May 27, 2022
Dear Great Falls School Families,
It has been an emotional week but your children continue to be loved, supported, and happy here at school. Thank you so much for joining us at our 10-year (belated) birthday celebration. The joy, smiles, and genuine happiness displayed by our students were just what we all needed during this difficult time. It felt like a true Great Falls community event that we have been missing. Thank you!
Despite the recent happiness and celebration, it is hard to deny our feeling of immense heartbreak about the Texas school shooting. I want to extend a reminder that we take safety procedures and protocols very seriously at Great Falls and we work diligently to ensure that our staff and students are well prepared in case of an emergency.
The District’s emergency management plan includes a safety program called ALICE. ALICE is a research-based, proactive, options-based, empowering program for responding to a dangerous incident. ALICE is an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. With regard to classroom messaging to K-5 students, as in years past, we continue to keep this information developmentally appropriate and simple. Students know that we regularly conduct emergency lessons for everyone’s safety including evacuations during a Fire Alarm.
ALICE calls for our children to focus on the teacher and other school adults for specific directions depending on the situation. Our staff is trained to respond in a variety of ways, making the decision that will best ensure the safety of the students in their care. In order for these actions to be met with success, our students are coached to stop, look, listen and follow directions without questions in these variable situations.
Our emergency lessons using ALICE protocols occurred early in the school year. In the first lesson, the teacher facilitated a discussion on what it means to be safe at school, read the book I’m Not Scared, I’m Prepared: I Know About ALICE to the class, and highlighted the procedures to use during an emergency: stop, look, listen and follow teacher directions without question. In the second lesson, the teacher introduced an age-appropriate scenario to practice how to respond if there is an emergency in our building. Examples of emergencies shared include a burst water pipe in the hallway or an animal in the building. These were practice scenarios only to demonstrate the need to “STOP, LOOK and LISTEN”, which is revisited throughout the school year. We will continue to regularly review all of our safety procedures and make modifications as needed to keep our school community safe.
Thank you for your compassion towards our school community as we work together to cope and support one another. Please enjoy the holiday weekend with your family and friends. As always, please feel free to call if you have any concerns or questions regarding your child. I am available through email at becky.fortier@gorhamschools.org and by phone at 222-1050. Take care and be well!
Kind regards,
Becky Fortier
Great Falls Principal
