The Candler County School District (CCSD) and the Candler County Sheriff’s Office continue to collaborate for the safety of our community’s students, teachers and staff through trainings and drills.
Sheriff’s office personnel and School Resource Officers have been working with the school administrators on planning an intruder drill, as the recent House Bill 147 requires at least one each school year. While the House Bill specifies an Intruder Drill, the Sheriff’s Office has been providing many different safety drills for the schools for a number of years.
The Candler County School District will conduct an Intruder Drill prior to October 1, as required by the House Bill, at the K-8 complex for the Elementary and Middle Schools and at the High School for High School and the College & Career Academy.
“While these types of events are extremely rare nationwide, our focus remains on the safety of our children and staff and we want to be prepared in the best way possible for any event that might occur,” says CCSD Superintendent Bubba Longgrear.
The Candler County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting the drill and have trained school staff on best practices in order to keep themselves and their students safe.
“We want to inform the community that this is a drill and there is no reason to be alarmed,” says Sheriff John Miles. “Our deputies will be on campus to conduct the drill and to evaluate procedures so we know we are prepared for any emergency.”
Candler County School District works daily to ensure a safe and secure learning environment for all students and staff. In the event of an actual emergency, school administrators will work in collaboration with the Candler County Sheriff’s Office and other emergency management personnel. In the event of an actual emergency, parents can obtain information about their child’s school by downloading the Candler County School District app on cell phones to receive notifications from the school, checking the school website, following the school on social media, as well as, accepting phone calls from the school’s automated phone system.
“When the actual drill takes place, our communications team will send alerts through the website, the app, and social media, just as they would in a true emergency,” says Longgrear. “We ask parents to avoid coming to the school to ‘check on your child’ in this drill or in a real emergency. One concern noted by professionals with an event like this is that when people start racing to the school it interferes with the number of officers who can deal with the actual situation because officers are then needed to manage crowd control and secure the building from visitors."
The Candler County School District would like to thank the Candler County Sheriff’s Office and all local agencies for their proactive approach to school and community safety.