As have other urban districts, Portland Public Schools has seriously considered how best to address the many questions about school safety, including not only the physical safety of our campuses, but also the psychological safety of our students and staff members.
Taking a collaborative approach to examine these issues, district personnel built a holistic, comprehensive, all-hazards safety and emergency plan for Portland Public Schools. The plan and safety practices have four key interlinking elements:
- Prevention program support and resources
The foundation and success of the district’s work are in large part due to collaboration, relationships, and partnerships with key internal stakeholders—students and staff members—and external stakeholders, including school resource officers, mental health professionals, and other community partners.
Physical Environment
During the past decade, Portland Public Schools has addressed risks to its facilities by implementing incremental safety and security upgrades. Thanks to voter-approved bonds and grant funding, the district has been able to improve the safety of the buildings by investing in the following features:
- Access control—fully secured perimeters
- Mass notification systems
- Intrusion and fire systems
These upgrades have mitigated the risks associated with natural hazards like earthquakes, as well as man-made hazards such as violent school incidents.
Portland Public Schools students take part in an earthquake drill.
Planning and Training
Emergency planning is difficult in a large school district with many complex layers. Those complexities mean the district must have comprehensive actionable plans that can be implemented at any of the campuses for a localized event and that have the flexibility to be scaled up for a larger district-wide incident.
In collaboration with stakeholders, a school emergency response plan was developed to cover six emergency signals and the emergency actions associated with each of those signals. In addition, a district-level emergency operations plan includes a detailed process for parent–child reunification and an emergency operations center plan.
Although plan development is extensive, in many ways this development can be considered relatively painless compared to actual implementation of and staff training on the plan(s). The training model balances flexibility and consistency and requires all staff members to (1) participate in an online preparedness and response course, (2) attend campus-specific critical incident training, and (3) participate in monthly emergency drills and tabletop exercises that provide a low-stress environment while promoting a culture of safety in our buildings.
Embedded in all plans and training components is the option-based decision-making concept developed by John Van Dreal, director of safety and risk management for Oregon’s Salem-Keizer School District. Option-based decision making is a version of ALICE training and Run. Hide. Fight. This model teaches staff members and students how to use situational awareness to inform critical decision making before, during, and after an emergency event.
Supplies and Materials
School emergencies range in scope and intensity; they can affect a single student or an entire community. Each day, our staff members prepare themselves for situations that can directly or indirectly affect them and the students they serve. Along with robust plans and training, campuses and classrooms must be equipped with supplies and materials essential for staff and students.
All PPS campuses have:
- Voice over Internet Protocol phones that can activate an emergency signal.
- Two-way radio communications.
- A volunteer/visitor management system that screens for registered sex offenders.
Crisis-in-a-Box for each school’s main office includes:
- Utility shutoff procedures.
- Shutoff procedures for fire alarms and sprinklers.
- Parent reunification documents.
- Student attendance rosters.
- A list of the school’s emergency team and contact information.
- A list of students and staff members with special needs.
Every district classroom has:
- A customized emergency-response flip chart.
- Emergency go-buckets that contain essentials teachers can use in a crisis.
- An emergency response plan poster.
Portland Public Schools Security Services Team
Prevention Support and Resources
The district’s approach to ensuring safety and promoting learning comes from a prevention perspective. District staff, educators, and community partners have worked tirelessly to develop programs that address (1) bullying and harassment, (2) suicide prevention, (3) threat assessment, (4) drug and alcohol prevention and recovery, (5) restorative racial and social justice, and (6) increased access to mental health support. These efforts all drive the improvement of the school climate and psychological safety and provide safe schools for robust learning.
Although Portland Public Schools personnel believe that their campuses are the safest places for their students, bad things can happen. As a result, they continuously reexamine and invest in the four critical areas that contribute to a comprehensive and holistic safety approach.
The U.S. Department of Education’s definition of “crisis” is:
A crisis is an event that is extraordinary. It cannot be predicted. . . . [A] crisis is a situation where schools could be faced with inadequate information, not enough time, and insufficient resources, but in which leaders must make one or many crucial decisions.
With that in mind, we work to build relationships and put infrastructure, systems, and supports in place; when critical decisions must be made, they may save the lives of our students and staff members. As leaders, our job is to ensure that we have done the work necessary to prepare our districts for prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery.