Police officers from throughout the district partnered with the LH Fire department to go door-to-door, checking on classrooms to ensure they were secure and to let students and staff know that their classroom was clear to continue with the day’s lessons. The whole event took approximately 10 minutes. After the drill, the police department and fire department met with the principal and administrative staff to debrief after the drill and to make any room for improvement suggestions. 

Why do we drill?

School safety has always been the top priority to Liberty Hill ISD. Whether we practice for fire drills, severe weather, or focus on kind behaviors, it has been important to us to help our students, teachers and staff prepare for any possible situation. In an era where school safety has become even more of a concern, state agencies and LHISD have continued to improve safety standards and have developed new opportunities for growth. Just like with any exercise, our muscles have memory. It is good to practice, to train our minds and bodies, so that if the worst case scenario happens, we know what to do. “It is so important that we practice how to be safe,” said LHISD Police Officer Tracy Riley. “We don’t do lockdown drills to scare students; we want to prepare them so they can react the right way if something did happen.” 

TEA requires schools to provide a variety of drills at each campus throughout the school year. Liberty Hill ISD has decided that in the interest of allowing our team to practice real-time decision-making and critical thinking to ensure student safety in an unexpected situation, some of these drills will be unannounced. In an unannounced drill, students, families and staff are not informed beforehand. However, families are encouraged that measures are in place to prevent unnecessary distress among students and staff. 

Announced drills are those that are communicated in advance with staff and the community. We have found that having both types of drills have been valuable in preparing our students and staff for potential situations on our campuses. Additional drills include fire, evacuation and severe weather. 

Our partnership with local first responders

As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child.” We appreciate the relationships that we have with our local first responders and we value their expertise and their hearts for serving our schools and community. "I like to regularly participate in the campus drills across Liberty Hill ISD," said Liberty Hill Fire Inspector Lieutenant Matt Selby. "It allows me the opportunity to know how we can support our schools during any situation, and I am able to be a familiar face for principals, students and staff in case they need support during an incident."

Doing better as we grow

As we practice our processes, we find opportunities to continue to improve. One of these improvements is through our communications with families during unannounced drills. To mitigate any unnecessary concerns, we have committed ourselves to communicate unannounced drills with our families at the start of the drill, so they can be aware that this is only a drill. Our hope is to have families partner with us to support these drills so that we can continue to prioritize the safety and preparedness of our school community.

In the case of an actual severe weather or safety incident, our communications team will partner with the campuses to provide fact-based, timely information through our regular communications methods. 

Please visit our emergency response page for more information and resources.