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Safety is Always First

SAFETY IS . . . And Always WILL BE . . . Our TOP PRIORITY! --- Please know that providing a safe and secure environment at RMS for our students and staff is our /domain/4429/1 priority each and every day!  We know that if students do not feel safe, then learning cannot take place for our students.  Forsyth County Schools and Riverwatch Middle School have many practices and procedures in place to help safeguard your child every minute of every day to, from and on campus.  Detailed safety plans for all kinds of emergencies have been carefully planned, written, and put in place, and will be practiced quite frequently with our staff and students during the first few weeks of school.  We will continue to practice these drills in an organized way, and as if they were the real thing, throughout the school year.

RMS has a School Resource Officer, Ty Miller, who is based inside of our school and whom we share with both Settles Bridge and Sharon Elementary Schools.  He is on our campus on a regular basis, checking on things, talking to our students, and getting to know them.  All schools in the district have had their front entrances updated with a “buzz-in” and intercom feature for entrance after students have entered for the morning.  All visitors must now come to this single door and be buzzed in by a front office secretary who has a wide view of the entire person and the surrounding area.  Strict and technologically-sophisticated sign-in procedures for visitors, once they are buzzed in, are in place, and a driver’s license is required to check out a student.

Part of Riverwatch's standard operating procedures is to have our head custodian check the entire facility and campus early each morning to look for any unusual objects.  Phones are in every classroom, and administrators are in constant communication with each other, our SRO, and the front office through radios, as well as with the school district safety office through the use of cell phones.  Our phones come equipped with sophisticated technology that allows for tracing phone calls in the event of a bomb threat or other threatening phone calls. 

Our ºìÐÓÖ±²¥app Code of Conduct prohibits students from wearing over-length, over-sized, and baggy clothing, including coats inside the building, so that weapons and other contraband are less likely to be hidden on students.  The ºìÐÓÖ±²¥app Dress Code is enforced at Riverwatch.

All Forsyth County school buses are equipped with two-way radios so that they can be in constant communication with the transportation department and the school.  They also are equipped with GPS so that bus locations may be tracked at all times. Here at RMS we treat buses as an extension of RMS property. Therefore any disciplinary problems that occur while riding the bus will be handled as if they happened between the walls of our school. 

Diligent supervision of our students by our entire staff, from the moment they step foot on campus until they leave, is a daily practice.  Talking to our students about safety being a top priority, and letting them know that it is their responsibility also to let an adult know immediately if they see or hear something that could jeopardize this safety, is a practice we begin the first several days of school, and will continue to preach throughout the school year.  Rest assured any information of this nature that is shared with an administrator or counselor or teacher is held in the strictest confidence. 

These are just some of the practices and procedures we have in place.  We hope that you will spend some time with your child at the beginning of this school year discussing the importance of all these safety procedures, and let him/her know that it is also your expectation that he/she take personal responsibility in reporting anything he/she sees or hears that could jeopardize the safety of any or all of our students and staff. 

Parents, we encourage that any time you have concerns about the safety or well-being of your child, you will not hesitate to call a RMS administrator to discuss these concerns.  We want Riverwatch Middle School to be a place where all students, staff and parents feel safe and comfortable.  We believe it is.  But we need everyone’s help  to keep it that way throughout this school year.  Thanking you in advance for your help and support!