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School Safety

The safety of our students and staff continues to be of utmost importance to Morris Knolls High School. With the support of the Denville Police Department, we employ a variety of security measures in our daily efforts to provide a safe and secure environment. These measures reflect our community’s high expectations for school safety and include the following: 

  • Emergency Management Plan - Our crisis management plan serves as an operating guide for a wide range of emergencies. It is developed in coordination with local police, fire, and emergency agencies.
  • Emergency Blue Strobe Lights/Sirens – We have installed emergency blue strobe lights and sirens in both the interior and exterior areas of our campus. The blue lights and sirens will alert our students and staff members that we are in an emergency lockdown situation and they will alert parents and visitors about emergent situations. If you arrive on campus and see the flashing strobes, you will know that we are in lockdown and you should not enter our buildings.
  •  ALICE Protocol – For the 2024-2025 school year, we will continue to use ALICE response protocol for active intruder situations. This protocol has been implemented under the recommendation of the Denville Police Department and you can visit www.alicetraining.com for more information.
  • SHARE 911 – This program is designed primarily to allow teachers to use smart phones, tablets, computers, or any web-connected device to provide real-time information on emergency situations to first responders and colleagues.
  • Security Cameras – Multiple cameras are installed throughout our buildings, grounds, and buses. Denville Police has access to cameras during emergent situations.
  • School Resource Officer - We have a Denville Township police officer in the building during the instructional school day and during after school hours to ensure safety and respond to emergent situations.
  • Class III Denville Township Police Officers - We have two additional Denville Township Police Officers in the building to increase our level of security for the 2024 - 2025 school year.
  •  Security Staff Assistants –We have multiple Staff Assistants positioned throughout the building to monitor the safety of our students (cafeteria, common Areas, security Desk).
  •  Security Drills – Each month we run both fire and emergency drills to provide students and staff with an opportunity to practice emergency protocol.
  • Bus Security - Devices have been installed on all of our buses that will store bus routes, provide audible directions, monitor driver speed/actions and store names and pictures of students assigned to each route. Students will display their IDs when boarding all buses. As the bus arrives at an approved MHRD bus stop, installed tablet devices will display students boarding or disembarking. Student ID cards will be scanned to confirm their arrival or departure. This will help to account for all students and ensure that only assigned riders are present. Security cameras are also installed on all district buses.
  • Gaggle Monitoring Software - Gaggle uses technology and human intelligence to review student’s use of online tools and provide real-time analysis of potentially concerning behavior or content. Gaggle alerts school officials if students show signs of self-harm, depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, bullying, credible threats of violence against others, or harmful situations.
  • Navigate 360 - Navigate 360 is technology software that scans public social media accounts identifying threats made towards Morris Knolls High School.
  • Threat Assessment Team - We have established a Threat Assessment Team for the 2024 - 2025 school year. The purpose of a Threat Assessment Team is to provide school teachers, administrators, and other staff members with assistance in identifying students with behaviors of concern, assessing those students’ risk for engaging in violence or other harmful activities, and delivering intervention strategies to manage the risk of harm for students who pose a potential safety risk. The goal is to prevent targeted violence in the school and ensure a safe and secure school environment.

Security Procedures

  • We only have 2 doors opened from 6:45-7:30 for student entry. Those doors will be monitored by security from 6:45 - 7:30 until they automatically lock. All other doors will be locked for the entire school day.
  • Our new security vestibule is now operational. All visitors must announce themselves and state their purpose for their visit on our video airphones. Parents/guardians picking their child up will be asked to remain in the vestibule or outside the main entrance and will not be admitted into the building as they wait for their child to arrive. Visitors dropping off items to give to their child are asked to drop their item off in our new security drop off box located outside of the Main Entrance. All visitors will be required to scan their driver’s license at our security desk.