Page 109 - Security Today, March 2020

a single system, but a process that involves leveraging many, if not all, of the monitor- ing, communications and control systems in your school building or on your campus.
A K-12 school should equip its critical emergency management team with two-way radios. Two-way radios are specifically pur- pose-built for two-way communications on a private radio network. This will provide the most reliable means of communicating dur- ing an emergency event. Many schools try to use smartphones for emergency communi- cations but this approach is challenging and can be ineffective.
The reason is that during an emergency event, the cellular services can become over- taxed and swamped with calling, which can make their services unreliable. When dealing with a school emergency, the last thing the superintendent, principal, administrators or teachers should be thinking about is the functionality, performance and reliability of their emergency communication system.
The reality is that in an emergency, the most reliable form of communications is a two-way radio system. In addition, current two-way radio system technology allows the
radio system to interface and communicate with virtually any other type of communica- tions device such as smartphones, GPS units, laptop computers and iPad tablets. They can also interface and communicate with tele- phone landlines and on any public or private mobile data network, including Wi-Fi. When local fire, police and emergency first responders arrive on a school campus, they usually immediately establish an incident command center with communications being a key component.
The fire, police and emergency responders will bring their own two-way radio system and handheld radios, which will operate on differ- ent frequencies than the school radios. How- ever, these mobile command centers are nor- mally equipped with interface bridging equipment, which allow them to patch the school radios into their system so they can talk with school’s emergency management team.
As a best practice, a school should also leverage the resources that it already has in place to communicate with employees on their own personal devices. This allows the principal or administrator who is attending a convention or at a meeting away from the school to use their smartphones to commu- nicate seamlessly with radio users back at the school.
Developing A School Safety Plan
The school safety plan is the single most important part of the emergency manage- ment process. You should begin by identify- ing the threats to your campus; create worst- case scenarios; evaluate your systems; and identify the hardware and software issues you need to address.
Next, the school safety plan should identify your emergency management response team and assign responsibilities. They need to
determine what emergency communication systems and protocols should be used; what messages should be sent in specific situations; where you will instruct people to go; by what routes; and to which safe areas. It should detail evacuation plans and provide signage to guide your school occupants to safety.
School safety plans should address planning and preparation, mitigation of vulnerabilities, response to events that happen and recovery after an event has happened. They must be an ongoing process, regularly reviewed and revised with all partners, from public safety agencies to communication vendors.
The school safety plan further explains how your emergency management team will be trained and prescribes methods for imple- menting training activities with different simulated emergency scenarios. It also focuses on the cooperation and synergy required from local government, fire fight- ers, law enforcement, emergency medical and disaster recovery staff and provides a methodology for accomplishing a total response to any type of crisis.
Over time, things change and so must your emergency communications process. A K-12 school campus is a growing, evolving community, from a structural, operational and human standpoint.
This is why it is necessary to conduct reg- ular tests, evaluations, exercises and drills of not only your emergency management pro- cess, but also your emergency communica- tions systems, procedures and response actions. People do what they practice, so a routine schedule will help to prepare your people.
William Sako is the vice president and corpo- rate practice leader of Security Risk Consulting for Telgian Engineering & Consulting LLC.
By William Sako
Enabling Students To Learn Safely
Facilitating robust, reliable communications between school staff and first responders
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