Emergency Responders, School Based ICS and YOU!

1. Emergency Responders, School Based ICS and YOU! Mike Coleman – QDS Communications Captain Tim Moore – Douglas County SO Johnson & Wales University Symposium For the Prevention of School Violence April 24th, 2009 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

2. Discussion Leaders and Participant Introductions

3. What We Will Cover.. • Recent events and some impacts • Defining what ICS means to your schools • Frame of Reference • What is a “Comm Plan?” • Defining how you interact • Building partnerships • Partnership study review

4. Recent Events • Ten year anniversary for Columbine High School Incident • February 4, 2009: Evanston, ILA 10-year-old male elementary student was found hanged from a coat hook.   Subsequent reports indicated the coroner ruled the death a suicide by hanging. • February 10, 2009:  Washington, DCA fight involving girls in a lunchroom, with several other subsequent fights, resulted in 16 high school students being arrested. • March 11, 2009: Stuttgardt, GermanyA 17 year old former student kills 15 people and injures others. • What about in your area?

5. Impacts to School Safety Efforts • Traditional sources for grant dollars are shrinking • Budget dollars are shrinking • School district staff and programs being cut • Contributions to Public Safety SRO programs • Public Safety budgets shrinking • Sensitivity to the needs are less or are being competitive with academic performance dollars • Lack of “buy-in” – “can’t happen here..” • School based incidents occurring

6. Defining What ICS Means to Your Schools SB 08-181 points Signed into law May 14, 2008

7. Basic Definitions • NRF: • Builds on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) with its flexible, scalable, and adaptable coordinating structures • Aligns key roles and responsibilities across jurisdictions • Links all levels of government, private sector, and nongovernmental organizations in a unified approach to emergency management • Always in effect: can be partially or fully implemented • Coordinates Federal assistance without need for formal trigger • NIMS : • Provides a set of standardized organizational structures: • such as the Incident Command System (ICS) • multiagency coordination systems • public information systems • Requirements for processes, procedures, and systems designed to improve interoperability among jurisdictions and disciplines in various areas, including: training; resource management; personnel qualification and certification; equipment certification; communications and information management; technology support; and continuous system improvement. • ICS: The Incident Command System (ICS) is the combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to aid in all-hazards incident management activities. ICS is used by all levels of government—Federal, State, local, and tribal, as well as by many private-sector and nongovernmental organizations. Source: fema.gov and nimsonline.com

8. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires: • School board is to establish a school response framework consisting of policies consistent with NIMS • By July 1, 2009 a date is established indicating when each school of the district will be in compliance and the information will be publicly available • Formal adoption of the NRF and NIMS • Institutionalization of ICS

9. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires continued: • In conjunction with local community partners develop a coordinated school safety, readiness and incident management plan: • Identified safety teams and backups for interacting with community partners and assuming ICS roles • Identify potential locations for operational and support functions • Develop a memoranda of understanding with the community partners specifying responsibilities

10. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires continued: • Create an All-Hazards exercise program based on NIMS: • Conduct tabletop exercises • Conduct other exercises • Exercises done with community partners from various disciplines • Designed to practice and assess preparedness • Many provisions are “to the extent possible”

11. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires continued: • Exercises to include district employees and community partners: • Orientation meetings around EOPs • Drills in addition to fire drills • Tabletops to discuss and identify roles and responsibilities • Point to consider is testing the EOPs internally and then test with external partners • After action review in writing describing lessons learned to include corrective actions to plans

12. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires continued: • Once per academic term - inventory emergency equipment and review communications equipment which includes the ability to interoperate with state and local agencies • Written procedures on taking action and communicating with responders, parents, students and the media during certain incidents

13. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • SB 08-181 requires continued: • Key personnel to include safety teams and others will complete FEMA EMI courses (counts towards continuing ED req’s) • Review procedures to ensure NIMS compliance • Establish a baseline for NIMS compliance and an action plan to achieve it (new employees will need to meet that baseline at some point)

14. What Does ICS Mean to Your Schools • Federal Grants relating to homeland security dollars require ICS training / MOUs • Smoother management transition for events occurring at a school to first responders • Smoother time for school liaisons and others assigned within the ICS structure

15. Which ICS Training? • Colorado Dept of Public Safety reference • http://cdpsweb.state.co.us/nims.html • Minimum Training • ICS100.SC Introduction to ICS for Schools • IS362 Multi Hazard Planning for Schools • Optional Courses • IS700 Introduction to NIMS • IS800 Introduction to National Response Framework • ICS200 - ICS for Single Resources / Initial Actions • ICS300 - Intermediate ICS • What is your school district supporting?

16. Let’s Talk About YOU for a Moment A frame of reference

17. Quick Biology Lesson • The sympathetic nervous system • Sympathetic (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic (rest and repose) divisions typically function in opposition to each other. For an analogy, one may think of the sympathetic division as the accelerator and the parasympathetic division as the brake. • The sympathetic division typically functions in actions requiring quick responses. The parasympathetic division functions with actions that do not require immediate reaction. • Causes the release of chemicals in the body to react: • Epinephrine (Adrenalin) • Norepinephrine

18. Quick Biology Lesson • Your body reacts to stress: psychologically and physically • The sympathetic nervous system physiological response: • Acceleration of heart and lung action • Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body • Liberation of nutrients for muscular action • Dilation of blood vessels for muscles • Inhibition of Lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation (dry mouth) • Dilation of pupils • Auditory Exclusion (reduction of hearing) • Tunnel Vision (loss of peripheral vision) • Acceleration of instantaneous reflexes • Why is this important?

19. Sympathetic Response and You • 70 – 75 BPM Normal Heart Rate: • Life is Good • 115 BPM: • Lose fine complex motor skills such as finger dexterity, eye hand co-ordination, multi tasking becomes difficult • 145-150 BPM: • Lose complex (gross) motor skills ( 3 or more motor skills designed to work in unison) • 175 BPM: • Pupil dilation and tunnel vision • Visual tracking becomes difficult “light house effect” on average about a 70% decrease in their visual field • Difficultly to focus on close objects and impact depth perception • Difficulty remembering what took place or what they did • known as “Incident Amnesia” or “Critical Stress Amnesia.” After a critical incident, it is not uncommon for a person to only recall approx 30% of what happened in the first 24hrs, 50% in 48 hrs, and 75-95 % in 72-100hrs

20. Heart Rate Impacts

21. How can you lesson the impact of stress during an incident? PLANNING & TRAINING!

22. What is a “Comm Plan”? Not the typical incident based communications plan

23. How Do You Communicate Today? • In Person • By ‘Hollering’ • By Intercom • By Phone • By Cell Phone • By Radio • By Email • By TV • By Portals • By ______ ???

24. Interoperability • National Buzz Word • Public Safety based is voice radio-based communications • Pre-agreed upon ability to communicate • The right information, to the right people, in the right amount, at the right time • Has a national example called the Interoperability Continuum

25. Defining a Communications Plan • A basic plan for schools has two conditions on when you need to talk with other organizations: • School Business • Emergency Situation • Keep in mind that the emergency condition throws in stressors that typically are not present everyday • Stressors impact accurate functioning

26. Who to Talk to When and How http://www.schoolsafetypartners.org

27. Interacting With Public Safetyand Building Those Partnerships

28. Let’s Compare Police Organization Teaching Organization Typically organized in government supported by tax dollars Principal Assistant Principals and Subject / Team Leads Teachers Administrative Staff • Typically organized in government supported by tax dollars • Chief of Police / Sheriff • Captains / Lieutenants / Sergeants • Officers / Deputies • Administrative Staff / Dispatchers They do their job everyday because they care!

29. How Does Your School or District Interact with Public Safety Today? • School used as a shelter • School students receive instruction: • On DARE • On GREAT • By SRO’s • 9-1-1 Programs • Career Day Participation • Internships • Major Events • What Else?

30. “Partnership” • “A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal: Neighborhood groups formed a partnership to fight crime.” (dictionary.com) • My easy definition is a “mutually benefiting relationship” • Example: Owner and Dog: Owner receives companionship, dog receives food and shelter.

31. What Kind of Partnership Does Your School or School District Have With Your Local Public Safety Organizations?

32. “Partnership” List some partnerships that exist within your school, agency, or community: How formal are these partnerships?

33. MEASURING CHANGE IN COLLABORATION AMONG SCHOOL SAFETY PARTNERS 2006 Bruce B. Frey Jill H. Lohmeier Steve W. Lee Nona Tollefson Mary Lea Johanning University of Kansas The group was assigned to assess the level of cooperation among the grant partners. Persistently Safe Schools: The National Conference of the HAMILTON FISH INSTITUTE ON SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY VIOLENCE

34. …Models of collaboration among agencies, groups, and community stakeholders are notoriously difficult to translate into valid and reliable instruments that can be used to measure meaningful change in the level and pattern of collaboration. This paper describes a model of collaboration, presents an instrument for its assessment, and suggests a method of graphical display that captures the sometimes elusive nature of collaboration… …A method of visual display which shows collaborative links and their strength among partners was adapted from a method presented by Cross (2003). Early evidence of scale reliability for the Levels of Collaboration Scale is presented…

35. …Collaboration has a variety of definitions and names, but is generally treated as meaning the cooperative way that two or more entities work together towards a shared goal…. Various continuums were studied to use as a gauge on the effectiveness of the collaboration. The team identified a model to provide the “theoretical validity for any instrumentation we chose or developed. The five stages of Hogue’s (1993) Levels of Community Linkage model was chosen as the most relevant framework.”

36. Based Upon Your Partnership Lists, Which Model Do You See?

37. … Given the definitions of each level, respondents were asked to what extent they collaborate with each other grant partner. Answer options were on a 0 to 5 scale with 0 indicating “no interaction at all” and 5 indicating the collaboration level using Hogue’s taxonomy. .. ..For the purposes of their paper, the name of each group or organization was been replaced with a generic descriptive name…

38. Conclusions: “Our experience with the scale in our local evaluation has been that stakeholders, respondents, district administrators, teachers, principals and grant partners find the information useful and persuasive. Even more, the visual representation method, used as feedback, has resulted in grant partners actually identifying collaboration goals and targets which were not part of the original design. In this context, the scale operates as a formative assessment. In addition, the level of collaboration might well have increased to a small degree because of the interactions and discussions of Levels of Collaboration scores themselves.”

40. Source: Collaboration Framework- Addressing Community Capacity http://crs.uvm.edu/nnco/collab/framework.html

41. Source: Collaboration Framework- Addressing Community Capacity http://crs.uvm.edu/nnco/collab/framework.html

42. Available Resources from Our Session • Session PowerPoint and related documents available at: • http://schoolsafetypartners.org/jw • Email me your request and I can email it to you: • MikeC@QDSCorp.com

43. Closing Statements • Importance of: • Planning • Training • Communicating • Partnering • Now is the time to start • Use a building block approach: planned incremental development