QP 2025 Final for Print - Flipbook - Page 8
School Safety
Our district9s top priority is to provide a safe learning environment where students can grow academically, socially and emotionally.
Safety Drills
Fire, tornado, bus evacuation, active shooter or intruder, lockdown,
table-top, and scenario-based 4 these are all examples of drills we
practice in Mentor Schools. These are very important from a
preparedness standpoint to make sure that our students and staff know
what to do in case of a school emergency.
Tabletop and Large-Scale Safety Drills
Our most sophisticated drills happen when we partner with Mentor
Police and Mentor Fire to simulate school-based emergencies and work
together through a timeline of events, like one example pictured here:
Safety Audit
Experts conducted a school safety audit for every building in the district
and we received good information - both from the standpoint of what
we9re doing well and areas we could improve. This helped shape our
request for safety grant money available through the State of Ohio.
Mentor Schools was awarded more than $1 million, near the maximum
available. We continue to seek safety grant funds when possible.
School Resource Officer & Local Police Departments
Mentor Schools is working toward having a Mentor Police Department
School Resource Officer in every building. In the meantime, officers take
extra shifts at our middle and elementary schools daily. Mentor-on-theLake Police Department takes shifts at Lake Elementary School and the
Lake County Sheriff9s Office also works shifts in our schools at times.
Mentor Fire & Mentor Police School Visits
Mentor police officers and firefighters regularly visit all of our
schools for both planned educational events and random drop-ins.
ALICE
ALICE is active shooter civilian training, focused on the tactics: Alert,
Lockdown, Inform, Counter & Evacuate. We have certified ALICE trainers
at each of our schools who assist their teams with this important work.
Building Inspections & Safety Checks
Extensive safety assessments with Mentor Police & Fire and other experts have been conducted to identify strengths and weaknesses at each
of our buildings and improvements have been made as identified.
Health Curriculum
Students in elementary, middle and high school receive health education
based on National Health Standards. Additional health courses were
added to reach students each year of 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
Experts from NAMI present important messages to students and staff to
raise awareness of Mental Health areas, such as depression and suicide.
Crossroads & Signature Health
Beyond our own staff, Mental Health experts from Crossroads & Signature
Health are in our schools every day to provide extra support. Mental Health
issues can intensify if left unaddressed, so the experts are embedded in
our schools to help with early identification & intervention.
Mental Health Needs
To help address an increased need in support among our students, our
certified staff has received training sessions about mental health awareness and trauma sensitive issues affecting schools and our community.
Character Building Programs
Continually building a culture of kindness, compassion and acceptance is
extremely important in all of our schools. We do this through an array of
different programs, including: Start with Hello, Stick Together, Student
Ambassadors, Where Everybody Belongs (WEB), Kindness Rallies,
classroom meetings and more. Many of our anti-bullying and character
programs also involve powerful messaging through peer leaders.
Exterior Bus Cameras
Using grant funding, Mentor Schools purchased exterior cameras for our
fleet of buses to address an increasing issue of drivers illegally passing
buses on the roadways. This initiative is supported by local law
enforcement and we hope encourages people to stop for school buses.
Improved Indoor Air Quality
Several hundred bi-polar ionization devices were installed all across the
district to improve indoor air quality in all of our schools. These devices
work by neutralizing particulate matter, bacteria and virus cells, odorous
gases and aerosols, and Volatile Organic Compounds (better known as
VOCs). This technology has been found to be very effective against
viruses, and essentially helps clean and purify the air in learning spaces
all across the district.
Digital Citizenship & Online Monitoring
See Something? Say Something!
Lessons about the importance of being a positive online citizen are a
Students, parents and community members are encouraged to report
part of our everyday learning. We also have been consistently communicating with parents and guardians on this topic because working togeth- concerning and/or suspicious behavior they believe could affect our
er toward good digital citizenship practices needs to be a focus both at schools to us at any time! We have a safety hotline that is monitored
24/7/365 to assist in keeping our schools safe. Call: 844-SaferOH
home and at school. We have taken additional steps to monitor our
students9 online activities in the form of emails and searches, while
Please Note: This is only a small sample of our safety initiatives. When it
they9re using our devices, so we can address concerns quickly and help
comes to safety, some information cannot be shared publicly in the
guide better choices.
interest of safety itself.
