Today, I am working with a video crew from
Brand Red Studios to capture some aerial footage of the Darlington campus while the fall colors are at their peak. While over at Thatcher Hall today, I witnessed two things that tell me that the campus safety measures we have recently put into place -- aimed at building awareness and identifying visitors -- are working.
When we hired this company on for the video project, we knew they would be on and off campus frequently over the next several months, so we requested guest ID badges for the three crew members. Guest badges are numbered (so that we always know which guest has which number) and feature an image of the Darlington Tiger.
When Brand Red CEO Ryan Simmons and I walked into the Thatcher Hall Courtyard today to scout for shots, at least 50 children were outside playing. It was exactly the type of shot he was hoping to capture -- students making great use out of our newest campus facility!
As we approached the door to the courtyard, a group of five or six girls was right outside passing a big, bouncy ball back and forth. We opened the door and right away I heard Sarah Tunnell ('22) say to her friends, "Watch out, there's a guest! Don't hit him with the ball!" She had noticed the guest badge featuring the tiger and knew immediately that this man was a guest and not a teacher (faculty and staff badges have our photos on them). Sarah's friends stopped playing long enough for us to walk through. I was so impressed!
The crew spent about 10 minutes capturing aerial footage of the students playing in the courtyard using a helicopter drone. The kids were great (and only looked up at the camera a couple of times that I noticed!) Once they were done, I told Mrs. Fine that we had what we needed and the children could go back to class. The students grabbed all the things they had been playing with and quickly lined up at the door to enter the building.
I got in line with them and as we walked in, three different students looked at the ID badge I was wearing. Maybe they were just looking to see who I was since my office is at the Upper School and I'm not at Thatcher Hall all the time. Maybe they were checking to make sure I had a badge on. But either way, they noticed it. They were aware. They knew that adults on campus should be wearing badges or name tags.
These experiences tell me that what we are doing as a school to promote awareness and campus safety is working at the most important level -- in the daily lives of our students.
