Good morning Burton families —

Today our security team conducted an unannounced random weapons search using metal detectors at our school.

As described in our Scholar Resource & Responsibility Guide (Guía de recursos y responsabilidades escolares), these searches are done periodically in our ongoing effort to ensure our schools are safe.

We want to be clear to our families that today’s search was not connected to any incident or threat to our building.

We also are announcing the decision today that we will keep a metal detector unit at the entrance to our building for at least the remainder of the school year. We will continue to evaluate how to best utilize it as the school year progresses.

District leaders hear the concerns from our families and team members, and we have decided to take this action now. We are constantly reviewing this work and will update procedures as needed.

While we hope this tool helps in our work, we know that relationships with our scholars and families remain paramount in protecting our schools.

It is critical that scholars who have a concern about weapons or violence tell an adult immediately.

We know that by working together with you, we can provide the safest environment for our scholars to learn and grow.

Please reach out if you have questions or concerns.

Thank you for your continued partnership in ensuring our scholars are safe.

Amarena Nelson                    
Burton Elementary School
616-819-2262
NelsonA@grps.org

Michael Perez
Burton Middle School
616-819-2269
PerezM@grps.org