This week, the leadership of ILM Academy has decided to employ an off duty police officers for the remainder of the academic year. These off duty officers will stand guard at our school and patrol the grounds during school hours. This step has been taken to heighten security at our school given recent events affecting Muslim communities nationwide and as a measure we had been considering prior to these events. Please rest assured that we have not opted to take this step because of anything specific the school has encountered recently. Alhamdullilah, the students and the school have been and insha'Allah will continue to be safe. We hope this additional precautionary measure will only enforce that further, as it is among our priorities as educators to promote the best learning environment for the students.  

To review the security update we emailed in October as a part of our Weekly News emails, note that we have also taken the following steps to ensure our students' safety:

• We have installed our Raptor visitor management system. This system scans visitors' driver's licenses, runs an automatic background check, and keeps track of who goes in and out of our building. 
• With the completion of the construction of our atrium, we have a multi-checkpoint system, including several locked doors through which visitors must be buzzed in. 
• Our current ECC and middle school building is always locked and no one other than authorized personnel are allowed in. When moving between the buildings, our students are always supervised by a staff member. 
• Security cameras both inside and outside the buildings monitor and record activity so we view both current and prior occurrences to help maintain safety and security. 
• We understand that our school is an open campus and there are times during the day our students are outside of the building and for that our staff has security protocol they must follow to ensure our students do not come in contact with any unauthorized personnel. 
• We routinely conduct fire drills, lock down drills, and severe weather drills to keep the staff and students reminded of them and comfortable with them. 

We regularly review our security protocol and appreciate your cooperation in helping us keep the students safe by abiding by the same procedures. You can help by:

1. Driving slowly within the school/masjid parking lot. 
2. Dropping off your child in the atrium roundabout or walk him/her in to the school. Do not drop off your child elsewhere in the parking lot, causing him/her to cross traffic to get to the school. 
3. If, after picking up your child in the afternoon, your child needs to come back in to the school, please always escort him/her. We cannot send your child back out to your car across the parking lot. With this said, please work with your child to remember to get all of his/her things from the classroom prior to being dismissed. 
4. Please always escort your child to/from the playground before and after school, especially when crossing the parking lot.