School Crisis Communications

School incident management (Michael Coleman / MissionCritical)

School districts should integrate incident management into their education basics with a combination of technology, partnerships and training.

School Communications: Incident Management Takes Priority
RadioResource MissionCritical Communications
July 2010

By Michael Coleman

The basics of education have been referred to as the three Rs: "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic." However, the four Rs should be a new foundation for our educators. The fourth R in education is readiness. Schools have been thrust through a series of events and new legislation, forcing them to prepare for unplanned events. These unplanned events may be manmade or natural events at or near a school campus. We need to go beyond the routine and brief training that takes place during in-service. Training needs to consist of more than a few sentences describing what emergency signals are used and what is expected of staff and students.

The emergency management cycle is based on four phases: prevent/mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover. These are described visually in a circular fashion. The phases are a cycle that perpetuate, starting at any point in the cycle. Ideally, the cycle starts at planning and finishes at review. Then based on the review, new planning takes place. The four phases can easily be turned into a second set known as the 4 Rs: reduction (mitigate), readiness (prepare), respond, and review/recover.

New Requirements

School districts are being asked, or required, to invest in their readiness by institutionalizing the incident command system (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The Colorado legislature required the adoption of ICS and NIMS in Senate Bill 08-181, requiring compliance by July 2009. In the legislation, Colorado instructed the schools to institutionalize the ICS and NIMS, perform regular exercises, develop safety teams, engage in agreements with the first response stakeholders and assess their communications capabilities. The bill outlined these in a school response framework. Its intent was to train staff how to handle an emergency until emergency responders arrived. It encourages the school to support the event with ICS positions staffed with trained school district employees. Because employees know the students, the school layout, and internal systems best, their participation is critical to the incident management process. Their role can be experienced before, during and after the event.

To make the school-based ICS training (FEMA IS-100SCa) more vertical, a graduate student taught ICS to the senior class at the Rocky Mountain School for Expeditionary Learning (RMSEL), a K-12 charter school in Denver. The theory is that students who know how to respond during a school emergency are equipped to respond during other emergencies.

"If we tell people to assume a sense of personal responsibility for disaster preparedness, then we must also provide them with the tools they need to carry out those actions," says Camilla Yamada, who developed a concept of teaching kids to be self-sufficient in emergencies using ICS as the model. "Teaching high school students the management skills in ICS will help shape tomorrow's leaders. Equipping our communities with managers of all ages is a pivotal step in that process," she explains.

The RMSEL students were tasked to run a schoolwide fire drill, assisted by school staff. The school was safely evacuated in four minutes. Every student had to be quickly accounted for during the event. Kerry Lord, RMSEL executive director, was pleased with the process and enrichment the seniors achieved; the process gives them skills and experience they can use successfully in the future.

Communications Elements

One of the core elements of a successful ICS implementation is a communications plan. Many schools use conventional radio to provide instant contact with staff throughout the day. Immediate access to staff saves time and money for routine administrative communications. The radio also becomes a tool during trips, school evacuations and emergencies. School staff members are comfortable with small basic radios that are easy to use, lightweight and work around campus. Getting the schools the right tools for the job is important, as well as ensuring they use the tools, according to Patrick Hobby of SchoolSAFE Communications. School staff members who have never used radios have discovered the value that instant communications brings.

When schools became part of the ICS process, during a crisis coupled with their use of conventional radios, the challenge of interoperability arises. Giving emergency crews the ability to talk to school staff during the response can enhance the situational awareness and add valuable preparation time for the event. This information flow from the school creates "calmness and confidence," says Greg Keasling of Pueblo (Colo.) School District 70. Keasling is responsible for all district facilities, operations and safety for what is Colorado's geographically largest school district. Pueblo District 70 schools enjoy a strong working relationship with its first-response community.

Pueblo's community members spent many hours training together and conducting emergency exercises. The training included ICS information, a crisis communications workshop and exercise planning. The same week the Colorado Safe Schools Act modifications from Senate Bill 08-181 were signed into law, the Pueblo schools conducted a 1,200-person emergency drill for students, staff and responders. During this drill, the district and first responders had a chance to use new school communications technology. A radio bridge provided by SchoolSAFE Communications allowed for on-demand instant communications only when required between responders and school staff. After the success of the exercise, the school district worked with the county emergency manager to obtain grants to outfit every county school with emergency communications capability. Since then, the system has been used several times during emergencies and subsequent drills. The latest drill had districtwide impact. The Pueblo Army Chemical Depot, which is in close proximity to several schools, had three simultaneous emergencies. The events were managed more effectively, Keasling says, because of the district's training and preparation. Keasling believes every dime spent on safety in the district pays back dividends.

The practice of preplanning communications strategies is gaining momentum among public-safety officials. In many cases, this effort has been easier as local governments are moving toward or have established partnership radio systems. These partnerships have developed over the years for a variety of reasons. Most have a common goal — interoperability. Planning interoperability into the system from the beginning coincides nicely with the Safecom interoperability continuum, established by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. One component of the continuum is using the system in regular comprehensive regional training exercises, a philosophy strongly embraced in Pueblo.

Readiness for schools is the first stop on the emergency planning agenda. Schools should be included early in plan preparation. A school, in the past, has only been used as a place of shelter. Now, because of events during the past decade, more emphasis has been placed on preparing plans specifically for school events. Schools and their staff need to be at the table when plans are developed. Colorado has given educators homework on ICS and All Hazards Planning for Schools (FEMA Course IS-362).

Schools are assigning more emergency manager tasks to specific staff. Dr. Jim Walpole of the Platte Canyon School District, in tandem with his county sheriff and emergency manager, completed a comprehensive plan for the district that includes regular training and exercises. Many new technologies and school planning specialists are available to schools through grants or other funding options. Colorado established the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, which acts as a clearinghouse for school safety information, and has hosted successful training conferences that bring a multitude of stakeholders to the table.

Reducing risk at schools is a constant evolution. Examples of risk reduction include installing and testing fire alarms and regular building inspections. Other factors to help reduce risk are planning and training. Building a portfolio of exercises schools can use for training and drills should be a priority for districts. Schools can work with emergency managers to conduct risk assessments and build plans to mitigate those risks. Not all risks can be eliminated, but training for risks can enhance a school's crisis response.

Public safety response to incidents at schools only seems to be increasing. Proper training and support of school staff is a must, because school officials are asked to manage the incident until help arrives. According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2007 there were 684,100 incidents of violent school crime. In 2003, there were 36,000 chemical exposures in a school. These and many other statistics speak to the need to have staff ready to hold the fort until the cavalry arrives.

Recover and review is important. In many cases, the effort and emphasis is on recover. Review is often forgotten as part of the cycle. Conducting a hot wash on an incident or exercise provides valuable information. Reviewing the event in an open session with key stakeholders should be done relatively soon after the event. Information discussed needs to be identified, and concerns and positive outcomes documented. The information gained from the event is a valuable roadmap leading back to the readiness step.

This approach to the 4 Rs is new and should be part of every educational institution's staff development. These topics haven't been directly included in traditional college course work. It's time to bring your local school system to the table, build a partnership and begin planning for what we hope will never happen. Take the opportunity to teach and learn from each other. The future stakeholders of our country rely on us to do so.

Michael Coleman is vice president of business development for QDS Communications. He has more than 25 years of service in public safety.