When most people think about school safety, they are often reminded of crouching by their locker during a tornado drill or heading single file from the building during a fire drill. Of course, today, safety drills in schools encompass additional, terrifying circumstances such as active shooter, lockdown and bomb threat procedures.
Most states require a certain quantity of drills throughout the school year and some specify the type, timing and circumstances (i.e. unannounced or during lunch) as well. Often, to help ensure school districts are meeting such requirements, the safety drill schedule must be communicated to local emergency management agencies and/or posted to school websites.
While there’s no arguing with the value of safety drills and the transparency and accountability school administrators should have when it comes to the safety of staff and students, there is some concern over the amount of time, resources and general busy work associated with implementing and maintaining safety procedures.
“The drill log feature within the Emergency Managment system is such an incredible aid to the school safety plan statute and makes submission of drill log criteria extremely simple,” states Greg Gurka, Superintendent, North Royalton City Schools.”It delivers great ease to the planning and reporting of our drills and offers superior functionality, such as the ability to schedule and send email alerts to staff members reminding them of upcoming drills.”
Let’s remove the opportunity for school administrators to be overwhelmed or over-burdened by the tasks associated with safety compliance. Instead, let’s focus on giving parents peace of mind in knowing their children and school officials are trained and prepared for possible school emergencies.
