Whether the threat is a violent attacker, angry protesters or lashing storms, school transportation officials must be prepared to mobilize drivers and buses if their campuses, or entire community, require evacuation. Reunifying children with parents or guardians after a disaster also needs to be a priority.
Safety experts, student transporters and survivors agree that accomplishing these goals requires a coordinated use of resources and effective communication. It is important that school and transportation administrators have an emergency response plan that has not only been discussed but also tested.
Months after riots ensued following a fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, local school transportation directors knew they might re-ignite with the grand jury decision on the fate of Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown. Right before the decision was announced in November to not indict Wilson, Kenny Mulder, transportation director of Special School District in nearby Olivette, said officials had extra staff stay at schools until buses finished afternoon routes — just in case.
Mulder and other transportation chiefs around Ferguson received notification of the Nov. 24 grand jury decision several hours in advance, so students were delivered home safely beforehand. He said his biggest challenge was making sure the shifts of 37 school resource officers were covered, as their primary duty is to the municipality they serve.
“In heavy times like this, if they are called to duty, we are left without. We staff schools with extra administrators in targeted areas … We might have extra people out there while loading and unloading buses,” he explained. “We have road supervisors who will follow routes through affected areas just to make sure everyone is safe.”
Mulder said Special School District utilizes an all-call system, School Reach, to notify parents of an early dismissal due to a safety threat. “We just get the buses there as quickly as possible and dismiss as quickly as possible,” he added.
Reynolds School District in Fairview, Oregon dealt with its own challenges after a fatal school shooting in June. Transportation Director Kathy Houck told STN that 15 years of family reunification training paid off that sad day. A teen shooter killed a student and wounded a teacher before shooting himself, so the campus had to be swiftly evacuated.
“We have a basic transportation plan we can utilize no matter which site we’re going into. We review the guidelines with drivers annually and send the same information to administrators at the schools, so they know that if there is any kind of incident, what the transportation response will be,” she said.
OPTIONS AND CONTINGENCIES
Houck noted that her district spans five cities, which means they have to coordinate with several police departments. While a plan was in place to use a community college near the high school as a reunification site, she said the responding police officers were unaware of this contingency.
“So it changed, but you can still work with the flow,” she recalled. “It’s very important to make sure you have different ways to communicate. Also make sure that you have good communication with the police department in your area and that they know your plan.”
Another lesson learned, Hauck said, was that the district’s handheld two-way radios could not be used at the unification site due to their limited range, so staff had to use their cellphones. Still, she said the district performed “an awesome job” checking and double-checking that all students were accounted for and reunified with a parent or guardian.
Transportation learned yet another lesson that afternoon.
“One thing we hadn’t considered is that your staff sometimes has students involved (in an incident). So you have to think of their reaction and caring for them, too,” she added. “And are they available to drive? We still had afternoon routes. They could be picking up their child at the high school. Do you have staff to cover them?”
To be prepared for any campus evacuation, Ken Trump, owner of National School Safety and Security Services, advised that transportation management figure out exactly how long it takes to mobilize drivers in “off hours,” including the middle of the day, rather than just assuming 20 minutes — the most common response from administrators in such training.
“First of all, transportation and building principals need to be having realistic conversations on what is reasonable to expect. The second thing is to test it — say, with your largest school — and, unannounced, try to recall your drivers to see what it naturally takes to mobilize them,” he said.
While performing a recent security assessment for a district, Trump learned it would take the transportation director an hour to reach her staff using a phone tree. Then he learned the district used a mass notification system for alerting parents about emergency situations. He asked if administrators could create a subgroup within this system solely for transportation staff.
“They paused and said, ‘We never thought about it, but of course we can. That would take minimal effort,’” he explained. “So they have reduced an hourlong phone-tree process by tapping into an existing mass notification service already in use.”
Trump also recommended that school districts include in their emergency plans the notification of transportation personnel when a lockdown or other emergency situation occurs, even if transportation services aren’t needed.
LARGE-SCALE EVACUATIONS
During a weather emergency like last year’s heavy flooding in Boulder County, Colorado, student transporters quickly learned the importance of staying in contact with the county Emergency Management Center and with local colleagues.
Bob Young, transportation director of Boulder Valley School District, said training on the national emergency management system proved invaluable for him and his staff.
“Knowing how the incident command system works is probably the most important thing. This way, in any emergency, you know you are talking to the right people and the right people are asking you for what they need,” Young remarked.
Randy McKie, transportation director at nearby St. Vrain Valley Schools, recalled it was actually fortunate the heavy flooding began at night rather than during the school day.
“Being as this happened overnight and we shut down schools, we had our assets 100 percent available. We had to mobilize our vehicles to get them out the area — on high enough ground so we wouldn’t lose them — but also to be in place so we could assist with emergency operations efforts,” he said “Bus drivers know we can be called upon for citizen service.”
McKie noted his staff is prepared for whatever emergency arises because of regular training on school and community evacuations.
Ray Grimaldi, executive director of operations for Suffolk Transportation Service Inc. in Bay Shore, New York, said bus drivers are trained annually on the “Let’s Go” program designed to evacuate the community amid flooding or threatening storms.
“Part of the evacuation process is understanding the reverse or return segment. This comprehensive component begins at the start of the evacuation process by developing accurate and complete records, and knowing who was transported and where they were sent,” he told STN.
However, both Houck and Trump agreed that too many student transporters are not receiving training on efficient evacuation and family reunification.
“Even if you can’t stop a tragedy … if you’re prepared amid all the feelings and chaos going on, it helps put a calmness on the whole process,” Houck shared, “so those that are really dealing with the stress of the situation can feel like somebody is taking care of them — like there is a plan and that it will be all right because people know what they’re doing.”
