We’ll continue this discussion about natural and manmade disasters from our last article. As mentioned before, we are in a time period of possibly facing a variety of different scenarios that would create tremendous problems for us. Thus, we do need to prepare ourselves and plan on how best to re-act to a disaster. One thing we can’t do is fall back to the 1950s-1960s and pull down the shades, duck and cover, like we did as preparation for a nuclear attack.
On the other end, one thing we must do is recognize and adapt to a largely unwelcome new realty.
So what can we do, what should we do and most importantly, what must we do? Most importantly, the issue of emergency preparedness needs to be on the action agendas of the groups associated with the school. The action agendas must create a genuine sense of urgency to achieve and maintain readiness.
Another important preparedness activity is to reach out and coordinate with those who the school will have to act with during a drastic emergency. Many of the emergency situations we face at school will also involve others in the community. So coordinating with others is very important in the overall plan. A serious planning effort needs to be made. When addressing a plan and being faced with the large number of possible disaster scenarios, the entire situation can become paralyzing. There are too many potential scenarios to develop contingency plans for all. To try and do so, the results would be so detailed that the people would hardly remember a rough outline of them. So, instead of planning for each one, the school must be ready with a response. A response could be to hold students in school, send them home, or move them to another building location in the community.
A response system also needs to have personnel organized with responsibilities. Along with the organized responsibilities, a communication arrangement between all involved will be a real necessity.
The bottom line is that preparing for these new possible disaster emergencies is something we shouldn’t have to be doing, but with the conditions of our times, being ready with a response to a drastic emergency is a real necessity.
Source- National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
