MARSHALL — The new school year has begun for Marshall area schools, and various security implementations remain in place across all facilities to continue ensuring safety for all students and faculty.

Marshall Public School District, True Light Christian School and Holy Redeemer School officials all expressed that student and staff safety is the top priority, and all school sites have numerous safety protocols and measures in place.

School officials said all of their staff go through ALICE training, which are specific protocols used to prepare in the case of a crisis or violent situation. The acronym stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

“We work really closely with MPD (Marshall Police Department) … We have the SRO (school resource officer) that is on site and is always around,” Marshall Public Schools Superintendent Jeremy Williams said. “But, it’s not just him. If we need help, we will call MPD, so there is that level of support.”

Williams said Marshall has several safety measures in place, like an internal communications phone app for emergencies all faculty have, regular crisis management team meetings, and frequent staff and student training.

All of the Marshall school buildings also remain secure.

“Every building is locked down. We have secure entrances at all of our locations. You have to be buzzed in to come in,” Williams said. “We also have these safety plans in place at every building, that cover (situations) that every site needs.”

Williams said the district is also updating more security measures this year by working with the “I love U Guys” Foundation, which has several programs and trainings to further prepare for crisis response.

According to the foundation’s website, the programs are used in more than 50,000 schools, agencies and communities across the world, and are created with the collaboration of school administrators, psychologists, public space safety experts, families and first responders.

The foundation’s training programs are also continuously updated, noted on the website.

True Light Principal Zach Schubert also said the school has several safety precautions and trainings in place.

“We have two trainers for ALICE training on our staff, and those two trainers run our staff through ALICE training,” Schubert said. “We do multiple scenarios with ALICE, and then we have our teachers train our students on Alice protocols, starting in preschool.”

“Then, we actually run our middle schoolers and above through enhanced lockdown drills,” Schubert added. “All the doors are locked. I welcome the students each morning at the main door, that’s part of it, and then I do a sweep of the building each new day.”

The True Light classrooms are primarily on the second floor of the building, which faculty and rooms are also prepared for in the case of an emergency.

“We’ve done things like had our teachers practice breaking windows with staplers or, we have each room equipped with a proper device to do that,” Schubert said. “We got walkie-talkies in each room. Those are all set to the same frequency, and we practice with them, and that’s part of our emergency protocol (as well). I would want students to be able to grab that in the event that their teacher is not around, and know how to utilize that device.”

Each classroom also has a “Go Bucket,” Schubert noted, that holds essentials like liquids, snacks, injury wound patches, and other safety measures inside a five-gallon pale. The buckets were recommended as a part of the ALICE training.

“Everyone needs to participate in their own survival,” Schubert said. “It doesn’t matter what age you are, and it doesn’t matter (your) role in the school, you need to be prepared to participate in your own survival.”

Holy Redeemer Principal Ashley Honetschlager also affirmed the school’s safety implementations, and that staff are frequently trained with up-to-date protocols.

“We are a locked down building throughout the entirety of our day. You have to have a fob to get in any of our doors, which only our staff members and local law enforcement have,” Honetschlager said. “We have visitors enter through one door, and they are actually stopped outside of our office. They have to ring the doorbell, and they’re talked to through the doorbell to ask what their purpose is.”

Williams, Honetschlager and Schubert also noted their schools follow all of the state-mandated drills numerous times over the year like tornado, fire, lockdowns and evacuations. The three said all of their students, down to the elementary levels, are involved in drills and emergency training.

“We perform all of those drills on site, and our staff is ALICE trained,” Honetschlager said. “Throughout the building, we are fully secured. We have here a live security camera feed that is on 24/7.”

The classrooms across town are back with eager and excited students ready to kick off another school year, and student safety will remain as the greatest importance, reaffirmed by all school officials.

“We train our staff, but then revisit throughout the year, so that we are as up to date and ready as we can be if there were to be any situation that were to happen,” Honetschlager said. “It’s our number one priority to keep our students safe, that is what we strive for.”