School Safety

SS-ARS is an anonymous reporting system that lets students, parents, staff, and community members securely share safety concerns. It focuses on student and staff safety by:

1. Training students, teachers, and administrators how to recognize warning signs of someone who may be a threat to themselves or others—including signs on social media.

2. Providing a way to report concerning behavior, which then helps school administrators and law enforcement members prevent violence, suicide, bullying, self-harm and other dangerous behavior.

Nash County Public Schools (NCPS) has been working with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as we launch this program in our schools. Every public school in North Carolina will adopt this program by the end of the year.

Students and staff can submit an anonymous tip through an app, the website, or a phone call when they notice concerning or threatening behavior. Every submission goes directly to a trained crisis counselor. The counselor then shares the information and next steps with the NCPS school team and law enforcement as needed. The team steps in to address the threat.

The SS-ARS can be used to report threatening or harmful behavior, harassment and more. For example, imagine that one student, Lisa, is worried about her friend, Mary, harming herself—like cutting her arms—but Lisa isn’t sure who she can tell. Lisa doesn’t want to be labeled a “snitch” or for her friend to find out that she said something. Lisa can anonymously report her concern through the NCPS Say Something app, website, or through a phone call. The trained crisis counseling team will immediately take action to ensure Mary is safe and getting the right interventions to help her.

The NCPS team members are specifically trained to recognize mental illness and emotional disturbances and manage crisis situations. All psychiatric emergencies are referred to the appropriate community mental health services psychiatric crisis line. Law enforcement may conduct a welfare check.

NO. Using the reporting system is completely voluntary.

Say Something is a youth violence program presented by Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), a national nonprofit. SHP was founded and is led by family members who lost loved ones during the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in 2012. SHP has trained more than 11 million educators, parents, community leaders and students to recognize the signs of and prevent violence and harmful acts in schools.

The Say Something Anonymous Reporting System was created by a nonprofit and is therefore free for our school district.

NCPS has been working with our school board’s legal team to ensure that all key privacy standards are maintained. Reporting through the Say Something System is completely anonymous.

• All students stay in place with a teacher or staff member.
• Students and teachers remain in locked classrooms, unobservable from outside (lights-off, door windows obscured with paper) and outside potential lines of fire.
• Students and staff members disregard fire alarms. No one enters or exits the school, except public safety personnel.
• Persons in trailers remain in locked trailers.

Soft Lockdown: It is a precautionary measure in response to a threat where the credibility has not been determined; there is an ongoing investigation by Law Enforcement. School resumes with a heightened sense of awareness on safety. Interior and exterior doors are locked and there is a constant surveillance of the school by staff. The movement of students and staff are tightly restricted to the confines of the building; students can transition between buildings with heavy monitoring by staff. Parents and visitors can come to the school and students are allowed to check out. Front office personnel will answer phone calls. Students traveling to the Community College and other programs can go as normal. Law Enforcement will have an increased presence in and around schools.

• No students allowed outside of buildings and trailers (no P.E., recess, etc.).
• All building and trailer exterior doors are closed and locked.
• People in locked trailers remain in locked trailers.
• Staff members and students are free to move about inside buildings and trailers.
• Staff member posted at building main entrance to control visitor access, issue passes, and direct to reunification area, if necessary.

• “Shelter-In-Place” announcement made via PA system and radio.
• Students and staff members move into main building from trailers unless it is unsafe due to environmental contamination.
• All windows and doors are closed, locked and sealed, with materials that will hinder air flow.
• Staff members shut off main building power to stop HVAC, exhaust, and roof ventilators.
• Signs placed on the front door making notification of Shelter-in-Place Emergency.
• Building entry forbidden until public safety officials arrive and give the “all clear.”
• Exposed or contaminated people will be kept separate from the rest of school population and directed to wash with water.
• If possible, alternative clothing for exposed individuals will be provided and contaminated clothing will be removed and sealed in plastic bags.
• Administrators will listen to local emergency management officials and follow directions from responding public safety officials.

• Stay Put, Stay Tuned announcement made via PA system and radio.
• No unsupervised release of students will occur until direction is provided by competent authority.
• Staff members will monitor local media and messaging systems for updates.
• E-notify messages will be sent by affected schools.
• Students can be released to parents with proper identification.

If public safety officials require that a school building be evacuated, students and staff members will be safely transported by bus to a designated parent-student reunification center. Parents will be informed of the reunification location via NCPS' emergency messaging system and local media. At the reunification center, students will be released to their parents following the Reunification process.

School bus drivers will be in contact with the Transportation Department for specific instructions if a crisis occurs while students are in transport. Bus drivers will be directed how best to address the situation and not travel toward the crisis location. If necessary, parents will be informed of the parent-student reunification center location via NCPS' emergency messaging system and local media.