Medford School District conducts safety drill | SchoolWatch | #schoolsaftey

MEDFORD, Ore. — The Medford School District will conduct a safety drill on Thursday to enhance student and staff safety.

The Medford School District is conducting a safety drill to enhance student and staff safety.  It is partnered with the Medford Police Department, Medford Fire Department, Jackson County, and Asante and Providence hospitals to create a realistic emergency incident. 

“Safety and security are shared values in the Medford School District,” said District Superintendent Bret Champion. “Any opportunity we have to enhance, enhance our safety and security, we double down on.”

Medford Police Chief Justin Ivens says the primary objective of the drill is to address critical needs that underpin the emergency response system.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in these types of events, but we can only get better,” Ivens said. “We want schools to be a safe place for students and staff to be and not have to worry about these types of events.”

The U.S. has faced at least 202 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The district began planning the drill in the fall.  Ron Havniear is the director of security for the Medford School District, and he said these emergency incidents require community-level solutions. 

“We want to build trust with our community and our parents and let them know that we do have a process in place: ‘Here’s how it works, here’s what you can expect,’ and in order to do that, we have to drill this. We have to practice it. We have to involve our community members.”

During the drill on Thursday, June 22, roads near Oakdale Middle School will be blocked until 2 p.m.

Mariah Hill is a news producer/reporter at NewsWatch 12. You can reach Mariah at mariahhill@kdrv.com.