Dear SMS Families,
I am sure by now most of you have heard about the tragic school shooting that took place in Tennessee today. There really is no way to make it make sense. We live in an extremely damaged world. Please join us as we pray for all of the victims of this tragedy, as well as for the conversion of the soul of our country to God.
We take safety very seriously at SMS, but any school would be foolish to think that they have everything figured out. We are confident of our security plan, but I assure you we are vigilant, constantly working on improving the safety of our students and staff. Our agreement with the Ripley Police Department is in place, and uniformed officers are on our campus every day. We continue to have a partnership with our school safety advisors Don Rabold and Ken Stuckey at the Brown County ESC, and earlier this year were awarded with the Ohio Safety Grant that will help us drastically update the security and systems in place on our campus. In fact, we are cancelling school next Thursday, April 6 to prepare for all of the security installations that will be happening at SMS over spring break. Although I cannot tell you about all of the security equipment that is being installed, it is safe to say that this is a major upgrade in our security capabilities at school. I assure you it will not end with these measures either. We will continue to work with our safety team, local law enforcement our staff and families to make SMS as safe as possible.
Thank you for your support, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about our safety plan at SMS.
Sincerely,
Andy Arn