Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Tabletop Exercise HazMat Leak:

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Agenda Introductions Exercise Continuum Today’s Tabletop Scenario Discussions Hot Wash (Debrief) Action Planning Closure

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Rules of the Road Creativity/Group Problem Solving Use the knowledge and information available in the room Active Thinking Active Listening Active Participation Respect – challenge ideas, not people Reality Check – make the exercise real for you.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Introductions

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu The Exercise Continuum Briefly: Drills Tabletop Exercises Functional Exercises Full-Scale Exercises

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Tabletop Exercises Simulate an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free environment. Initiate discussion of emergency guidelines. Focus on training and familiarization with roles, guidelines, and responsibilities.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu How a Tabletop Works A scenario-based discussion is guided by a facilitator; Problems talked through without stress; Observe offer feedback on the proceedings Policies, procedures, plans, and guidelines are discussed and updated.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Tabletop Success Participants leave with: A positive learning experience Organizational learning Improvement action planning More effective policies, plans, and guidelines Improved preparedness

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Exercise Guidelines This exercise is designed to test the preparedness of the district/school to respond to a multi-agency, multi-site emergency event. Following the exercise, there will be a debriefing time, aka a “Hot Wash”. Each participant will be given the opportunity to share his/her views on what worked well and what needs to be addressed in additional planning, training and/or drilling

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Guidelines (Continued) LEA policies and existing safety plan(s) govern all activities relating to the emergency event. The facilitator will serve as the exercise referee and provide any official interpretation of the exercise rules. From time to time, there will be injections into the scenario. These are intended to further assess response to the exercise scenario. This is designed to be a learning experience for all.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Purpose To examine current policies, procedures, resources and actions in the context to a response to an earthquake in a district/school setting To promote greater understanding and ability to apply NIMS/ICS principles to your setting To make improvements as identified as an outcome of the exercise

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Objectives To evaluate policies and procedures… your plan To evaluate command and control including communications procedures To identify resources needed vs. available To identify training needs To identify needed improvements and create an action plan to address those needs

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Situation Demographics Overview: For today’s exercise, your LEA/school has: Number of schools/facilities Types of schools/facilities Athletic facilities Student population Employee population

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu First Responder Resource Overview The first responder resources immediately available to your school, include but are not limited to: Police Fire EMS

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Risk Assessment Overview: Known threats and hazards to your district and school: Natural _____________________ Biological ___________________ Technological ________________ Adversarial/Human ___________ ->

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu So….

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Scenario The second Thursday of November is a big day at school. This year marks the third annual Turkey Trot Race. The fun-filled day of student and parent activities includes a ½-mile run for each class. Parent and teacher events are also scheduled. It is a perfect day for the festivities, with clear skies, moderate temperatures, and winds from the south- southwest at 3 miles per hour.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Scenario 11:30 First-grade students, together with 15 parents and 10 teachers, have just returned to the cafeteria for lunch. The kindergarten class, along with 25 parents and 10 teachers, are arriving in the race area, which is located southwest of the third grade classrooms and east of the basketball courts.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Scenario 11:40 One of the teachers at the race area smells a strong ammonia odor in the air. She notifies the principal. She also reports that she has heard police or fire sirens in the vicinity. The parents and other teachers present are quite concerned.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions Based on this much information, What are your immediate concerns? What initial actions should you take? What should you do next? What do you need to know? How do you find the information?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What does your EOP/Safety Plan call for? What are you going to do? What actions will you take? Do you activate your school incident command at this point? What is your ICS structure?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions ICS Structure Who is the Incident Commander? Who is the Public Information Officer? Who is the Liaison Officer? Who is the Operations Chief? What other ICS positions will you activate and who will fill them?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Inject #1 11:42 The principal has ordered that everyone at the race event report to the cafeteria and remain there until the situation is resolved. As the children head back to the school, several start pushing and shoving in their rush to “get away from the smell.” One little girl has fallen and banged her head on the sidewalk. A parent has carried her to the nurse’s office, but she is bleeding heavily from a laceration just above her right eye.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Inject #1 11:42 The school nurse has sent a parent to report to the office that five students and two parents have come to her office complaining of difficulty breathing. One of the students is asthmatic but the nurse does not know whether or not to allow the student to use his inhaler.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What actions should you take based on this new information? How will you notify parents? What will you tell them? For what contingencies should you plan?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Inject #2 11:45 A fire department official has just called the school to notify the principal of an anhydrous ammonia leak at an adjacent warehouse immediately south of the school. The fire department recommends an immediate evacuation of the school and surrounding neighborhoods and instructs the principal to evacuate from the parking lot at the southeast corner of the school facility.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Inject #2 11:45 Teachers at the cafeteria report that parents indicate that they want to leave immediately and take their children with them. Parents’ vehicles are parked on the streets surrounding the school and in the school parking lot.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What actions should school personnel take based on the directions received from the fire department? How many buses are required to accomplish a complete evacuation? How long will it take them to arrive? What is your estimated time requirement for completing the evacuation? Will you need to make additional ICS assignments to accomplish the evacuation?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What will you tell the parents who want to take their children and leave? For what contingencies must you plan?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Inject #3 Noon (15 minutes later) As evacuation efforts are being coordinated, 20 additional children complain of feeling sick. The teachers are voicing their reluctance to permit the children to leave the school. They think it is much safer to stay inside. One parent who has decided to leave wants to take other children who live in the same neighborhood.

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What should you do about the children who are feeling sick? What should you do about the parent who wants to take additional children home? How will you ensure that the entire school facility is evacuated and that everyone (including students, parents, and staff) is accounted for?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions What is your first concern in this situation? What actions will you take? What additional contingencies did you or must you now prepare for?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu ….

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Hot Wash

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Hot Wash How well did your EOP/Safety Plan operate and what actions will you take toward improvement? How well did your ICS Team operate and what actions will you take toward improvement? How well did your Communications Plan operate and what actions will you take toward improvement?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Hot Wash What can be done to improve school safety & security operations? What internal district-level offices were required to work together in this scenario? What external agencies did the Liaison Officer need to work with in this scenario? Are all necessary agreements in place to facilitate cooperation among agencies?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu After Action Plan Lessons Learned: For an improved action plan, consider what you will: Keep Doing ______ Stop Doing ______ Do Differently ________________ Start Doing ______

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Conclusion What is your biggest take away today?

Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu