Planning and preparation for a wide-scale school emergency is a daunting task. The “I Love You Guys” Standard Response Protocol (SRP) recommends creating an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) with detailed steps and actions to cover every type of emergency. Creating – and updating – an EOP requires a great deal of collaboration, problem-solving and critical thinking among a team of community-wide stakeholders.
The first step to developing or making changes to your school emergency operations plan is through dialogue. It’s the time to share ideas, concerns, and strategies. It’s the time when each member of the planning team has a chance to be heard, and a chance to sit back and reflect on what they have heard from others. Clear communication is essential throughout the process.
OSCR360 enhances your seminars, workshops, training and tabletop exercises. With OSCR360, each speaker has a visual to refer to as they present their thoughts to the rest of the team. Visually walk through your school buildings prior to creating your school emergency operations plan or build your emergency plans within the OSCR360 software.
OSCR360 enhances discussion-based planning exercises:
Walk through the building and campus, together
An OSCR360 virtual walkthrough can be pulled up on the big screen for large group discussions or shared to individual laptops for small-group breakout sessions. OSCR360 provides a highly efficient and convenient system for large groups to virtually tour the entire campus as they brainstorm.
Focus on specific locations being discussed
Access the entire campus in 360 degrees and navigate to specific locations to immediately see tangible details and review challenges that may present themselves during emergency response. Virtually revisit any location as many times as needed and identify both strengths and areas for improvement within your plans.
Highlight critical locations
Within OSCR360, the Points of Interest feature allows users to note important items of interest. These items, or locations, may be labeled and color-coded for additional clarity and ease of reference. Points of Interest in your school emergency operations plan may include (but are not limited to):
- Entrances/exits
- Locking doors
- Stairwells/elevators
- Emergency equipment
- Medical equipment
- Utility shut offs
- Security camera locations
- Safe zone spaces within classrooms
- Locations housing student populations with special needs
Identify and plan according to SRP action steps
The 5 Standard Response Protocol actions are: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, and shelter. Within OSCR360, plan and walk-through how each of these actions are to be carried out by students, staff, teachers, and first responders.
Train emergency responders
It is unrealistic and expensive to schedule on-site training for every first responder in your municipality. Using 360° virtual training, emergency responders can plan and prepare for encountering any high-stress situational threat with tactical confidence. Police officers can even familiarize themselves with building and campus layouts from their squad cars.
Next Steps
After seminars, workshops and tabletop exercises have resulted in a solid emergency plan, plans can be put into practice. Games/activities involving hypothetical situations and critical decision-making processes can allow groups to identify and troubleshoot potential gaps in the plans. Use OSCR360 as a visual aid to support your trainings.
The final steps in creating a successful EOP involve implementing functional exercises and full-scale drills. These steps may involve building or district-wide participation among students and staff to practice the SRP actions, or it may even include multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional exercises in a high-stress environment, simulating a real incident. Later, while debriefing, use OSCR360 to revisit areas that posed a problem during the drills.
It is no secret that planning and preparing to respond to a school district threat involves a great deal of time, effort, and resources.
Is it all worth it?
Absolutely.
To discover more about OSCR360 for School Safety and Emergency Planning, check out the resources below:
