La Salle Parent Newsletter For Parents and Friends of La Salle College Preparatory • Pasadena • California December/January 2020
Principal Ideas Hello. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to celebrate with your family and friends. Before going into my usual updates about school happenings, I do want to follow-up on the lock down that occurred on November 22.
Courtney R. Kassakhian Principal
Reflection Prayer St. John Baptist de La Salle
“The young should be able to see in your wisdom how they should behave.” -Meditation 132.1
As you know, over the past two years, we have taken major and multiple steps to make La Salle a more secure campus. That began with the electronic gate at the entry of the lower parking lot and continued with the additions of an after-hours security guard, surveillance cameras and the RAVE app. The RAVE app is an app that faculty and staff have downloaded on their phones that enables employees to alert first responders and school personnel to an emergency situation with the touch of a button. This system was put in place due to the fact that we do not have phones in every classroom and therefore need a way to get an alert out quickly and easily in the case of an emergency. The app, however, is so easy to use, that unfortunately, on November 22 it was inadvertently set-off, without the employee being immediately aware of it. In our discussions with the company that produces RAVE, they said, although such an event is unlikely, it is very possible and was in fact the case on November 22. Although those of us in the main office quickly came to believe that the alert was a mistake, we were not about to take any risks with the safety of our students and employees and therefore went into lockdown mode and awaited clearance by police. Ultimately, this meant we had the most realistic drill that we never planned for or wanted to have. The upside of the event is that we learned a lot about what we were really prepared for and good at and where we need to make better preparations. On the downside, it was, for everyone, a very scary 30 or so minutes that will not be quickly forgotten. A few of the outcomes of our learning from the day include: - We will be doing retraining of the RAVE app and protocols with employees before we leave for Christmas break; - We will be adding speakers to some areas that we found did not hear the PA announcements;
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