[BHS Etree] ADMIN: Message from Principal Schweng

Thu Feb 15 11:10:30 PST 2018

PLEASE do not reply to this email.

Good morning Berkeley High School Families,

We have all just spent time last night watching terrible and tragic events
unfold in the wake of yet another school shooting in our country. It is
important to me that you all know what that means for us at BHS who work
with your children and are charged with keeping them safe.

As I write this, I am watching our students come to school this morning
through my office window in pairs, groups, and alone - some smiling and
some looking more serious. For any school principal, the thought of someone
hurting my students is at the same time unimaginable and yet must be
imagined, because it must be prepared for.  We have long been preparing for
two lockdown drills that will take place this semester.  One will happen
during school hours, and one will happen either right before or right after
school.  We know that even practicing a scenario in which there is an
active shooter on campus is scary, and also that students have already
asked today if and when we are going to do a drill, because they want to be
ready.

We are working with some of our video production students to make videos
for all of our students and staff to see some specific skills and actions
they will need to take during our drill.  We are also working with our BPD
School Resource Officer, who has specific training in active shooter
protocols, to prepare in the most thorough way possible.

Additionally, you should know that we have a long-planned earthquake drill
today during 5th period.  We will be holding in classrooms for a short
period and then evacuating to our football and softball fields.  Teachers
will take attendance and then we will head back into class.  While we know
that any sort of evacuation may be anxiety-producing for staff and
students, we also know that being unprepared for an earthquake is not an
option given where we live, and we have been speaking with students on the
morning announcements every day this week about our plan.

I will communicate again with more details about our lockdown drills, and
please know how seriously we feel the weight and responsibility of keeping
safe each and every student you entrust to our care.

Erin, on behalf of the admin team.

(Below is what I said to students in the morning announcements today):

*Good morning, students.  Thank you for your moment of silence just now and
for your attention the next few minutes.  As we watched the terrible events
in Florida unfold last night, I couldn’t help but notice that the high
school there has almost exactly the same number of students as at Berkeley
High.  It is horrific to imagine anything like that happening here, and yet
we also know this is the 18th school shooting in 2018 alone.  So, while we
never want to even think about having to face that kind of fear and panic,
we also know how important it is to be ready.  We have already spoken with
all staff about procedures we would follow in this sort of situation, and
our safety staff and admin team have received training as well.  We have
long been preparing for a school-wide lockdown drill, which will help us
all know what to do in the case of an active shooter situation.  We will
get you the information you need to be prepared for that drill, and then we
will do it, and learn from it.  I believe that practicing even once will
help alleviate the fear that many of us feel that comes from not knowing
what to do, though I know that just practicing can be really scary. We will
also practice a lockdown drill outside of school hours, such as right
before or right after school.  As soon as the dates and times are set for
those drills, we will let you know.*

*Our earthquake drill for today has long been planned, and I suspect that
for some of you, that will cause some anxiety.  We need to proceed with our
earthquake drill today, since that is another thing that we must be
prepared for, living where we live - and we ask that all teachers and
students take it seriously.*

*I’m going to hand it over to our regular announcers for the morning sports
report.  If you need or want to talk to a counselor about any of this, they
are available to you and standing by. I hope you all stay safe, stay
strong, and take good care of each other, always.*

Erin Schweng
Principal, Berkeley High School

_____________________________

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