If your kids are older - do you have a school evacuation plan?

[ahisma]

Our high school was evacuated this morning. Because we're a walking district, they just had them leave - quickly. My oldest at home is in middle school, but it made me think that I should have a designated place to meet him. Has anyone else done this? How did you pick a location?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Not that I know of. I'll ask my high schooler later.

[essnce629]

No, we have no plan but there's no way our school would just turn the kids loose on the street. No one walks to DS1's high school (private with lots of commuters). He's had several lockdowns so far where they shelter in place, but for an evacuation because of a fire(?) they would evacuate and stay together. His school is tiny (450 kids in 7-12 grade) so it's not hard to stay together. There's also another large public high school a block away they could potentially go to, although I'm sure DS1's school has a set evacuation plan in place just like they do for lockdowns, fires, and earthquakes (all practiced monthly on a rotating basis). During the lockdowns, his school has been great about communicating updates to parents via text and emails (his public charter middle school was the same).

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[georgiegirl]

I know the school has a plan and the older kids (middle school and up) saw a video about it. We live far away, so it’s not like DD could walk home.


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[TwinFoxes]

I'm surprised they just turned them loose. They don't do that in our district. If something did happen like that, I work from home so my kids could just walk home.

ETA: our local secondary school did evacuate earlier this year, they went to the athletic fields. It's a big school, the football stadium is quite a ways from the buildings.


Not that I know of. I'll ask my high schooler later.

I think she means does your family have a plan post-evacuation.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I'm surprised they just turned them loose. They don't do that in our district. If something did happen like that, I work from home so my kids could just walk home.

ETA: our local secondary school did evacuate earlier this year, they went to the athletic fields. It's a big school, the football stadium is quite a ways from the buildings.



I think she means does your family have a plan post-evacuation.

Gotcha- Though it depends on where ds1 is evacuated too so I still need to ask him. :)

[LD92599]

Yes, ours has a plan for every (most) scenarios. Our HS was evacuated last year but it was at lunch time, with an open campus. So students were everywhere - inside, outside, off campus, random classrooms.

I did read there was a school shooting in NC this morning? Was that your district? Sad.

[ahisma]

I did read there was a school shooting in NC this morning? Was that your district? Sad.

I didn't see that. So sad. We're in Michigan. It wasn't a shooter, it was a credible bomb threat. Apparently there are several bomb teams there now (state and local).

[DualvansMommy]

Our district HS is in a neighboring town that's 1-2 blocks away from main downtown area, so they wouldn't just turn them loose. I do recall they have 2-3 designed areas to meet depending on the emergency for students to hang and stay together until further instructions.

[ahisma]

The school definitely has a plan, but for whatever reason today the decision was to just send them all home. It was just as the school day was starting - they weren't in the classroom yet. I don't think that it's crazy though, DH teaches high school and the reality is that in the event of an active shooter the police department has advised that they should tell the students to run. Better to be on the streets and dispersed than to be congregated somewhere, I suppose.

With that in mind, I feel like we should pick somewhere in the neighborhood to collect DS if needed, as he's unlikely to be able to get his phone from his locker before leaving.

[sdjeppa]

I don’t think they would turn ours loose, but we do have an emergency location just in case (DS1 in HS). We live 1.5 miles from the school, but a friend lives a few blocks away and their house is our meeting location. I also have a couple friends listed as emergency contacts (and vice versa) so if something happens, the first one there can pick up everyone. Traffic is bad around the school on a normal day, so it would be complete chaos should there be an emergency with everyone trying to get to their kids.

[Gracemom]

Thanks for posting this. I hadn't thought about talking with my teen about a meeting place but I will now. Her school has had a lockdown and a lockout but never a bomb threat. Her school is not in walking distance from home and I can see her panicking and not know where to go in the unlikely event they are just told to leave.

[boolady]

Our school has an evacuation plan that involves evacuation to a building about 1 1/2 blocks away. The students are not permitted to leave that building without being signed out by a parent. Parental notification occurs by way of phone message.

[KrisM]

I'm going to have to ask DS1 if he knows what they'd do at his school. It's not close to much. He rides his bike sometimes, so not super far away, but nowhere would be quick. I'm not even sure what place I"d suggest as a meeting place if they were told to get out of the building like that.

I read about a couple threats on your side of the state this morning. I hope all is clear for your school soon.

[squimp]

I would be surprised if they just let our kids out. Our high school is kind of isolated, and they actually had some criminal on the loose threat earlier this year, the kids did a drill and stayed in place. Probably a good idea to talk about a plan because I assumed they would not just be let out.

They do monthly drills since Newtown, although they were doing drills prior to that. We had one of the first school shooters in our state, so a very long history. Always make me sad to think about. I grew up in a place where we had very rare tornado drills and nuclear attack drills (duck and cover) but somehow this is much scarier.

[123LuckyMom]

My kids are in the elementary school, but our district shares a plan among all its schools. In the event of an emergency the school evacuates the students to an undisclosed location. Robocalls and emails go out telling the parents what has happened and revealing the place of pick-up. Parents must bring ID, and children are released only to parents or another vetted and parentally approved adult with ID. This is the plan for all minors, including high school students.

Whole schools practice lock down and fire drills. The adult staff (at the elementary school) have practiced the evacuation plan with parental volunteers. The children have not practiced a full evacuation plan, at least for the elementary school, but they have practiced enough drills that they know how to shelter in place, lock down, and evacuate the building, and the school has walked together to various locations around town on many occasions, so they’re used to doing that, too. I’m not sure what the high schoolers have practiced beyond lock down and fire drills, but I do know they wouldn’t be released in the way the OP described.

As a family, we don’t have a plan for an emergency meeting place. Both the children know our full names, address, and cell phone numbers, though. Of course they’re young and couldn’t drive to meet us anywhere anyway.


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[mmsmom]

There was a shooting at a local high school today. The school was on lock down and once the shooter was in custody they allowed parents to come pick up kids. There was a procedure for how pick up would happen. The school also stayed open for those not picked up and there were people who were furious on FB that they continued with classes today. However not everyone has a parent who can pick them up and I think for some students being at school where they can talk about it is far better than being home alone. Sadly, one student died.

So I know in my area students of any age would not just be released. There could be a situation where lots of kids just run for safety and in that case a meeting place would be helpful.

[lizzywednesday]

Yes, they have an evacuation plan at the high school and I only know about it because they implemented it last spring when there was a bomb threat.

They evacuate the school following their normal plan & bused to the middle school until the high school had been swept by the authorities. After the all-clear, the buses took the high schoolers back to the high school and they were able to retrieve their belongings.

I am not certain what the plan is with the elementaries; thankfully, it hasn't been an issue yet.

ETA: I don't know if they rotate the gathering spot (i.e. - high school always evacuates to middle school or they evacuate to a different place based on the threat/credibility.)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Ds1 doesn't know of a plan but I told him to just walk home (about 1.5 miles) or to a friend's house and call me if he didn't have his phone. The school isn't near much but he can get on foot to a lot of friends, family and businesses.

[ett]

I don't know about the high school, but it's about a half hour walk from our house so DS1 could just walk home. At DS2's school, they have a designated meeting place at a church that's a 10-15 minute walk from the school. In fact, they all practiced walking there a few weeks ago.

[doberbrat]

I don't know about the high school, but it's about a half hour walk from our house so DS1 could just walk home. At DS2's school, they have a designated meeting place at a church that's a 10-15 minute walk from the school. In fact, they all practiced walking there a few weeks ago.

Sometimes, I wonder if we live in the same place.....

The way it works in our district is that should a school have to evacuate for a longer period of time than 15-30min, they will walk to location A which is 10-15 min away.

That location is a temp place. If students must be dismissed or kept for any length of time, buses are sent and they are sent to location B which is a different school and has facilities to hold large groups of children.

Should location B be compromised as happened a few years ago in a random freak coincidence then location B goes to THEIR walking evacuation place and the kids from the original school are shoved onto whatever buses are still there and go to a 3rd location. Kids were told it was a special field trip and thought it was great. :innocent::duh: Parents and teachers still have ulcers years later.

If we were unable to safely walk to location A because, for instance, of a shooter, then teachers are told to take our kids to safety wherever and however we can, keep them together and call 911 to give a location. So scary that all these plans have to be thought of etc.

We do practice lock down drills and evacuation to the offsite locations. The state also has special rapid response school bomb squads/teams - not sure what they're called.

[Dayzy]

Part of our back to school paperwork is a form to fill out. You check off if the child should be dismissed by regular dismissal procedure (for me by bus to home) or if the child should follow an alternate dismissal procedure, and if so please explain.

[ahisma]

We definitely have the drills and procedures in place also - they just handled it differently in an IRL situation today (well, there was no bomb ultimately, thankfully). Has anyone else had an actual evacuation where they didn't shelter in place or evacuate to a predetermined location? At our HS this morning they literally made a loudspeaker announcement that all students should leave immediately and seek safety.

[DualvansMommy]

We definitely have the drills and procedures in place also - they just handled it differently in an IRL situation today (well, there was no bomb ultimately, thankfully). Has anyone else had an actual evacuation where they didn't shelter in place or evacuate to a predetermined location? At our HS this morning they literally made a loudspeaker announcement that all students should leave immediately and seek safety.

As I said upthread, the HS is 1-2 blocks from a downtown area with the county courthouse not far away too. The school itself is a big historical old building with few additions added on over the years, so as such they don’t have the space to contain all of 1,200 students in one spot at any given emergency. It actually depends what the actual emergency is, that they have different designed spots to evacuate. I can’t recall which emergency but one of the plans is go off campus completely and scatter to 2-3 different safe spots nearby.


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