 What have we learned from this week's amber alert? A situation occurred at one of our schools that could have had serious consequences. I would like to share it with you and share some points for us to consider. The circumstances were that earlier this week an elementary school parent picked his child up around mid-day and departed. Later that afternoon the other parent came to the school to say the child had not come home on the bus and told us at that time that the other parent was not authorized to take the child home. As you may know from the news, an amber alert was issued, and the child was declared as being abducted. For us, as GSCS employees, there are some questions we should each ponder. 1. Have we continued to maintain an accurate database of those authorized to pick children up? 2. Do we check the database before students are allowed to depart with individuals? 3. When a case such as this develops, do we have plans for communication so that everyone who needs to know can find out quickly? In this particular situation, we knew who was authorized to pick up the child, and an authorized person did so. Part of the problem was that the parent had not updated information with the school. So that leads to a second point for us to think about. Parents change cell phone numbers and addresses during the school year. We have to have procedures in place to continually remind them to maintain the most up-to-date information with us. When we get indications that parent phone numbers or addresses have changed, we must promptly update our student information system. Another point to consider is when a person does come to check a child out of school, do we actually look to verify they are authorized to do so, or do we just go from memory because we know that person is okay? Circumstances change, and we are not always aware of changes that need to be entered into our student information system. So we always need to go through that step-by-step process of verifying who is authorized to pick up a child and who is not. When a situation like this occurs, are we prepared to communicate pertinent information to everyone efficiently and effectively? Again, in this case, we were prepared. When teachers learned about the situation by having heard about it or seeing the news episode, they immediately contacted the principal, the principal contacted me, and we were able to help law enforcement in their efforts to resolve it. We also maintained contact throughout the evening. This meant that we had shared cell phone numbers and home phone numbers. Even we as employees may have numbers that change and sometimes might not be available. So we need to stay current in our information. We just never know what is going to happen. In this particular case the situation did not really come to light until the bus got home. Even though students may depart our campus, they are really not home until the bus run is over. We have to continue to have processes and procedures in place to know our students have arrived home safely and parents are okay. Again, in this case, we were good. Things worked out well for us, the situation at the school was handled well, and I believe that we justified the trust that parents have given us to ensure the safety of their children. We met our strategic objective, "maintain a safe learning environment." Thank you to all who were involved in handling this situation. I hope we can remember some of these points to continue to be a reliable organization. Have a great week-end, everybody. COLDR
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