GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Forest Hills Central High, Central Middle, and Central Woodlands Schools went into what is soon to be *formerly known as soft lockdown Friday.
No one was hurt, and the students were not in any imminent danger.
The Kent County Sheriff's Office tells FOX 17 the issue stemmed from a domestic situation nearby. They decided to alert the school during the search for the suspect— a 20-minute situation that was resolved peacefully.
The precautionary situation revealed a method Michigan schools will adopt over the next year to communicate crisis responses.
Today's incident (as far as the school is concerned) was categorized as a Secure Action.
"Secure Action is called when there is a threat or hazard outside the school building," the letter the district sent home said. "During Secure Action, all students and staff are brought into the building, and all exterior doors are locked. Classes continued uninterrupted inside the building."
The administration for the school now says they have adopted the new protocols, which will be adopted statewide over the next year.
It's called the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) created by the "I Love You U Guys Foundation, and it standardizes the actions to be taken for all who've adopted it to create an across-the-board understanding of expectations for everything from weather events, accidents, and fires to intruders and threats to personal safety.
Responses are broken into 5 categories: Hold, Secure, Evacuate, and Shelter.
Another focus; reunification— the SRP considers getting kids back to their parents safely as one of the first steps to consider.
"A predetermined, practiced reunification method ensures the reunification process will not further complicate what is probably already a chaotic, anxiety-filled scene. In fact, putting an orderly reunification plan into action will help defuse the emotion building at the site."
—The “I Love U Guys” Foundation on SRP Method
Forest Hills says they've already adopted the verbiage and staff are being trained in these protocols in order to create an understanding that is easily communicated within a crisis situation.
Developers say the methods come from research into crisis responses, calling them experience-based and offering the protocols at no cost.
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