September 18, 2011
Week 2
No matter where the day care or public school facility is or how large it is, children, staff and even parents may be at risk as a result of natural or human-caused disasters. Effective
individuals and the community at large. This is why it is so critical that a disaster plan is put in place from the very beginning.
I. Everybody has a role in iRespond or Disaster planning.
A. The Daycare Director or the Principal
1. It is the responsibility of the Daycare Director and Principal to gather a team and
implement a disaster plan.
2. All staff and children should be trained on implementing this plan.
3. Keeps parents and staff members informed of emergency plan revisions.
4. Conduct drills and initiates needed plan revisions based on drill evaluations.
The State in which I live has never really been known for tornados or hurricanes, but over the last 10 years we have had disasters to hit back to back with devestating consequences. I am an Educator in a public school, my principal implemented a disaster plan the first week of school. After this plan was inplemented we had surprise drills weekly. Her taking this disaster plan seriously and encouraging us to do the same, is what helped us when a weather disaster did arrive.
In 2008 a deadly tornado hit Georgia, killing 15 and injuring 27. The siren went off at about 12:30 at my school. Because we had practice so much, my students knew what to do. I keep a iResponder kit next to the door. In this kit I have a first aid kit, emergency cards for the children and a class roster. I also made 3 neon signs. One sign says "all here", another one says, "all are not here, but I know were they are" and the last one says "all are not here____is absent". I take the emergency cards because I call each parent to inform them of what's going on and give the the option of picking up their child. Most of our parents are familiar with the disaster plans and are just thankful for the call. I made the signs to hold up so my onsite person know where my children are. Our evacuation went smoothly and all children were safe and accounted for.
The siren went off at my school before it did at my son's school. At this time my son was a junior in high school. The high school were my son attended was a magnet school with over 2000 students, which was a disaster by itself. Around 1:00 my son called me to inform me that the siren had gone off about 12:55 at his school, he did not know where his class was because he was in the restroom. I asked him if his teacher had gone over the procedures for safety and evacuation if you were not in the room, he replied "no", I asked if the had practice the disaster drill?, he replied "no", I asked if he knew where their safety place was, he again replied"no". I told him to stay where he was until I called him back. I am in panic mood now because my son is special needs. I called his case load manager and told her what was going on, she went into panic mood because she was on the other side of the building, she informed me that she was calling the teacher, the teacher was instructed to leave her students with another special education teacher (which is another disaster waiting to happen) and go to the restroom by her classroom and retrieve my son. I called my son and told him that his teacher was on the way.
Could this have been prevented? What happened in this situation? Was a disaster plan put in place? What should have happened to prevent this from happening? This could have certainly been prevented. This incident happened because the teacher was not prepared. I know that a disaster plan was put in place because I requested a copy of the plan, along with a copy of the school map. Though the disaster plan was put in place, it was not implemented and the principal did not follow through to make sure that the teachers, students and parents understood the importance of the plan. The teacher had no idea that my son was still in the restroom because she did not take attendence before the evacuation, nor did she check the restroom to see if anyone was in there, which is in their policy. It is important that schools and daycares have a written plan with procedures to be followed when an internal or external disaster occurs. The plan should be rehearsed periodically so that everyone has a clear understanding of their roll. As an educator, I am responsibile for every child that is in my care. It is my responsibility to know where they are at all times. I call roll everytime we switch centers so that I am aware where my students are.
Because the disaster plan was not implemented at my son's school, his life and the life of others were put in danger.
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