School Safety Drills Critical, but Don’t Have to be Frightening
This recent image posted on Facebook by a troubled mother showed her three-year-old daughter standing on a toilet “practicing for a lockdown drill at her preschool.” The image sparked strong reactions, most of which centered on the photo as a sad commentary on our society and our fear for children’s safety at school.
Although crisis response drills are not yet legally required for early childhood centers as they are for K-12, it is nonetheless essential to ensure that staff and students know how to respond to a crisis situation at school. Lockdown drills do not have to be frightening experiences.
At Bedrock Intelligence, we offer training sessions for school administrators, faculty, and staff. We have learned that crisis training should never be “one size fits all.” Drills must be tailored to your specific building(s) and take into account the age, location, and special needs of your student population.
Our training centers on how the brain responds to crisis. We examine the necessity of conducting drills for both staff and students, emphasizing that the best way to handle an extreme stress event is practice.
Our program is designed to give educators a level of comfort with crisis response whether they are coping with a natural disaster, a fire, an emergency outside the school building, or danger inside the building such as an active shooter.
Bedrock will teach your Crisis Leadership Team to respond to an emergency situation using simple, plain language. By using a set of commands that are familiar and have been practiced, you will be prepared to respond quickly and decisively.
In schools with younger populations, such as early childhood centers, we focus on safety of entrances and exits and protocols surrounding arrival and dismissal. These protocols include use of secure electronic check-out with caregiver photographs that ensure student safety.
The Bedrock team will come to your school in advance of the training session to review your facility and create a clear response protocol that is customized to your building. The training session itself lasts for a half day and concludes with drilling on the protocol that we have developed for your school.
