1. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Tabletop Exercise Hazardous Materials Division for Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, and Institutional Research

2. 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.

3. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Agenda  Introductions  Scenario  Description  Hot Wash (Debrief)  Action Planning

4. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Introductions

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

6. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu How does a tabletop exercise work?  Scenario-based discussion, guided by a facilitator  Problems talked through without stress  Evaluators selected to observe and offer feedback on the proceedings  Policies, plans, and guidelines are updated

7. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu What is a tabletop exercise?  Simulates an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free environment  Initiates discussion of emergency guidelines  Focuses on training and familiarization with roles, guidelines, and responsibilities

8. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu What determines the success of a tabletop?  A successful tabletop leaves participants with:  A positive learning experience  Organizational learning  Improvement Action Planning  More effective policies, plans, and guidelines  Improved preparedness

9. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Exercise Guidelines  This exercise is designed to test the preparedness of the _____ to respond to a multi-agency, multi-site emergency event  Following the exercise, there will be a debriefing time or “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

10. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Exercise Guidelines (Continued)  _____ISD/college policy shall govern all activities relating to the emergency event.  The facilitator shall serve as the exercise referee and will provide any official interpretation of the exercise rules.  Although we will not actually be contacting them, ISD/college and outside resources are available to assist you.

11. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Exercise Guidelines (Continued)  From time to time, there will be injections to the scenario. These are intended to further assess response to the exercise scenario.  This is a learning experience.

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

13. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Objectives  To evaluate policies and procedures  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

14. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Demographic Overview  On this slide, add bullets of information about the demographics of your school/college, including but not limited to:  Number of schools/facilities  Types of schools/facilities  Athletic facilities  Student population  Employee population

15. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu First Responder Resource Overview  On this slide, add bullets of information about the first responder resources immediately available to your school/college, including but not limited to:  Police  Fire  EMS

16. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Threat Assessment  On this slide, add bullets of information about the known threats to your school/college, including but not limited to:  Internal threats  External threats

17. 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 southwest at 3 miles per hour.  At 11:30 a.m., first-grade students, together with 15 parents and 10 teachers, have returned to the cafeteria for lunch. The kindergarten class, along with 25 parents and 10 teachers, have just arrived in the race area, which is located southwest of the third grade classrooms and east of the basketball courts. At 11:40 a.m., one of the teachers at the race area notifies the principal that a strong ammonia odor is present and that she has heard police or fire sirens in the vicinity. The parents and other teachers present are quite concerned.

18. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions  What do you need to know?  How do you find the information?  What does your EOP direct?  What are you going to do?

19. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Questions  What actions will you take?  Do you activate your school/college incident command?  What is your ICS structure?

20. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu ICS Structure Questions  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?

21. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Scenario Questions  Based on the information available at this time, what are your immediate concerns?  What initial actions should you take?  What should you do next?

22. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu SCENARIO Inject #1  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.  The school nurse has sent a parent to report 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.

23. 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?

24. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu SCENARIO Inject #2  It is 11:45 am. A fire department official has 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.  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.

25. 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?

26. 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?

27. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Scenario Inject #3 (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 feel 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.

28. 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?

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

30. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Hot Wash  How well did your EOP 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?

31. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Hot Wash  What can be done to improve campus police/security operations?  What internal divisions 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?

32. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Action Plan  The lessons learned during this table top exercise will lead to a college action plan to:  Keep Doing ______  Stop Doing ______  Start Doing ______

33. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Conclusion  The Texas School Safety Center, Division for Law Enforcement, Homeland Security, and Institutional Research is available for:  Training/Facilitation  Technical Assistance  Information

34. Texas School Safety Centerwww.txssc.txstate.edu Contact Us Web: www.txssc.txstate.edu Phone: 877-304-2727