BSD staff and is designed for those who wish to expand their knowledge and skillset in emergency preparedness and response efforts. Of note, district custodians are some of the most trained staff in the district, receiving 40 hours of advanced life-safety training.

Student Training 

The Safety and Security Department provides life-safety training to our students to increase overall safety and preparedness at the school level. Team members leverage technology to present secondary student Safety Assemblies. During these Live Teams events, subject matter experts from the Safety and Security Department connect with all students and teachers at a secondary school while they are in their classrooms. During the presentation, students and teachers are taught the difference between a lockout, lockdown, and active threat response, and at the end of the training are walked through a lockdown drill. Additional training provided to secondary students includes bleeding control, drug trends and hazards, how to identify an opioid overdose, and the application of opioid overdose reversal medication.  

The department also hosts student interns to provide exposure to the safety, security, and preparedness work of the department and to afford students additional learning and leadership opportunities. 

Monthly Emergency Drills

Students and staff are often the most prepared individuals to deal with emergencies and disasters, as each of our schools conduct monthly emergency drills. The drills teach and reinforce the proper response to natural events including earthquakes, fires, and tornadoes, and man-made events such as hazardous chemical spills, bomb threats, and active threat events. School-based Safety Teams, in coordination with the Safety and Security Department, conduct reviews of the monthly emergency drills to implement improvements in emergency communications, response times, and accountability of staff and students. 

Other emergency preparedness measures and resources for students and staff include:

• Emergency supply caches
• Life-safety response equipment (lockdown buttons, AEDs, disaster medical supplies, overdose prevention kits, search and rescue equipment, and bleeding control kits)
• Monthly inspections of life-safety response equipment
• Communication systems (radios and intercoms)

Partnerships with First Responders

The BSD enjoys strong collaborative relationships with Bellevue PD, Clyde Hill PD, Medina PD, and Bellevue Fire Department and their commitment to the timely responsiveness to concerns and incidents at our schools

This relationship is furthered through:

• Regular and proactive meetings between Safety and Security Department personnel and our first responders to discuss incidents impacting our schools.
• Use of school facilities by our partner first responder agencies for tactical and emergency response training efforts.
• Site surveys of our schools by first responders to prepare for potential emergency responses.
• Joint leadership tabletop exercises involving BSD staff and first responders to walk-through possible emergency scenarios, identify potential gaps, and improve collaborative emergency response efforts.

Emergency Preparedness

Students and staff are often the most prepared individuals to deal with emergencies and disasters, as each of our schools conduct monthly emergency drills. The drills teach and reinforce the proper response to natural events including earthquakes, fires, and tornadoes, and man-made events such as hazardous chemical spills, bomb threats, and active threat events. School-based Safety Teams, in coordination with the Safety and Security Department, conduct reviews of the monthly emergency drills to implement improvements in emergency communications, response times, and accountability of staff and students. Procedures for the execution of our monthly drills can be found here.

Other emergency preparedness measures and resources for students and staff include:

• Emergency supply caches
• Life-safety response equipment (lockdown buttons, AEDs, disaster medical supplies, overdose prevention kits, search and rescue equipment, and bleeding control kits)
• Monthly inspections of life-safety response equipment
• Communication systems (radios and intercoms)

Student and Staff-based Safety Training

Staff and students are our most important safety resource as they are the immediate responders in any critical incident. Training in proper emergency response protocols is essential to the safety and resiliency of our schools. The model of equipping, training, and preparing staff and students for successful emergency response efforts, has proven to be the most effective and efficient use of district safety and security resources.

First Responders

The BSD enjoys strong collaborative relationships with Bellevue PD, Clyde Hill PD, Medina PD, and Bellevue Fire Department and their commitment to the timely responsiveness to concerns and incidents at our schools.

This relationship is furthered through:

• Regular and proactive meetings between Safety and Security Department personnel and our first responders to discuss incidents impacting our schools.
• Use of school facilities by our partner first responder agencies for tactical and emergency response training efforts.
• Site surveys of our schools by first responder agencies to prepare for potential emergency responses. 
• Joint leadership tabletop exercises involving BSD staff and first responders to walk-through possible emergency scenarios, identify potential gaps, and improve collaborative response efforts.  

Reunification Process

This past school year, the district assembled and trained a central office Reunification Jump-Out Team. This team is committed to responding to large-scale critical incidents involving our schools and assisting with the planned and orderly off-site reunification of students with their emergency contacts. The team conducted a jump-out exercise where they deployed to one of our established off-site locations to familiarize themselves with the site, emergency resources available, and to walk through the reunification process. This training shows the ongoing commitment and preparedness of the Reunification Jump-Out Team, who are training today to prepare for tomorrow!