On Thursday evening, Dec. 1, Gorham School Department and Gorham Police Department collaboratively shared an important presentation on school safety for parents and guardians of Gorham Middle School and Gorham High School.
Though the audience was small, Assistant Superintendent Brian Porter, GHS Principal Brian Jandreau, and GMS Principal Quinton Donahue kicked off the evening with a welcome and slideshow that included a videoclip from PBS Newshour about the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. The foundation was created after 28 people were murdered at Sandy Hook
Elementary School, and seeks to help prevent further gun violence by educating youth on “knowing the signs” and speaking up if they see someone is showing the signs of potential violence.
Gorham Police Department shared information about their training at the local, state and national level to ensure they are prepared for any emergency that may arise in our schools. Chief Sanborn leads regional school safety training, and was joined by Deputy Chief Nault, as well as all three of the School Resource Officers, Gagnon, Sanborn, and Smolinsky. The officers shared details of the resources and partners they work with to study and learn from events involving school emergencies.
The research has helped Gorham to shift to utilizing ALICE training, a training and response protocol that adjusts accordingly for different ages of students and different situations. ALICE is an acronym that stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate.
Both school and police officials made clear the most important prevention is the building of strong and trusting relationships, between students, staff and their two agencies. Both principals spoke about their schools’ efforts to foster those important relationships through advisory programs, social-emotional learning activities, and having open communication.
Audience members were able to ask questions, and provided feedback and suggestions for improved communications between the school and families in the event of an emergency.
The audience left with a clear understanding and appreciation that the school department and police department are working collaboratively to prepare and train for any emergency that may impact our schools, and there are comprehensive plans that are designed to be flexible and responsive to any situation.