Kimberly Lewis serves as the Safety Coordinator for Montgomery Public Schools Districts, which is the third largest district in Alabama, serving more than 30,000 students. Lewis is the central figure for aligning technical operations and safety policies, ensuring everything is compliant with current state regulations.

“My role includes collaborating with school administrators to evaluate and implement each school’s Emergency Operations Plan, coordinating annual emergency drills and leading district-wide safety training for staff,” Lewis says.

Managing Threats Within the Education Sector

Schools have been facing a rapidly increasing number of threats. Mental health crises that lead to violent events have continued to rise year-after-year, and schools are forced to address these disasters with limited resources. Current changes within the Department of Education has made it even more challenging for school districts to know what is and isn’t funded.

“In addition, challenges arise with the increased number of national school incidents that have intensified parental concern, placing added pressure on schools to demonstrate readiness, transparency and accountability,” Lewis says. “As a result, there is a growing expectation to provide tailored safety education not only for teachers and administrators but also for previously underserved employee groups, such as Child Nutrition Program (CNP) staff, transportation personnel, and logistics teams, whose roles are critical in maintaining a safe school environment.”

What drew me to public safety was my passion for serving others while being part of a team that shares their commitment to safety and security.

Lewis worked to spearhead the emergency evacuation and reunification drill for the district.

“The goal was to ensure a realistic, safe, and informative exercise to enhance our district’s emergency preparedness and resilience among staff, students, parents, and our community,” Lewis says.

In addition, the drill identified areas for improvement such as faster response times and parent notifications. Lewis stressed that “collaboration was key” to creating a drill that best mirrored real-world conditions.

Building a Strong Security Community

Lewis is also part of the district’s threat assessment team, which provides a variety of safety training courses such as Managing Crisis Safely, Youth & Teen Mental Health First Aid and Stand4Kind. Having well-trained security personnel can help prevent a mental health crisis from turning violent or even deadly. It’s important for security leaders to be able to recognize signs indicating a student may wish others — or themselves — harm and respond accordingly without escalating the situation.

“What drew me to public safety was my passion for serving others while being part of a team that shares their commitment to safety and security,” Lewis says.

An addition to Lewis’ safety strategy has been technology. This year, Lewis helped implement critical safety technologies such as a behavioral threat assessment database, live surveillance monitoring and after-hours social media analysis. This allows district security leaders to have a better understanding of what is going on at each school.

Lewis wants more people to realize that “safety is everyone’s responsibility”. Parents have to trust teachers and educational security leaders to protect their children while they’re on school grounds, while security leaders have to trust parents to speak up if something suspicious happens at home. Additionally, leaders in state and federal governments should work to ensure schools have everything they need to keep themselves safe. Collaboration is key to getting everyone home safely at the end of the day.