Carson City schools, law enforcement prepare for worst-case emergency scenarios
Carson City schools and local law enforcement teamed up at Fuji Park Thursday to discuss action plans for worst-case scenarios to protect students, staff and visitors in the event of an emergency.
More than 100 members of the Carson City School District, Carson City Sheriff's Office, School Resource Officers and the Carson City Fire Department participated in a cooperative Emergency Operations Plan table-top exercise to discuss strategies if an event were to occur. These trainings are done annually prior to the beginning of the school year.
Given the number of recent school shootings and casualty events around the United States, the exercises are a good reminder to the community that first responders and the school district are taking steps to be prepared and to respond accordingly.
“It’s critical for all of us to gather here today,” Risk Manager Ann Cyr said. “It’s so important that we get all the information we need to our response teams at each school before the year begins so they have the opportunity to build upon that.”
The focus of the event was on the Standard Reunification Method. The SRM is established to help students reunite with family members during or following a potential lockdown or emergency situation. The SRM was created by a father in memory of his daughter. See website here.
The SRM provides the Carson City School District proven methods for planning, practicing and achieving a successful reunification with loved ones.
“We want to teach this protocol as a community,” Assistant Carson City Sheriff Jerome Tushbant said. “It’s so important that we have a relationship built before a problem happens. Without that, communication breaks down and you can have a prolonged critical incident instead of one we can handle.”
Along with a proven plan, if necessary, the SRM gives a clear step-by-step process to help students and staff transport from the school to a safe reunification site. Parents of the student arrive at the reunification site, complete a reunification card with verified identification and custody. From there, a Reunifier returns the student to their parent or guardian.
“It’s very important to have a simple plan for all of us to follow,” Carson City Deputy Emergency Manager Tom Raw said. “We can get assigned the task and carry it out on a moment’s notice. These things don’t happen every day, this gets filed in our heads through training and we’re ready to do the task at hand if the time comes.”
Cyr noted the list of participants included custodians, school resource officers, social workers, counselors, operation managers, principals, vice principals and administrators.
- Carson City
- Carson City Fire Department
- Carson City School District
- Carson City Sheriff's Office
- carson
- Carson City fire
- carson city sheriff
- casualty
- City
- community
- Community,
- day
- Emergency
- event
- events
- exercise
- Family
- fire
- help
- information
- local
- Members
- need
- News
- officers
- Opportunity
- parents
- planning
- Prior
- Safe
- school
- school district
- Schools
- sheriff's office
- staff
- students
- Teach
- training
- United States
- website
- Workers
- Fuji Park
- law enforcement
- sheriff