Canon-McMillan District Teachers Receive School Safety Training
Here’ s What’ s Hatching at Cecil Elementary
It was 21 days of waiting in anticipation. Then, finally, there was a small sign of life – a tiny air hole that punctured the egg. But what would the chicks look like? How many would there be? Students in Mrs. Ashley Sharpnack’ s and Mrs. Samantha Jacobs’ first-grade classes at Cecil Elementary got to experience these questions first hand with an embryology program sponsored by 4-H. Starting in February, the students were visited by Ms. Pam Paletta from the 4-H Penn State Extension office in Washington, who taught them how to care for the eggs and what to expect once they hatched. Along with the chick eggs, she also brought everyone a surprise- duck eggs! After her departure, the students took turns over the next three weeks rotating the eggs and checking the temperature and humidity of the incubator three times a day. Finally, day 21 arrived. With the help of the technology department, a web camera was set up on one of the incubators and a link was sent out to the staff and parents. When not in school, all staff, students, and parents were able to view the hatching of the eggs through their home computers or smart phones. One day later, the first grade students were watching 10 chicks learning to walk, eat and drink. But that wasn’ t all the excitement that was in store for students: One week later, the ducklings decided it was their turn. The eggs were once again pierced with a tiny crack and the eggs began to roll and move as the ducklings broke free into the world. The students enjoyed watching the ducklings grow over the next few days, but their favorite part? Watching them swim in their small pond created out of a plastic container and rocks!“ This project was such an amazing learning experience for our students! We hope that it is something that they will remember for many years to come,” Mrs. Sharpnack stated.
Mrs. Jacobs agreed.
“ It was wonderful to see the excitement in our students, parents and staff during the completion of this project! The ability to bring the classroom into each student’ s home and share our project with parents made it even more exciting and special!” she said. Check out some more photos of the fun: anon-Mac
CANON-MAC SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
Canon-McMillan District Teachers Receive School Safety Training
After showing a five-minute surveillance video with chilling audio of the Columbine High School shootings, North Strabane Township Police Officer Jonathan Miles apologized to the auditorium full of Canon- McMillan teachers for having to show it at all at the April 26 in service training. But police, he said, need their help. It’ s tragic but true: Between 2000 and 2013, there have been 160 violent
Principal Dave Helinski( left) discusses ALICE training with School Resource Officer Eric Spicer, of the North Strabane Township Police Department).
incidents at high schools across the country – more than 11 each year- that resulted in 1,043 innocent people being either injured or killed. And because these incidents often involve an active shooter whose aim is to harm as many people as possible, lockdowns aren’ t always the most effective means at keeping a school and its inhabitants safe.
That, Officer Miles and School Resource Officer Eric Spicer said, is where ALICE comes in.
ALICE is active-shooter training that aims to teach educators how to eradicate the“ it can’ t happen to me” mentality and change the way people in schools respond to armed intruders.
During the morning-long training of teachers district-wide, officers from both North Strabane and Canonsburg( including middle school resource Officer Carl Fetcko) shared the core principles of ALICE, an easy-to-remember acronym that stands for Alert, Lock down, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.
Teachers in all buildings were able to learn about how to respond
proactively to an armed intruder – and understand how best to defend and protect themselves and their students in case such an incident ever happened.
The officers stressed: That being mentally prepared is half the battle, that teachers and students are not helpless in emergency situations, and that if they see or hear something that doesn’ t seem right, to say something.
He told the teachers and administrators in attendance to remember what the gazelle does when it believes it is in danger.
“ Does it do what we do and say,‘ Eh, it’ s probably nothing? No,” Officer Miles said.“ We’ d rather you call us and we can prove it’ s nothing, than you not call us and it turns out to be something.”
He then beckoned to the screen where the Columbine shooting had been projected and added,“ This is what happens when it turns out to be something.”
District Assistant Superintendent Scott Chambers said the training is reflective of Canon-Mac’ s continuously evolving emergency procedures.
“ Our staff was trained several years ago to utilize whatever option- lock down, evacuate, or fight- gives you the best chance of survival in an emergency situation,” he said.“ ALICE takes that training to another level by providing specific strategies and tactics for each of those options that greatly increases your ability to survive an active threat.”
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