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School Emergency Preparedness Plans and Supplies: Emergency Supplies are Often the Weak Link

A Good Emergency Plan is Necessary But Not Enough

Every day in schools across America, students come to classes where teachers have diligently prepared a lesson plan. These lesson plans are key to the learning that will take place in each class that day. However, the success of the plan depends in part on the students’ preparation and the supplies that they bring or are provided.

Students must be prepared to learn and have the necessary prerequisite knowledge. In addition, these students must have the necessary relevant supplies that can support the plan of learning for the day: text books, notebooks, paper, pencils, pens, art supplies, computers, calculators, lab equipment, etc.

Every school in America has diligently prepared emergency plans. These plans are key to a successful response to various emergency and disaster scenarios that are possible in each area of the country. However, an emergency plan on its own with not be successful without (1) prepared students and staff and (2) the right emergency supplies for each staff member and all students.

Three Emergency Drills Prepare Students and Staff Be Ready

Emergency and disaster drills help to ensure that students and staff are ready to respond appropriately to any disaster. Many schools routinely practice the three necessary types of emergency drills: evacuation (for fire, bomb threats, etc.), lockdown (for violence and other scenarios where safety requires staying in place), shelter & protection (for earthquakes, tornadoes, and other destructive events). 

These drills are the basis for ensuring that staff, teachers, and students are ready to put emergency plans into action in the event of a real emergency or disaster.

Emergency Supplies Tend to Be the Weak Link In School Emergency Preparedness

In a major emergency or disaster, community emergency response resources may be stretched, and schools may need to rely not only on their own planning and previous drills, but also on their own emergency supplies. The U.S. government recommends that every institution have disaster plans and sufficient survival supplies for up to 72 hours after a major emergency.

Many schools have emergency plans, and drill them, but lack adequate supplies to carry out those plans if the emergency lasts for more than a few hours or if help from the outside community is not readily available.

Every school must be sure to have adequate emergency kits and supplies to support their students and staff.  LifeSecure is a leading supplier of emergency kits and supplies to schools.  We have helped thousands of schools across America to prepare for any emergency or disaster. 

We can help to prepare your school as well.  Contact us at 877-877-5522 or [email protected] for a free consultation to determine your school's emergency preparedness supplies needs.

Every Life Secure - Over 500,000 Lives Secure and counting.

 

 

How Can Schools Prepare to Successfully Respond to An Emergency or Disaster?

I have answered this question in a guest blog post on the School Health blog: The Weak Link in School Emergency Planning.

In a major emergency or disaster, community emergency response resources may be stretched, and schools may need to rely not only on their own (1) planning, (2) previous drills, and (3) their own emergency supplies. The U.S. government recommends that every institution have disaster plans and sufficient survival supplies for up to 72 hours after a major emergency.

While each school should prepare to deal with each of the disasters or emergencies that are possible in its own location, there are three basic responses to any emergency:

1. Evacuation (for fire, bomb threats, etc.)

2. Lockdown (for violence and other scenarios where safety requires staying in place)

3. Shelter & protection (for earthquakes, tornadoes, and other destructive events

4. Each school needs to have plans for how to

Each school needs to have plans for each of these response scenarios, practice the plans, and ensure that there are adequate supplies to support a successful emergency response.

Unfortunately, experience has shown that:

• All schools have an emergency plan,

• Many schools practice the relevant emergency drills, yet

• Few schools have adequate emergency supplies

Emergency supplies tend to be the weak link in school emergency preparedness.  The good news is that school administrators are increasingly understanding that emergency preparedness in schools must be a three legged stool to be successful.  They are coming to understand that successful emergency response requires that each school:

1. Have the plans

2. Do the drills

3. Get the supplies

Contact us now if you need help determining which school emergency kits and supplies will best meet your school's needs.

Every Life Secure - 490,000 lives secured and counting.

 

School Emergency Response Tips

I was asked by one of our key distribution partners, School Health, to write a blog post on School Emergency Preparedness. I hope you find it informative.

Growing up overseas in the Philippines and Australia, sometimes gives me a bit of a unique perspective on disaster preparedness. I was born just outside of Philadelphia, but I lived with my family in the Philippines for seven years. Part of this time was during the years of Ferdinand Marcos and martial law.

Prior to the implementation of martial law there was a great degree of violence in Manila. As I attended an International School, our school was frequently the target of bomb threats (though the only one that ever went off was crafted by a delinquent high school student and luckily did not injure anyone). With these bomb threat came "bomb drills". Up to that time we had only ever experienced fire drills.

Interesting enough bomb drills looked a lot like fire drills, but they carried a much more ominous feeling. We came to know that every time the alarm bell went off and we filed out into the soccer field unexpectedly someone had phoned in a bomb threat to the school. For a while this happened quite frequently. This is where I began to understand that each school faces its own threats according to its location and circumstances (certainly schools in many other areas of the world weren't having bomb drills at the time - today, these are more common). This means that each school needs to practice for each kind of emergency or disaster that is relevant to its particular circumstances.

There are some basics that various disasters have in common that allow for schools to reduce the number of kinds of drills they need to practice. The three basic types of drills are evacuation (for example in case of a fire), lockdown (as in the case of violent events), and shelter/protection (as a response to events such as a tornado or earthquake). Each school should practice these three kinds of drills as they apply to their specific situation and likely emergency scenarios.

Most schools have very little in the way of supplies. Thankfully in the last several years we have seen many school administrators take steps to provide the supplies necessary to respond to these various scenarios.

Many schools have now purchased classroom emergency kits for each of their instructional areas and medical and other emergency supplies for their whole school.

As we work to help make "Every Life Secure", we encourage school administrators to:

1) Plan and practice for the most likely emergency and disaster scenarios using the three types of drills: evacuation, lockdown, and shelter/protection.

2) Ensure that they have adequate supplies to meet the needs of their students and staff in case of a severe disaster.

We can help you determine what supplies you need. Simply contact us at [email protected] or 877-877-5522.

Every Life Secure - 490,000 lives secured and counting.