Bullying and Safety Concerns
Safety is one of our district's top priorities and to help safeguard our school community, our district is now using SafeSchools Alert, a tip reporting service that allows students, staff, and parents to submit safety concerns to our administration. You and your child can easily report tips on bullying, harassment, or any safety issue you're concerned about through SafeSchools Alert. Every tip SafeSchools Alert receives about our district is immediately logged in the system and our administration is notified so that they can investigate and take appropriate action. And, tips may also be submitted anonymously if you prefer. Together, using SafeSchools Alert, we can make our district a safer place to learn! Click the icon to submit a tip or concern.
Visitor Management
Starting with the 2018-19 school year, a new visitor sign-in process has been implemented District-wide. Hall Pass Visitor Management System has been installed in all of our schools to improve overall building safety/security. The system will:
- Conduct a screening on each visitor using the sex offender registry
- Log in volunteers to track their hours
- Be used to document late arriving students
Whenever any non-student or non-District employee requests to enter any area of the building where students are accessible (anywhere beyond the front office) or requests to check-out a student, they will be asked to produce a government issued ID:
- State driver's license
- State issued ID
- Passport
- U.S. Military ID
- Permanent resident card
The ID will be scanned, and a badge will be given to visitors or the student check-out will be processed. For more information on the Hall Pass Visitor Management System, please click here.
Emergency Awareness and Collaboration
The Platte County R-3 School District is committed to taking appropriate and direct measures ensuring the safety of all our students and staff members. We have made arrangements to deal proficiently with crisis situations that could occur in or around the school while classes are in session. While we hope that a natural disaster or other serious event never occurs, our objective is to be as prepared as possible for any probable emergency. At all times our priority is to protect all students and staff.
Every Platte County R-3 School facility has a comprehensive crisis and safety plan. The plans are designed with the assistance of professional law enforcement, counselors, federal officials, administrative staff members, and public health officials. The plans, which are regularly updated, include procedures to respond to a variety of crisis events. School district personnel practice the drills associated these specific emergencies on a regular basis which include fire, intruder, tornado or a modified event that would include a combination of multiple emergencies at the same time. We prepare to improve and we improve the way we prepare.
The District is an active participant with local, state, and federal officials to plan for terrorist events, both chemical and biological and any other type of wide area threat with a variety of emergency response situations. The district continues to participate in staged events with professional agencies for training purposes at our district sites to better prepare for an actual event.
Emergency Response in the Platte County R-3 School District
Successful emergency response is a collaborative effort. Platte County R-3 School District is extremely fortunate to have several important groups that play lead roles in shaping the district's response to emergency situations. In the event of an emergency, these groups work with the school leaders at the site and with public safety officials to provide immediate and coordinated response and support.
District Crisis Management
Leading the direct response to any event in the District is Dr. Devin Doll, Executive Director of Operations and Dr. Rob Gardner, Assistant Superintendent. Dr. Doll and Dr. Gardner work with the district crisis teams, district safety coordinators, school resource officers, Platte County R-3 Police and Fire Departments, and district departmental personnel to assist public safety officials as they secure all facilities, evacuate students and staff, while administering the situation.
Crisis Communications
Ensuring that students, staff, parents, patrons, media, and the Platte County community have accurate and timely information during a crisis, is the responsibility of Laura Hulett, Director of Communications. Ms. Hulett works in conjunction with emergency response teams, issues emergency information via radio, television, the District website, and coordinates with District administration to convey direct and concise information.
Crisis Intervention Support
The Platte County R-3 School Crisis Response Team for Counseling and Social Workers are provided by our trained professional District guidance team, led by Dr. Jennifer Beutel, Executive Director of Pupil Services. This group provides care and support for students and staff members affected by a crisis or emergency within the district or community. Should you need to contact this team of professional counselors and social workers please contact Dr. Beutel at 816.858.7001. Our staff can provide assistance in dealing with the aftermath of student, family, or community crisis.
Parent Crisis Communication Procedures
In order for our emergency-response plans to be effective, we must depend on the cooperation and assistance of many people, such as the Platte City Police, Platte County Fire, Platte County Sheriff, Missouri Highway Patrol, Kansas City MO Police, and other local departments. We also must have the cooperation of the parents of our students to support our detailed emergency-response plans. Your cooperation is vital to protecting the safety and welfare of all our children and school employees.
Therefore, we insist parents observe the following procedures during a crisis situation:
Do not telephone the school. We understand and respect your concern, but it is essential that the telephone system be available for emergency communications.
- Make sure your contact information is accurate in our student information database. For emergency messages, the District will call all parent/guardian numbers listed in our database from our automated phone calling and text notification system, School Messenger.
- Tune to local radio and television stations for emergency announcements and status reports. Visit our web site: www.plattecountyschooldistrict.com. You will also receive instructions on where you should go and how/when you may be able to pick up your child. Information to parents is a priority along with the safety of each child. We will begin communicating with parents as soon as possible.
- Do not come to the school or evacuation location until you are instructed to do so. It may be necessary to keep the streets and parking lot clear for emergency vehicles. If evacuation is required, students may be transported to a location away from the school. The District has sites planned and mobilization plans in place (We do not publicize all locations to protect the children and the specific emergency). You will be notified of the locations through the media outlets or District website.
- Talk to your children and emphasize how important it is for them to follow instructions from their teachers and school officials during any emergency.
- Carefully read all information you receive from your school. You may receive updates about our safety precautions from time to time or Parent Alerts for possible safety concerns.