Be the Shield

Today was a busy day.

I woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground that I wasn't expecting.  Apparently I wasn't the only one.

My thirty-minute drive to work turned into a 45-minute one, but I arrived safely as the school bus drivers came in, grumbling about the snow, and the cold.  But, they got their buses warmed up and got out on their routes a bit early.  After all the routes were done, I only had one complaint.  When we are transporting 2,000 kids to five schools in crappy weather, I will take one complaint and call it a good day.  The complaint?  The bus was a couple of minutes early.  Yeah, I'll take that.

I was working on arranging a meeting of all the district's school safety specialists.  We haven't met in a while, and we need to.  We need to work on assessing each school's emergency plans, and to plan a tabletop exercise to test our readiness.

I scheduled a Critical Incident Stress Management Team meeting for the first week in March, talked with Officer Steve Fisher of the New Palestine Police Department about trying to find funding to send two Hancock County Sheriff's Deputies to School Resource Officer Basic Training.  I also documented a couple of drivers who completed the TSA's First Observer training that taught them how to recognize terrorist planning and how to report it.

All in all a good day.

I did want to follow up on the Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdog analogy I shared yesterday.  There are Sheep who, when danger threatens, break the mold.  They do not become Sheepdogs, but they don't leave the innocent to the wolves either.  Their nature doesn't allow them to do violence, but they try to protect others in their own way.  I call them Shields. 

At Sandy Hook Elementary, Anne Marie Murphy, a teacher, was reportedly found dead with her arms around a dead student.  She could not engage the shooter, but attempted to shield one of her students from the evil that had entered their room.

There are many educators like that.  They may not be Sheepdogs, and that's OK.  But that doesn't mean that they care any less for their students, or wouldn't do anything to save them.  It's easy to be a Shield.

You decide that you love someone more than yourself, at the moment of truth.

Keeping it Real

Reynoldsburg High School

First responders in Reynoldsburg County, Ohio conducted a full-scale exercise last week. The training exercise started with a bomb threat at a Reynoldsburg library.  Then, vapor was reported leaking from a suspicious vehicle near the high school. That was followed by an explosion in the parking lot. After that, a gunman forced his way into the school, shooting those in his path.

For several hours, first responders from about a dozen agencies in Reynoldsburg, Pickerington, Whitehall and Bexley, and Franklin, Fairfield and Licking counties cooperated to evacuate students, rescue victims and neutralize the threats.

Analysis
Students were present during the exercises, being exposed to the sights, sounds and chaos of the situation.  Whether students should be present or not is a topic for another debate.  What I would like to address is the exercise itself.

This blog is not about analyzing right or wrong in the above exercise, but to take a moment to share with schools what their exercise program should look like. 

FEMA and Homeland Security have established that a robust, progressive exercise program is best practice for emergency management, especially in schools.  Being progressive means that each type of exercise is preceded by another, with each exercise developing skills that build upon skills learned in earlier exercises.  There are various types beginning with the very simple, to the very complex, and increasingly hazardous.

For schools, any exercise program should begin with an orientation.  This is where all patrons are alerted to the various types of protocols their district has, and their role in those protocols.  This can be done in a classroom, using a lecture format.  Many schools do this at the beginning of the year.  Remember to document attendance, and to provide a similar orientation for substitute teachers.

Drills are used to practice a specific skill.  For example, an evacuation drill practices the act of getting students out of the building as safely and quickly as possible.  If you add additional skills to be practiced, it ceases to be a drill, and becomes an exercise.  Remember, drills focus on one skill.  What skill is being practiced requires assessment and planning.

Tabletop exercises are a low-stress way of practicing a developed protocol.  They can range from a formal type using multiple agencies, to scenario-based exercises that ask the important question, "What do I do when.....?" It is not necessary to hire someone to conduct a tabletop for you, as they are relatively simple to plan and execute.  If you do hire someone, make sure they are building internal capacity.  Take a hard look at vendors who insist on returning for "recertification".

Functional exercises are more complex, and introduce more stress through realistic messages.  For example, calling a school to deliver a bomb threat (Make sure they know it's coming!) and then having that person call 911 to report it trains the school personnel to react under simulated stress.  The scope is still relatively narrow, but operating correctly under stress increases confidence, and identifies issues with the protocol that may not have been identified otherwise.

Full-scale exercises should only be conducted after all protocols and procedures have been rigorously tested by prior exercises and drills.  They use full mobilization of resources, thus increasing the complexity and danger.  They are not something to just do to show everyone that you are doing something.  They require careful planning, preparation and communication with all stakeholders.

Information on Exercise Design can be found at FEMA's EMI Institute.  The courses are free, and well worth the time.