School officials, emergency managers and first responders at the state and county level are partnering to safeguard North Carolina’s public schools from all types of threats ranging from floods to tornadoes, fire, chemical spills or an even an active assailant.
School and safety officials have spent the past year developing detailed schematics of every public school facility in the state to provide emergency workers with the necessary information to respond to emergencies at any school.
“Having these details literally can mean the difference between life and death” explained Mike Anderson, former school resource officer, now deputy director for the Center for Safer Schools. “Before first responders even arrive on scene, they will be able to see what type of structure they are responding to, the layout and how to maneuver around the school quicker. That allows emergency workers to better formulate and coordinate response plans, saving precious minutes.”
Following the passage of Senate Bill 744 last summer, emergency managers and school officials in each of the state’s 100 counties began collaborating to collect the data so that N.C. Emergency Management could develop and store detailed electronic blueprints for each building at every school. Legislation stated that local school administrators needed to submit their data not only to local law enforcement but also to NCEM by June 1, 2015.
Gathering the blueprints for each of the state’s 2,364 schools has been no small feat. For newer schools, the request was fairly easy since many could electronically mail their blueprints. But many older schools had nothing more than basic floor plans posted on the wall for emergency evacuation purposes. In those cases, additional work was needed to develop blueprints to submit to the state.
“We’ve had tremendous cooperation from each county and every school system,” said NCEM Assistant Director John Dorman who manages the project. “This is no small project and it takes time.”
Dorman said some of the counties lacked the resources needed to meet the June 1 deadline. When the deadline approached, 39 school systems had not yet submitted data for every school. But by the end of July, 92 percent of all schools had submitted their data.
“We’ve been talking with every school system in the state at every step of the way and they have been working all along to submit data as quickly as possible,” said Dorman. “We anticipate the remaining plans will be in hand by late August.”
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Mike Anderson discusses the importance of school schematics .
John Dorman discusses NCEM role in school safety.