As part of his plan to reduce gun violence, on January 16th the President directed the Departments of Homeland Security, Education, Health and Human Services and Justice to create model emergency management plans for schools, institutions of higher education, and houses of worship. As part of that effort, these agencies are seeking input on what should be included in these plans and how students and staff can best be trained to follow them. Please share your ideas on what a school, institution of higher education, or house of worship should consider when developing and implementing a comprehensive emergency management plan, including ways the institution could involve the community or other stakeholders in drafting the plan; key issues the plan should address or that agencies should consider as they develop model plans; best practices for training staff, students and users of a facility to follow a plan; as well as best practices for how communities may plan to effectively recover from an incident. Your ideas will help us understand what works best in your community—and how others could learn from your success. Together, we can make the nation more resilient and secure. This campaign will be open for new ideas, comments and votes until March 22.
I think EVERY school should have plans in place for a variety of situations that can happen. Whether it's a shooter, earthquake or fire. Every school should have a plan to keep the kids safe. I think we should have some staff and teachers carrying Tasers. We should have food and water in the classroom in case it is on lock down for a long period of time.
The "I Love U Guys" Foundation was created to restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities. One of those activities was developing The Standard Response Protocol, which is less about developing a one-size-fits-all plan, and more about common language and response actions simple for students, ...more »
It's not just the "plan". Rather, it's the "process". As a former emergency management specialist now advocating school safety (www.thepeacechallenge.org), we promote parental and age appropriate student involvement in the development of emergency management programs in schools. This requires thinking "outside the box" to an extent. Instead of expecting students and staff to blindly follow procedures in a plan, they will ...more »
Written plans are a component of the Emergency Management programs, They should reflect the community, or organizations measure that are in place to deal with risk, and provide continuity where turnover is high. They are valuable training tools that provide guidance for the development of other parts of the program. (Canton, 2007, p. 196)
One of the main things I notice as an emergency planner is the continual need within school plans for a practical and logistical exercise plan. A school could have the most sound plan, but can remain ineffective if the end users(teachers, staff, and students, occupants) have knowledge of the procedures within the plan. As an Eagle scout, being prepared is our motto. Thusly, knowledge is power, power is strength, strength ...more »
Social Network Monitoring and Analytics provide law enforcement agencies some powerful new force multipliers in combating violence and crime across the USA. These new tools enable Law Enforcement agencies to monitor, detect, and even predict violent acts before they occur. Research data and actual events show that individuals, or groups of individuals who plan to conduct extreme violence on campus, or in a public venue ...more »
Any plan for an institution has to center around communications. Reaction to a threat will involve quickly evaluating the threat, selecting the plan, and dispatching the order to implement. This ability to communicate must be all-inclusive in that it must reach every individual and must not rely on the presence of electrical or other outside energy to each building or wing of the institution. Once the order is received ...more »
Safety & security initiatives such as interior and exterior surveillance cameras on all school campuses, in which the Waterford Police Department has access; swipe card access in all buildings; purchase of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) for every building; development and implementation of a bio-security and pandemic plan; large scale emergency drills; staff emergency training; mental health services; Alcohol, ...more »
In the end, it will just be really important for local elected officials, emergency managers, emergency responders, as well as leaders of schools, universities, and houses of worship to have a single source of primary guidance for emergency planning for schools, institutions of higher learning, and houses of worship. The Departments directed to work on this need to produce a joint document.
All schools are different. I am on the school safety committee developed post Sandy Hook. We discuss issues like locking doors to classes, but some of our elementary schools are build with large glass sections in the doors. making locking them a moot point. Problems must be addressed at the local level and may very well be different at ell schools based upon design. The best we can hope for from the federal side is a ...more »
Emergency management plans for school, institutions of higher education, and houses of worship should focus their plans to improving the schools security and their emergency plans. When I was in high school we practiced fire drills throughout the year and I believe emergency plans should be practiced in the same way. Students should be familiar with the plans and after practice know exactly what to do in case of an emergency. ...more »
In my experience local governments are not always eager to take the lead or contribute in developing higher education schools and houses of worship EOP's. I know they are often underfunded and understaffed however they are the first responders, and if we make our plans without their taking the lead or heavily contributing we will end up with silo's that will be forced together at the first major incident. Local authorities ...more »
Struggling with budget cuts, the public school system often forgets to make safety a first priority. The sacred cow, high school athletics, is an important part of the public school system but our money should first and foremost be spent on upgrading our buildings to improve student safety. I believe safety should come before academics as well. As a parent, I think I can speak for everyone in saying that I will forgive ...more »
Emergency planners tend to complicate things and develop elaborate plans. Whatever plans are developed they need to be simple. Simple drills, simple checklists, simple actions.
Emergency planners are also very good at planning in a vacuum. You cannot do it alone! You must include parents and parishioners as a valuable asset in emergency planning.
If your house of worship has members that are part of law enforcement it just makes sense to include them in developing a plan. One such plan has law enforcement members placed at strategic locations during services (they are unidentified) to deal with unexpected threats while non-law enforcement members are assigned other specific duties (such as calling 911, directing members to exits during an emergency, etc.). A ...more »
We just launched our latest m911 app, vicinity based alert notifications that will allow schools, churches, neighborhoods, communities or just a single family and their immediate neighbors to receive alerts whenever an emergency is occurring in their vicinity allowing them to respond appropriately. We are also channeling online safety and preparedness education of citizens.
Thanks to all who have contributed ideas to this message board. Good suggestions, all. A common theme that has run through many comments, and that was highlighted by many speakers at the recent White House sponsored session on emergency management planning is the importance of a common platform for training, exercises, response and management. With the phenomenal proliferation of new media and related tools, it is ...more »
First, controlling access to schools and other facilities has been conveyed in parts of other posts and comments, so thank you for bringing it up! Although I am not an expert in the subject, I thought this idea deserving of its own post. My take is, it is a good starting point for larger talks around security and should probably be discussed during planning as a mitigation technique. I do not believe access control ...more »
Seven staff members from our college campus attended the FEMA training on emergency management for higher education sponsored by Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, WI in December of 2012. This training is highly recommended! It motivated, those of us in attendance, to create a committee to take an active role in emergency preparedness/planning on campus. The training also provided us with the ability to network ...more »
Increase access to communications - typically these buildings have no access to any form of communication in the areas used by the woorshipping community. Placing strategically located phones would allow for rapid communication in the event of an incident in the facility
The biggest problem Americans have with security is denial. Unlike Israel where security is taken seriously by professionals, American executives look at security as a burden... until something goes wrong. Ever notice the military can establish a "Green Zone" in war torn Iraq? That's because when we put our effort behind something we get it done. Likewise our political leadership ensure their everyday working environment ...more »
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has developed an online employee training program to accompany the substantial all-hazards emergency plan already in place at each of our schools. Called the Safety Training for Emergency Preparedness at Schools (STEPS) program, the courses allow us to offer consistent training in the practices and procedures embodied in our school safety plans and district policies. LAUSD ...more »
I believe that successful emergency planning for schools has to be rooted in a strong relationship with local first responders. In my district we have spent the time to forged a trusting relationship with people who share a common vision -- keeping our schools safe and educating our school staff on emergency preparedness. It is not always easy to let first responders in your school and have them tell you what you need ...more »
Several years ago, Fran Townsend said the way to develop a culture of preparedness was to first involve the kids. To this end, we are trying something new. Using grade- and high-school students, we are having an emergency preparedness rodeo. Teams of students will go from station to performing a variety of tasks to illustrate preparedness. At one station, they will have to chose between a variety of available objects ...more »
In New Hampshire we have a law and rule in place that requires all public and nonpublic schools and childcare programs to have an Emergency Response Plan in place that utilize the Incident Command System and seven standardized Response Actions. One advantage of this is that children entering kindergarten are already familiar with Lockdown, Reverse Evacuation, Secure Campus and the other Response Actions. Planning guidance ...more »