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Sheridan Community School Corporation has taken a more proactive approach to school-wide safety.

Sheridan Community School Corporation has taken a more proactive approach to school-wide safety.

According to a recently-released study from the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Services, the 2020-21 school year reported the highest number of school shootings to date. The study also shows that cyberbullying cases have doubled over the past decade.

During the previous school year, there were 93 school shootings with casualties at public and private elementary and secondary schools.

"Although the rate of nonfatal violent victimization at school for 12- to 18-year-olds was lower in 2019 than in 2009, there were more school shootings with casualties in 2021 than in any other year since data collection began in the early 2000s, increasing from 11 in 2009 to 93 in 2021," NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said in the study. "While the lasting impact of these crime and safety issues cannot be measured in statistics alone, these data are valuable to the efforts of our policymakers, school officials, and community members to identify and implement preventive and responsive measures."

With those stats in mind, Sheridan Community School Corporation is doing its part to be proactive in school safety and students' mental well-being.

"The first thing we did was look at updating our district's policies," Sheridan High School Assistant Principal Melissa Hampton said. "We started prioritizing those and seeing which ones need to be updated."

Hampton said they got the support of the school board. With that, she and her team performed safety audits of all of the schools in the district and inspected the building's perimeters, entrances, windows, cameras, door locks and the staff badge system, to make sure everything works properly.

"There are so many aspects of safety," she said. "It's not just weapons and security. Safety is also relationships and things that aren't necessarily policy, but procedures that we have."

Leslie Price was recently hired by the district to work as its compliance officer, and has specifically been working on safety procedures. Hampton said since her hire, Price has been instrumental in identifying and implementing what Sheridan needs to do to improve.

Many of the safety procedures Price has been checking have been on the administrative side, like the district's visitor policy.

"Realistically, policies and procedures are about making sure everybody understands the process and it's not just us, that's also making sure we collaborate with the local police department and the county police department," Newly-appointed Superintendent Dr. David Mundy said. "Because if we would happen to have an emergency, everybody's got to get here and know what to do."

Mundy said the district has to evolve and stay up to speed with its policies and procedures.

"No matter what we do, we cannot process every possible scenario, but we do have to take from what we know and learn," he said. "If something were to occur, there's a lot more safety in knowing where you should be heading or what you should do."

Part of updating policies and procedures is being able to follow up if a procedure is broken, Mundy said, and the district wants to be consistent in how it handles situations. He said that's a big reason why Price was hired - to get the district's employees on the same page.

One safety feature Price has implemented at Sheridan is the instillation of safety film on the windows. If a window is somehow broken, the film keeps it from shattering and spreading glass everywhere.

"We want to give everyone time to react and get to shelter and alert people," Price said.

Mundy said it's just as important for parents to be informed of school safety procedures as it is for the students.

"There's such an array of things to be on the lookout for," Mundy said. "We even talk about the mental health aspect of how we're looking into things. We want to make sure we do all we can to take care of our kiddos, which is what Sheridan does a good job of. That's the advantage of a small school is that we know all of our kids and we do everything we can to help them."

Some instant fixes the corporation has implemented has been the installation of vape detectors, glass break sensors and even loud noise sensors, all of which will notify school administrators when and where the incident is. Looking toward the future, Price and Hampton will be working with a team to develop a three-year plan that will allow them to outline what changes need to be made in the next few years.

Mundy will be presenting a State of the Schools session from 6:30-8 p.m. Aug. 30 at Sheridan Elementary School, 24795 Hinsley Road, Sheridan, where he will share information on a myriad of topics including demographics, future community growth, academics, facilities and more about safety updates and protocols.

“Communication is key to any successful organization,” Mundy said, “which is why I think it is so important to have sessions like this. I will do all I can to have open communication with our outstanding community. I look forward to this and future sessions.”

The Clarksville Challengers team is made up of players living with disabilities from across Southern Indiana.

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