“Be prepared for the unexpected,” John-Michael Keyes emphasized during his presentation on school safety responses during crisis on Friday, April 27, which was held at Ignacio High School in the auditorium.

John-Michael Keyes, is a father to Emily Keyes who was one of the hostages killed in one of Colorado’s most notorious high school shootings. Since that fatal shooting, John-Michael and his wife Ellen have started the “I love U guys” Foundation.

The foundation is committed to helping, with a focus on kids, schools and communities.

Through years of research and collaborations with experts in education, law enforcement, emergency management teams and psychologists — the foundation has been helping to advance student and school safety nationwide.

During his presentation, Keyes introduced “The Standard Response Protocol” (SRP) which included all of the concepts and history of the SRP and showed how to implement the program into an educational environment.

The Standard Response Protocol includes four core actions, that demands specific vocabulary but allows flexibility for every individual scenario. The first core action is “Lockout”, a lockout means get inside and lock all doors to the outside. The second is a “Lockdown” which means get inside, lock all doors, turn off all lights and get out of sight. The third is “Evacuate” if it is safe, leave the crisis and go to the predesignated location. And the last is “Shelter” which includes addressing the crisis and or hazard and creating a strategy for keeping safe.

The eight-hour, on-site training left many participants with the ability to perform classroom trainings and implement the program with their peers.

Since 2009, the Standard Response Protocol has been proven to enhance school safety planning and has been adopted by schools across the United States and Canada.

“What we plan is based on what we know,” Keyes stated while talking about the outreach program the foundation started to show institutions and first responders that the SRP works. Millions of students now know the same language and have the same expectations during a crisis as teachers and first responders.

At no cost, any school, agency or organization can use the materials needed to implement the SRP. Because the foundation provides many materials free of charge, they rely on funding from private sectors, therefore they need to know who is using the programs. They track how effective the programs are and if the schools and communities have any feedback to help improve future implantation.

“Without the support of Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool, we wouldn’t have been able to put this on,” Ignacio School District Superintendent, Rocco Fuschetto said. The presentation was open to students, faculty, and community members.