Our Campus

The safety and security of all members of our community is of paramount importance at Carolina Friends School.

The Campus Safety and Security Team (CSST), comprised of senior administrators and staff, meets regularly and guides the school in the evaluation and implementation of policies and procedures related to school safety. Legal counsel specializing in school matters advises the CSST in its policy-level work.

The following are among the policies and procedures currently in place:

• Background checks for every staff member, substitute, and coach are mandatory and continuously monitored and updated. Volunteers who help drive and chaperone student outings are also subject to background and/or driving record checks. All current staff, substitutes, and coaches have had background checks.
• Each staff member receives the Growing Healthy Relationships training on preventing child sexual abuse and human sexual development. All new staff are required to receive this training in their first year at CFS and repeat the training every two years.
• All units have revisited practices around advisee outings, campus and off-campus overnights, Middle School Exploratorium and Upper School End-of-Year Program travels to ensure that students and staff are protected.
• Each unit provides students with annual age-appropriate training and counseling in healthy relationships, human sexuality, and responsible decision making.
• Staff members are provided with first aid and CPR training, including training on AEDs (defibrillators) on a regular basis. Staff are expected to maintain certification in both first aid and CPR.
• The School has AEDs (defibrillators) in each unit, the Center, the Shop, and the Gym.
• The units, the Center, and the Gym all have expanded emergency kits, filled with over 30 items, everything from disposable nitrile gloves and Steri-strips to instant cold packs and Neosporin.
• The units, the Center, and the Gym have site-specific emergency plans.
• Students and staff practice fire, tornado, and other drills on a regular basis.
• The School, with three campuses, works closely with local law enforcement agencies — Chapel Hill, Durham, Orange County, Duke University, and UNC Chapel Hill — around ongoing safety and security matters, from facility security to crisis response.
• Periodic parent/guardian education programs in the units allow parents to share questions and ideas with one another and with outside experts — for example, around alcohol and other drug issues.
• For inclement weather and emergency situations, our communications options include a campus telephone-intercom alert system and an emergency outreach system, SchoolMessenger, that allows the school to send phone, text, and/or email messages to parents and guardians. We also share information on our website and in our social media channels. Our SchoolMessenger system, website, and Student Information System database are all hosted off campus, which allows us to continue to use these tools even if power is lost at school. 
• An emergency notification system can broadcast audible messages campus-wide in the event of weather emergencies or other on-campus events that require immediate action.
• We ask that all drivers refrain from texting, calling, or otherwise using mobile devices while on campus roads.

Notes on Inclement Weather Closings

In the case of weather‐related campus closings, our website and the SchoolMessenger emergency contact system will be used to communicate school opening/closing information. Every attempt is made to open campus every day as planned. However, parents should know that the conditions on local county roads often differ from those in town. The county road conditions dictate our closings.

• The decision to open or close campus is made in the morning by 7:00 am unless conditions are utterly clear the night before. As soon as a decision is made, it will be publicized. Thank you for not calling the school or staff for an earlier decision.
• Local stations often are swamped by announcements and may miss us from time to time. Please check the website and be on the lookout for mobile/email/voicemail alerts before concluding that school is in session.