NEW RICHMOND, Ohio — Safety assessors from the Ohio School Safety Center were on the grounds of New Richmond Exempted Village Schools on Tuesday conducting a planned Intruder Detection Assessment, a security drill requested by the district to test how staff respond to an unauthorized person on campus.
The district said the assessment was “planned and requested” in advance and emphasized that the state safety center’s staff “ARE NOT real intruders” and that the exercise “DID NOT place staff or students in harm’s way.” The district posted the notice to reassure families and staff who might otherwise be alarmed by unfamiliar people moving through school buildings.
An Intruder Detection Assessment is a formal evaluation carried out by subject-matter experts from the Ohio School Safety Center, a state agency that works with Ohio’s K-12 schools on security planning. The assessment gives districts an outside, third-party look at their physical security, lockdown procedures and staff training, according to the center. It is designed to surface vulnerabilities that staff working inside a building every day might not notice on their own, and to give administrators documented findings they can use to support requests for additional training or security upgrades.
Only a superintendent or someone with similar authority may request the assessment, according to the Ohio School Safety Center. Local law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over the school are also invited to take part in the assessment and in a debrief afterward, the center said.
Paul Daniels serves as superintendent of New Richmond Exempted Village Schools, which serves students in and around New Richmond in Clermont County. The district directed families seeking more information about the assessment program to the Ohio School Safety Center’s website.
The information contained in this story was obtained from New Richmond Exempted Village Schools.