When the word “emergency” is said, the mind scrambles to different possibilities of different situations. When an emergency “in school” is said, the list of possibilities greatly shrinks when, in fact, many emergencies could occur, such as bomb threats, gas leaks, medical emergencies, natural disasters, power outages or school shootings, to name a few. Each emergency could be a crisis.

While there are protocols in place at Hays High School, I do not feel that there are enough.

First of all, informing the student body about plans and situations is lacking. In the event of an emergency, I think that most of the student body would not know the proper protocols. The school does a satisfactory job of preparing the staff for most emergencies. That is not the problem. The issue is that, if an emergency occurs, I feel that the student body is only adequately prepared for a hypothetical fire or tornado, as we do those drills regularly.

While one could argue that an instructor would be present to provide directions for other emergencies, if the instructor was injured or was incapacitated, the students would likely be in a state of panic, wondering what to do. Furthermore, while students could find the posted Crisis Plan that is in each individual classroom, it would be difficult to comprehend that when not composed.

Along with the lack of planning, there is a lack of communication to students from administrators. I think that the administration does not handle potential emergencies well, or they keep it quiet. That has proven to not work, and a great example of that was the false shooting threat in September this year, when many students ended up not coming to school because of it, and the school not addressing it until the day before.

Second of all, in the past, the school has run drills for the staff and students, such as evacuation drills. However, in recent years, we have not done one of those drills. In addition, the district does not practice active shooting drills. While the state leaves the decision to do those drills up to individual districts, it has not happened in the Hays district. During teacher in-service days, the staff does discuss the possibilities, as far as what they would do in an active shooter situation, but no drills are actually run.

To me, many hypothetical emergencies, such as shootings, are not taken seriously in our school community. I think that many people feel as though such an event will never happen in our “safe” community. But, that thinking will lead to lack of planning for a real emergency.

Another issue is that, even though the Raptor Crisis Management System is in place for most faculty members, not every adult in the building has access to it. With us almost always having at least one substitute teacher in the building at a time, in the event of a crisis, a sub would not have access to the Raptor system, much less proper training on protocols. Other adults, such as the night custodial staff, also do not have access to Raptor. When it comes to an event like what occurred on Dec. 3 after school hours, they did not know an emergency was in progress.

While there are other issues also, I think some of these problems could be fixed now.

To begin, I believe that the student body should have a say in the Crisis Plan, but just a limited or restricted say, meaning that the students would not have a say on what is required by the state or the district, but rather, on what students could do in the event of an emergency if their teacher were unable to give them instructions or what they could do to help.

If that was possible, the students should meet once a semester to review protocols. The first semester meeting should be required for all students, and the second semester meeting should be, at the very least, highly recommended to students. These meetings could run on the assembly schedule. To raise student engagement, the information could be presented in breakout groups of different grade levels, with students going over various scenarios for different potential emergencies. Different outcomes and solutions could be practiced, but they would not be repeated with all the groups to avoid a student being the hypothetical source of danger and knowing the plans for the school. Overall, each student should have logged a certain amount of time for training to make sure they know what to do in a crisis.

In addition, staff currently do not practice many drills, such as active shootings. The staff should go back to practicing the evacuation drills on and off campus. Staff should also have a day set aside, when school is not in session, to go more in depth to practice each drill. Some districts are now even arming faculty to keep students safe. I think that, in our community, that is a little extreme, but if any district were to implement that, then faculty should go through extensive training.

Finally, with some adults in the building not having Raptor access, it could very easily be fixed by giving access to the subs and other adults on the staff and requiring them to have the application. If the administration does not want these people to have access when not in the building, then when they are in the building, they could be given a device that is equipped with it.

Another possible safety improvement, I think, would be the addition of a physical panic button in each room. With this, someone from the administration and/or the School Resource Officer could check on the room when pressed.

I hope to see an improvement with the emergency protocols in the foreseeable future, especially once in the new building. While we have a good start, I think much improvement is still needed for emergency plans in our school and our district, but also in many schools around the country.

To read the school’s emergency policies: http://www.hayshighindians.com/resources/information/studenthandbook_2425.pdf (Pages 32-35)
To read the state school standards: https://www.ksde.org/Kansas-Safe-and-Secure-Schools
For ways to handle emergency situations: https://www.ksde.org/Kansas-Safe-and-Secure-Schools/Training/Safety-Drills-Exercises-and-Information

27aarias@usd489.com