(The 9/11 Commission Report, page 278)

“Today marks the beginning of National Preparedness Month, an opportunity for our nation’s families and communities to discuss their plans if they were faced with an emergency.Protecting the United States from threats like terrorism, natural disasters, and infectious diseases is a shared responsibility and everyone has an important role to play” – Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Homeland Security, September 2, 2009

SafePlans is proud to be a part of our emergency preparedness community.

Secretary Napolitano was in New York today [September 2] to introduce a series of new public service advertisement (PSAs) produced for the Ready Campaign (http://www.ready.gov/). The Ready Campaign’s mission is to inform and educate the public on how to best prepare for a major disaster,



http://www.ready.gov/america/about/psa.html

Twitter is also a great way for school districts and colleges to communicate with parents, students and faculty at no cost! Twitter can be used to announce closings for snow days, reminders of upcoming events and be used to direct people to a website for more information. As with any mass notification solution, Twitter should not be the core focus on your emergency preparedness efforts. The due diligence of planning and training simply cannot be replaced with text message.

Stay Safe

School districts across the country will be able to improve and strengthen their emergency management plans as a result of $26 million in grants awarded today by the U.S. Department of Education. The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) discretionary grant program will enable 108 school districts to improve plans that address all four phases of emergency management: Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.
In these cost-conscience times, having funds to improve emergency preparedness is an essential component of any school district’s program. In keeping with that philosophy, SafePlans has developed a value-oriented solution that helps keep more grant dollars within the district’s community.
Visit http://www.safeplans.com/REMS/index.html to learn more about how SafePlans can assist with your REMS preparedness efforts.

However, the more important the message, the more vital it is that everyone understands. A substitute teacher not knowing that an announcement of “Mr. Smith is in the building” or “Code Orange” means to implement a lockdown, needlessly puts lives in danger. When confronted with a situation that could pose immediate danger to students and staff, school administrators should use plain language to communicate the hazard. An example for a dangerous intruder could be “We have an intruder in the building. Students report immediately to the nearest classroom. Teachers implement a lock down. Police are on the way.” Will this cause anxiety yes. Is there another way to ensure that everyone in the building knows what to do? I can’t think of one.

For situations that are slightly less eminent, such as a bomb threat, announcing “Teachers restrict hallway access. Students report directly to your next scheduled class” should elicit the desired response of controlling student movement, while not creating an undue panic.

A school administrator shared with me a real-world experience regarding the use of codes in an elementary school. A teacher was expecting her first child and coordinated with the secretary a way to communicate to the school staff news of the new arrival. One morning the secretary went on the school’s intercom and excitedly announced “Attention teachers, Code Blue.” Students hid, doors were hurriedly locked, and panic ensued all because the teacher had just delivered a baby boy…

Don’t count on the use of a code phrase to deliver information that could save lives and remember coordinate your plans and drills with your local response agencies!

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

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School safety conferences are a great way for school administrators to keep abreast of “best practices” and establish a network of professionals that possess a common interest in making schools even safer. School administrators should try to attend a conference with someone from their local law enforcement, fire and/or emergency management agency. This can help foster discussions back home and strengthen relationships between stakeholders.
While many of the conferences may attempt to discuss lessons learned from events such as Columbine or Virginia Teach, take time to ensure the “experts” are not trying to shape the lessons learned from a tragedy to meet their particular product or services. This conference will feature Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former senior profiler with the FBI and one the foremost experts on preventing targeted school violence. In a new approach to discussing campus (not police) response to active shooter, I am proud to be serving on a moderator-led panel that will openly discusses how campuses can mitigate the actions of an active shooter until law enforcement arrive.
Hope to see you there.
Stay Safe,

Brad

The recent declaration of a public health emergency over the swine flu cases in the U.S. and Mexico highlights the importance of public health and [pandemic planning. An influenza-based public health emergency and/or pandemic has always been a question of “when” not “if” and while it was assumed a new strain of /avian flu would be the culprit, experts emphasized a pandemic can be caused by any new virus.

It is not known if this particular “swine flu” virus could even lead to a pandemic; but planning for a Pandemic event requires strategies unlike any other disaster. This is primarily due to the facts that when a pandemic occurs we will 1) see it coming, 2) be unable to stop it, 3) be forced to deal with exposure concerns for over one year and 4) will take several years to recover.

What Is an Influenza Pandemic?

A pandemic is defined as a global disease outbreak. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which there is little or no immunity in the human population, begins to cause serious illness and then spreads easily person-to-person worldwide.

Historically, the 20th century saw 3 pandemics of influenza:

• 1918 influenza pandemic caused at least 500,000 U.S. deaths and up to 40 million deaths worldwide
• 1957 influenza pandemic caused at least 70,000 U.S. deaths and 1-2 million deaths worldwide
• 1968 influenza pandemic caused about 34,000 U.S. deaths and 700,000 deaths worldwide

Characteristics and challenges of a pandemic

1. Rapid Worldwide Spread
2. Health Care Systems Overloaded
3. Medical Supplies Inadequate
4. Economic and Social Disruption

Communications and Information are Critical Components of Pandemic Response

Education and outreach are critical to preparing for a pandemic. Understanding what a pandemic is, what needs to be done at all levels to prepare for pandemic influenza, and what could happen during a pandemic helps us make informed decisions both as individuals and as a nation. Should a pandemic occur the public must be able to depend on its government to provide scientifically sound public health information quickly, openly and dependably.

What Can Be Done?

While there is nothing a government, school district or business can do to prevent the onset of a pandemic, there is an enormous opportunity to mitigate its effects via planning and training. These preparedness measures should focus on three key stages:

1. Preparedness
2. Response
3. Recovery

1. Preparedness

Perhaps the most important aspect of mitigating a pandemic outbreak lies in the development and implementation of training programs and the creation of plans that outline measures to be taken as part of the response and recovery stages.

A. Training

Programs should be developed to aid leadership in developing instructional programs to familiarize their co-workers and subordinates with the following measures.

1. 1. Social Distancing
2. 2. Hygiene
3. 3. Planning

2. Response

The response to a pandemic event may not necessarily have a clear onset. As human-to-human transmission of the virus becomes more prevalent, response measures will need to be increased as the level of human-to-human transmission increases. Response measures, including training programs and procedures should be developed to the extent possible during the planning stage.

1. Social Distancing
2. Wellness Program Enforcement
3. Hygiene Practices
4. School Closures

3. Recovery

If recovery is defined as a return to normal operations, this stage will not be implemented until the pandemic has ended. However, there are many procedures that can be made during the Response state that may minimize the effects of events such as long-term closings.

Remember, always collaborate with your local public health agencies on pandemic planning issues.

Stay safe!

Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping. SafePlans’ Emergency Response Information Portal (ERIP) system includes comprehensive and customizable web-based public health plans.

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For a very few, the Columbine anniversary will invoke grandiose ideations of violence and immortality that fuel school shooters.

While most attack anniversaries pass without “copy cat” attacks, it is important that school administrators pause to consider the situational awareness of their school.

While it may not be feasible to implement a threat assessment program prior to April 20th, there is plenty of time to ask teachers and counselors if there are any students exhibiting indicators that anyone a concern for their safety or the safety of others. Students exhibiting these indicators need help; whether or not they actually intend on carrying out an attack. Remember the cardinal rule in assessing potentially violent behavior: It is not if the person makes a threat, it is if they pose a threat.

Remember, the cowards at Columbine did not just snap. Theirs was a building process that culminated just one day after the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings (April 19, 1995).

For those of us that will remember Columbine, let’s remember the victims

• Cassie Bernall
• Steve Curnow
• Corey DePooter
• Kelly Fleming
• Matt Kechter
• Daniel Mauser
• Daniel Rohrbough
• Rachel Scott
• Isaiah Shoels
• John Tomlin
• Lauren Townsend
• Kyle Velasquez
• Coach Dave Sanders

…and never again speak the names of their killers.

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author

LINK TO GRANT HOMEPAGE

The following is taken from the Dept. of Ed Website:

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This grant program supports efforts by LEAs to create, strengthen, and improve emergency management plans at the district and school-building levels, including training school personnel on emergency management procedures; communicating with parents about emergency plans and procedures; and coordinating with local law enforcement, public safety or emergency management, public health, and mental health agencies and local government.

TYPES OF PROJECTS

Grant funds may be used for the following activities: reviewing and revising emergency management plans, training school staff, conducting building and facilities audits, communicating emergency response policies to parents and guardians, implementing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), developing an infectious disease plan, developing or revising food defense plans, purchasing school safety equipment (to a limited extent), conducting drills and tabletop simulation exercises; and preparing and distributing copies of emergency management plans.

SafePlans is able to provide general recommendations to assist applicants, but as we will compete for grant funds, we do not write grants for applicants.

But it seems to me the goal of the “modern” terrorist (circa September 10, 2001) is to kill as many people as possible and gain maximum notoriety for their attack. With this definition, the shooters in Columbine and Virginia Tech are rightly labeled as terrorist, without having to consider their clearly stated social objectives.
Note: I am following LTC Dave Grossman’s lead here in not listing the names of the cowards that carried out these shootings.
These cowardly acts of terrorism were no more spontaneous than the Oklahoma City Bombing, September 11th attacks or the Beslan, Russia school massacre. School shootings are not impulsive acts. If we are to prevent and mitigate terrorist style attacks in schools there are several factors to consider. For starters, consider where the attacks can come from. The attack can come from someone within the school (Internal, such as Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech) or from someone who does not belong at the school (External, such as Bailey, CO, Nickel Mines, PA or Belan, Russia).

For the “internal” based attacks there are several prevention/mitigation strategies such as:

• Threat Assessment Program
• Lockdown Plans & Drills
• On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
• Site Mapping

Prevention/mitigation strategies for “external” type threats:

• Access Control & Physical Security
• Security Awareness:
• On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
• Site Mapping
• Lockdown Plans & Drills

Remember, always collaborate with your local response agencies on emergency planning issues.

Stay safe!
Brad

This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.

Click here to learn more about the author