Joe is a security and former policeman who works at our school and keeps us safe.
He makes sure we are set and ready for anything in case of an emergency. What does he do in case of an emergency you ask? “So I have a well-drawn out emergency operation plan that I actually developed for the school district, and we’ve trained staff to do all of this. The students typically aren’t trained too much. You’ll notice some of the languages on the wall where it says in an emergency take action those are five new standard protocols,” he said.
You might be wondering, what are the emergency protocols and what do you do? Well, the first one is hold. “Mr. Baumbach (our principal) comes over the intercoms and says we’re in a hold. (This is) where everyone stays in their classroom usually that’s because there’s a medical emergency in the hallway or maybe someone puked in the hallway something gross so we want you to avoid that area,” he said.
The next part of the operation is secure. “(This is) kind of what we’re in all day long the exterior doors are always locked the inside of the school is normal,” he said.
Lockdown is sort of the same except that’s when we all go in the corner of the class, lights are shut down, and doors are locked. That would be in case someone dangerous is either in the building or outside near the building.
The shelter portion of the operation would occur if a tornado were to happen.
These 5 protocols are found all across Michigan.
Joe wasn’t always just working at a school or at this school. He was once a police officer. “In 1993, I was a policeman for 29 years for the city of Wyoming,” he said. This was when Joe started his career. “I worked at Kelloggsville before. I was working the night shift on the road as a patrol officer and they could not afford at the time a school resource officer. I coached boys’ basketball varsity basketball for them. I told them on my days off, which was three days a week, I would come and work at the school. So I was at the school typically on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.”
Some high schools or schools in general do not have police officers. So I decided to ask Joe and see what he thinks about this. “Yes, you know there’s something about the perception of safety. A police officer who’s armed has body armor on, it’s just a comforting thought you know, they are almost always great people who get along with everybody. They know how to deal with high-stress situations, so yeah having them present in every building would be awesome!”
In the generation that we live in now, it’s helpful to know that school can be a safe environment for people. How can we make Wyoming a safer environment for students? Joe says, “By listening to what teachers tell you to do during drills. We practice drills a lot during the school year. We do 5 fire alarms or evacuation drills, then we do 3 lockdown drills each year, and I think 3-5 tornado drills or shelter drills. My goal is to make those training more realistic for the students.”