Q: What is emergency preparedness? View Answer
Answer: Rockwood has taken steps to ensure your child's safety while in school. Each school has developed a crisis response plan. Emergency preparedness is basically preparing the steps you will take in the event of an emergency, such as contact information, communications and evacuation plans. Q: How can I stay informed? View Answer
Answer: The Rockwood School District broadcasts emergency messages, when necessary, using a number of media:
- General emergency messages, including early and late school openings and closings, are posted on the district website, along with individual school websites.
- Emergency voicemail messages are sent by AlertNow automatic notification system.
- Emergency messages are sent to local TV and radio outlets.
Q: How will my child's school handle an emergency situation? View Answer
Answer: All Rockwood schools have an emergency preparedness plan. The specifics of each plan differ for each location. The response to each situation will differ based on the specifics of that situation.
In general, each plan involves the designation of a crisis management team; development of evacuation, shelter-in-place, and lockdown procedures; preparation of a portable critical response kit that contains key information and supplies; designation of one or more appropriate evacuation sites; provisions for training personnel and updating the plan; checklists for dealing with specific types of incidents; and resources for help before, during and after an event.
All Rockwood school plans have been reviewed within the last twelve months, and school crisis teams have received training. Contact your child's principal for more information. Q: What is lockdown? View Answer
Answer: An emergency may prevent the safe evacuation of a school building and require steps to isolate students and faculty from danger by instituting a school lockdown. In an interior lockdown situation, all students are kept in classrooms or other designated locations that are away from the danger. Faculty members are responsible for accounting for students and ensuring that no one leaves the safe area. School personnel will also secure building entrances, ensuring that no unauthorized individuals leave or enter the building. Exterior lockdown procedures may also be used to ensure the safety of students when an incident occurs in the community. Parents are permitted access to the building and to their children if it is safe for them to do so. Q: What will Rockwood do if an attack or other emergency situation occurs while students are in school? View Answer
Answer: The specific actions taken by Rockwood in any emergency situation-both districtwide and at individual schools-will depend on the specifics of the situation. Any action taken would depend on several factors, including the level of threat and the advice of local, state and federal agencies. The safety of students and staff members will be the primary concern in any decision. Q: What is shelter-in-place? View Answer
Answer: Shelter-in-place is a short-term solution to a short-term problem. If an accident or attack that created contaminated air occurred in the nearby area, everyone would be brought indoors, including those in trailers. Building personnel would close all windows and doors and shut down the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC). This would create a neutral pressure in the building, meaning the contaminated air would not be drawn into the building.
Shelter-in-place is a short-term measure (measured in minutes or hours, not days) designed to use a facility and its indoor atmosphere to temporarily separate people from a hazardous outdoor environment. The alternative would be to evacuate into a hazardous situation, thereby causing harm to all involved.
No stockpiling of water and food is needed for shelter-in-place. Any event of a magnitude that required such stockpiling would require that we all take our direction from the federal emergency management officials. Parents are concerned that, during a shelter-in-place activity, they couldn't pick up their children and might be separated from them for long periods of time. That will not happen; if the air outside the school is safe for parents to breathe, it is safe for their children to breathe. School system personnel have developed a plan that uses the best possible method for ensuring the safety of students and staff members in this type of crisis. Remember, it is not the school system's intention to keep children from their parents. Rockwood personnel are merely endeavoring to keep children safe for parents until the parents can pick them up. Q: What if my child is riding a school bus at the time of a crisis? View Answer
Answer: School bus drivers will be in contact with First Student and Rockwood's transportation department for instructions in the event that a crisis occurs while students are in transport. Bus drivers will be informed to use common sense and not travel toward the crisis location. Parents will be informed of the parent-student reunification center location via the AlertNow automatic notification system, district and school websites and local media. Q: Can I pick up my child? View Answer
Answer: Parents are allowed to pick up their children unless public safety officials have declared a shelter-in-place response, or there is some other reason why access to the facility is restricted, such as emergency vehicles needing to get through to the building. During any emergency, school personnel will maintain as safe and normal environment for children within the school as is possible. School is not automatically canceled in emergency situations. Remember, school may be the safest place for children to be.
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