BURLINGTON – Chief Thomas P. Browne reports that the Burlington Police Department, in collaboration with the I Love U Guys Foundation, hosted a two-day “train the trainers” workshop on standard school safety response protocol and reunification that reached nearly 200 first responders and school staff.
The training focuses on developing a Standard Response Protocol for incidents of any size on a school campus. This includes developing common language between school officials and first responders to eliminate confusion and enhance response.
A key part of the Protocol is reunification, the process of safely reuniting students and families following an incident.
The training was held on Thursday, Nov. 2, and Friday, Nov. 3, at the Cafe Escadrille in Burlington.
It was attended by 11 Burlington Police Officers, the Department’s mental health clinician, 12 Burlington Public Schools employees, including most of the school leadership, two School Committee members, and a representative of the Burlington Recreation Department.
Total attendance included nearly 200 first responders and school officials from around the U.S. and Canada, who learned how to train others on Standard Response Protocol and reunification.
The Foundation was formed in 2006 by Ellen Stoddard-Keyes and John Michael Keyes, whose daughter Emily was taken hostage and slain by an armed gunman at Platte Canyon High School in Colorado. Her last text message to her father was: “i love you guys.”
“The I Luv U Guys Foundation provides free resources for schools, businesses and government agencies to adopt Standard Response Protocol, and the Burlington Police Department recommends that all businesses, schools and non-profits adopt it,” said Lt. Glen Mills, who helped to organize the training. “This protocol is flexible enough for any organization and can help to save lives in a major emergency.”
The New England State Police Information Network provided audio/visual support during training.
“We are extremely grateful to the I Luv U Guys Foundation for coming to Burlington and providing this invaluable and potentially life-saving training to so many of our local first responders,” said Chief Browne. “This is training we hope we will never need, but we are constantly preparing ourselves to respond quickly and effectively if a crisis does occur in Burlington Schools, and this training is extremely important.”
About the I Luv You Guys Foundation:
The I Love U Guys Foundation’s programs for crisis response and post-crisis reunification are used in more than 45,000 schools, districts, departments, agencies, organizations and communities around the world. They are created through the research-based best practices of school administrators, psychologists, public space safety experts, families, and first responders.
To learn more, visit: https://iloveuguys.org/.
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