Safety at school comes in many forms, such as preparedness for inclement weather to having a plan in case of an active shooter.
Columbus Municipal School District assistant superintendent Craig Chapman attended a safe and orderly schools conference in Oxford at the end of October led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.
Monday evening, Chapman presented what he learned at the conference to the CMSD Board of Trustees and what he wants regarding the community response. He told The Dispatch the schools have their plans and employees and students are well-versed in what to do should an emergency occur, but he wants to make sure the community’s emergency services are fluent in the plans.
“Right now we want to make sure emergency personnel understand the emergency protocols and what steps will be taken,” Chapman said. “Eventually we will move to more community support because there are people in the community that play a part in the emergency plan as well.”
Moving forward, he wants to have meetings with emergency personnel from Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, Columbus Police Department, Columbus Fire and Rescue and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. Later, he would like to hold community meetings with CMSD volunteers and media to go over protocol.
One thing the conference honed in on was the importance of accurate communication within the school district and out to the community for parents and loved ones, Chapman said. He gave the example of being punctual letting parents know when they can pick their students up when the schools let out for weather emergencies.
Chief school resource officer Natashea Coleman-Brown, public information officer Mary Pollitz and Columbus High School principal Dexter Peterson were at the conference, as well.
Pollitz said making sure information is coming from the superintendent, a safe and trusted source of information, and knowing how best to get the information to parents, students and employees is key.
“One of the things we learned at the meeting was, for my position, to help craft a message for the superintendent because you want to see the leader of the school district in a situation like this,” Pollitz said. “The community wants to hear from the person in charge of the district. … Social media has kind of become a big presence when it comes to getting an official message out, which hasn’t historically been the case. In the last five years, though, we’ve had more hits on our social media than on our website.”
Recognizing leaders
With nearly 20 million people around the world having watched Columbus Middle School’s cheerleaders perform their cheer “pass the ball” on cheer coach Ashley Hill’s TikTok, the CMSD board of trustees thanked the entire squad, including the mascot, at the meeting Monday night.
CMS cheer performed the hit cheer, and the board unanimously approved for the squad to go to a national competition in Atlanta they were invited to after going viral.
Interim Superintendent Dennis Dupree said his son showed him the video when it went viral and was amazed with their creativity.
“My son sent me a video of some cheerleaders cheering,” Dupree said. “I said, ‘Where are those young ladies from?’ And he said, ‘Dad, those are your cheerleaders.”
The cheer has since been reposted on social media accounts like the SportsCenter Next Instagram page, ESPN’s official high school sports page, and the ESPNW Instagram page.
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