Utah School District Steps Up Training

School nurses Debra Hengst and Shanna Christ

Creating safe and secure environments for students, teachers, staff and the public is a top concern for Washington County School District, Utah.

By Nancy Perkins

ST. GEORGE, Utah (KCSG Television) June 30, 2010 -- Creating safe and secure environments for students, teachers, staff and the public is a top concern for Washington County School District employees who are involved in numerous emergency preparedness training exercises this summer.

“Our whole focus is on emergency preparedness and on making our schools safe for students, staff and the public,” said Student Services Director LuAnne Forrest. “Twenty percent of the county population can be found inside a school building much of the year and we are working hard on keeping everyone safe.”

More than a dozen teachers are currently involved in a Community Emergency Response Training course (CERT) offered through the St. George Police Department, with two other trainings scheduled for this next year. This CERT training covers basic first aid for life threatening injuries, fire suppression, search and rescue operations, disaster preparedness and cooperation between various first responders.

Teachers will get to test their knowledge during an emergency response training drill scheduled Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at East Elementary School. Simulated injuries and other problems will be staged for the teachers, who will put their CERT skills to the test.

Another project currently under way at Dixie High School is the installation of a test project called the Interoperable Communications Pilot Program. This pilot program involves using a new 9-1-1 service that links two-way radios used by school personnel with radios used by local and state first responders. Participants will be able to communicate with each other on a secure, dedicated radio channel during emergencies, which would assure a quicker and more specific response.

Patrick Hobby, president of SchoolSAFE Communications, said his company developed the interoperability system and then partnered with a nonprofit group, School Safety Partners, to set up the pilot program at a handful of schools around the country.

“LuAnne’s application was one of the best we received,” said Hobby. “She competed with hundreds of other schools for a chance at this program and was one of the top applications.”

Washington County School District is already moving toward implementing the National School Response framework and utilizes the Incident Command System at the local school level, making it a perfect fit for the SchoolSAFE Communications model, said Hobby.

“The whole idea of this project is to have excellent communications on a school campus, period,” he said. “Safe and secure schools breed a safer and more secure community.”

Forrest and Stan DeMille, the district’s special systems supervisor, also recently attended the International School Safety Convention in Denver, Colo. The two-day convention focused on solutions that promote safety, security, emergency management and a nurturing school environment.

School safety concerns and solutions were addressed by Michael Dorn, an author of 25 books on school safety and executive director of Safe Havens International, Inc. Dorn’s presentations included the benefits of using architecture and design to create a safe school campus in today’s sometimes chaotic and unpredictable world.

Other emergency training courses are planned within the district and a full-fledged disaster exercise is scheduled to occur later this summer. District employees, students, first responders such as police, fire and medical personnel will come together to conduct training under a multi-problem emergency scenario, Forrest said.