Keeping Our Students Safe!

As part of our emergancy prepardeness plan, the Steward School will be conducting a lockdown drill tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Fire drills and lockdown practice drills are held periodically during the school year. The purpose of these drills is to prepare children for emergency situations. Fire and lockdown drills are conducted in conjunction with the Town of Topsfield Fire and Police Departments.

The lockdown procedure is used when an intruder or dangerous scenario impacts the safety of the students. During a lockdown teachers have students go to a designated section of the room on the floor, lock classroom doors, turn off lights,  and take attendance. Teachers and staff look to make sure all students are away from doors and windows.  Once the classroom is secure, teachers will be reading a book to the preschoolers. 

We have had a successful fire drill in our preschool this year, and are confident that the lockdown drill will be successful as well.  All of our preschoolers are learning about how the point of a lockdown drill is really just the opposite of an evacuation drill.  An evacuation drill happens when something unsafe is going on in the building and a lockdown is when there is something unsafe going on outside of the building or outside of their classrooms.  For example, if there was a fire at a neighbor’s house or there was someone that we didn’t recognize in our school it would be a reason to have a lockdown.