Safety Letter 9/15/25

Posted September 15, 2025

Dear Swigert Community,

I know school safety is a primary concern for all of us and we are all heightened given recent and local events. These events shake you to your core- schools should be safe places. I cannot offer any assurances but can share what we have in place- both as a school and district- to support safety at school. 

We do have safety drills- outlined below- mandated by Denver Public Schools that we need to complete twice a year. We happen to have ours scheduled for tomorrow (9.15.25) morning. We will share information with students and let them know about the drills prior to them starting. Staff from DPS Department of Safety and Security come to the school to provide guidance and feedback before, during and after the drills. Over the intercom DPS shares with the school that we are beginning our drills and to go into “Lockdown” or “Secure Perimeter. ” We tell the students we are practicing in the event that we are in a challenging situation. Our goal is always to keep them safe. That being said, I know this can be traumatic for students and staff. Please let me know if your student needs a check in or time with our social emotional staff.

Policies:

• Point of Entry – All visitors to the building are required to enter the building using only the main entrance on Syracuse Street. Please access the building by ringing the buzzer on the left side of the main doors. Once inside, you will need to provide a Driver’s License to the front office in order to receive a visitor’s pass. Your pass must be worn at all times while in the building for easy identification. When you have completed volunteering, please check out the office so we are aware of who is in the building at all times.
• Exterior Doors– All exterior doors are locked throughout the day. Doors are opened at the beginning of the day and end of day for entry and exit. Swigert Staff are at entry points in the morning. Propping doors is expressly forbidden. We ask all teachers to keep their access badges with them at all times so that they can access the building using the doors that have card reader access.

Safety Drills:

Swigert, like all Denver Public Schools, is required to make sure that we practice safety drills so that we are prepared for any theoretical emergency. To stay compliant, we have a fire drill once a month.  During a fire drill students walk silently outside with their teacher to an assigned spot. All teachers take attendance. Administrators make sure we have all students accounted for before returning to the building. In addition to fire drills we practice 3 other drills at the beginning of the school year, and a 2nd time after winter break

• Shelter in Place – Shelter-in-Place occurs when there is a hazard of a tornado or a severe weather warning and it has been determined by the Department of Safety with the assistance of outside agencies that evacuation or early dismissal could possibly place students in danger. If it is a tornado students go to assigned safe places in the building and get close to the ground. Students are assigned to places away from windows and any type of glass in the event of strong winds.
• Lockdown– A lockdown takes place when a hazardous threat or a possible hazardous threat has been identified inside of the building or in close proximity to the school. All exterior and interior doors are locked and students stay within the school. If students are in the classroom they go to an area away from windows and doors. They sit together in silence. No entry or exit to the school is allowed during this response. In the event of a lockdown, remember, “Lock, Lights, Out of Sight.” If students are outside during a lockdown they are instructed to run to a reunification site. Our Reunification site is a few blocks from school, please see map below.

• Secure Perimeter – A secure perimeter takes place when a threat has been identified in the area of your child’s school. All exterior doors are locked to prevent any hazards or threats to enter the school. No entry or exit to the school is allowed during this response. Students and staff inside the building continue school as usual, going to and from specials, lunch etc. Students cannot be picked up for appointments during this time and adults cannot come into the building. If students are outside we sweep them into the building as soon as the secure perimeter is called (due to the threat being outside the school building.

If a secure perimeter is called near dismissal time we are not allowed to dismiss students until we get an all clear from Denver Schools Safety and Security. They need to do a sweep of the outside area and be able to say it’s safe to dismiss students. They recommend families wait to come to pick up their kids or stay in their cars. Teachers, staff, and admin often don’t know what the threat is but know we need to follow the guidelines to keep our students safe. Denver Public Schools sends out an immediate message to let you all know what is going on but there is little detail to the why or what is happening. I know this is very challenging and difficult. We will update you with our own communication as soon as we are able to do so or when we have additional information

Communication from school – It is always our goal to make sure our community is as well informed as is possible. In regards to school safety, we will communicate with you as soon as practically possible and with as much information as possible while still maintaining personal privacy. Our number one priority is always student safety. 

Safe2tell – Safe2Tell provides students, parents, and community members a safe and anonymous way to report information about any issues that concern their safety or the safety of others. Safe2Tell’s reporting process is simple. You can access Safe2Tell at www.safe2tell.org, or call 1-877-642-7233.

I know this is hard information is layered and challenging. The National Association of School Psychologist has a website with recommendations for parents on how to talk to their children about school violence that I find helpful in my parent hat: National Association of School Psychologist Publication. There are also some great children’s book about anxiety and worry that can support conversations:

Online Read Alouds: The Very Hungry Worry Monsters, Hey Warrior, Nervous Ninja

Please reach out to Shelby Dennis, Amber Holthus-Pera, or Richard Fisher with further questions!

Sincerely,

The Swigert Admin Team