Neillsville School Board Approves Revised Emergency Response Plan
Thursday, August 29th, 2019 -- 9:47 AM
-The Neillsville School Board approved a revised version of the district’s emergency response plan at their meeting on Monday.The plan includes many different emergency situations and how the district will respond to them. The list includes accident/medical emergency, alcohol and other drugs, bomb threat, bus/travel accident, chemical spill, death, explosion, fights/demonstrations, fire, flooding, gas leak, harassment/discrimination, hazardous material release, missing child/kidnapping, sexual assault, shootings, suicide threat, threatening person inside and outside, tornado, utility failure/loss of electricity, vandalism, and weapons on premises. The plan also includes emergency code words and directions and a threat level assessment. The biggest change to the plan was the adding of a threat level assessment and using that for various emergencies that may arise in the district. The threat level assessment includes three levels, low, medium and high, and each level has a list of actions that need to be checked to meet that criteria. It was noted by administration that in a true emergency, many of the items on the check list would be reviewed after the emergency has been handled.
The district worked with local law enforcement and fire officials on the plan and all teachers and support staff will have a copy. The main reason behind adding this to the plan is the hope to avoid the situation the district saw itself in earlier this year, when a student had made threats to shoot students at the district. The situation was handled per district protocol, but after the investigation was complete, the news spread through the community, upsetting many parents that they hadn’t heard anything sooner form the district. It was mentioned that with this plan, should a situation like that, or any emergency situation, arise, they would release a public statement, with cooperation from local law enforcement, to the local media and their website and social media site to keep parents informed.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.