ETHS Crisis Plan
An administrative committee has developed a Crisis Management Manual for ETHS that outlines procedures for faculty and staff to follow during an emergency or time of trauma at school. The manual was in draft form before the tragic school shooting in Littleton, CO, took place, but that event and others at schools across the nation, pointed up the fact that crises can happen anywhere, anytime, and that a reasoned response is needed to insure student and staff safety.
While recent events in schools have involved guns, ETHS officials know that school crises can take many forms -- tornadoes, fires, bomb threats, or gas leaks, for example. The manual instructs staff about what to do when any of these and many other emergency situations occur.
Notification is the key to the crisis plan. ETHS has developed a Safety Code system which will be broadcast building-wide when a crisis occurs. Codes Yellow and White denote a certain type and level of emergency, while a Code Green indicates an "All Clear" and the resumption of normal school activity.
Code Red
When a Code Red is called, indicating that a serious or dangerous exists in the building, all students and adults are to go to the nearest classroom or office and lock the door. People in cafeterias should remain there, lock the doors, and get under the tables. Anyone outside on school grounds are to move to an open space far away from the building and lie down on the ground.
Code Yellow
A Code Yellow indicates a situation, such as a gas leak or fire, which calls for an orderly evacuation of the building using the procedures practiced regularly during planned fire drills. In the case of severe weather, a Code Yellow announcement would include instructions to follow the procedure used during tornado drills.
Code White
A dangerous situation taking place outside in the community would trigger a Code White, when all exterior school doors would be locked and students and adults would remain inside until the emergency subsides.
The crisis manual also spells out who is on the decision-making Crisis Team and what they need to consider, including how and when to notify parents and media coordination as well as dismissal procedures or relocation of students to alternate sites, when appropriate.
Details of the crisis plan will be shared with students during their Homebase periods beginning November 1. Posters of the safety codes will be put up in every classroom and office and elsewhere throughout the school. ETHS officials plan to hold a "crisis drill" sometime this year, and then annually, just as they hold fire and tornado drills throughout the school year.