The McMinnville School District routinely trains and discusses practices important to school safety. Besides practicing security and evacuation drills, as part of the 2016 bond upgrades, the district has made physical and technological improvements to schools to monitor building access and increase safety.
Beyond the drills and building upgrades, the McMinnville School District mindfully works to build strong relationships with students and to create a school culture and climate that is welcoming and nurturing. This work is not only intended to improve learning outcomes, but is also designed to create and sustain safe schools.
As part of building strong relationships, our secondary staff focuses on helping students understand the importance of speaking up. If they see or hear or read something that might indicate possible youth violence, it’s important to speak up. This strategy is based on statistics that show in four out of five school shootings, at least one other person had knowledge of the attacker’s plan but failed to report it.
McMinnville High School has an anonymous tip line (503.565.4299) that students can use and the district also participates in the Safe Oregon statewide project that allows anonymous reporting of tips via phone, text or message app.
Our students’ safety is paramount and central to our mission of teaching, learning and relationship-building.