In an emergency everyone turns to the schools, unfortunately most are not prepared, not trained, and emergency responders run up against rules that are frustrating at the least and life threatening at the worse.
It would be nice if some how FEMA could offer the training because it won't be done at the school level, not because it isn't needed, but because of drastic budget cuts in education. When something happens the whole world (community) will turn to the school district and it won't be pretty in a majority of the communities across the nation.
Educate the educators on
Hostage/ shooter
Mass casualties
Event planning/ security/ etc.
Sheltering
Reunification/ Accountability (student, staff, visitors)
Assessing Hazards/ Mitigation
NIMS
Tech security
Creating a usable safety plan/ procedures
Effective drills
Who is trained, who has what resources, etc
Who does what when, why, and how.
In our district I'm working hard to get a usable flipchart finished, trained, and used by all staff. Additionally, creating a complete, usable safety manual that is also a mobile app for 1st responders, administrators, staff that isn't reliant upon Internet connectivity etc is in progress. Our schools can either be a tremendous asset or a weight around the necks of 1st responders- training is the key.
Comments (36)
If you would like some assistance in creating your plan I would like to help. I am a veteran an have built plans similar to what you are talking about. If a "prototype"plan can be put together it is then easier to pass it to other schools and adjust it to each district's need.
Thank you, I appreciate the offer. Maybe others can take advantage of your expertise because my military contacts have been invaluable as I've created our plan.
I agree that schools are excellent sources of potential responders and evacuation sites. In my county, I have begun the process of providing identification cards to all school staff and faculty, to increase accountability.
We are working on the vulnerability inspections on the districts. This was a big eye-opener for many of them as to how exposed the schools are to natural and man-made emergency situations.
Education of the staff and faculty is progressing, so that they will understand the importance of their facilities and actions in the event of a major disaster. Outreach to teachers with information and supplies from the FEMA Library is being done, and I provide a "guest speaker" for several class-room lessons.
More supplies are needed to be given to the schools, and there is a limit on how many of certain items that can be ordered from the FEMA Library.
We are also working with one of our school districts to develop a Teen CERT program, with students that have already joined a Junior Fire-Fighter program.
Kansas has a state organization called Kansas Center for Safe and Prepared Schools -- http://www.kansastag.gov/KDEM.asp?PageID=191 -- that helps with some of the training for the schools. All school districts in Kansas are currently members.
Keith Jeffers, Bourbon County Emergency Manager, Kansas.
Where do you get your stats on schools not being trained? The reason I ask is we have been very pro-active training our educational system here in Oklahoma. I just completed several courses to educators across our state
I've been running an Emergency Preparedness grant for our district the last 2 yrs. I moved west from TX in 2000, and teacher's weren't even badged here, parents were suppose to sign in at the office, but rarely did, and the lack of security was troubling. Complacent/ comfortable/ trusting are words I'd use to describe the community. Coming from an area that dealt with the Luby's shooting, Branch Davidian Compound, Jarrell tornado and so on I had a bit more situational awareness and experiences with hazards.
Over the years as I've left the classroom to administration, I realize it isn't a lack of caring on any district's part, but a lack of knowledge and budget. Building and district admins don't know what questions to ask. 1st responders have never been part of a collaborative conversation. Both have made policies in isolation thinking they know what the other does, but in reality didn't have a clue.
A simple exercise to run.
Pull down Google maps of every school in your district- keep them as a file and make 3 copies.
In an admin meeting, give them a map of their school and surrounding area. Ask them to identify known hazards. Then ask them to mark evacuation routes, where law enforcement would block roads to secure the area, and where parents will pick up kids.
Do this again with Law and Fire responders.
Scan the images and make them a png file you can change the opacity (make it look like a transparency).
Bring all 3 groups together and put an unmarked map down, then add the admins, law, and fire- show them the results.
Every admin but 1 said law would block roads 1 block from the school to the left, right, and front. Reality- law would block at the end of the road leading to the school in all directions, any surface streets at the 1st intersection, and the pass through walking students use on the back field. Avg was 3 blocks away in all directions.
Hazards-
Admins said traffic, debris, parents.
Law and Fire- gas pipeline, traffic, parents, open fields, municipal airport flight patterns, access to building, Hwy, RR, heavy trucks with chemical loads, businesses, weather, faults, soil and building composition. While admins looked just on their building site, law and fire looked at the big picture at what was in the area- blocks to miles of the buildings.
The conversation was very eye opening for everyone.
As to data, I have pre-post tests for every school, trainings, building concerns, staff & parent concerns, community what to do if an emergency occurs at your school surveys, and so on. I couldn't fix a problem if I didn't know what it was. Ironically, I have High Schools with .05 of the staff trained in CPR/1st Aid/ AED, but 77% of the students hold a current certification. Sound odd? Well, all Jr. High to H.S. students must take Health- certification is part of the class- state standard. Local EMS provided outreach training for free, and class fee paid for the card. No one knew except the teacher/ EMS making the arrangements and the kids. At a local sporting event a gentleman went down with a heart attack - the adults were slow to register and process what was going on. Not the kids- 8 jumped into action and the guy lived.
Unless you are a big urban district, or had re-occurring experiences (i.e. tornadoes), few district have someone just doing Emergency Prep/ Safety. Someone in the district is assigned over it, but they are also juggling numerous jobs at once and since emergencies are rare, it's easy to back burner reviewing, updating district plans. When an incident occurs, and major issues happen, a person may be assigned to fix, or review procedures, do some training, but as budgets are cut and things calm down, they take on z,y,z and the cycle repeats itself. The need is funding and training, but even then you run into issue with trying to get staff trained when they are juggling numerous jobs/ mandates/ and time constraints. Throwing more "stuff" at schools is not the answer. You must make it matter,make sense, and see a way to what you ask while trying to do all the other things they must get done too.
Adding to Hross:
in smaller districts (like those considering consolidation) it might require a lot of time an coordination to get everyone in one room to make such a plan but a town hall meeting might provide the best opportunity for it.
One way to reduce time in the meeting is for everyone to come to this meeting Prepared, and using Google earth each can come to the meeting with there ideas outlined and ready for the group to add to the larger plan - like a police office taking a few minutes to identify which direction emergency vehicles will arrive from and where is the best place for them to park or set up at.
in the meeting
Either print out the area and collaborate on that (with someone taking it home to digitize it later); or work real time with images of the area imputed on - say - a power point presentation - reducing the need for digitizing the plan afterwards and resourses necessary to create the plan.
After the plan is approved I recommend that it be place in a 1 inch binder clearly marked and stored in view like on a principal's desk or next to the phone in the front office. then when the need arises everyone knows to open the plan and will be on the same page. reducing confusion.
--more later
I have a friend from college who has had to go through training because it was tied to grants for the school. He has to understand ICS, how it ties in with his local responders, etc. He's a school administrator in Texas and it was a requirement. So I agree w/ edk on the fact that people are being trained - and also agree with hross below:
"Over the years as I've left the classroom to administration, I realize it isn't a lack of caring on any district's part, but a lack of knowledge and budget. Building and district admins don't know what questions to ask. 1st responders have never been part of a collaborative conversation. Both have made policies in isolation thinking they know what the other does, but in reality didn't have a clue."
we are all approaching the topic from different perspectives. Sharing the questions that are asked, the available resources that answer those questions, historical knowledge of others who have faced similar situations, the ability to network with others who could help answer my questions (not the grant writers half a country away... but the educators in a school system like mine 200 miles away or 15 miles away). This isn't a programmatic issue in my opinion as much as it is an information sharing / collaboration issue. "Social media" as a buzzword isn't the answer here, but being able to facilitate people connecting with one another to answer common process questions is an essential part of the solution.
edk? When did you all start your program? what about the kids themselves do they understand what to do?
don't forget along with classroom training and discussions you need to have a couple run-throughs to insure you accounted for any glitches and/or situations you may encounter until everyone is comfortable with the plans.
Time to execute and practice training/plans is THE hardest thing to get done. Why? It takes away from instruction time. Most states mandate how much time subjects must be taught. With smaller budgets, fewer teachers, bigger class sizes, all staff doing multiple jobs, and even cuts in length of school day admins are very reluctant to interrupt instruction time. Not all states have mandates on drills required either.
I tell my admins- combine. Don't just do a fire drill. Lockdown, chemical release, fire drill- takes 10 minutes. Activate CERT teams, IC, and get back to class. Ask PTA to do a mock drill/reunification at a meeting to educate parents. There are lots of ways to be creative.
Adding to Hross:
I also think at least one or twice a school year the school should be fully evacuated - like testing the full evacuation time for the school in a fire drill. the key things are to not schedule an academic test that day and getting everyone to drop everything and participate. I have found the later is easier to do if only observers/raters of the school's performance know that it is a drill.
This topic should be a high priority. I too saw that schools do not have the resources to address the variety of hazard issues that face them. I recently worked on the design committee for a new high school and the architect was not versed at all on school safety issues. It has to start with the design, all the way through to every day adminisitration. Schools need to be versed in all 4 phases of emergency management and know where to turn to.
I worked with my State Legislator to file School Safety Legislation to create Regional School Safety Councils made up of experts in school safety issues from police and fire to mental helalth and design. The Councils would be a resource for local school districts for everything from plan development to crisis management. We need to give the schools the tools to provide for a safe school environment. They are educators and not emergency managers, they need our help.
1. Pat Jocius, a former county emergency manager, created an excellent education training tool for schools- it is a set of cards with about 100 school ICS titles and a quick checklist coupled with a set of about 50 cards describing an event. The goal is to facilitate a "10-minute exercise" for school staff. They're a GREAT tool, well worth the price, and I recommend them to all of my school clients. (http://www.dealingwithdisasters.com)
2. Alain Normand, the emergency manager for Brampton, ON created a Monopoly-like board game for 5-8 year olds and another for 10 year olds. It is a great, fun tool to get kids engaged in emergency preparedness planning. (http://www.brampton.ca/en/residents/Emergency-Measures/education-and-training/Pages/Games.aspx)
3. The Red Cross Master of Disaster program is designed to integrate disaster preparedness lessons into mandated grade-level learning requirements (so NO extra teaching...) (http://www.redcross.org/disaster/masters/)
4. The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has an online disaster game for kids (http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html) and multiple publications directly related to school-based disaster reduction (http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications#r=?p=0&subject=36)
5. FEMA's little-known but excellent Risk Management Series has both school natural hazard reduction and terrorism threat reduction manuals (http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/rms/)
You don't need much money, just some creativity and a desire to reduce risk....
Scot Phelps
As sovereign and independent as most school districts are, I do not see this as a national issue. I also do not necessarily agree with your statement that "In an emergency everyone turns to the schools..." While I know many local emergency managers do consider schools a resource, not every situation calls for school action. I agree, that more education for teachers and school administrators is a good idea, it is also a local issue.
Living and working across America (15 states and counting) the school is the hub of a community. While there has been an upswing in Charter, Magnet, and private schools- if an event happens in a community the public school is where supplies, information, shelter, and volunteers coordinate from if it is not damaged too. A decimated community will not recover until the school/s/ are back up an running. (See lessons from Katrina)
To be used for shelter, Red Cross and FEMA, identified schools based upon a very specific list of requirements- among those being accessibility, usability to distribute goods, medicines, etc., and local Health Departments use these identifiers to coordinate local and state responses. Schools have the ability to house hundreds: bathrooms and shower facilities to accommodate large populations, and industrial kitchens for food prep for those large populations.
Schools are called upon for so much more than just classes during school hours.
We are under-utilizing our current capabilities by not pushing realistic preparedness training to our schools. Empowering schools to engage on these issues would drastically improve our pediatric emergency preparedness programs in our communities.
As a former teacher I think this would be a great addition to the in service programs done at many schools.
cONSIDER THE FOLLOWING fema PROGRAMS
The Student Tools for Emergency Planning and Leadership in Emergency Management Tools are also listed online. You can use and share the following resources with your stakeholders:
• FEMA Private Sector School and Campus Awareness and Preparedness Web Page - http://www.fema.gov/privatesector/school_campus_awareness.shtm
• STEP - http://www.fema.gov/privatesector/step.shtm
• Leadership in Emergency Management for High School/Camps (LEM) for high school students and high school campers:
o High School EM Instructor’s Guide Updated (PDF 2.83MB, TXT 79KB)
o FEMA for Camps – High School 1 Pager (PDF 236KB, TXT 3KB)
Russ Webster
FEMA Region 1
The problem with this concept is that it is usually the school facility itself that needs to be used and not the faculty. Teachers have enough on their plates and do not need to be trained to run a shelter, a function of the Red Cross in many cases. The schools I deal with have disaster plans and do drills covering much of what is listed above. I would prefer to have volunteers than voluntolds working for me during a disaster.
One of the chief problems in dealing with schools is that people with "big" day-to-day titles think they should always be in charge in an emergency, even when they are clearly not qualified to be the Incident Commander. At a private school in my area in California, both the Director and Assistant Director of Emergency Planning (each with 25 years of experience) refused to continue in position because administration decided administrators should be ICs, even though none had any meaningful experience or training. Just because one is "the mayor" doesn't mean one should be telling the fire chief how to fight the fire, so to speak, and this is something that cannot be overemphasized in dealing with school administrators. Find people on staff who are willing and able to undertake the training and put in the time to learn. It would not have to be a full-time position, but it would be better than having administrators "pose" as qualified. They routinely are more worried about the "fire" burning on the desk right now ("Do we have a bus to take the basketball team to the game?") than they are about being informed on something that hasn't happened yet. Getting school administrators to see the light on this would go a long way in ramping up school proficiency.
Academia suffers from a severe case of NIMBY'ism...those who do understand threats and preparedness are ignored or compartmentalize as being paranoid for the most part. There's also a problem with school systems understanding that the Regional/Municipal EmOps structure is there to assist with training and response. The schools do not need to reinvent the (EmOps) wheel, they just have to integrate into our world.
This training should be given to institutes of higher education as well.
I would like to see high schools have an emergency preparedness program similar to what rural area schools have for agriculture and FFA (Future Farmers of America) programs. Schools would then have skilled personnel immediately available to better deal with emergencies. If school facilities are needed as part of a disaster response, supplemental help could be obtained from the Red Cross and other emergency organizations.
Would Teen cert be a good option for this? We are working to spread Teen CERT in high schools across the country...
I agree with adding a program to train responders similar to FFA, etc. However, with so many school districts cutting funding for basic programs, it would seem that this idea is not currently feasible.
There are many trainings available (federal and state) Dept of Education's school safety: http://rems.ed.gov/ and a lot of FEMA trainings. Do you think it is the lack of training available? or the fact that school administrators, teachers, etc. have so much on their plate already? or believe that it is the First responder's responsbility? Interested in your thoughts.
FYI - FEMA is working on a plan to promote preparedness among youth http://www.citizencorps.gov/ready/kids.shtm and at schools.
The comments and ideas in this forum are fantastic.
Years ago, we approached schools to serve as PODs (Points of Dispensing) during a public health emergency. While they agreed, we also found out that schools could serve as shelter, evacuation center, or as a point of distribution. Because of this and for redundancy, we had to identify backups to our POD sites. Which lead to churches, fraternal organizations, hangars, and the like. One thing that did come out of the discussion was that most of the teachers were enthusiastic on volunteering and helping us to set up a POD.
Don't forget free online courses through FEMA's Emergency management Institute.
All great thoughts, but I would add that it is not just budget cuts that hinder school preparedness efforts. The lack of interest and/or motivation among school leaders is, in many cases, an even more serious obstacle. Incredible as it seems, there are many in positions of authority and responsibility in schools who are in serious denial about the need for effective planning. We need to give even more thought to how we can motivate or, where necessary, bring appropriate public pressure to bear on indifferent school administrators.
this is why fema and local emergency Managements have come up with TEEN CERT for teenagers and High school staff can make sure everything is safe in the immediate area, to do emergency Operations including Shelter ops. that all CERT Members are trained to do during disasters.
In school, when we talk of an emergency management we all focus to all school Officials, the police, the firemen and the CERT Members as the immediate managers....but we as parents are also involved cause we are also part of their solution... if parents or the guardian of a child are prepared, we help prepare our school make a Plan we can simplify a worst case emergency incident. We need a Contingency plan were we parents agree with the schools Official, the Police, the Firemen and the CERT members plan of actions so all can prepare what are needed in case of a big Disaster. If such will happen all of us will be victims but if we involved our self as a team member of this Emergency Management and attend in one of the drills we will know what we should do.
While I understand where community member is coming from, having taught in public school--only a small percentage of my students' parents wanted to have anything to do with the school and these were mostly middle class families. We have to consider this and also our school students who come from single parent families where the parents cannot leave work. Also, what about our rural and semi-rural schools where transportation may prevent parents being involved?
Some schools are blessed with an involved faculty, community, and parents. Others are not. At some of my schools, Teen CERT, Community CERT, Campus CERT, CitizensCorp, and intense interest/training are all done. A few miles away at another school the principal is lucky if he can pull together 4 people to serve on the IC. Why the disparity? Lots of factors:
1. Administration
2. Time
3. Faculty/ community
4. Culture
5. Demographics - economic, education, are families commuters or stay at home, age of kids, even are the sports teams winning or losing.
6. Organization - School, District, county etc level-- who is running everything?
7. Denial- It will never happen here.
8. Prioritize - What fire is burning on the desk takes gets done now.
Ironically, a few weeks ago my final grant surveys went out- 1 day after I presented to leadership about being prepared for every day incidents and on the morning we had total power outage for our valley that lasted from 4am - noon. Communications took a hit- Cell tower went down, district server didn't have a back up generator so it went down, and we started school on time, but getting the info out was tough. The surveys reflect the frustration of that day. Once phones came up, my office and cell rang off the hook, emails blazed into the hundreds, and suddenly Emergency Prep/ Response is important. I presented at a local community event and normally I'm lucky if 3 people show up-- it was standing room only. Some parents dropped kids off because school lights were on with backup generators, but kids were made to stand in 8 degree weather for one reason or another. Call Out said school was regular hours and kids in morning before school programs showed up, but the teachers didn't and neither did the buses that take them back to their schools. Kids walked home- some several miles along the HWY because phones were down and they couldn't call parents. Some schools ran with no incident, but most struggled with multiple issues-- why? They were not prepared- admins, faculty, parents, and community.
At the end of the day, I thought, power outages were just part of my growing up. School went on with or without power, we never thought twice about it, you just got up, got ready, and got to school. WHY was this such an issue? My youngest daughter had issues negotiating around our home, remembering where flashlights were etc and I realized, she's never dealt with power outages beyond ones that happened during a storm when we were home. Guess who cut the electricity a few times since then to practice getting ready, not opening the fridge, locating flashlights, etc etc etc. We frequently drill in our home, everyone has an evacuation backpack, and while the older kids were like "its no big deal", my youngest (8yrs) hadn't had enough practice to think it was no big deal.
Lessons Learned:
We live in the Emergency Mgmt world, some here have responded to everyday issues all the way to National disaster, but if you have ZERO real experience handling these types of events making them important enough to plan for is really really tough.
Case in point. A very laid back principal does the fire drills etc, but recently an armed fugitive was on the loose in the school's area and Law enforcement called to initiate a lockdown. Principal didn't do it. Kids are on the playground at recess, many doors are open with easy access,the fugitive flags down a van- Mother with kids on her way to school to drop off kids for K- asks for a ride to the local store. Mother picks him up, drives to the school, has him get out of the van and go with her to kids room so she can drop students off-- he's in the school now with a gun. Then she proceeds to take him to the local store, but they hit a police roadblock 2 blocks away where they are searching cars. He bails and runs- back to the school, where local PD was overriding the principal and the door he approached was actually closed and locked now. All of this was caught on school cameras.
The principal's response: "I thought it was another drill, and everyone was on recess for another 10 minutes, so I thought I'd wait until they got in to start the drill." Yet the officer calling the school stated 3 times this was not a drill. The admin was completely taken off guard, and 2 days later came to me because they hadn't slept since the incident playing what if in their mind. Until something happens at YOUR school it isn't REAL. Everyone's gut clinches with this story- for various reasons depending on what they have experiences.
To this principal's credit -- every part of prep and response has been examined, practiced, and now everyone in the school knows what to do. Recently, the Fire Marshal and I pulled a surprise Fire drill where we added blocked doors, a bit of smoke, and diverted students elsewhere to check accountability. School of 700 plus kids was evacuated and accounted for in less than 3 minutes. They have come a long long way in a few years.
Is the training out there? Yes. Is everyone getting it? No. How do we make it worth the time and effort, a priority, in the middle of everything else--- well that's the million dollar question.
To my knowledge CPR/AED is not taught to students in our system however I think it is mandatory for teachers. I agree with comments too in regards that once you make a plan you have to do some run throughs to make sure its right and if something is broken you will know it and can change it. Thats a probelem now for us in our public safety realm as there is not many exercises conducted jointly among the agencies. I would like to see a joint team of school,fire and rescue, police, and communications staff to work on a uniform approach to disasters. It troubled me when I asked someone from the schools to attend our Emergency Preparedness Night to discuss the schools evacuation plans with parents that they were hesitant about what they could discuss. I understand security but as a parent I think I should know where my kid will evac to in an emergency.
Are there Evacuation Plan prepared by all Schools? Do they inform us (Parents) can they provide copies for us or an email copy of there plan....? Is there an Information Booth to be set up, where would it be place near the school? is 911 or Community Police stations involved? these are some of the Questions that will be raised if a Plan will be done by all of us.... (I will be happy to share or help if we all work together will you?)