“Emergency response is a product of preparedness. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the last best hope for the community of people working in or visiting the World Trade Center rested not with national policymakers, but with private firms and local public servants, especially the first responders: fire, police, emergency medical service and building safety professionals.”
(The 9/11 Commission Report, page 278)
September is National Preparedness Month!
“Today marks the beginning of National Preparedness Month, an opportunity for our nation’s families and communities to discuss their plans if they were faced with an emergency.Protecting the United States from threats like terrorism, natural disasters, and infectious diseases is a shared responsibility and everyone has an important role to play” – Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Homeland Security, September 2, 2009
SafePlans is proud to be a part of our emergency preparedness community.
Secretary Napolitano was in New York today [September 2] to introduce a series of new public service advertisement (PSAs) produced for the Ready Campaign (http://www.ready.gov/). The Ready Campaign’s mission is to inform and educate the public on how to best prepare for a major disaster,
http://www.ready.gov/america/about/psa.html
Stay connected with current events! SafePlans posts updates on Twitter to help inform our safety & emergency planning community of events and important news.
Twitter is very easy to use. Follow the steps below and you will be up and running in minutes.
1. Sign up for A Free Twitter Account: http://twitter.com
2. Go to our Twitter Account at http://twitter.com/educationsafety
3. Below the educationsafety logo click “Follow”. You will begin to receive the news feeds at your Twitter account on your computer or phone.
Twitter is also a great way for school districts and colleges to communicate with parents, students and faculty at no cost! Twitter can be used to announce closings for snow days, reminders of upcoming events and be used to direct people to a website for more information. As with any mass notification solution, Twitter should not be the core focus on your emergency preparedness efforts. The due diligence of planning and training simply cannot be replaced with text message.
Stay Safe
As more and more school campuses are forced to confront bomb threats and conduct drills for attacks such as Columbine and the Virginia Tech shooting, an area of concern is the continued use of code phrases to alert school staff. The desire to use codes is understandable. An intercom announcement stating “We have just received a bomb threat.” is hardly precursor to a successful response.
However, the more important the message, the more vital it is that everyone understands. A substitute teacher not knowing that an announcement of “Mr. Smith is in the building” or “Code Orange” means to implement a lockdown, needlessly puts lives in danger. When confronted with a situation that could pose immediate danger to students and staff, school administrators should use plain language to communicate the hazard. An example for a dangerous intruder could be “We have an intruder in the building. Students report immediately to the nearest classroom. Teachers implement a lock down. Police are on the way.” Will this cause anxiety yes. Is there another way to ensure that everyone in the building knows what to do? I can’t think of one.
For situations that are slightly less eminent, such as a bomb threat, announcing “Teachers restrict hallway access. Students report directly to your next scheduled class” should elicit the desired response of controlling student movement, while not creating an undue panic.
A school administrator shared with me a real-world experience regarding the use of codes in an elementary school. A teacher was expecting her first child and coordinated with the secretary a way to communicate to the school staff news of the new arrival. One morning the secretary went on the school’s intercom and excitedly announced “Attention teachers, Code Blue.” Students hid, doors were hurriedly locked, and panic ensued all because the teacher had just delivered a baby boy…
Don’t count on the use of a code phrase to deliver information that could save lives and remember coordinate your plans and drills with your local response agencies!
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
SafePlans is offering a free pandemic planning web-conference for educators and public health officials. A link to registration is located on the SchoolSafetyNews.com homepage.
The recent declaration of a public health emergency over the swine flu cases in the U.S. and Mexico highlights the importance of public health and [pandemic planning. An influenza-based public health emergency and/or pandemic has always been a question of “when” not “if” and while it was assumed a new strain of /avian flu would be the culprit, experts emphasized a pandemic can be caused by any new virus.
It is not known if this particular “swine flu” virus could even lead to a pandemic; but planning for a Pandemic event requires strategies unlike any other disaster. This is primarily due to the facts that when a pandemic occurs we will 1) see it coming, 2) be unable to stop it, 3) be forced to deal with exposure concerns for over one year and 4) will take several years to recover.
What Is an Influenza Pandemic?
A pandemic is defined as a global disease outbreak. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which there is little or no immunity in the human population, begins to cause serious illness and then spreads easily person-to-person worldwide.
Historically, the 20th century saw 3 pandemics of influenza:
- 1918 influenza pandemic caused at least 500,000 U.S. deaths and up to 40 million deaths worldwide
- 1957 influenza pandemic caused at least 70,000 U.S. deaths and 1-2 million deaths worldwide
- 1968 influenza pandemic caused about 34,000 U.S. deaths and 700,000 deaths worldwide
Characteristics and challenges of a pandemic
- Rapid Worldwide Spread
- Health Care Systems Overloaded
- Medical Supplies Inadequate
- Economic and Social Disruption
Communications and Information are Critical Components of Pandemic Response
Education and outreach are critical to preparing for a pandemic. Understanding what a pandemic is, what needs to be done at all levels to prepare for pandemic influenza, and what could happen during a pandemic helps us make informed decisions both as individuals and as a nation. Should a pandemic occur the public must be able to depend on its government to provide scientifically sound public health information quickly, openly and dependably.
What Can Be Done?
While there is nothing a government, school district or business can do to prevent the onset of a pandemic, there is an enormous opportunity to mitigate its effects via planning and training. These preparedness measures should focus on three key stages:
- Preparedness
- Response
- Recovery
Continue Reading…
On April 20, 1999 two cowards made their way into history by murdering 12 students and a teacher. For most, this anniversary will pass unnoticed. For some, the Columbine anniversary will bring powerful memories of an awful tragedy.
For a very few, the Columbine anniversary will invoke grandiose ideations of violence and immortality that fuel school shooters.
While most attack anniversaries pass without “copy cat” attacks, it is important that school administrators pause to consider the situational awareness of their school.
While it may not be feasible to implement a threat assessment program prior to April 20th, there is plenty of time to ask teachers and counselors if there are any students exhibiting indicators that anyone a concern for their safety or the safety of others. Students exhibiting these indicators need help; whether or not they actually intend on carrying out an attack. Remember the cardinal rule in assessing potentially violent behavior: It is not if the person makes a threat, it is if they pose a threat.
Remember, the cowards at Columbine did not just snap. Theirs was a building process that culminated just one day after the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings (April 19, 1995).
For those of us that will remember Columbine, let’s remember the victims
- Cassie Bernall
- Steve Curnow
- Corey DePooter
- Kelly Fleming
- Matt Kechter
- Daniel Mauser
- Daniel Rohrbough
- Rachel Scott
- Isaiah Shoels
- John Tomlin
- Lauren Townsend
- Kyle Velasquez
- Coach Dave Sanders
…and never again speak the names of their killers.
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
Terrorism is defined in the U.S. by the Code of Federal Regulations as: “..the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
Maybe.
But it seems to me the goal of the “modern” terrorist (circa September 10, 2001) is to kill as many people as possible and gain maximum notoriety for their attack. With this definition, the shooters in Columbine and Virginia Tech are rightly labeled as terrorist, without having to consider their clearly stated social objectives.
Note: I am following LTC Dave Grossman’s lead here in not listing the names of the cowards that carried out these shootings.
These cowardly acts of terrorism were no more spontaneous than the Oklahoma City Bombing, September 11th attacks or the Beslan, Russia school massacre. School shootings are not impulsive acts. If we are to prevent and mitigate terrorist style attacks in schools there are several factors to consider. For starters, consider where the attacks can come from. The attack can come from someone within the school (Internal, such as Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech) or from someone who does not belong at the school (External, such as Bailey, CO, Nickel Mines, PA or Belan, Russia).
For the “internal” based attacks there are several prevention/mitigation strategies such as:
- Threat Assessment Program
- Lockdown Plans & Drills
- On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
- Site Mapping
Prevention/mitigation strategies for “external” type threats:
- Access Control & Physical Security
- Security Awareness:
- On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
- Site Mapping
- Lockdown Plans & Drills
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.
Click here to learn more about the author
Bomb Threats and Improvised Explosive Devices
You may have noticed on the School Security Awareness Map the rash of bomb threats; not to mention the actual detonation of a pipe bomb on a school campus and the disrupted plot to bomb a school in South Carolina. It seems the combination of spring air, the impending summer break and exams somehow help the justification of threatening a terrorist attack.
Bomb threats are scary, costly, disruptive, highly illegal and unfortunately very common. Bombs/I.E.D.’s blow up buildings, kill people and are thankfully rare. While we often associate bomb threat with explosive devices, the statistics show they are most never related. On the very rare instances they are connected, the explosive device was more likely to be planted outside the school. This certainly brings into question the policy of automatically evacuating the school in response to a threat.
Just as a fire alarm doesn’t mean there is a fire, a bomb threat doesn’t mean there is a bomb. That said, bomb threats must never be ignored. The use of I.E.D.’s is becoming all too common in school plots and attacks; such as Columbine.
Continue Reading…
The recent attacks in Mumbai, India illustrate that Islamic terrorists will implement previous attack strategies that assault civilian soft targets. The relevance to educational facilities is drawn from the September 1st, 2004 massacre at the Beslan Russia elementary school that left 330 people (most of whom were children) dead.
The Mumbai attacks followed assault strategy that was disrupted in July 1993 in New York. This strategy was referred to as the “Landmarks” plot and called for several terrorist teams to assault prominent New York hotels. Terrorists conducted detailed target surveillance that included maps and notes on building design. The attackers intended to pose as hotel workers and utilize a stolen delivery vehicle in order to obtain easy access to the targets.
Thankfully the Landmarks pot was prevented due to the vigilance of US counterterrorism agents. A little more that 15 years later, the people of Mumbai were not so fortunate. Their fate mirrored that of the community of Beslan Russia when the attackers reportedly posed as repairman to unchallenged access to the school.
The Mumbia attack serves as a distressing reminder that terrorists will target civilians in order to gain maximum body count to gain maximum notoriety for their attacks.
Most schools have a lockdown plan. However, not many schools have a good lockdown plan. Just as every classroom should have an evacuation plan, every room needs a lockdown plan that meets the needs of that specific location. Keep in mind, there are numerous access control solutions that can enhance a school’s ability to lockdown and no location can offer total protection from a hostile intruder. At a minimum, schools should identify locations that meet certain basic safety guidelines.
For example:
- A door that can be locked from the inside. Imagine having stand outside the classroom to lock your door during a lockdown.
- No interior facing windows/vision panels greater than 10 inches wide. The intruder should not be able to see in the room or easily defeat the window and locking mechanism.
Once identified, all staff should become familiar with these guidelines and what to do if they are in one of these areas when confronted with a hostile intruder and/or lockdown situation.
District and school administrators should work with their local law enforcement and fire department (fire code compliance) to set these guidelines and establish plans for these non-secure areas.
And of course – TRAIN THE PLAN.
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email