Students, faculty and staff at Saxe Middle School underwent about 30 minutes of “sheltering in place” Wednesday morning after the Farm Road facility “received a non-credible, anonymous communication,” according to the superintendent of schools.
The incident triggered “a brief safety protocol,” Dr. Bryan Luizzi said in an email sent around 11:30 a.m. to the New Canaan Public Schools community.
“Following our established security procedures and operating out of an abundance of caution, administration immediately initiated a ‘shelter in place’ protocol for all students and staff in the building,” Luizzi said in the email. “The situation lasted for approximately 30 minutes before normal operations resumed.”
Under the district’s safety procedures, sheltering in place is triggered “when a problem occurs outside the school or a non-crisis event inside of the school (i.e. medical emergency).” When sheltering, all exterior doors are locked, no one is allowed in or out of the building and regular classroom instruction continues.
The school day was “minimally interrupted, and students are safely continuing with their regular schedules,” Luizzi said.
He continued: “These events have been occurring statewide and nationally at an increasing rate. In the NCPS, our Crisis Advisory Board continually reviews our school and district security protocols to ensure they are aligned with best practices from the FBI and the Connecticut Intelligence Center.”
The district’s Crisis Advisory Board or ‘CAB’ meets each month and includes NCPS administrators, directors, managers and supervisors the opportunity to confer with members of town agencies, including the fire and police departments, Office of Emergency Management and New Canaan EMS.
The police officers who are assigned to each public school in New Canaan—called “school resource officers,” or SROs—as well as the district’s campus monitors “actively” monitor and secure the schools, Luizzi said.
“We are incredibly proud of how efficiently our students and staff responded during this event,” he said in the email. “Thank you for your ongoing partnership and support.”