Running head: ADVERSE SITUATIONS 1

Adverse Situations

Sara Wayne

Grand Canyon University: EAD-536

3/17/2020
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 2

Throughout the school year the staff and students need to be able to practice for potential

emergencies that may occur to be prepared for a real situation. When planning for these drills it

is important to randomly schedule them throughout the school year to help prepare for the

unexpected at any given time. This begins with creating a safety calendar to schedule different

drills or tasks throughout the school year. Creating a safety calendar would include the

administration team along with the facility manger. This team would be compromised of these

people because they will need to be able to assist and observe the teachers and students in their

decisions during a drill. The facility manager would be included as they would be responsible for

notifying the fire or police department of the drills when they are occurring. When creating a

safety calendar, we will also be thinking about the school’s mission and vision to ensure it is

being upheld in every respect. The following chart will be a guideline for the 2020-2021 school

year to follow for the different drills and trainings.

Monthly Fire Drills

August 12, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.

- Evacuation will be from the classrooms with no changes as it is the first

one of the school year. This will occur between two different grade level

recesses, so that students can be in the classrooms to practice the

designated flow from their classrooms.

September 22, 2020 at 9:00 a.m.

- Evacuation will be from the playground as preschool will be at their

morning recess. This is also right after a passing period for the junior high

classes, so students should be just settling into their classes before the drill

begins.
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 3

October 27, 2020 at 12:30 p.m.

- Evacuation will be from the cafeteria as 5th and 6th grade students will be a

lunch. In addition, the junior high stairwell will be closed so they will

need to take an alternate path.

November 9, 2020 at 10:25 a.m.

- Evacuation will be right before kindergarten lunch where students will be

preparing for lunch with washing hands. Students will need to take their

lunchboxes with them.

December 11, 2020 at 1:20 p.m.

- Evacuation will be during first and second grades afternoon recess. In

addition, the door on the north side of the building will be blocked and

those who exit that doorway from upstairs will need to find an alternate

path.

January 22, 2021 at 8:15 a.m.

- Evacuation will be directly after flag ceremony once all students are inside

of the building. This will occur as students are unpacking and getting

started with their days.

February 10, 2021 at 1:35 p.m.

- Evacuation will occur during a passing period for junior high as well as

other classes. The gym doors will be locked and blocked for students to

pass through which will cause many to find an alternate path.

March 2, 2021 at 11:35 a.m.

ADVERSE SITUATIONS 4

- Evacuation will occur during lunch and recess for three different grade

levels before spring break. Third grade will be outside on the playground,

second grade will be eating lunch, and fourth grade will be entering the

cafeteria to get their lunch.

April 29, 2021 at 2:25 p.m.

- Evacuation will occur right before kindergarten dismissal begins. Students

will be packing up in the classrooms and getting ready to go to where they

need for dismissal.

May 17, 2021 at 9:45 a.m.

- Evacuation will occur from the classrooms, but the field where students

normally evacuate to will be blocked of due to no one being able to go

onto the field. Teachers and students will need to determine the best way

to evacuate the building and be far enough away from the school building.

Quarterly Lockdown Drills

Quarter 1 - September 10, 2020 at 8:45 a.m.

- A teacher notifies administration that a student stated they had a gun in

their backpack and knew how to use it.

Quarter 2 - November 30, 2020 at 1:30 p.m.

- The nearby bank was robbed by gunpoint and they drove into the school

parking lot to hide from the police.

Quarter 3 - February 26, 2021 at 12:45 p.m.

- Students and staff outside see a mysterious person walking along the edge

of the fence and appears to be holding something suspicious.

ADVERSE SITUATIONS 5

Quarter 4 - April 9, 2021 at 10:15 a.m.

- A parent enters the campus demanding to talk to the principal, but when

the secretary explains they are in a meeting they mention they are armed.

A Full School Evacuation

January 7, 2021 - full evacuation to neighboring school

- Students and staff will exit the building in an orderly fashion where busses

will be located to quickly load students by grade level. The busses will

take students to a neighboring school where all students and staff will

rejoin in their gymnasium and sit by class and grade level to help with

identifying where students are located.

- Parents will be notified via Swift Reach via email, text, and phone call

notifying them that the school had evacuated including the location of

where the students will be at. It will also provide details on picking up

students from this alterative location.

Training for Teachers

Beginning of the school year

- All staff will go over safety plans for fire drills, lockdown drills, and

evacuation. This training will be very detailed with expectations and

requirements for all staff to understand. Teachers will then take this

information and provide it to their students in terms that are easier for

them to understand without going into full details besides practicing.

Each Quarter
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 6

- Teachers will be required to revisit expectations and requirements for the

different drills through training and discussions. This will be an

opportunity to adjust expectations for drills such as fire drills with items

that have arisen during practicing and having specific actions occurring. It

will also be a time to review expectations for lockdowns and evacuations

and what they will look like when they happen throughout the school year.

A process for revisiting/debriefing after drills

Fire Drills

- Administration will make a quick announcement to all students and staff

about the fire drill on what went well and what needs improvement before

allowing the students and staff back into the building.

- Administration will then send a more detailed email debriefing the drill to

all staff. This will provide information that was discussed at the end of the

drill to all students and staff as well as how the entire school can make

some adjustments for future fire drills with suggestions on how to exit in a

more timely manner when specific areas of the school are blocked off.

Lockdown drill

- A quick staff meeting will be held after school on the day of the lockdown

drill to discuss what went well and what areas the school as a whole need

to work on more. This meeting will discuss the specific situation that the

school was faced with and how they could have handled it differently.

Evacuations
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 7

- A staff meeting will be held the following day to discuss the evacuation

protocol, how it went, what changes need to be made, and the

communication that went to families. This will be a time for all staff to be

able to share how they felt the evacuation went.

- Administration will send out an email to all staff following the evacuation

laying out details about the event and letting staff know that they will be

having a staff meeting the following day to discuss the evacuation in

further detail.

While creating this safety calendar it was vital to think about when the school had breaks

already placed into the calendar along with items such as state or district testing. Yes, real

incidents do not occur at the most convenient times, but to have an understanding of different

events happening on campus is important to think about when planning drills. When creating a

schedule, it is important though to ensure that each month or quarter there is a drill depending on

the situation, but to make sure it does not fall during a school break when there are limited

people on campus. Another aspect that is important is to think about the day of the week or time

of the day. Making sure these drills are not always on the same day of the week or during the

same time of the day helps provide for that unexpected feeling for a drill to really practice and

understand what could happen during a drill at any given time of the day. Providing times that

occur when students are in passing periods or at lunch helps set a precedent in understanding

what they would do during an event if one shall occur during lunch or when outside of the

classroom. The more that a school can practice at unusual times with different areas being

blocked off provide an opportunity for students and staff to think quickly on what they would do

differently if their primary exit was unavailable. In any drill it is important to allow parents to
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 8

know of the event taking place. With my school I would use Swift Reach to send out a quick

text, email, and/or phone call notifying them that a drill was happening on campus. However, if a

parent is on campus, I would ensure that staff was trained to help a parent understand the

situation that they are being faced with and have them join within the drill that is happening at

that time. They will still receive the notification that would be sent out to all families.

Making sure all aspects are covered through training and practices for any sort of drill is a

vital aspect to a successful school ensuring the safety of all students and staff. The more that a

school can predict and plan for the easier it will be to make adjustments throughout the school

year to accommodate future drills and their plans that are set into place because there will be

times that a plan doesn’t work as what was originally thought.

Case Study 1786

While visiting classrooms and noticing that the classrooms are getting warmer and

warmer, I would begin to start thinking about a plan to move forward. I would need to decide if

this would be something that we may be able to handle for a little while or if it was to the point

that families would need to be contacted to know about an early release. I would begin by

sending someone out to purchase fans for each of the classrooms as well as ensuring that all

students and staff have access to cold water. This then could include having access to cool towels

or paper towels. If those items needed to be purchased as well, I would add that to the list for

those going out to purchase fans. This would be done immediately to help continue moving

forward with the day in hopes that the systems can be fixed. From here I would want to know if

the chillers could be fixed or not to help continue making my decisions.

ADVERSE SITUATIONS 9

Upon finding out that the chillers are down and knowing that it is already 102 degrees

outside I would look at the weather forecast to see what the overall temperature will get to, but

also determine how the fans that were purchased are working. I would make sure the aides are

going around to classrooms to ensure that everyone has cold water to drink while keeping the

blinds shut and lights on as low as possible. If the temperature would be continuing to rise

dramatically, I would begin to involve more district personnel into my decision to ensure that we

are keeping the safety of everyone in tack. I would also work closely with the school nurse as

they are there to help provide assistance when it comes to student health and safety (Gormley,

2019).

If providing the fans is not contributing some relief then we would need to begin thinking

about the next step of a possible evacuation or closing school early. The first option would be to

evacuate but that depends on the school’s evacuation plan and location. If the evacuation plan

has a designated building location that will have air conditioning, we can begin to think how we

would get all students there and notify parents for pick up. If the evacuation plan is to an open

area like a park, then we would want to look at closing the school down for the remainder of the

day. The biggest determination in this is to think what the quickest way is to keep the students

safe from any heat related illnesses and allowing parents to pick up if busses are not available at

the given time of day.

Working with district administration would be vital in this situation to keep the plan

moving forward. Fans and water were purchased early in the day before finding out at noon that

the chillers are down. At that point we need to move quickly and determine are we evacuating, or

can students be picked up or bussed out in a quick manner depending on the evacuation location.

Needing a better understanding is vital to reduce the risk to the students and staff within the time
ADVERSE SITUATIONS 10

of an evacuation (Martins, Duarte, & Vaz, 2019). In this case I would begin with thinking about

evacuation to another location because we are using the busses for a shorter time period. This

would then provide the students the opportunity to go to a location that has air conditioning to

wait in while their parents are notified about the pick-up process. Parents would be notified about

what is happening and what steps the school has already taken throughout the day. They would

have the option to pick up their child at any time throughout the day even with knowing that we

are working on a plan. The more we can keep the parents informed the less they will be

frustrated with the school and their decisions. Once evacuating the students to an alternative

location, the school would set up a process for parents to pick up their students or if they

couldn’t be picked up, they would be bussed home later in the day, but provided with cooler

temperatures in another building. This evacuation would need to occur within 30-60 minutes

after being notified of the chillers being down. Then there would need to be communication on

when the chillers are expected to be fixed and back up in running to help inform families and

staff when we would be able to return back to the school.

ADVERSE SITUATIONS 11

References

Gormley, J. M. (2019). School Nurse Advocacy for Student Health, Safety, and School

Attendance: Impact of an Educational Activity. Journal of School Nursing, 35(6), 401–

411.

Martins, R., Duarte, J., & Vaz, M. (2019). Evaluation of emergency evacuation in school

buildings_ Protocol for a Systematic Review. International Journal of Occupational and

Environment Safety, 3, 75. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.24840/2184-

0954_003.003_0008