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Dr. David Hopson |
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October 5, 2006 The recent, and disturbing, news of more school hostage situations and student deaths in Colorado and Pennsylvania leads me to review Gateway’s emergency planning with our communities. Over the course of several years—and with the help of emergency planning consultants, local and state officials, and many staff members—we have initiated, revised, and implemented a comprehensive set of emergency/crisis plans. These include contingency plans for natural disasters (i.e., weather related--hurricane, snow/ice storms, tornados, extreme cold, flooding, etc.) or man-made (chemical spills, train derailments, intruders, etc.). And, as I wrote recently, we are developing plans to handle potential outbreaks of widespread influenza or other communicable diseases. These plans do not just sit in binders upon the shelf. The administration and teams of staff members routinely practice ‘table-top’ exercises in which various situations are presented and the teams have to practice initiating responses. These practices are run with the help of local police and fire officials as well as state police officers. As the team runs through an exercise, the trainers change the scenario, adding additional complications and challenges. These table-tops allow us to practice responses, react to changes in circumstances, ensure that contacts both inside and outside the district are responsive, and use the incident command system (ICS) that is procedurally the same throughout the country for all first responders. We also practice drills on a routine basis—the ones we all remember from our school years, i.e., fire drills and evacuations, as well as the more modern ones like shelter in place or building lock-down. Our students and staff are very adept at all of these drills, surprising many of the official observers with the speed and competency in which they accomplish the required activities. Of course we continue to observe the procedures for visitors—locked doors with access granted by secretaries or the security monitor, visitor ID tags, and identification badges for all staff and selected groups of students. Staff are also well versed in the idea of locked doors within the building (they can be open but in case of emergency there’s no fumbling with keys, locking the door, pulling the shade, etc.). While no system is perfect, and we continue to adjust and fine-tune our practices and procedures, we feel we have a good balance between safety, preparedness, and access by students, parents, and community members. I continue to hope that we will never have to use the emergency/crisis procedures in a real situation but am glad to know that with each practice, both students and staff become more adept at handling the activities. ### |
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