In the Hatboro-Horsham School District, safety is a priority. Safe schools place our students in a positive, safe environment that promotes social and creative learning.

Message from the Safety Director

Dear Hatboro-Horsham Families:

In light of recent tragedies involving mass shootings at schools and businesses, I wanted to emphasise Hatboro-Horsham School District's commitment to student and staff safety.  HHSD has a layered, comprehensive emergency management safety plan in place that I review and update annually. This plan is available for review on the district's safety webpage. The safety plan addresses prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery strategies involving a wide variety of emergency situations.  HHSD partners with and encourages feed back on district stakeholder safety from the Hatboro and Horsham Police Departments, the Horsham and Hatboro Enterprise Fire Departments,and the Hatboro and Horsham Office of Emergency Management. Below are just some of the safety initiatives that HHSD has in place.  As always, the safety of all HHSD students and staff is paramount.    

Dedicated School Resource Officer (SRO) at Hatboro-Horsham High School

The HHSD’s School Resource Officer Program has been in existance since the 2018-2019 school year.  Horsham Township Police Officer,  Mary Novak, is on location every day when the high school is in session.  Officer Novak has over 23 years of law enforcement experience. She works daily to help protect, mentor, and educate our high school students. In addition to the SRO, both Hatboro and Horsham Police Officers are visible throughout the district.  Officers frequently conduct daily walk-throughs and drive-throughs at all of our schools.  

Run/Hide/Fight Protocol at HHSD

HHSD has fully modified its emergency response to an armed intruder from a traditional lockdown protocol to an optioned based protocol named Run/Hide/Fight. The Run/Hide/Fight emergency response to an armed intruder is the established best practice for educational environments and is recommended by the US Department of Homeland Security, the Montgomery County Office of Safe Schools, The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and the Hatboro and Horsham Police Departments. After training staff in the new protocol, we began conducting Run/Hide/Fight drills with our students.  Student age, grade level, and student well-being are taken into account when conducting these drills.  We will continue doing these drills with our staff and students so that they become competent and confident in them.  

Threat Assessment Teams

After-action incident reports on incidents of targeted violence in schools indicated that there were noticeable and tangible clues as to the intentions of the actor prior to the event.  These clues included things that the actor may have said to other students and/or the actions and behaviors that the actor exhibited prior to the violent incident.  Identifying troubled students before they act is imperative.  The best practice of developing and using threat assessment to identify these students is essential to preventing targeted acts of violence in schools.   HHSD has embraced the threat assessment team concept and has implemented it.  HHSD partnered with Sandy Hook Promises Foundation, Hatboro Police Dept., Horsham Police Dept., and the University of Virginia for this initiative.  

Safe2Say Something Tip Line

The Hatboro-Horsham School District is committed to and has fully trained all our students in the use of the S2SS Tip Line.  Since S2SS’ launch date, 1/14/19, we have received and investigated hundreds of tips regarding the safety and well-being of our students.  Although a majority of these tips are not life safety tips, we have been able to successfully intervene with student life safety issues involving bullying, mental health, and self-harm. All of these interventions stem from our students using the Safe2Say Something Tip Line.   

HHSD continues to work hand in hand with our community partners in order to make our schools as safe as possible.  Please feel free to contact me any time if you have any questions regarding safety in our district.