On September 20th, 2023 Falls Church High School went into a “secure the building” status. A photograph of a student in possession of an apparent firearm in the surrounding area was spread around the FC community.
“We just had a situation where we wanted to make sure all the students and staff were safe,” said head of security Trevor Black.
Many students and parents within the FC community were not aware of the situation that arose on September 20th, which raises the question: “What are the procedures for keeping parents informed about emergency situations happening within the school?”
“Us parents worry about our kids’ safety and well-being in the event of an emergency,” said Prema Modak, the parent of a student attending FCHS.
Students know what to do in the case of an emergency. During school hours, the administrative team conducts frequent drills to prepare students for emergencies such as fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and lock downs. These are countywide procedures.
“It’s not a recipe. It’s like – here’s the situation, here’s the status we’re in, and this is what we need to do with the number one priority being what’s going to be safest for students and staff,” said principal Ben Nowak.
In the case of a real emergency, students and staff are informed through the school’s PA system. For example, when the fire alarm was set off, students were informed of the situation through the PA system.
Before 1st period on November 15 at 8:03 am students were directed to evacuate the building due to a burning smell. Students were instructed to wait outside until the situation was resolved. At 9:03 am Principal Ben Nowak informed the community of the incident through mass email and the school PA system.
“Most importantly we want you guys to have fun but yet still be safe and we don’t want people to panic, so anything that’s gonna be of that nature when instructions need to be followed, we do it through the PA system,” said Black.
Another precaution taken by the school for emergency situations is having a School Resource Officer (SRO) on school premises. SROs are Fairfax County police officers who work within the school buildings.
“We want to make sure we’re always in contact with law enforcement and emergency services to make sure that we would have everything in the event that something happened,” said Black.
At FCHS, the main concern is the safety of people in the building. In the event of an emergency, the security staff’s main priority is to keep everyone safe but more importantly, to make sure that everyone in the building follows the proper procedures which are put in place beforehand based on the emergency scenario.
“I want students and staff to know [that] I want to help them be clear on what those different scenarios are,” said Nowak
However, there is always room for improvement. High schools have bigger campuses than elementary and middle schools, but are still not provided with sufficient security staff, according to Nowak.
Nowak said, “Campuses are so big, highschool campuses and secondary school campuses, we have so many doors and especially us now with all the trailers out there during construction, we just need more people to be present throughout the building.”
