Safety Calendar

Mary McVey

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD-536: Strategic Leadership and Management in the Principalship

Dr. John Utne

November 10, 2021

 Calendar

September
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Teacher

Training at

1:15PM
8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Fire Drill at

8:20 AM
15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Q1 Lockdown

Drill at 8:20

AM
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30

Full School

Evacuation at

8:20 AM
October
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Fire Drill at

8:20 AM
27 28 29 30 31

November
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Fire Drill at

12:30 PM
December
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Fire Drill at

12:30 PM
8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Q2 Lockdown

Drill at 1:20

PM
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
January
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Teacher Re- Fire Drill at

Training at
10:15 AM
2:15PM
12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Q3 Lockdown

Drill at 11:15

AM
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
February
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28
 Fire Drill at

12:25 PM
March
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Fire Drill at

12:25 AM
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
April
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6

Q4 Lockdown

Drill at 2:05

PM
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

Fire Drill at

1:50 PM
May
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Fire Drill at

8:20 AM
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31

Monthly Fire Drills

 In our school’s safety plan, we will have a variety of drills, including fire drills. In order

to coordinate emergency response to an actual fire, our drills will occur monthly on various days

and at different times. Some of these drills will be announced ahead of time, while others will

occur spontaneously to our faculty and students. Administration will always be aware of these

fire drills, as they have been involved in picking each planned date, in accordance with our

school schedule. The first drill will happen on Monday, September 9 at 8:20 AM, one week into

the school year. Since the first week of school will be focused on reacclimating our students, we

do not want to overburden them with a fire drill. Instead, it will be at the beginning of the second

week, five minutes after the first bell. It will be planned and announced ahead of time, so the

students and faculty will be well-prepared for it. The fire drill bell will go over exactly at 8:20

AM, and all students will evacuate with their homeroom classes. Classes on the west side of the

campus will report to the main parking lot, while those on the east side will head to the soccer

field. Since our campus does not contain any indoor hallways or paths, our fire drill plans are

very simple and easily executed. Upon arriving, they will line up in descending order of the

homeroom sections. The teachers will take role and keep the students organized, quiet, and calm

until the drill has ended, upon which they will return to the classroom and resume the normal

school day. The next fire drill will be on Monday, October 12 at 8:20 AM as well. This one will

be different, however, as it will be announced to regular staff and to the students. It will be a

surprise drill, so that students can simulate what really happens in the case of an unexpected fire.

This will be the school’s opportunity to demonstrate what they learned in the practice drill last

month, and execute the exact same plan without additional instruction. The third drill will

Friday, November 29 at 12:30 PM. This will be a schedule drill that takes places on a new day

and at a new time. Since the students will be in their final class of the day, and not in homeroom
this time, they will need to organize themselves differently when arriving to the indicated safety

locations. This time, they will be asked to stay with whatever class they were just in, in order for

attendance to be taken. In a similar fashion to the last method, the fourth drill will be a surprise

on Tuesday, December 3 at 12:30 PM. Occurring at the same time, the students will be tested in

their last block of the day and will be expected to properly follow the new guidelines they

learned in the previous drill.

The next drill on January 7, 10:15 AM, will be planned and refresher course for students

returning from the long Christmas break. Occurring at the beginning of the second period of the

day, the students will drop off their backpacks in their classroom and immediately report to their

stations for the drill. In February, the next drill will take place on Tuesday the 26th, at 12:25 PM.

This time schedule means that the unannounced drill will occur during their lunch period. While

students will be given extra time after the drill to finish their lunches, they must act quickly to

leave their items behind and head to safety. Since this is a difficult drill to master, it is expected

that it will take them some time to sort the chaos. Instead of trying to find their class or section,

they will need to assign themselves based on grade level. Freshmen and Sophomores, who eat

closer to the field, will situation themselves on that same field. Juniors and Seniors will find

safety in the main parking lot. Once the drill is over, they will return to their respective lunch

areas. This drill will be repeated on March 13 at the same time, as it requires multiple practice

sessions to master the new organization technique. The second to last drill will be after Easter

Break, on April 30 at 1:50 PM. It will be simple test that occurs during their last block of the day

and in the last 15 minutes of class, so as not to interrupt to much of the learning period. Lastly,

the school year will end with one final fire drill on Friday, May 10 at 8:20 AM. This drill will be

unique in that the seniors will not be on campus this day, along with some members of our
faculty and staff. As this is the date of the annual graduation trip for our seniors, the rest of the

school will need to practice a fire drill with dozens of students and staff members missing. Other

than that aspect, it will be a normal drill and hopefully mastered by this final practice session.

Quarterly Lockdown Drills

Besides fire drills, our students will also be prepared to handle various lockdown

situations and will practice reacting to these various scenarios four times a year. Occurring once

each quarter, each drill will be simulating a different, dangerous situation, so as to train the

students, staff, faculty, and entire school community for an emergency situation beyond fire and

earthquakes. The Quarter 1 drill will take place on Friday, September 20 at 8:20 AM. Since this

month will be overwhelming for many of our students, it will be a planned drill. Additionally,

with so many tragedies in the news, we do not want to alarm our students, their parents, or our

school’s neighbors by surprising them with a lockdown drill. It will be communicated well in

advance and even explained to the local sheriff’s station ahead of time. This first drill situation

will be as if an active shooter entered the campus. The special lockdown alarm will sound,

teachers will immediately close their doors, which automatically lock, instruct their students to

crouch under the windows and against the wall, turn off all lights and sounds, and remain quiet

until the all clear alarm is turned on. After the drill, the students will be shown a video in their

class reiterating the steps they took for safety and why these drills are important. Students that

are late or wandering the halls when doors close will not be permitted into classrooms, as

teachers are not allowed to open the doors under any circumstance. Instead, they will be trained

by teachers assigned to the hallways to find the nearest bathroom, lock the main bathroom door,

and hide on top of a toilet in locked stall.

 The Quarter 2 drill will take place on Monday, December 9, at 1:20 PM. This

unannounced drill will simulate a local bank robbery in the area. Since this has actually

happened to our school, it is an important drill to reiterate to our students. In this situation, we

will pretend that the local sheriff’s station has sent notifications to our school that a crime has

occurred in our vicinity and they are looking for the suspects. Similar to the active shooter drill,

everyone must stay in their classrooms. While the teachers do not need to turn off the lights or

instruct the students to hide at this time, they must lock the doors and keep the students inside

and on campus until the situation has been handled by authorities.

In the second semester of school, the Quarter 3 lockdown drill will occur on Friday,

January 17 at 11:15 AM. This drill is unique as it will be taking place during the students’ lunch

hour. In this situation, it will simulate that there are violent riots beginning in the adjacent streets.

The alarm will sound and everyone will be escorted to the multi-purpose building (MPB).

Faculty and staff will be trained to leave whatever they are doing at this time and calmly guide

the students toward the MPB. Once in this building, the students will be asked to separate based

on their homeroom section assignments and their teachers will take attendance. They will need to

sit in the MPB until the all safe sign is given and announced over the school intercom.

The final lockdown in quarter 4 is scheduled for April 2 at 2:05 PM. As this is the time

that school ends each day, this drill will be announced well in advance, so that parents and

students will know that they are expected to stay about 10 minutes late this assigned Tuesday. In

this drill, we will pretend that the public high school across the street from our school is going

through an emergency situation. An angry parent has taken a staff member hostage and is

threatening to use violence. As the police negotiate with this person, our school, because of its
close proximity, will go on lockdown. Similar to other drills, the students will be expected to

stay in their classroom and wait for the event to end.

Full School Evacuation

Under truly devasting and calamitous events on campus, our school must be prepared for

a full-scale evacuation. While this has never been done before, or even practiced at my high

school, it is time for it to be made a priority in safety training. Each school year, the

parents/guardians will receive a packet of general safety information. It will include instructions

for fire drills, lockdown drills, and the procedures for a full school evacuation. For this specific

type of emergency evacuation, the parents will be given the following instructions. First, they

will be told that a scheduled drill will take place on Monday, September 30 at 8:20 AM. It will

start the school day, so that there is no confusion later on in the afternoon. After initial

announcements are made over the school speaker, the students will be instructed to follow their

teachers across the field to the side parking lot. After checking out with the assigned staff leader,

the teacher and students will need to evacuate from the school premises and wait out the

emergency in the shopping plaza parking lot next to the campus. In this plaza, there is actually a

designated area should this situation happen in real life. As a smaller school, we are able to

accommodate all of our students here as they await transportation or parent pick-up. Since we do

not have busses or shuttles on campus, we cannot successfully drive all of our students away

from the school. Instead, they must wait in the parking lot with their teacher, be checked out and

picked up by a preauthorized parent/guardian, or wait for emergency shuttles we hire if the

situation worsens. No one is allowed to leave through public transportation or car services.

Should the situation end quickly, the students will be instructed to return to the school field,

recheck in with administrative leaders and head back to their original classrooms. All this time,
the parents will receive notifications through multiple sources simultaneously. They will receive

a text message from the school, an email, and a pre-recorded voicemail going through the

instructions.

Training for Teachers

Emergency training for teachers will be a multi-step system, including a plethora of

reminders and reiterations of the school’s established safety policies and procedures. Since

people learn in different ways, this important information will be communicated in a variety of

methods. First, the teachers will receive an initial in-person training session on Wednesday,

September 4, the day before school starts. It will be an hour-long session that includes detailed

training, an overview of the scheduled drills, a physical practice of each drill type, and a read-

through of the safety procedures packet. This meeting will be led by our school safety officer, the

facilities manager, our principal, and a few veteran teachers who have experienced various drills

and actual emergency situations on campus. After this meeting, the teachers will receive

quarterly update emails that include policy updates, reminders, and research on new safety

methods. There will be also be a retraining session in second semester on Monday, January 6,

upon our return from Christmas break. Through these trainings, reminder sessions, and quarterly

emails, our teachers will be prepared for any emergency situation and ready to lead our students

during different safety drills and actual situations.

Revisiting/Debriefing After Each Drill

The day after each scheduled drill, teachers and staff will attend a 30-minute debriefing

session after school. This session will include a discussion on the pros and cons of the drill,

along with notes on how to improve for next time. There will also be a safety officer present,

such as a firefighter or sheriff, to review certain aspects of the emergency procedures. The
meeting will include open dialogue, visual presentations, physical practices, and a Q&A session.

If the drill was met with chaos and confusion, then in our debriefing meeting, the teachers and

staff will have to physically reenact it and practice their assigned roles. They will also meet with

their assigned safety departments to revisit their specific roles and responsibilities. After the

meeting, there will also be an email sent to all faculty and staff with highlights from the

debriefing and reiteration of emergency rules and procedures. Finally, the administrative staff

will meet the day after the debriefing meeting to go over the establish safety policies in even

more detail.

Rationale: Collaboration, Vision/Mission, Moral Legal Considerations

In developing this calendar and the overall safety plan/procedures for our school, there

were many trained and expert hands involved. For its initial creation, administration will meet

with the campus safety officer and facilities manager to construct the outline of the calendar.

After dates are placed, the calendar will be sent to department heads to check that the drills do

not interfere with any preschedule large events, such as the PSAT, Homecoming rally, etc.

Additionally, our principal and campus safety officer will present our edited safety policies and

procedures to our local emergency officers. We will have a firefighter, police officer, and safety

experts review our plans and provide us with real-life feedback. Their collaboration will be

essential to the construction of a well-structured plan. They will also help us ensure that all legal

considerations have been taken and that our plan does not conflict with local and state

emergency policies. Lastly, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Sisters of St. Joseph, who

jointly supervise our school, will review our calendar and plans to ensure that we have been

following our school’s moral obligations and overall mission. By taking the time to practice

emergency situations, we are upholding our vision to provide students a quality education in a
safe environment. Furthermore, by being considerate of our students’ daily lives, we have

purposefully scheduled our drills around holidays and finals. By taking this task seriously, we are

envisioning a safe environment for our students and making actual plans for the promised safety

of our students, faculty, and staff.