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Troas Group, Inc
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William L. Byrd, The Troas Group St. Paul's Chapel, New York City, is Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use. It is also an American faith icon. It is where George Washington worshiped and it is where fire fighters, police, and search teams rested during rescue and recovery efforts after 9/11. Workers at St. Paul's were some of the first to help by handing out water and letting strangers use their phones to notify loved ones they were ok. As the crowds grew, the church turned into an ad hoc command post for the rescuers. Soon people were flocking to the church, looking for the missing. They started posting pictures of their family and friends.
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As hours moved into days, the church stayed open. They became a resting spot for the rescuers providing meals, refreshments and a safe place to sleep. In the following weeks, the nation began sending cards and banners to show their support. These went to St. Paul's where they were posted around the sanctuary for the workers to appreciate. Thousands of lives were lost, families were destroyed and America was changed forever. When the dust settled, St. Paul's was still standing.As fireman, police and other first responders tried to gather themselves and began looking for their fallen comrades, they seemed to migrate to the one place where physical safety and emotional healing would be.
Currently, St. Paul's serves as a memorial to the tragedy and is home to the "Bell of Hope", which was presented to the church in 2002 by the mayor of London. The bell tolls once a year on 9/11. Never Forget. William L. Byrd The Troas Group, Inc. |
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What Every Teacher Should Know Prior to a Crisis
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A friend recently asked me to help him prepare a lecture for a group of college students who are in the education field. He explained these were all prospective teachers or administrators at a local Christian college and he wanted to present some information about emergency planning or crisis preparation.
Quite honestly, I thought what a great idea. I’ve been spending years trying to get schools to listen who are already burdened by lesson plans, daily schedules and low enrollment. Instead, I should’ve been spending my time training teachers who were still in their training mode; in school. The following article explains several points I thought he should cover during his presentation. This is in no way an all inclusive list but is a good start. Finally, I’ve broken these down into what a teacher should know prior to a crisis, what a teacher should be prepared to do during a crisis and what a teacher can do to mitigate a crisis.
Developing a Crisis Plan
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Developing a crisis plan for your school or organization is no doubt, an overwhelming task. Even more so if you have never done this before. In the same thought, updating a current crisis plan is probably not high on your “things I’d like to do” list.
If you have decided to attempt this and are in the majority, your first step is most likely to find someone else’s plan to use as a guide or template. The danger here is many who do this end up doing little more than changing the address and cover page while recycling the rest of the document.
The worst case of this I have ever come across was in a private K-12 school. In this event, I was conducting an audit of their security. As part of the assessment, I asked for their crisis plan. I was handed a dusty but very thick three ring binder only to find the manual actually belonged to the county public school system. It wasn’t difficult to discover this fact as the school had not taken the time to change the cover page! In fact, the school staff, name or even address, was nowhere to be found in the manual. There was valuable information in the plan but most of it had no bearing on this school. There was a chain of command to be notified but it was for county and state level officials who had no connection to the school. There was even an early dismissal procedure but this pertained to closing the school so it could be used as a shelter while this school was not a county shelter.
In some cases I have found plans that were so exhaustive, it would take a study guide and a tutor to understand. At the other extreme, many schools have no written plan at all.
The point of this is not to discourage you. Quite the contrary, I want you to understand it is imperative you have a current, valid and up to date plan for your facility. In that thought, I hope you can use the following to guide you through the process of updating or authoring your crisis plan.
Lock Down Drills
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A lock down drill is a common term. There are probably not too many schools, or school administrators, who do not use and train a lock down procedure. The term even lends itself to a simple procedure. “There’s a problem on the campus, lock your door”; sounds simple.
While conducting vulnerability assessments for schools, I always ask if the school can stage a drill for me so I can observe their procedures. This reveals a great deal about the level of readiness of a school and its staff. It will also reveal the level of complacency and lack of planning by a school.
