Safety for our students and staff has always been a top priority at District 70. In collaboration with the local law enforcement and safety consultants, school officials have kept students and staff safe by securing our entrances and internal and external doors, enhancing our camera system, and visitor identification systems in each building. We also have trained our staff in Run, Hide, Fight, in case of an intruder, and Stop the Bleed, in case of injuries. We will continue to partner with the Libertyville Police and Fire Departments to train our staff on best practices in emergency response. We will also continue monitoring other safety measures used in schools to keep our students and staff safe.
District 70 has a Safety Committee composed of staff members and parents from across the district that meets each trimester to review safety protocols and possible updates and changes.
Ensure emergency contact info is accurate and current with your home school, including who is authorized to pick up your child.
Become familiar with school/district web and social media sites where emergency info is posted, and other communication channels (e.g. mass notification, SMS text, etc.)
Understand school/district “school safe conditions” or protocols of response in the event of an incident/emergency; talk with your child about the importance of following procedures.
Emphasize that cell phones should not be used during an emergency unless directed to do so by a teacher/adult.
DURING a School Emergency
Trust that the school is FIRST doing what is needed to protect students; communication will follow.
Remain calm; monitor information sources.
Natural instinct is to want to rush to your child’s school. DON’T. Phone lines, staff, and roads are needed for emergency response. Parents will not be allowed on campus.
Do not phone or text the child. Sound, vibration, or conversation could put students in danger. Students need to be paying attention to instructions from trained staff.
AFTER a School Emergency
Parents and guardians will be directed to the child’s specific location for parent reunification.
Parent Reunification Plan: Students will ONLY be released to parents/guardians or other pre-designated persons identified on emergency contacts. The reunification process is time-consuming. Please be patient.
Listen to and acknowledge the child's concerns. Provide reassurance to the child that he/she is safe and that additional prevention efforts are being put in place.
Seek help from school or mental health professionals if concerns persist.
Officer Michael Camilo is the school resource officer for District 70. He can be reached at mcamilo@d70schools.org.
*What is a school resource officer? Are SROs armed?
A school resource officer is a sworn law-enforcement officer with arrest powers who works, either full or part-time, in a school setting. Nearly all SROs are armed (about 91 percent, according to federal data), and most carry other restraints like handcuffs as well.
What does school resource officer training look like?
The main difference separating an SRO from other police officers is that, in theory, they have had some special training on how to work with youths. A membership group for SROs, the National Association of School Resource Officers, offers several such courses. NASRO’s basic 40-hour training includes some content on the adolescent brain, cyber safety, and violence prevention in schools, among other topics.
As for daily duties, NASRO indicates that officers play a tripartite role in law enforcement, informal mentoring and counseling, and some in-person teaching. In this sense, the theory of school-based policing is aligned with that of community policing: using local partnerships with other public entities to bring more resources to bear on safety.
SROs can improve relationships between students and law enforcement, serve as protectors for victimized students, and reduce the burden on local law enforcement.
School resource officer statistics: How many SROs are there?
SROs are not required to register in any kind of national database, so there are only estimates of their numbers—no firm tally.
Another way to examine this picture is to look at the proportion of schools that employ an SRO. The most recent federal data available, from the 2017-18 school year, show that about 45 percent of schools had an SRO in place at least once a week. (Another 13 percent of schools reported hosting police who were not SROs.) This represents a steady growth over the last few decades; only 32 percent of schools reported having an SRO in 2005-06.
As these data suggest, an SRO may not be stationed in just one school; some are responsible for several campuses.
Why has the number of school resource officers grown?
Although school policing has been around since at least the late 1950s, it expanded notably in the 1990s due to three major factors: concerns about rising rates of juvenile crime in the 1990s, the federal government’s funding of community policing programs beginning with the 1994 crime bill and its establishment of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring program, and the 1999 Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colo.
In 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice began specifically making grants to increase the number of SROs in schools through the COPS in Schools program, resulting by some estimates more than $700 million being granted to districts to hire SROs between 1999 and 2005. That grant has ended but districts can still receive federal grants through the broader COPS funding.
*Bulk of section taken from an article on School Resource Officers by Education Week, Nov. 16, 2021.
District 70 is dedicated to the social-emotional development and safety of all children. We believe a student's right to feel safe in school is paramount and contributes significantly to his or her capacity for learning. All District 70 schools have a protocol for reporting harassment and bullying and we are guided by Board of Education policies.
Safe2Help Illinois also has 24/7 help available via a hotline (844-4-SAFEIL), a text line (72332), and email (HELP@Safe2HelpIL.com) -- plus a website full of resources for young people seeking help for themselves or a friend. Safe2Help Illinois provides a confidential way for students to share safety concerns.
Teaching firearm safety is not new in District 70 as the school district has long partnered with the Libertyville Police and Fire departments on teaching a variety of safety practices, including firearm safety and firearm injury prevention, in the schools.
Research shows that secure firearm storage practices are associated with up to an 85% reduction in the risk of self-inflicted and unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens. Storing firearms securely and separately from ammunition protects children in homes and the community. This year, Libertyville School District 70 and the Libertyville Police Department will host a parent/guardian and community information night on firearm storage safety with Be SMART. Be SMART helps parents and other adults normalize conversations surrounding gun safety and take responsible actions that can prevent gun deaths and injuries.
Be SMART
SECURE all guns in homes and vehicles;
MODEL responsible behavior around guns;
ASK about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes;
The Libertyville Police Department offers free gun locks to any resident. The locks can be picked up at the Libertyville Police Department, 200 E. Cook Ave.
The locks are typically available for pick-up Monday through Friday during the day. No identification is required when picking them up, and no one who requests the lock will be questioned as to their residency. Two locks per household are available.
In Illinois, the Firearms Restraining Order (FRO) allows family/household members and law enforcement to work with courts to temporarily remove guns and prevent the purchase of new guns by individuals who pose a significant risk of harm to themselves or others. The FRO is a civil procedure, not a criminal one. The goal is to ensure the safety of the individual and those around them.
The FRO requires the temporary removal of guns from the subject of the order and prohibits new purchases for the duration of the order. This creates safer circumstances for the individual to seek treatment, stabilize their behavior or access resources to address their behaviors.
720 ILCS 5/24-9 Sec. 24-9. Firearms; Child Protection. (a) Except as provided in subsection (c), it is unlawful for any person to store or leave, within premises under his or her control, a firearm if the person knows or has reason to believe that a minor under the age of 14 years who does not have a Firearm Owners Identification Card is likely to gain access to the firearm without the lawful permission of the minor's parent, guardian, or person having charge of the minor, and the minor causes death or great bodily harm with the firearm, unless the firearm is: (1) secured by a device or mechanism, other than the
firearm safety, designed to render a firearm temporarily inoperable; or
(2) placed in a securely locked box or container; or (3) placed in some other location that a reasonable
person would believe to be secure from a minor under the age of 14 years.
(b) Sentence. A person who violates this Section is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor and shall be fined not less than $1,000. A second or subsequent violation of this Section is a Class A misdemeanor. (c) Subsection (a) does not apply: (1) if the minor under 14 years of age gains access
to a firearm and uses it in a lawful act of self-defense or defense of another; or
(2) to any firearm obtained by a minor under the age
of 14 because of an unlawful entry of the premises by the minor or another person.
(d) For the purposes of this Section, "firearm" has the meaning ascribed to it in Section 1.1 of the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. (Source: P.A. 91-18, eff. 1-1-00.)
