Mentor Schools 2021 Quality Profile Report - Flipbook - Page 6
School Safety
Our district’s top priority is to provide a safe learning environment where students can grow academically, socially and emotionally.
Safety Drills
Fire, tornado, bus evacuation, active shooter or intruder, lockdown,
table-top, and scenario-based — these are all examples of drills we
practice in Mentor Schools. These are very important from a
preparedness standpoint to make sure that our students and staff know
what to do in case of a school emergency.
Tabletop and Large-Scale Safety Drills
Our most sophisticated drills happen when we partner with Mentor Police and Mentor Fire to simulate school-based emergencies and work
together though a timeline of events, like the example pictured above.
School Resource Officer & Mentor Police Department
Mentor Schools has a full-time Mentor Police Department School
Resource Officer assigned to serve the district. Additionally, officers take
extra shifts at some of our other largest schools each day.
Mentor Fire & Mentor Police School Visits
Both Mentor police officers and firefighters regularly visit all of our
schools for both planned educational events and random drop-ins.
ALICE
ALICE is active shooter civilian training, focused on the tactics: Alert,
Lockdown, Inform, Counter & Evacuate. We have certified ALICE trainers
at each of our schools who assist their teams with this important work.
Building Inspections
Extensive safety assessments with Mentor Police & Fire alongside our
staff have been conducted to identify strengths and weaknesses at each
of our buildings and improvements have been made as identified.
Health Curriculum
Students in elementary, middle and high school receive health education
based on National Health Standards. Additional health courses were
added to reach students each year of 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
Experts from NAMI present important messages to students and staff to
raise awareness of Mental Health areas, such as depression and suicide.
Digital Citizenship & Online Monitoring
Lessons about the importance of being a positive online citizen are
embedded into our everyday learning. We also have been consistently
communicating with parents and guardians on this topic because
working together toward good digital citizenship practices needs to be a
focus both at home and at school. We have taken additional steps to
monitor our students’ online activities in the form of emails and
searches, while they’re using our devices, so we can address concerns
quickly and help guide better choices.
Crossroads
Beyond our own staff, additional Mental Health experts from Crossroads
are in our schools every day to provide extra support. Mental Health
issues can intensify if left unaddressed, so the Crossroads experts are
embedded in our schools to help with early identification & intervention.
Character Building Programs
Continually building a culture of kindness, compassion and acceptance is
extremely important in all of our schools. We do this through an array of
different programs, including: Rachel’s Challenge, Stick Together,
Student Ambassadors, Responsive Classroom, Where Everybody Belongs
(WEB), Kindness Rallies and more. Many of our anti-bullying and character programs also involve powerful messaging through peer leaders.
Exterior Bus Cameras
Using grant funding, Mentor Schools purchased exterior cameras for our
fleet of buses to address an increasing issue of drivers illegally passing
buses on the roadways. This initiative is supported by local law
enforcement and we hope encourages people to stop for school buses.
See Something? Say Something!
Students, parents and community members are encouraged to report
concerning and/or suspicious behavior they believe could affect our
schools to us at any time! We have a crisis hotline 974-HOME that is
monitored 24/7/365 and a texting service at the high school that is
watched throughout the school day to assist in keeping our schools safe.
Please note: This is only a small sample of our safety initiatives. When it comes to
safety, some information cannot be shared publicly in the interest of safety itself.