Early in the morning, hundreds of students arrive at school ready to learn. However, learning is only possible in a safe environment. Previously, Dr. Ryan Smith was in charge of safety within the school district. This year, Dr. Smith announced that he is leaving Freedom to take another job. This leaves an opportunity for any of the district’s principals to fill his role as Safety Coordinator. 

Superintendent Ms. Diane Workman approached Mr. Jeffery Griffith and asked if he would be interested in taking on the role of safety coordinator for the district. Mr. Griffith accepted the position and will be replacing Dr. Smith. 

“Now I am the assistant principal of the high school. Most of my duties are all related to high school,” Griffith said, “So the thing I like about this job, and the reason I was interested in taking the job, is that it ties into the elementary school and middle school, where I worked at both for a little bit. That is the big thing for me. It is kind of a cool part about the job.”

As safety coordinator, Mr. Griffith will work with evacuation drills, fire drills and any kind of active intruder drills where the building is evacuated. The last time the district had an all- schools evacuation was several years ago. This drill had all three schools evacuated and walk to their designated meeting spots. 

“My biggest thing that I want to accomplish is that I want to communicate with all the staff and students what we do in certain situations so we are all on the same page. If there is an active intruder, everyone will know what they should do. If there is a fire drill, everyone knows what they should do. A lot of that kind of stuff. Just making sure that communication is there and that everyone is on the same page when it comes to safety-related stuff,” Griffith said. 

Aside from drills, this position focuses on many other forms of safety. This position is also responsible for any kind of updates to anything safety-related. This includes making sure smoke detectors are working and making sure we are prepared for any situation to the best of our abilities. 

Safety is always a top priority of a school district. They strive to make sure students have a safe environment to learn and go about their days. Safety for the district can be as simple as salting the front entrance or as complex as setting up evacuation routes and plans. Nevertheless, every aspect of safety should be accounted for and nothing should be left untouched.  

“I think Dr. Smith and our resource officers have done a great job with making sure the school stays safe. I don’t have any direct concerns, but I think one of the things that we will first do is review everything and make sure there aren’t any holes,” Griffith said.