Free Remarkably, To Ensure A Positive Climate, The School Officials Should: Essay Example

Introduction

A School Emergency and Response Plan is a strategic guide that is aimed at providing school managers, administrators, and stakeholders bit-by-bit emergency procedures (Duncan, Delisle, & Esquith, 2013). Emergency situations consist of events that can cause potential harm and disasters that might destroy life, health, and property. It is expected that; in times of emergencies, the school manager should be able to provide all crucial information in one folder. Such information includes; floor plans, emergency phone numbers, the school’s chemical inventory, students and staff lists, special needs students and staff lists, etc. Such information is kept in one folder to enhance its updating by the Occupational Health and Safety Department (Broder & Tucker, 2012). For an emergency operations plan to be effective, the school manager will inform and update the school staff about all the emergency procedures at least once per academic year. The aim and purpose of the School Emergency Operations plan is to protect the staff, students and reduce potential property destruction and loss of life from the emergency (Gauthier, 2010). Thus, this plan presents four major topical areas to enhance and facilitate the development and corresponding implementation of the School Emergency Operations Plan. The topical areas include; Information Sharing, Psychological First Aid for the School, Active Shooter Situations, and School Climate Emergencies.

Information Sharing

This section presents a synopsis and implications a federal statute governing the conduct of information sharing. This law is referred to as; The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Duncan, Delisle, & Esquith, 2013). Schools are expected to share enough information with appropriate authorities in case of an emergency. In essence, the school, should ensure that the staff and the student body is trained effectively on laws that apply to such situations to ensure that (inappropriate) information is not released incongruously, decisions about students are not made in a wrong manner and that records that are unrealistic are not released. The following elements are covered under the information sharing aspect of the School Emergency Operations Plan;
Balancing Safety and Privacy: The school administration should create a sense of balance between student privacy interests and safety interests. FERPA has exceptions to the consent of requirement and the definition of education records to help enhance this element.
Health or Safety Emergency Exception to the Consent of Requirement: Before disclosing PII from a student’s education record, there should be consent from the concerned parties. However, in case of a significant, impending and actual emergency threat, the administration can provide a student’s education records without consent.
The Law Enforcement Unit (Appropriate Authorities) Record Exemption to the Definition of Education Record: The school can provide education records for students that have been kept by law enforcement units are appropriate authorities.
Other Situations with FERPA Considerations: Information about students and staff can be released without consent when; there is a threat of an infectious disease, information from security cameras and information to risk assessment teams.
A school climate is defined as an array of school conditions that include but not limited to; relationships and engagement, safety and the general environment that may affect the learners’ welfare and studying. The school climate should be inclusive of all students not considering their background and orientation. Such a climate is positive for improvement, success and achievement apart from the general welfare of the students (Duncan, Delisle, & Esquith, 2013). Therefore, a positive school climate affects various aspects with respect to emergency situations as discussed below.
Prevention: Positive school climates are significant in preventing emergency threats and situations as they reduce chances of actions that can trigger or contribute to emergencies.
Response: Through positive school climates, students are taught how to develop tolerance, persistence and the capacity to manage their emotional inclinations. This helps in appropriately responding to various student behaviors that reduce aggressive behavior and violence that might trigger threats and escalate disasters.
Recovery: A positive school climate assists in embracing social and emotional health that represents a commitment even before the event of the emergency. This helps in providing mental and emotional health services to support victims and the society at large (Gauthier, 2010).

Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment: This can be done by evaluating the school safety parameters, the school environment, and the school engagement to generate data that is useful in improving the school climate.
Employ the use of multi-tiered supports and interventions: This refers to using a framework that presents a range of interventions and facilitations to improve student behavior and success.
Endorse social and emotional competencies: Learners should be taught to manage and understand their emotional behaviors. This ensures that the students think before they involve in an action.

Psychological First Aid for the School

This refers to a model that is evidence-based and used to help the school fraternity including the whole community during the aftermath of an emergency. Notably, after the event of an emergency, there are many trauma-related side effects that may have long-lasting negative impacts on an individual such as the PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) (Broder & Tucker, 2012). This model is aimed at reducing the distress resulting from the emergency. Hence, it is beneficial in developing coping strategies that significantly counter anxiety and fear caused by the emergency. Notably, the PFA-S model is meant for school staff, the students and the whole community at large (Duncan, Delisle, & Esquith, 2013). This because, whether the emergency occurs in the school or its neighborhoods, then the school is the central ground for applying this model. This model is applicable even when the emergency is occurring especially in situations such as lock-down and shelter-in-place. The significance of PFA-S model includes;

The model establishes a positive link in a non-intrusive and empathetic manner

The model provides emotional and physical comfort to ensure safety even while the emergency is ongoing.
It calms down individuals who are emotionally disoriented.
The model also helps identify the concerns, needs and worries while providing practical assistance.
The model also empowers individuals to get actively involved in the recovery phase of the emergency.
Notably, it is preferred that the school fraternity be trained on how to apply this model and using it in case of an emergency.

Active Shooter Situations

Those people who first appear at a school when there is a reported shooting are known as first responders. They include; police officers, medical service technicians and firefighters. A shooter situation is one of the hardest emergency situations (Broder & Tucker, 2012). Despite the fact that the ultimate strategy is to protect the school fraternity, responding to a shooter situation is quite different from responding to other emergencies (Duncan, Delisle, & Esquith, 2013). Notably, acts of violence involving shooting may be directed at a school building, at the students or a building neighboring the school. Preparing for an active shooter situation involves;
Planning: Planning involves establishing aims, goals and strategies for a seizure. Proper planning involves how lock down the school fraternity by evacuations (also includes students with special needs), how to conduct evacuations when the route to evacuate is not viable, how to select the appropriate shelter-in-place spots, how the community is informed of the situation, how the school fraternity is informed and how those evacuated will know the place they are in is safe.
Sharing information with first responders: this involves preparing up-to-date and well-documented information about the current situation for the first responders. Such information includes building schematics and any relevant photos relating to the shooting site. This information helps them respond rapidly without challenges including easily locating the shooters position.
Exercises: The school should initiate simulations and drills to teach the school fraternity on how to respond by evacuating a shooting site. These drills are significant as they quicken the evacuation process. The staff and students should be trained on how to respond quickly whenever there is a shooting incident in their vicinity.
Responding to an active shooter situation requires acting very fast. Staff and students should be trained to refrain from being too fearful to ensure that they respond appropriately to shooting incidents (Gauthier, 2010). Basically, the school fraternity should be advised that; in case of a shooting incident in the school vicinity, they should run, if it’s not possible, then they should hide, however, if both running and hiding are not options (i.e. they expose one to the shooter), then for adults, they should try to incapacitate the shooter. After the incident, victims are advised to cooperate with the first responders (Broder & Tucker, 2012).

References

Broder, J, F., & Tucker, E., (2012). Risk Analysis and the Security Survey (4th Edition). Waltham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Duncan, A., Delisle, S. D., & Esquith, D., (2013). Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans. U.S. Department of Education.
Gauthier, A., (2010). School Emergency Response Plan. Toronto Catholic District School Board.