This blog post is about the importance of collaboration when implementing life safety technology and emergency plans and procedures in a school.
When you hear the words school and emergency in the same sentence your mind tends to take you to a worst case scenario situation; a shooting, bomb threat, intruder, etc. While it is important for schools to be prepared for the unthinkable, it is also important to prepare for the common emergencies that are occurring every day. When a bus breaks down during its morning route, how are students informed? Or when a student with a severe food allergy grabs the wrong sandwich, what steps are taken to help? When the refrigerator in the cafeteria breaks, is anyone informed before the food spoils? Although these are not the kind of incidents you hear about on the news, they are affecting our schools each and every day.
Because Right Now Matters Most
What if the right people knew what was happening when it was happening, all from their own communication device? Advances in technology have made this a reality. In a school setting it is important for the right people to be informed in order for them to take action as soon as they can. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a toilet overflowing, a food allergy or a fire in the building; there are ways to notify the necessary people and increase the response times from people inside and outside of the building. Today’s technology allows you to streamline communication in order to address these issues by informing the right people at the right time with the imperative information they need.
Our Responsibility
“We learned how very valuable our community – and all of its resources – could be to our safety and our recovery.”
– Michele Gay, Co-Founder of Safe & Sound Schools
Life safety technology impacts each and every person in a school, so when implementing life safety technology and emergency plans and procedures, why not get the opinions of all parties involved? This can be done by identifying a school safety task force, individuals from each group of people that are impacted; such as, resource officers, teachers, students, parents, local law enforcement, etc. Bringing together a diverse group of individuals dedicated to safety gives you the opportunity to continuously improve by learning about different perspectives and possible solutions.
