With the 2015-2016 school year underway, administrators, faculty and campus police within the Pearl River Central School District are working together to ensure students stay safe during school hours.

Andy Kivlan, assistant principal at Pearl River Central High School, said staff, administrators and campus police from the district’s middle and high schools plan to meet Wednesday to discuss crisis management in order to make sure campuses remain safe throughout the school year.

“The two schools are working in conjunction to setup guidelines and talk about the different ways we can keep our students safe,” Kivlan said.

All schools within the district, including the elementary schools, currently utilize numerous safety features and procedures to promote the wellbeing of their students; surveillance cameras are installed in every school, faculty and staff are equipped with two-way radios to communicate effectively in case of an emergency and everyone on each campus must undergo emergency drills mandated by the Mississippi Department of Education, Kivlan said.

The high school recently held a lockdown drill to ensure everyone understands what to do in the event of an intruder or criminal act, Kivlan said.

PRC Campus Police Chief Brandon Herrin said his team is constantly patrolling the schools to “make sure students stay safe.”

However, school officials aren’t just tackling safety issues found on campus. Herrin said they’re also trying to help students manage social media safely to avoid any issues that may arise online.

In order to keep students safe from bullying or threats made on social media, Kivlan said school officials are being “proactive.”

“We’ve dealt with these issues in the past and when we hear about something, we try to take action,” Kivlan said.

Earlier this year, an account on the social media application Instagram depicted nude or partially nude photographs of local high school age females, according to previous Item coverage.

“In any scenario, we’ll tell our students to block a user that may be bullying them or avoid making any inflammatory statements on social media,” Kivlan said.

School officials within the district hope to continue providing a safe place for students to learn for many school years to come.