L-Tron recently had the opportunity to sit down with the Director of School Safety and Security at a private school in New York State to hear their thoughts on OSCR360. It has been about a year since the school acquired and started using the OSCR360 System to organize and train on their school safety plans.
Please Note: both the school and its director asked to remain anonymous to protect the privacy and security of students and staff.
Background Information: Attending School in Western NY
In Western NY, the school year runs from September through June, and in this period, the weather varies significantly. Environmental conditions in the area have been known to cause power outages, school closings and early dismissals.
This private school serves approximately 500 students from several counties in New York and employs about 150 staff members. The student and faculty population are spread across a single PreK-12th grade campus which contains several buildings and outdoor athletic fields. Boasting small class sizes and exceptional academic opportunities, the school is innovative in its approaches to education and safety.
Like other schools New York, additional safety concerns may include potential fires, medical emergencies, natural disasters, utility failures, hazmat incidents, violence within the school and other threats.
Although the school’s private status leaves it exempt from following New York State safety plan laws, school stakeholders feel strongly about following best practices to ensure the safety of the school community. The school has found OSCR360 to be a valuable resource for training, organizing their safety plans and ultimately keeping their staff prepared for any emergency situation.
The benefits of using OSCR360 to organize and train on your School Safety plans
Creating a virtual walkthrough
The Director of School Safety and Security first documented the campus with OSCR360 in December 2023. The process included capturing each classroom, office, hallway, closet, and space with the OSCR360 Capture Kit. The safety team also labeled key points of interest with the OSCR360 Tablet.
Next, in the OSCR360 Desktop Software, additional points of interest, such as the locations of AEDs, exit doors, fire extinguishers and security cameras were notated. The resulting virtual walkthrough of the campus was thorough and easy to follow, even for someone who had never set foot on campus.
Collaborating with first responders
The Director added points of interest relevant to the local first responders, which included the school’s lock box with maps, keys, and critical utility locations. Finished OSCR360 projects were shared with local Law Enforcement, using the free OSCR360 viewer. The project was well-received and considered far superior to a “flat” floor plan.
Creating safety plans
The Safey Director is heavily focused on training the school community with processes to follow during emergencies. They have created a 60-page (and counting) Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) with contingencies for a wide variety of incidents. Since so many possible threatening situations exist, they explained that it is important to have comprehensive plans that can be used for multiple scenarios.
OSCR360 is instrumental in efficient plan creation because viewers can virtually refer to any location on campus without physically traveling there. Plans, notes, documents, forms, and more can all be stored within the OSCR360 project for easy recall.
Training (and re-training)
The Director shared the challenging nature of safety planning and training in a group situation. OSCR360 is helpful in showing participants 360-degree images alongside a traditional map to provide a full perspective. The system makes it easy for stakeholders of varying technological skills and backgrounds to follow along.
Conducting tabletop exercises allows for discussion around the school’s existing plans, including the identification of any possible issues (or escalations) that may occur. The Director frequently relies on OSCR360 during crisis committee meetings and tabletop exercises. This allows participants to see exactly what is being discussed, rather than trying to rely on memory to recall specific locations around the building.
Recent meetings and exercises in which OSCR360 was beneficial have included evacuation procedure walk-throughs, safety plan review, and learning about how the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) is useful in emergency scenarios.
Over time, the Director plans to further incorporate the Standard Response Protocol into the school’s current safety plans. These plans work hand-in-hand with OSCR360 to provide common language and common understandings around the school’s safety processes. Within OSCR360, locations and points of interest are labeled with common terminology that is shared and understood by both school staff and emergency first responders.
Solving Future Challenges with OSCR360
Next up for the Director is leading the school community in reunification drills and exercises with OSCR360. The school safety team itself has visited the reunification site, but other faculty and students have not. During a true evacuation scenario, however, it would be critical for everyone to be familiar with the reunification environment and plans.
Conducting a reunification drill requires a great deal of time and effort. According to the Director, the logistics of bringing a large group of trainees to the reunification site for a live drill is just not possible.
Instead, the Director plans to document the reunification site with OSCR360, just as they documented the school campus, so participants can more easily wrap their heads around what a reunification scenario would actually be like. During the drill itself, the staff would take turns role-playing to practice the reunification scenario from multiple perspectives: staff, students, and parents.
“OSCR360 will give staff a leg up to visualize the space and understand how it will be set up. Many schools are detached and unprepared for the complexity of reunification, but OSCR360 can help. It is much more ‘hands-on’ than verbally describing the plan or looking at a map. What’s more, is if a parent asks me about reunification, I can clearly answer and proactively let parents know the plans prior to an incident occurring.”
School Safety Director, NY
We would like to thank the Director of School Safety and Security for taking the time to share their OSCR360 feedback with us.
