[Euclidean]

I thought you'd all like to hear briefly about this. On my second day of inservice, I sat through a presentation on how our campus is going to phase in an Incident Command Response System, similar to what law enforcement agencies use.

Supposedly the system is to address situations like shootings, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, chemical spills, the propane tank across the street exploding, etc.

Of course I had to bite my tongue. My thinking was "How the devil is this honestly going to help when some guy that loses a custody battle comes in here and starts shooting people, including his own kid?"

But there is some value in it. For example we are going to develop more elaborate plans for what to do if the school has to be used as an emergency shelter, and someone is going to have to do an inventory of our food supplies on hand, our capability of mobilizing the school buses as emergency transportation, etc.

One thing that really stood out for me was they even discussed incidents of school centered disasters where it took law enforcement and other emergency services three hours to respond. Maybe it's a step in the right direction and they'll realize that we might very well be on our own when Hadji come's a knockin'.

One thing I thought was kind of, well interesting for lack of a better word, is that all this organization is supposed to form the school faculty into a structure that mimics what a law enforcement agency does command chain wise in a crisis situation so that we may respond like law enforcement would in a crisis situation. Hey if I can do something to help be a first responder then sign me up, but I think I'm in the minority on that one.

 

[P95Carry]

Euc - IIRC round here, and not sure quite what schools have re policies in respect of what you describe but - FEMA is in a sense the ''governing body'' when it comes to any SHTF type goings on.

Does this response system deal you describe have a link with local FEMA personnel?

Certainly and up to a point, it seems they have heads screwed on in as much as, a plan is always better than no plan - in particular when it comes to a stage 1 response. That period when LE etc is too far from the scene to assist - ''first response'' stuff if you will.

My main concern with any of this is that policies that might come about after discussion do not lead to effective losses of privacy and essential freedoms. There is probably much to be gained but also - with wrong decisions - much to be lost. Compromize should be name of the game.

I believe also - in major situations and emergencies - FEMA has enough power to all but override the entire constitution and become all but a de facto governing body. Anyone else come across that? I don't want to be too ''tin-foil''!!

There is tho somewhere I seem to recall a long list of ''powers'' imbued into FEMA should the need arise. Major powers.

 

[Euclidean]

Interestingly enough, FEMA was never mentioned by name. This is an effort by Central Texas school districts to coordinate with disaster relief agencies. Supposedly our local city and county law enforcement agencies, firefighters, emergency medical services, and all their support personnel are on board with this too. It sounded real grassroots.

I'm not crazy about FEMA either. But I was impressed that the sheeple actually acknowledged that a school is a soft target for a lot of unpleasant scenarios. You have to remember that your typical educator has their head up their butt when it comes to issues like this. I was even more impressed that there's an effort to try to make the schools an asset available to the community in case something crazy ever does happen.

If nothing else I think it's important that the school and these other agencies are talking to each other and are aware of what the school can and can't realistically do. One thing they talked about was that a lot of LEO officials assume they can just march in and close us down or commandeer the facilities if they wanted to, and it doesn't work like that. On the same token I thought it was truly insightful there's some tiny realization at least that just saying "Well the professionals will come take care of it if anything happens" is not a good plan either.

 

[Bumper]

Actually, I am the person directly responsible for creating a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which, in Arizona is also, generically, called a "Disaster Plan". While much if it centers on restoring our ability to deliver our business functions after a disaster, it also deals with what to do, when to do it and where to do it at, if a disaster occurs. While a plan like this will not cover every emergency or disaster, parts of it will certainly be useful in the case of an event.

P95 was correct when he said "a plan is always better than no plan". Our agency works with the Arizona Department of Emergency Management (ADEMA), which works closely with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to develop guidelines, scenarios for testing plans and a host of other support functions. I may be blind but although FEMA is granted some pretty heavy powers in case of a large scale event, I don't think that it is anything sinister or deserving of "tin foil".

You will today find most larger corporations and government entities at every level developing disaster recovery plans. We have re-learned a lesson from 9/11. Be prepared....

 

[P95Carry]

Bumper - I will attach one item I saved after reading - re FEMA aspects. I have no way of knowing its veracity other than the way it states certain supposedly genuine execitive orders.

It is - if nothing else - food for thought!

 

[HotGuns]

When it hits the fan, if you have to depend on FEMA for anything then you are going to get very hungry.

Have lots of food on hand and lots of ammo to keep it.