General Guidelines
While an emergency may require on-the-spot response decisions to fast changing developments, the below is a set of six standard responses to any emergency situation within our schools.
These six procedures are: Administer first aid, summon expert help, follow instructions of the expert; evacuate to a safe place; shelter in place and send everyone home (Go Home). Obviously, all six procedures will not be utilized in every emergency. Indeed, some are part of the planned response to a school emergency.
Administer First Aid: First aid is usually defined as treatment that will protect the life of a victim and provide comfort until more expert help is secured.
Summon Expert Help: Clearly, in most emergency situations, the need for expert help is evident. Fires are fought by fire fighters and heart attack victims must be provided with emergency medical treatment.
Follow Instructions: Once expert help has arrived, those experts are typically the incident commander. At any time, the procedure is to follow instructions of the expert.
Evacuate to a safe place: Evacuation may mean only going outside, away from the building and waiting until the danger has passed. In some circumstances; however, the nature or duration of the emergency may require transportation and temporary housing of the occupants in some other building.
Shelter in place: There are circumstances when it is safer to stay inside the building than to go outside. For example, the sheltering procedure is called for during severe electrical storms or radiological emergencies.
Go Home: Similar to an evacuation, early dismissal or “go home” is a procedure for evacuating students from a building and uniting them with their families or other responsible surrogates designated by their parents.