Preparing Your School for a Crisis
Families trust schools to keep their children safe during
the day. Thanks to the efforts of millions of teachers,
principals, and staff across America, the majority of
schools remain safe havens for our nation’s youth.
The unfortunate reality is, however, that school districts in this country may be touched either directly or indirectly by a crisis of some kind at any time.
Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, fires, and tornadoes can strike a community with little or no warning. An influenza pandemic, or other infectious disease, can spread from person-to-person causing serious illness across the country, or around the globe, in a very short time. School shootings, threatened or actual, are extremely rare but are horrific and chilling when they occur. The harrowing events of September 11 and subsequent anthrax scares have ushered in a new age of terrorism. Communities across the country are struggling to understand and avert acts of terror.
Children and youth rely on and find great comfort in
the adults who protect them. Teachers and staff must
know how to help their students through a crisis and
return them home safely. Knowing what to do when
faced with a crisis can be the difference between calm
and chaos, between courage and fear, between life and
death. There are thousands of fires in schools every
year, yet there is minimal damage to life and property
because staff and students are prepared. This preparedness
needs to be extended to all risks schools face.
Schools and districts need to be ready to handle crises,
large and small, to keep our children and staff out of
harm’s way and ready to learn and teach.
The time to plan is now. If you do not have a crisis plan in place, develop one. If you do have a plan in place, review, update and practice that plan regularly.Taking action now can save lives, prevent injury, and minimize property damage in the moments of a crisis. If you do not have a crisis plan in place, it is time to develop one.