One of the items discussed by Dorchester School District Two Superintendent Dr. Shane Robbins during his State of the District address Friday, Feb. 2, at the Summers Corner Performing Arts Center was safety.
Robbins said many safety measures, such as metal detectors, are visible, while some are invisible.
“There have been a major number of societal changes that have made (safety) increasingly difficult,” Robbins said. “The other thing I’ll share with you is that when we increase our safety measures, the community must understand that that will come with inconvenience. So, suppose we’re going to take the reins and try to make sure we have a safe environment. In that case, we’re going to have a tighter expectation and a level of inconvenience for some of our family members.”
Robbins said DD2 has a safety department, a district director of safety, an assistant director of safety, and resource officers and plainclothes safety personnel in every school.
“You don’t necessarily know who they are, but they’re patrolling the buildings as well,” Robbins said. Most of them are retired law enforcement officers or have some type of safety background. We now have an anonymous reporting app that we can utilize. We also have our standard response protocol, which we share with our business and local law enforcement agencies.”
A visible safety measure is Chester, the district’s weapons detection dog.
“One of the things we’re very proud of is we were the first district in South Carolina to have a certified canine weapon detection dog,” Robbins said. “Chester has become kind of our district mascot, and you’ll see him around our campuses and at extracurricular activities.”
Acquiring Chester was a demonstration of a true community partnership, Robbins said.
“It’s not cheap,” he said. “The animal costs quite a bit of money. The training costs money. We worked with our foundation and Ralph Hayes, who generously said, ‘Hey, listen, you have money that can be used for the district superintendent.’ I asked him if they would be willing to support us in purchasing a weapons detection dog. He said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Chester was made a reality through a partnership between the Summerville Police Department, the DD2 Foundation, the school district and the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is an outward demonstration of what we’re trying to do to ensure that our students and staff are safe every single day,” Robbins said.
Summerville Police Chief Doug Wright thanked district personnel and everyone involved in putting safety at the forefront.
“At last year’s meeting, there were many discussions about safety, and the public and faculty expressed many concerns,” Wright said. “We were asked about school lockdowns, and many people didn’t understand why things were happening the way they were.”
Wright emphasized that officers can’t always be everywhere, and an initiative such as getting Chester is an extension of the law enforcement arm.
“We are very blessed with forward-thinking people in our community, and they really do help support us in our school district,” Robbins said. “We are so very proud of that.”
