To facilitate a positive learning environment, it is important that students at Deering feel safe, both physically, socio-emotionally.

Physical Safety

As part of ensuring student safety, we follow recognized state and district protocols for fire drills, lockdowns, evacuations, and threat assessment. We also stringently expect that all Deering community members refrain from physical violence.

Fire Drills

Fire drills are required by law. When the alarm sounds, all students and staff must vacate the building immediately in a quiet and orderly manner. All alarms should be assumed to signal an actual fire or emergency. No one should re-enter the building until an administrator directs them to do so. Directions for evacuation are posted in each room and office.

Setting off false fire alarms is illegal and endangers the safety of everyone in the building. The Portland Police and Fire Departments will investigate false fire alarms, and any student involved in setting off a fire alarm will be subject to school discipline. Staff members are also prepared for procedures used when securing the building for emergency purposes. The procedures will be reviewed with students and practiced during the year. Student cooperation is essential during any drill or practice session.

Lockdown and Evacuation Procedures

Deering has procedures in place in case of the need for a lockdown or evacuation. Students and staff are educated in these procedures, and the district office will support the school in efficiently communicating to families in the case of activation.

Threat Assessment

All Portland Schools utilize a nationally-recognized structured threat assessment and response protocol to assess and respond to threats of harm to others. This protocol uses an efficient, team-based process to distinguish between levels of threat and to tailor an appropriate multi-pronged approach to keeping all parties safe and to directing necessary support resources to those who need it. Family communication is an integral part of this protocol.

Deering additionally follows a parallel protocol to respond to threats of harm to self. This protocol allows for immediate attention to safety as well partnership with families to respond to the ongoing needs and safety of a student.

Social & Emotional Wellness

The social and emotional wellness of our students is important to ensure they are able to learn most effectively, which is why we have committed to the following policies.

Commitment to Equity and Racial Justice

Deering High School is committed to building an environment where every student and staff member feels valued, challenged, and empowered. We are reckoning with the fact that public school has not always been that environment for all stakeholders. As a public institution, we have perpetuated the same injustices and inequalities that plague our nation. We are committed to continuous self-reflection and to do the work to root out those inequalities, rebuild systems to be more equitable, and become a more just school.

As one school, of students and staff, we are committed to the following restorative practices:

1. Rooting out Inequalities: Not every student faces the same obstacles on the path to success. As educators, we must take on the challenge of creating pathways for every student, regardless of household circumstances. Our curriculum should reach students regardless of color or income and should never place blame on students or families.

2. Rebuilding Systems: Our institution is reflective of the historical implicit bias that plagues our nation, and we must actively work to rebuild unjust systems that are designed to maintain white power and subjugate BIPOC and marginalized students.

   • Rebuilding Curriculum: A curriculum that marginalizes and caricatures people of color is a pedagogical system of oppression that we collectively perpetuate and reinforce every day as educators. We must recognize and listen to young people of color and learn together how to overcome this oppressive pedagogical system.

   •  Reimagining Discipline: We must work actively to dissolve the racial inequities in our school discipline system. We need to work together to find a way to educate all educators, students, and families that all people are created equal, and they deserve the same basic human rights as those who do not look like the majority.

3. Becoming a more Just school: Our students of color need commitment from their white teachers to educate themselves and unlearn harmful biases to become active allies. As predominantly white educators, we need to educate ourselves about implicit bias and systemic racism and understand the difficulties and the challenges people of color are facing every day in all aspects of their lives. Students and staff alike deserve a way to report instances in which they have been made to feel less than due to race, income, immigration status, gender, or ability.

We strive to be a place where students from different backgrounds learn side by side and challenge each other to understand the benefits of that diversity. We aspire to being progressive and anti-racist and to bringing about social justice through the act of educating diverse students to be truth seers, truth tellers, and agents of change. Together as one school, we can demonstrate how diverse communities can have respectful and constructive dialogue despite disagreements.

Harassment

Portland Public Schools recently adopted a significantly revised policy (ACAA) regarding Harassment and Sexual Harassment of students. This policy prohibits discrimination against or harrassment of students on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ancestry, national origin, language, genetic information, pregnancy/family status, or disability (mental or physical) as well as a broad array of sexualized communication and behavior that are unwelcome to the recipient or observer.

An anonymous reporting system is being developed and formal complaints can be initiated through Deering’s affirmative action liaison: Margaret Callaghan.

Bullying and Cyberbullying

Bullying and cyberbullying, in that they harm or create reasonable fear of harm, are disruptive to the school environment and to the safety of students. In addition to providing preventative education and supports school-wide, Deering takes seriously instances of and reports of bullying and cyberbullying. If it happens in a school context or has an interfering effect with the school context, staff will promptly investigate and respond to any reports of such behavior. The response will aim to immediately ensure the safety of the complainant, uncover and address underlying dynamics, activate positive supports, and take measures to prevent retaliation, all in accordance with the detailed guidance in school board policy JICK.