Joint Planning Meeting

Realizing the summer is not exactly a “break” for school administrators, it is still an ideal time to ramp up emergency planning efforts. One item that should take place before the start of the 08/09 school year that requires some advanced notice is a Joint Planning Meeting.

The involvement of local public safety in your emergency planning process is critically important. A joint meeting with the leadership of the district, local public safety, local emergency management will help to ensure the emergency preparedness program meets expectations and properly accounts for area hazards and resources. Just as importantly, this meeting can help to strengthen relationships. Remember developing relationships is a critical component of preparedness. If the event is severe enough, emergency plans will fail and people will have to rise to the occasion.

The scope of the meeting should focus on interaction between the school/district administrators and first responders. Some topics could include:

School Response to Fire Alarms:

Is automatic evacuation the safest response?
Key points to consider: Architecture, fire alarms, sprinkler system, time required to evacuate, staff’s ability to investigate alarms.
Why is this important to discuss? Diversionary attacks such as Jonesboro, AR where 2 middle school students had a friend pull a fire alarm to prompt an evacuation so they could carry out an ambush-style attack.

School Response to Bomb Threats

Is automatic evacuation the safest response?
Key points to consider: The ability to properly assess the credibility & validity of a threat

Why is this important to discuss? While actual explosive devices are very rarely associated with bomb threats, in these very rare cases the device to more likely to be placed outside the school.

Response to an Active Shooter

How will law enforcement respond?
Key points to consider: Response to Active Shooter training, response times, on-site law enforcement/SRO’s, on-site security, staff instructions

Why is this important to discuss? School shootings last less than 3 minutes (on average) and are not stopped by SWAT units rapidly descending on the school. The Columbine & Virginia Tech massacres are unfortunate examples of the need for realistic lockdown training and rapid law enforcement response.

There are several other areas that warrant discussion, but these should get the ball rolling and provide valuable dialog between people with a common goal: Keeping our schools safe!

Remember, always collaborate with your local response agencies on emergency planning issues.

Stay safe!
Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

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