INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
BE PREPARED SCHOOL EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS SHOULD INCLUDE EVERYONE, INCLUDING THOSE IN TRANSPORTATION
WRITTEN BY ART GISSENDANER
for every agency that might come into play during an actual crisis. Tis is the near universal advice that crisis research- ers, security personnel and trainers of responders have for school districts. “We want all public safety, firefighters and emergency management, along with law enforcement, to be included,” said Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International, a nonprofit think tank that uses research and field-testing to advise educators on crisis planning and campus safety. “Another group that should be includ- ed is emergency medical services. Tey should be involved in every aspect of planning, from A to Z,” he said. Steve Satterly, a school safety specialist,
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agreed with Dorn. “Certainly they should be involved in the planning,” he said. “Tey should also be there when the plan is exer- cised so they can assess it to see if it’s being done right or not.” Dorn and Satterly collaborated with sev-
eral other researchers in a year-long project on life and death decision-making that re- sulted in the book, “Staying Alive: How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters,” released this month. Te book uses real-life situations to help understand how the mind and body react to crisis events. “I think people will read these stories and
relate to them,” Satterly said. Te key to a good emergency plan
is communication, whether that means the bus driver should dial 911 or call the dispatcher. Satterly said exercising the plan is imperative especially when it involves a school bus. He said it is difficult for school bus drivers to take care of up to 70 students when they are on the phone with a 911 operator.
Both he and Dorn said it is normally faster, easier and more reliable to key a
22 School Transportation News May 2014
See this month’s preview of the STN EXPO, which includes information on a special session that will feature the Washoe County (Nev.) Sheriff’s Office SWAT respond to various staged incidents on the school bus. Read more starting on page 58.
£ Michael Dorn and Stephen Satterly, along with Dr. Sonayia Shepherd and Chris Dorn, authored “Staying Alive: How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters,” which offers basic survival training through evidence-, research- and assessment-based security approaches used by law enforcement and military. Lessons can be applied to student transportation and school environments. The book is available on
Amazon.com.
hen preparing an emer- gency response plan, school districts should set a place at the table
microphone back to the dispatcher, who is familiar with the driver, than to handle a cellphone when one is under stress. “Dispatch can multitask and make the
necessary calls that are needed so the driver can focus on the life-saving steps to protect the kids,” Satterly said. “Getting dispatch involved simplifies the process.” In light of the school stabbing last
month near Pittsburgh, Satterly said "sharp-edged" incidents occur more fre- quently than active-shooter incidents. Mo Canady, executive director of the Na-
tional Association of School Resource Offi- cers, said schools should make sure they have the lines of communication set up before they forbid the bus driver from calling 911. “If the dispatcher is trained to handle
emergency calls, then by all means contact the dispatcher,” Canady said. “Te dispatch- er becomes your life line. But you should not restrict bus drivers from calling 911.” Bret E. Brooks, who trains law enforce- ment officers, including SWAT teams, and school district personnel on how to deal with emergencies involving school buses, said including law enforcement and paramedics in emergency planning is only the first step. “Outside of the law enforcement aspect
would be the hospital or trauma centers that people would be transported to,” said Brooks, who is the lead trainer for Grey Ram Tactical LLC. “In the planning process, sometimes they forget about where they might take the injured. Sometimes you can’t take all students to a single hospital.” Brooks also said while departments and
agencies should be involved in the planning process, all members of those departments should be included in the drills. “I wouldn’t involve everyone in the planning, maybe the transportation director and assistant director and the head of the maintenance department,” Brooks said. “When you actually do the training, ev-
erybody should be involved like the super- intendent, teachers, principals, department heads and bus drivers.”
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