Be Informed: School

The Point

Teachers and administrators have a responsibility to anticipate dangers and to take precautions to protect their students from those dangers.

School Administrators, Teachers and Staff need to be informed of the potential dangers to our students and staff. And know where to fined the resources and training  to be prepared for those possibilities.

Knowing what to do in a crisis is life saving education.

Do This

  • Train staff on school emergency management and preparedness principles
  • Inform parents of school emergency plans and reunification protocols.
  • Train students on protective actions for emergencies and disasters that can happen in your area.
  • Stay informed by connecting with Be Ready School social media and calendar events.

Be Ready Schools

Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to emergency survival. Take the time before emergencies occur to learn about the risks your school may face, the protective actions that will save your students and staff from those hazards, and how students, parents and staff will receive emergency information in times of disaster. The lives of everyone in your facility may depend on it.

Be Ready Schools focuses on preparing students and schools for potential emergencies and disasters. This preparation includes the most essential elements including a plan and emergency supplies.

Be Ready Schools also provides you with information about the natural hazards we have in Utah so you can be informed about the potential risks and dangers involved with each one.

Be Ready Schools also has information on how you can volunteer and share your desire to help others be ready.

Emergencies and disasters can strike at unexpected moments and it's important to take the time now to do some simple things that will help ensure your school is prepared for any type of emergency.

School Preparedness?

Focus on the Basics First

While future events may dictate changes in areas requiring security, safety and preparedness attention, there are certain specific points where school officials may want to focus their efforts. These are not limited to the mitigation and preparedness for traditional natural hazards and disasters, but need to also include prevention and preparedness for manmade and technological incidents, such as HAZMAT incidents, or a cyber-attack, as well as, bomb threats, acts of violent extremism and terrorism. In fact, good safety and emergency preparedness measures designed to reduce the effects of a natural disaster often have much in common with those efforts designed to reduce the risks associated with accidents in general, typical acts of violence, mass contamination incidents, and other types of mass casualty incidents.

Evaluating staff/student training (knowing what to do), immediate on-site medical response abilities, communication capabilities, life sustainability factors (water, food, sanitation), access control, security hardware, and the effectiveness of your school’s First Responder partnerships, can go a long way to prepare, secure and target harden your school.

Regularly reviewing and updating your Emergency Operations Plans to see how solid existing protocols are to handle lockdowns, bomb threats, major acts of violence, shelter-in-place and/or evacuation procedures is a major step in the right direction. There is no need to develop new emergency plans for new and developing threats. The focus should be on making sure your existing plan is a solid one, and on developing annexes when you ascertain a weakness or area that needs focus. Your plan should be an “All Hazards Plan”, with annexes addressing specific incidents or crises.

Our response to a new dimension that poses new threats should be practical and deliberate. The effective efforts to reduce and respond to new threats to the school environment should be directly tied to our traditional preparedness, safety and security planning.

Focus on the basics. First.

Adapted from: (Innocent Targets – When Terrorism Comes to School, Authors: Michael Dorn and Chris Dorn (2005), Safe Havens International, Inc.)

Inform Parents and Staff

Parents need to know how they are going to pick up their child during or after a lock down, or where to get their child if the school has evacuated to another location. How do you plan to communicate with parents during or after an emergency? Be sure to inform parents on your schools emergency plans so they know what to expect.

Your staff are your key to putting your emergency plans into action and to protect the children in your charge. Make sure your staff are informed on your schools emergency response plans and protective actions.

Teach the Children

Resilient schools have a student body that know the protective actions when disaster strikes. Know the hazards that can happen at your school and do the drills with your student body on a regular basis.

What Would You Do in an Active Shooter Incident?

Watch this video on Surviving an Active Shooter provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff.

Visit the Acts of Violence page for more info on Active Shooter Preparedness

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