HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — All Hillsborough County Public Schools will be broadcasting a video to students on Friday.
In a letter sent to parents, the district wrote the video gives a broad overview of the district’s security procedures.
School officials made an effort to make the nine-minute-long video appropriate for most age groups to not frighten young kids. The video uses the term “threat” and does not mention guns, intruders or other specific terms.
The video focuses on security procedures like locked gates, what teachers and students should do during a lock-down, and the difference between the security terms the district uses such as lock-in, lock-out, and lock-down.
In the letter sent to parents, it reads:
"There are NO images of graphic violence. The only “simulation” or “re-enactment” is during a segment about “See Something? Say Something!” A student pushes someone to the ground — and that student then gets in trouble after another student tells an adult about what she saw."
School administrators are planning to broadcast the video to classrooms Friday at 9:30 a.m.
- It will be watched together by teachers and students in high school and middle school.
- In elementary schools, teachers and principals will use their discretion on whether to watch the video with students in the room.
Teachers who have crucial testing going on, or are at P.E., or otherwise can’t watch at 9:30 will watch the video online at a time that works for them, district officials said in the message.
The goal is to make sure all of the people in Hillsborough County Schools are familiar with the basics of the district's security procedures.
"This video is a broad overview, and it’s important to know that every school has its own crisis response team and emergency plans, which are shared with local law enforcement," the letter reads. "We do not make all of the details of those plans public, so they remain effective tools."
Officials are asking any students with security-related questions to ask them to their principal.
