pfc newsletter O A K
P A R K
H I G H
January 2013
The Principal’s Message Each September, I devote the principal’s message to school safety and the various procedures in place to address different types of emergencies both natural and man-made that could potentially impact the school, its students and staff. I hope you have the opportunity to periodically review the information on the school safety section of our website. Recently, with the tragic incident in Sandy Hook, Connecticut our minds once again have been focused on how safe our students are in school. If you have not read Dr. Knight’s message from last month I would urge you to as it paints a picture of what we do District-wide to keep our campus safe. We cannot predict a random senseless act, but we can do our best to educate and prepare our children, our staff, and our families on how
to respond in the unlikely event that we are the target of such an incident. We are planning a lockdown drill in the upcoming weeks. However, as we continue to be mindful of these issues, there are some other very specific actions that we can take every day that increase the safety and wellbeing of our students at school. There are risks associated with being a teenager and we do our best to address them in athletics with certified coaches and trainers. We address the social and emotional domains through counseling and peer programs. Now that school is in full swing, one concern which has a very high incidence likelihood, but can be very easily prevented, is the potentially dangerous behavior of drivers in and around school. We have 2,500 students,
S C H O O L www.oakparkusd.org/ophs staff, parents and visitors who come and go on the campus and library each day. They drive through, park, deliver, pick up, and share the exits and entrances of a school that is also teeming with children walking, running, and meandering between cars while talking to their friends often with their faces buried in their phones while texting as they walk. Elementary and middle school students from Medea Creek and Oak Hills also walk down to be picked up with their high school brothers and sisters. They are not as familiar with the high school layout and are often distracted or playing around. We have only two campus supervisors working the parking lots during drop off and pick-up and it is very remarkable that we’ve had no serious accidents this year. We’ve had accidents, property damage, close calls, and had tempers flare, and even had our campus supervisors ignored and yelled at as they try to direct traffic during the two busiest times. Almost every day, everyone does their part, but it only takes one person to speed through campus, lose their patience in line, cause someone else to lose their patience, or choose not to go with the flow to create a potentially devastating accident. There are many ways that we can keep a clean sheet and ensure the safety of everyone on campus. • Please obey the posted signs and routes when entering and exiting the school and library. • Please obey the direction of the campus supervisors at all times when on campus. They are under direction from the administration to ensure the safety of our students and staff by enforcing the flow of traffic and parking rules. • Please turn your music down when entering the parking lot so you can hear someone who might be talking to you from within or outside your car. • Please pull all the way forward when dropping off and picking up, especially during peak times and especially near the library where failing to pull forward may cause the car pulling in behind you to block Kanan. • Please require that your children not text while walking through the parking lot and to continued on page 3