By Collin Binkley
The Columbus Dispatch
CHARDON, Ohio — Students and teachers knew what to do yesterday when a gunman started shooting.
“We’ve had a number of disaster drills in the past. Thank God we put those in place,” Chardon school-district Superintendent Joseph Bergant II said. “We’ve been training for this.”
Under state law, schools are required to practice lockdown drills at least once a year. Locking classroom doors is designed to keep people safe in a building when threats make evacuation unsafe. Some schools run the drills as often as fire exercises.
At Chardon High School yesterday, district officials said students, teachers, law enforcement and even parents followed the district’s plans.
“We should be proud of our officials for how they reacted, and our children,” Geauga County Commissioner Mary E. Samide told The Plain Dealer. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Some school officials in central Ohio said releasing too many specifics about their emergency plans could undermine their effectiveness. And plans change, depending on the type of emergency.
But what are parents to do? They aren’t in the school for drills; yet, in a tragedy, all they want is to know that their children are safe.
“The parents have a general idea about what happens if kids are dismissed unexpectedly,” said Vicki Gnezda, spokeswoman for Worthington schools.
In case of an emergency, the district would reach out to parents through phone calls, emails or social media with details about what happened and what parents should do. Many other districts have similar plans.
“We have a well-orchestrated, choreographed communication plan that immediately kicks into place,” said Jeff Maddox, Worthington’s director of innovation and school support.
Superintendent Thomas Tucker also reminded Worthington families yesterday to contact school officials “if you hear or see anything abnormal,” to avoid a tragedy like the one in Chardon.
Gahanna-Jefferson school officials also would contact parents after an emergency, perhaps with a text message, and then pass the baton to law-enforcement authorities or other emergency responders. “Once we’ve got things secured, it’s their ballgame,” said district spokesman Michael Straughter.
If parents mass near the scene of a crime, they can be an obstacle to emergency crews, said Chief Deputy Marty Buechner of the Franklin County sheriff’s office.
Authorities had trouble responding to a school shooting in Bailey, Colo., in 2006 because parents and others clogged the nearby roads, said Stephen Sroka, who studies school-violence prevention. “It created massive, massive traffic jams,” said Sroka, who also is an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine in Cleveland.
Parents should plan a meeting place with their children in advance, Sroka said, and should work with their schools to learn about emergency plans.
However, few parents are prepared because they think their community is immune, he said. “Parents very seldom come out to a program (about emergency plans) unless someone’s been killed,” Sroka said.
Factors such as geography and an area’s demographics dictate how schools should reach out to families, said Shane Haggerty, president-elect of the Ohio School Public Relations Association.
One group might be more likely to check Facebook, while another might be better reached via phone, he said. He encourages schools to figure out what works best ahead of time. But they also should have to plan for parents who rush to the school despite instructions.
“I don’t think that you’re ever prepared for those types of things,” he said. “Any plan you have in place with parents anyway can go out the window because their emotions take over.”
Copyright 2012 The Columbus Dispatch