Alachua County Public Schools officials and local law enforcement officers gathered Thursday to run through a simulated exercise to reunify parents and students following a campus disturbance.  

The two-day reunification training from the “I Love U Guys” Foundation began Wednesday with a workshop to introduce the concepts of the next day’s exercise. The group of more than 120 included each school’s principal and assistant principals, plus local law enforcement officers and other district administrators. 

“We’ve used the ‘I Love U Guys’ protocols, so they knew terminology… but with the training, it took you through it,” said interim Superintendent Kamela Patton. “Hopefully we never have to use any of this – that’s the whole point.”  

Patton said this is one piece of an enhanced safety protocol for the new school year. Other efforts will include a safety component in each month’s principals meeting to align messaging to students, parents and community partners. The district also plans to meet quarterly with county and city police, fire and EMS officials to further unite the critical players in emergency situations. 

The reunification trainings are meant to provide structure to an important component of school crisis management. But according to John-Michael Keyes, the nonprofit’s founder who traveled to Alachua County to lead the training, educators should also find it possible to practice the methods in their routine pick-up procedures. 

“We hear and understand how folks could go to the worst extreme when they hear ‘reunification,’” Keyes said. “But in reality, if you think about it, schools reunify students every day. We’re just formalizing that process so there’s accountability and some structure around when parents show up.” 

The simulation had the educators roleplay as students, team members and parents. Neon-vested reunifiers organized “students” in the reunification site as “parents” lined up in a separate area. The faux parents were instructed to complete a Reunification Information card – available in both English and Spanish – and hand it and a picture ID to the first line of workers.

From there, the parents were led to another worker who would collect the child’s name and go inside to fetch the student. After all the “students” were reunited with their pretend family members, the group gathered for a debrief. A representative of each role reflected on what went well and opportunities to improve. 

“The whole point is to create an environment where it’s safe for us to make mistakes,” Keyes said of the training. “For this specific demographic, that’s a very hard thing. Principals do not like to make mistakes. Rarely do we see perfect, but often we see successful reunifications.” 

Eastside High School’s principal Leroy Williams said he would be sharing lessons from the training with his staff next week when teachers return for pre-planning days. He intends to assign reunification protocol roles to the staff so that everyone knows their task ahead of any emergency needs. 

“It’s good that we refine our reunification procedures to safely and efficiently return students to their parents or guardians during a chaotic or emergency situation,” Williams said. “It takes a village, with your staff, to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.” 

He emphasized that parents also play a role in being informed and having conversations with their children to ensure everyone is prepared before an emergency.  

The “I Love U Guys” Foundation hosts trainings nationwide that center on its Standard Response Protocol and Standard Reunification Method and makes its materials available for free on the organization’s website. Keyes founded the organization to create purpose out of tragedy, after his 16-year-old daughter was killed in a Colorado school shooting in 2006. 

“Across America, if you ask a school district what their No. 1 priority is, what will they say? Safety,” Keyes said. “Here, you’re seeing your school district committed to that.”