PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A lockdown on Thursday at Lake Worth Middle School came one day after the Palm Beach County School Board was updated on a new district communications policy.
The public information policy covers how the School District of Palm Beach County notifies families in the case of an emergency, like a school lockdown.
School district leaders stress this is really everything they are already doing and the procedures are not new, but are now formally written down as policy.
The policy specifies timely notification to families and the chain of command when something happens on a school campus.
Calls, emails, and text messages to parents and guardians are all potential ways of notifying them of what's happening.
The policy said parents and guardians should be notified as soon as practicably possible, and school district leaders said their goal is 20 minutes from the time the police chief confirms what's happening to the first message going out.
SCHOOL SECURITY COVERAGE:
- How do Palm Beach County, Treasure Coast school districts classify lockdowns?
- How can parents, students cope with new normal of school threats and lockdowns?
When looking at Thursday's incident at Lake Worth Middle School, the callouts to parents were all about within that 20-minute range. The first alert was at 1:01 p.m., followed by updates at 1:18 p.m., 1:40 p.m., and the all clear at 2:03 p.m.
School board members will vote to officially adopt the communications policy at a later date.