As he has in the past in the wake of school shootings, schools Superintendent John Ravally on September 4 sought to assure parents and students that the school district is taking every precaution to safeguard students and staff in the District’s 10 schools.

Ravally’s letter, sent a day before the start of the 2024-25 school year, was spurred by a shooting earlier in the day at Apalachee High School in Georgia, which left two student and two teachers dead, and nine other students wounded.

A 14-year-old student of the school has been charged with the deaths and injuries, and his father has been charged with several crimes, including involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving his son the AR-style gun used in the shooting.

In the letter, Ravally reveiewd teh steps the District has taken to boost safety in the schools.

“First and foremost, the district has developed a comprehensive emergency response and management plan that is housed in all district schools and offices,” Ravally wrote. “The plan has also been shared widely with the appropriate authorities at the local, county and state levels. The plan is reviewed regularly and updated at least annually, ensuring it remains relevant. District staff have in previous school years and will continue this school year to work with students to drill all types of situations beyond a typical fire drill.”

“In addition, as previously mentioned, the district has committed the necessary resources to update and improve school surveillance systems and now has the capability to share video and audio with emergency responders as necessary and at a moment’s notice,” he wrote. “The district has also upgraded its communication systems and now has the ability to connect directly across campuses and with local law enforcement in the event of an emergency, from anywhere in the district and from most locations throughout Franklin Township.”

“At each campus, ‘panic buttons’ have been strategically deployed, giving school personnel another mechanism for notifying local authorities about emergency situations,” Ravally said.

The District has also upgraded school facilities, Ravally wrote.

“In partnership with the Franklin Township Police Department we continue to have a police presence on each campus, a law enforcement officer in the form of a School Resource Officer or a Class III Police Officer is assigned to each of our schools to enhance and supplement our district’s safety officer teams,” he wrote. “School security staff have also been engaged in de-escalation techniques and have learned emergency response techniques.”

“As we prepare to usher in the new school year tomorrow I want to reassure you that we will continue to work on providing students with more voice and opportunity and encourage them to take an active role in helping to curb violence and improve climate in our schools,” Ravally wrote. “As we have said in the past, while no one person can provide a guarantee that a tragedy like the one that occurred in Georgia will not happen in his or her school, what we do know is preparation helps to minimize the risk.”

“As we start the new school year tomorrow, the Board of Education, administrators, faculty and staff at Franklin Township Public Schools will continue to take all potential threats seriously and, as mentioned above, are continually working to safeguard our staff and students from potential harm,” Ravally wrote.