SPECIAL REPORT In Case of an Emergency Written by Ruth Ashmore |
ruth@stnonline.com F
or the past 30 years, School Transportation News has reported on a wide spectrum of student transportation-related incidents including school bus crashes/collisions, weapons and
aggressive behavior on board the bus, fires, and illegal passers, to name a few. While there will be different factors present in any given situation, training and protocols exist for school districts to implement, to best prepare transportation staff for effective and safe inci- dent management. Bret Brooks, the senior consultant with Gray Ram Tac-
tical and the training coordinator and policy advisor for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, has not only helped train districts in emergency response but spoken on the subject at multiple STN EXPO conferences. He returns to the STN EXPO Reno conference this July. In terms of incident management and response, he summoned the Benjamin Franklin quote, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” “A holistic approach to planning enables responders to
effectively concentrate on the present emergency with- out troubling over which type of policy or procedure the emergency applies to. A single holistic approach is better than a dispersed, multifaceted approach,” he continued. Brooks explained that the Incident Command System
(ICS) provides a wide variety of training, but the most im- portant aspect is ensuring that transportation departments know how to apply it to the school bus environment. He recommended a list of online Federal Emergency Man- agement Agency (FEMA) courses that all directors, staff, drivers, monitors, and aides should take. This list includes the IS-100 Introduction to the Incident Command System, IS-700 Introduction to the National Incident Manage- ment System, IS-200 Basic ICS for Initial Response, IS-914 Surveillance Awareness: What You Can Do, and the IS-362 Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools. “However, to take all of these classes would require a
lot of time and as such most districts (and especially pri- vate bus companies) do not enforce participation,” said Brooks. “There are some federal mandates that require certain participation in the ICS in order to receive federal funding (most applicable to public school districts). This is again why we see some differences between publicly funded and private transportation departments. “Ensure staff complete the appropriate ICS training courses…then participate in drills, exercises, and tabletop scenarios on a reoccurring, routine basis,” Brooks con- tinued, adding that districts should have an “established working relationship with law enforcement PIOs (public information officers).”
18 School Transportation News • MAY 2024
Hernando County (Florida) Fire Rescue conducts school bus emergency training.
Jeff Adkins, the dispatch operations supervisor at Cherry Creek School District (CCSD) in Colorado, spoke of the mandatory training required of transportation staff at his district. “CCSD safety and security, along with the transporta-
tion safety and training department, provide training for all transportation staff on proper radio usage when an incident such as a bus accident or bullying occurs on a bus,” he said. “Transportation staff are provided training specific to student violence and weapons on the bus during their training and all transportation employees are provided an [Operations Reference Manual], which are specific to these types of incidents on the bus.” Adkins added that the yearly in-service training is mandatory. If an employee misses it, they must take a backup training course. Additionally, he noted that his district holds table-top discussions and drills with local law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) partners within the district. “CCSD has five different law enforcement agencies, and
four separate Fire/EMS jurisdictions,” he explained. “These agencies have participated in our school drills and have utilized our buses for different training exercises.” Paul Hasenmeier, the public safety director and fire
chief at Hernando County Fire Rescue in Florida, has over 25 years of experience. He advises districts to get as much front-end knowledge on emergency situations as possi- ble, alongside first responders. He said that knowing how a first responder will approach specifics instances of bus extrication and evacuation can greatly aid student trans- portation departments in training their staff. Hasenmeier said thorough training will allow for school
bus drivers to, “pay attention to the scenario and have good situational awareness of what’s going on.” He noted a few different scenarios that illustrate why
districts should learn directly from first responders on how to react. For instance, if a school bus crashes and is
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL HASENMEIER
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