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It sounds like it was an obstructed drill, which are quite normal. The thing that is not normal is the taking of personal items. Did I read they removed students too? That is horrible. I must say that teachers and staff need to lock their personal items as it has been seen strangers get on campus and steal a teachers belongs! I worry that they can get on campus but still locking up your belongs is a must as even co workers may not be completely honest.
I know that at some schools the administration will take note of which doors are left open. Now locked? I am not sure one would really lock in a real emergency say you locked the door and walked out in a real fire only to see the fire heading your way. Too nervous to unlock the door you and your students burn to death. I would think being able to get back in your classroom may buy you some time?
Now was there any backlash from the employees that this happened to?
Bingo once and bingo twice. It is a real obstruction due to construction and they were wise to do a full scale mock up so they can evaluate and prepare in case a real disaster occurs. Teacher need to take wallets etc for identification purposes. If it is a shooting incident or something of that nature emergency workers will have a list of legitimate staff and need picture ID to verify who people are. In a real emergency strangers called emergency responders are going to help RESCUE the children and these are those very same people. In a real fire I would think the teachers would be happy that someone rescued their purse and belongs so they didn't get destroyed. Wouldn't you be happy to recover rather than have to replace?
I was just given a first-hand account of a fire drill in a PA elementary school.
The alarm was sounded.
There is construction in progress, thus 500 +/- kids needed to be funnelled out fewer doors.
The local firepeople/police went into the empty classrooms and took personal property belonging to teachers....ie...car keys, wallets, etc. There was no notice of this policy, and the teachers then needed to report their items missing when they were unable to locate their keys at the end of the work day. They were reprimanded for leaving doors unlocked as they tried to exit the students from the building.
The authorities removed some of the children from their classes as they were exiting the building. This created a situation where children were told they had to leave their designated areas with strangers. This is the system plan and individual schools develop their own. The are often done in conjunction with rescue workers who will tell the school their needs to be incorporated in the plan.
Is this a new procedure? Have any of you experienced this practice?
What is your opinion?
The following link is the emergency preparedness guidelines for a Pennsylvania school district. They should help you gather insight from a factual plan and not just forum opinion.
http://www.pinerichland.org/emerop08.pdf (broken link)
TuborgP, Thank you for taking the time to post a link. I admit, since the document was specific to a particular district and voluminous, I only glanced over it.
I see your point about adults bringing ID with them when they exit the building. It makes perfect sense. However, please keep in mind that all school employees now have a photo ID that must be worn on their person. These school-issued tags are used for identification in a crisis and non-crisis situation. In the situation I posted about, there was no prior directive to the staff for a procedural change. In my personal experience, we were instructed to leave everything. It takes time to gather personal belongings, and the priority is the safety of the kids. This staff was instructed to 'lock up' their personal items if they didn't want them removed. There is no locked space provided to them in the classrooms. The removal of their car keys to the office seems to be outside the need for personal ID in a crisis.
Yes, indeed, there certainly could be the possibility of strangers in the building to facilitate an evacuation and child protection. I can't imagine that they would put a individual child in a position to be removed from the rest of their class group or from the teacher/adult they know. I would assume the 'rescuers' would protect the entire group. It is common for the children to be told to stay together. Do not leave your group. Seems to be a mixed message to me. Also, with workmen in the building, the no-talking-to-strangers message has been made imperative to the students.
Your points are well considered. Yes, it is good to have a drill during construction in order to practice evacuation under different circumstances. Perhaps if the staff had been notified of changes in policy, there would have been less confusion.
Thank you again for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
TuborgP, Thank you for taking the time to post a link. I admit, since the document was specific to a particular district and voluminous, I only glanced over it.
I see your point about adults bringing ID with them when they exit the building. It makes perfect sense. However, please keep in mind that all school employees now have a photo ID that must be worn on their person. These school-issued tags are used for identification in a crisis and non-crisis situation. In the situation I posted about, there was no prior directive to the staff for a procedural change. In my personal experience, we were instructed to leave everything. It takes time to gather personal belongings, and the priority is the safety of the kids. This staff was instructed to 'lock up' their personal items if they didn't want them removed. There is no locked space provided to them in the classrooms. The removal of their car keys to the office seems to be outside the need for personal ID in a crisis.
Yes, indeed, there certainly could be the possibility of strangers in the building to facilitate an evacuation and child protection. I can't imagine that they would put a individual child in a position to be removed from the rest of their class group or from the teacher/adult they know. I would assume the 'rescuers' would protect the entire group. It is common for the children to be told to stay together. Do not leave your group. Seems to be a mixed message to me. Also, with workmen in the building, the no-talking-to-strangers message has been made imperative to the students.
Your points are well considered. Yes, it is good to have a drill during construction in order to practice evacuation under different circumstances. Perhaps if the staff had been notified of changes in policy, there would have been less confusion.
Thank you again for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
Yes I am well aware of staff having picture ID. Hopefully all have it on everyday. However consider the following scenario. A shooter enters a school and begins to shoot. There is a panic and students and staff begin to implement the emergency plan as best as is possible. Staff will have their picture ID for authorities to compare their name with a master list of staff (which they should have). However if ID is left behind a possible perpetrator might use that ID to go out another door posing as staff. Emergency plans are written to take into account more and more variables each time there is an incident to alter thinking. One of the turning points came in Tennessee a few years ago when students pulled the fire alarm and began shooting students as they exited the building. That for a fleeting moment caused some planners to say you shouldn't exit the building automatically when the alarm when off. Yes after they thought about it they went duh. The big problem is that if you are familiar with planning you are also familiar with how to defeat the plan and that is not always that difficult.
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