School Emergency Management – Being Prepared Can Save Lives

School emergency management is extremely important. Emergencies are downright scary and especially so if they occur in a school. No one wants to think about emergencies occurring at school but as we have seen over and over again, they happen far too frequently. Shootings, bomb threats, fire or natural disaster can happen at any moment. Parents should ask questions about what school emergency management plans are in place and how the school intends on dealing with them if an emergency occurs. Then you should review those plans with your child and make sure that school officials do as well.

Most school emergency management programs are pretty good and they have things well in hand should a problem occur but you can never be too careful. When querying your child’s school, make sure they have preparedness kits available in case of a long term emergency lasting up to 72 hours. The first 72 hours of an emergency situation are the most crucial and having a well prepared emergency 72 hour kit available to the kids could be the difference between life and death. You should have a 72 hour emergency kit at home too for each member of your family as well.

School emergency management departments will have a different sort of 72 hour emergency kit than you would at home but there are still some basics the school should have packed in their kits. Each classroom should have their own kit with supplies for as many kids as there are in the class. Food and water, bedding materials, a good first aid kit, radio and most importantly an emergency flashlight that doesn’t require batteries for each student and the teacher. Darkness is dangerous in an emergency situation especially where kids are involved. Any emergency situation can obviously cause  panic and keeping panic to a minimum is essential in preventing injuries. Being in the dark can only increase the chance of  panic and potential harm.

School emergency management departments need to be aware that there is also another important reason for to provide students with emergency no battery flashlights and that is as a signaling device. Should there be a situation in which emergency teams need to locate victim, a light source comes in very handy. The other thing about no battery flashlights is that you don’t have to worry about batteries dying in the 72 hour kit before you actually need them.