Safe Schools

The Collierville School District strives to establish and maintain both physically and psychologically safe, orderly, and secure work and learning environments for all students and employees.  Safe Schools are defined as schools and school-related activities where students and staff feel safe from threats and hazards that have the potential to impact student learning or participation in extra-curricular events. 

School Safety Specialist
Contact Mr. Jay Reese at (901) 286-6706.

On this page:

Keeping your child safe
Visitor sign in procedures
Concerns about bullying
How does the district handle threats of violence?
Emergency management
Emergency communications
Reunification
What is the difference between shelter-in-place vs. lockdown? 

Keeping your child safe

The safety of our students and staff is our number one priority.

Be sure your school has your current telephone number and emergency contact information on file. Contact your child’s school to update your information.

You can help your student(s) stay safe by talking to them about personal safety. Some tips to discuss include: 

• Report incidents as soon as they happen.
• Be aware of surroundings.
• Not talking to strangers or going anywhere with them.
• Walking to school or activities in pairs of groups.

Visitor sign in procedures

Except on occasions, such as schools programs, athletic events, open house and similar public events; all visitors will report to the school office when entering the school. Visitors must follow check-in procedures including, but not limited to, identification verification. Authorization to visit elsewhere in the building or on the school campus will be determined by the principal or designee. Guest passes shall be issued for all persons other than students and employees of the school.

Persons who come onto school property shall be under the jurisdiction of the site administrator/designee. Individuals who come onto school property or who contact employees on school or district business are expected to behave accordingly. Specifically, actions that are prohibited include, but are not limited to:

1. Cursing and use of obscenities;

2. Disrupting or threatening to disrupt school or office operations;

3. Acting in an unsafe manner that could threaten the health or safety of others;

4. Verbal or written statements or gestures indicating intent to harm an individual or property; and

5. Physical attacks intended to harm an individual or substantially damage property.

Policy 1.501 Visitors to the Schools

Concerns about bullying

The Collierville Board of Education has determined that a safe, civil, and supportive environment in school is necessary for students to learn and achieve high academic standards. In order to maintain that environment, acts of bullying, cyber-bullying, discrimination, harassment, hazing or any other victimization of students, based on any actual or perceived traits or characteristics, are prohibited.

Visit the Bullying, Harassment, and Title IX page for more information.

How does the district handle threats of violence?

All lethal or potentially lethal statements whether verbal, written, including electronic are to be taken seriously and investigated by the District Threat Assessment Team. Bomb threats or weapons on campus are considered to be threats of violence.

If student has a weapon or the threat is imminent call the Police (911). You can also reach the District Threat Assessment Coordinator at (901) 286-6396.

Emergency management

Each school day, across the nation our schoolhouses are entrusted to provide a safe and healthy environment for our students. Using lessons learned from past school emergency situations, school officials and first responders implement safety measures and Emergency Operations Plans. By having plans in place to keep students and staff safe, schools play a key role in the prevention, response, and recovery of emergency situations. Although they are not traditional first responders, school staff must respond immediately when a school-based emergency occurs by providing timely decisions and working with community partners to provide a cohesive, coordinated response. 

The safety and security of all Collierville Schools students and staff is our highest priority. In accordance with Tennessee state law and Collierville Schools policy, all school staff receive training in a variety of emergency procedures and scenarios each year. Additionally, both students and school personnel practice safety drills throughout the year to promote and encourage preparedness in the event of an emergency situation. Both the District and each school site has an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) that adheres to Tennessee and FEMA guidelines: Prevention, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. All EOP plans are reviewed and updated on an annual basis.  

School Safety Mission Statement
The Collierville Schools District is committed to creating safe, secure, and respectful learning environments where all community members work together to promote both the physical and psychological safety of students and staff. Physical safety includes measures such as preparedness planning, visitor check-in and identification badges, video surveillance, and practice drills to prepare for a host of potential incidents. District and school emergency operation plans are aligned with the recommendations from state guidelines, the office of Homeland Security, and local emergency responders.

Psychological safety provides for the social-emotional well-being of students and works to create positive school climates through measures such as bullying prevention, mental health awareness, threat assessment, restorative practices, and early identification and intervention for at-risk students.

Emergency communications

Accurate and timely communication with families during an active school emergency is essential to maintaining student safety. During an active school emergency, Collierville Schools will utilize ParentSquare’s urgent alert feature (SMS text, app notification, email, and audio message) to communicate with families. 

Examples of an active school emergency include, shelter in place, lockdowns, fire, active shooter, school closure, or other incident requiring urgent communication. ParentSquare will be used for standard, non-emergency communication using user preferred notification settings. 

Effective communication is important within our Collierville Schools community. As a parent/guardian, please make it a priority to update your contact information, whenever there is a change, with your child’s school. Current cell phone numbers are critical as we may have to send you a text message in the event of an active school emergency.

Collierville Schools will communicate as frequently as possible with parents/guardians to keep them informed during an emergency situation. Here are some tips for caregivers when an emergency occurs on or near a Collierville Schools campus.

• Do not call the school and try to keep cellular network usage at a minimum for a clear pathway to emergency agencies
• Monitor your mobile device for ParentSquare messages and check the Collierville Schools district website and social media for updated information.
• In case of an evacuation to a second location, wait for communication from the school or district to which location your child’s campus will evacuate.
• The process may seem chaotic; however, district and school staff have trained and practiced for such eventualities
• The complete process in an emergency situation may take time and requires all stakeholder support for safety reasons of all students and staff. 
• Remember that during certain emergency situations, such as a Lockdown, all school business will cease until the threat has been cleared.

Reunification

Collierville Schools will use an online based reunification system that is connected with PowerSchool. It is vital that all of your PowerSchool information along with your emergency contacts contain their legal name that appears on their government identification. You must have your government issued ID in hand in order for your student to be released. 

We want to thank you for your patience in the event a reunification must occur. We share the same goal during this process; getting you and your student back together as quickly as possible.