In a letter addressed to parents/guardians on December 19, 2018, Superintendent Heather Perry addressed parent concerns over the recent discovery of a live bullet found in a 7th grade classroom at Gorham Middle School (GMS) the previous week.
“Please know the Gorham Schools share these concerns and passionately place the safety of our children at the forefront of all decisions every day,” said Perry.
The letter served two purposes. First, to provide some background information to parents across the district regarding the bullet so they could have conversations with students about why it is not appropriate to bring something like that into schools.
Second, to provide an overview and general reminder to concerned parents about what the Gorham Schools do to make sure children are as safe as they can be while at school.
Perry indicated that she believed a thorough and detailed investigation took place at GMS to attempt to determine how a bullet wound up on the floor. The school administration spent many hours in collaboration with the school resource officer and Gorham PD to attempt to determine who might have brought the bullet to school.
They were not able to make this determination at the time the letter was written. The investigation was still ongoing. They were able to confirm that the bullet was in pristine condition, and therefore had not previously been loaded into a gun, which helped to alleviate some concerns.
As an overview of what Gorham does to ensure student safety within the schools, Perry listed all the standard measures in place at the schools to keep students safe. Each school has a fully developed emergency plan, which is revisited at least annually with the School Committee and local first responders. Perry believes each school also has well thought out plans for dealing with a myriad of safety concerns that once were never thought of in schools.
“Today, we think about them, we plan for them, and we train staff and students in how to address them through things like evacuation drills (10 required annually by state statute), lock down drills (two required annually by state statute), and other trainings such as table top discussions and live scenario trainings,” said Perry.
“Is there always more that we can do to prepare? Yes, and please know we continually strive to learn and grow in our safety practices for this very reason. This issue involving a bullet will be one we learn from and grow with so that future responses are always improving.”
Additionally, Perry stated that Gorham is moving towards updating its lock down plans in collaboration with local police to a new model known as ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate). Building principals, assistant principals, and program directors participated in a full, half-day scenario training recently on this model.
“Our leaders learned how to better communicate with one another under pressure, how to barricade doors, how to distract an active shooter, and how to “swarm” them in order to disarm and remove the danger,” said Perry.
Perry plans to send out additional information to parents later this spring on ALICE informed practices and Gorham’s implementation of those practices. She encourages any parents with questions about Gorham’s emergency procedures, or more specifically about the bullet that was found at GMS, to please reach out to her at heather.perry@gorhamschools.org or 222-1012.