Page 108 - Security Today, March 2020

Emergency Communications
“School safety plans should address planning and preparation, mitigation of vulnerabilities, response to events that happen and recovery after an
Tevent has happened.”
he primary concern of every K-12 school is to enable students to learn, grow and thrive in a safe and secure environment. In trying to accomplish that goal, schools are facing a big obstacle in facilitating robust, reliable and immediate communications between school staff
and first responders during an emergency event. Schools continue to search for integrated and universal solutions to meet their communi- cations challenges.
Most K-12 schools, however, will admit that their actual commu- nication capabilities are composed of disparate systems and equip- ment, which are not interconnected or integrated. As a result, their communications capabilities are lacking and in some cases complete- ly inadequate, which can put their students and teachers in harm’s way and reduce the efficiency of their emergency response.
Leveraging Emergency Communication
K-12 schools regularly face emergencies that require instant and
coordinated responses from multiple teams to manage an emergency event. It is important to recognize that during an emergency, every administrator, teacher and staff member in a school becomes a first responder. Together, they can provide a coordinated response using various communication tools like smartphones, two-way radios, lap- top computers and iPad tablets. The key to making their emergency response more effective and immediate is ensuring that they can communicate instantly, regardless of the device they are using, the network they can connect to or their physical location.
It is also critical that information from alarm systems, video sur- veillance systems and mass notification systems becomes available to the K-12 school staff and all responding fire fighters, law enforcement and emergency medical staff.
In addition, school administrators must fulfill their responsibility of notifying the parents of students – whom they are entrusted to keep safe – about an emergency event. There can be major political and legal consequences if a K-12 school lacks the ability to commu- nicate effectively with parents during emergency events such as severe weather, chemical spill, utility outage, school security lock- down and or any other type of disruptive event.
Generally, schools will rely on a campus-wide mass notification system to provide a reliable method to notify people on campus and parents of an emergency event and explain what is happening, what to do, where to go and when it’s safe to resume normal activities.
Establishing Two-Way Communication
22 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2020
The truth is that an effective emergency communication system is not