URGENT!
December 19, 2012
Dear Parents, Guardians and Community Members,
With the recent tragic events in Connecticut, school safety has come to the forefront. Our condolences go out to the victims and their families. We hope that we are never faced with anything like this in our community, but we want to be as prepared as possible for any critical incident.
With this tragedy fresh in our minds we wanted to communicate with you about safety in our Raton Schools. We are proud of the fact that we have been working on these type situations all school year. The schools in collaboration with the Raton Police Department, Raton Fire Department, Colfax County Sheriff’s Office, and the New Mexico State Police have been assessing and adjusting our safety plans since August. We have had active shooter training at RHS and have been in the planning process at the other schools.
Going forward there will be increased security measures at all of our schools. We are in the process of installing door bells at each school. Beginning January 7, 2013 we will be asking people to use the doorbells and be prepared to show a picture ID before access will be granted to any of the schools. We know that some of these measures may cause an inconvenience to some of the common practices of parent- student interaction within the school. However, they are being implemented to insure the safety of the students and staff of the Raton Public Schools.
We appreciate all of our community helping us by accepting these new safety measures. We also need your help in being vigilant of potential threats. If you become aware of anything that could be a potential threat or dangerous situation for our students or staff, please don’t hesitate to call either the Raton Schools at 575-445-9111 or the Raton Police Department at 575-445-2704, or any of the other law enforcement agencies.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation on this all important issue.
Sincerely,
David Willden, Superintendent, Raton Public Schools
Terry Sisneros, Chief, Raton Police Department