Houston Independent School District and the Houston Fire Department are staging several emergency scenarios involving school buses as part of two weeks of training sessions. Approximately 1,000 school bus drivers are receiving two days of classroom and field training to prepare for a train derailment, a multi-vehicle school bus crash and an armed trespasser on the bus.
Mark Swackhamer, the school district’s senior manager of fleet operations, said the training began on Tuesday and continued Thursday for about 250 drivers from two of Houston ISD’s four pools, or locations. The final two groups will train this coming Tuesday and Thursday. Day one consists of a half-day of classroom exercises on pre- and post-trip inspections, including air brakes, the use of EpiPens, response to food allergies and survival rescue training. The types of emergencies covered are counter terrorist and armed intruder, railroad crossing, bus collision including first aid, fire extinguisher use and school bus evacuations in smoke.
Swackhamer added that transportation officials hung more than 150 cutouts stars in the classrooms that had of pictures of the drivers on one side and student safety messages on the other.
On day two, the drivers then travel to the fire department’s training center to conduct half-day, hands-on training on the topics covered in class. Swackhamer said the district donated retired school buses destined for scrap. The fire department rolled one of the buses on top of a car to simulate a crash with stage injuries
A second bus was tipped on its side and maneuvered next to eight train cars, including two tankers, to simulate a derailment. That exercise also simulated chemical spill, and bus drivers were trained on the hazards present during such an incident. Another bus was rolled onto its roof.
See a photo album of the training on our Facebook page.
The firefighters also set a controlled fire and used theater smoke on four buses and hid dummies representing trapped students. Drivers then had to look for the “children.”
Another scenario involved an armed intruder on the school bus. The gun was real as was the impact felt by participants.
“This training challenges every attendee with realistic emergency situations where the safety of the students on board will depend on their ability to respond successfully,” HISD Transportation Operations Manager Chester Glaude said. “In addition, transportation team members will learn safe evacuation methods, student management, how to remain calm in a crisis and first aid for burns and smoke inhalation.”
“I enjoyed the training,” added bus driver Terriel Price-Yancey. “It was very informative, educational and very thorough.”
Bus driver Candrick Heliton said, “The training was very entertaining and kept our interest.”
Local parent Connie Davis agreed.
“The training is very intense and thorough,” she said. “If I had a school-aged kid, I would want them riding an HISD school bus.”
The fire department charged Houston ISD $15 per driver for the training sessions.
“I can’t believe they’re doing it for this money. It’s intense,” Swackhamer said. “The FD is thrilled to death. The only guarantee we gave them is that we’d leave the buses there all school year so they could continue training.”
Cecelia Edwards of the People’s Choice Association, which representats bus drivers and attendants, told the Houston Board of Education: “The Houston Independent School District’s Transportation Department has given the best training for the bus operators and bus attendants in over 22 years.”
