School personnel trained to protect kids in disaster
When the unthinkable happens and disaster strikes, parents' thoughts immediately turn to the safety of their children.
Unfortunately, if school is in session at the time, those concerns can hamper measures to care for them, said Patrick Hickey, assistant superintendent of finance and operations with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.
"The biggest problem in any emergency response is the immediate onrush of the community and parents who all want to find their children or to help out," Hickey said. "The last thing I want is fire trucks responding to a burning school dodging around streets congested by parents."
He said the best thing for parents to do is let the school officials do their jobs unfettered.
"We are a professionally trained staff responsible for people's kids. We will capably protect students until we are officially relieved of that responsibility," Hickey continued.
"School faculty are trained in yearly emergency workshops so they will know exactly how to respond to emergency situations and will be able to guide students to safety."
The biggest problem in any emergency response is the immediate onrush of the community and parents who all want to find their children or to help out.The last thing I want is fire trucks responding to a burning school dodging around streets congested by parents.
-- Patrick Hickey, assistant superintendent of finance and operations with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
To meet these needs, the school district designed what is referred to as a "critical incident plan."
The plan identifies 11 hazard categories and the school resources needed to properly respond to each situation.
The identified hazards are bomb threat, chemical spill, earthquake, explosion, fire, flood, gunfire, intruders, severe weather, tsunami and volcanic activity.
The critical incident plan is used by the school district administration and individual schools to determine who will have command over emergency procedures -- usually the school's principal -- and what the most efficient emergency response would be in each instance.
Additionally, each school prioritizes resources and reactions according to what is most likely to happen in the area. Then the administrators set up a drill schedule for teachers and students.
To maximize efficiency, school district officials have given a copy of the plan to all law enforcement agencies on the peninsula. School support staff and faculty aren't the only people who have been trained to properly respond in emergency situations.
In addition to regular fire and earthquake drills, some schools are teaching students how to become responsible participants in the incident command system.
"At McNeil Canyon (Elementary near Homer) a couple kids are assigned the duty of grabbing classroom emergency supply buckets during evacuation," said Hickey. "As teachers go through student name checklists, it's neat to see all the students lined up outside with a bucket at the front of each line."
In the event of a disaster, Hickey said, parents should not call the schools to find out when their children can be released. Instead, emergency information radio reports will include when and where students can be picked up by an authorized adult.
"Parents phoning for information about their kids clog communication lines. This disrupts logistics and ties up limited resources," Hickey said. "We are prepared to handle emergencies, it's part of our job."
In fact, school may be the safest place for a child. Faculty have been trained to maintain student physical and mental health, have access to stockpiles of medical, sanitary and nutritional resources and can keep children entertained and out of harm's way while community disaster response is implemented. Almost all schools are designated Red Cross mass care shelters, meaning they have supplies and training to deal with the unexpected.
Hickey said schools understand how difficult it can be for people to leave their children in someone else's care. If any parent would like more information about disaster response, the schools are happy to share their plans with the public.
"If there is any feeling of discomfort, talk it over with their building principal," he said. "The only way you can get to that level of confidence is a close interaction with the school."
Hickey advised concerned parents that most teachers also have children in the school system somewhere.
"We need to be trusted that our primary goal is the welfare of the children," Hickey said. "We need to be allowed to do our job.
"We have good people who care about our kids."