Newly created safety team plans for emergency scenarios

Principal Greg Louie stands in front of a no fire sign, reviewing the fire drill simulation

With the help of the fire department and other first responders, the Safety Team aims to introduce new policies that will protect students and staff when the first responders are not immediately available.

A newly created school safety team is reviewing the annual safety plan and working to address anything from natural disasters to medical emergencies. The group is led by principal Greg Louie and working in consultation with the district’s director of facilities, Toby Mockler, to put the plans into action.

The group was responsible for the numerous presentations shown in classes from Sept. 11-15, informing students on what to do in the event of drug overdoses, sudden collapses and other life-threatening incidents.

Besides Louie, the team has eight students, Mockler, a parent, school nurse Tammy Parris and district nurse Lisa Tripp.

One of the students is sophomore member Viki Toram, who joined the team due to her interest in healthcare and medicine.

“I was interested in doing something that would benefit our school and community, and I thought that the safety team would be a great way for me to begin doing as I could help address issues concerning safety,” she said.

The team works with first responders during drills to practice making their jobs as easy as possible during actual emergencies. Once the school has a resource officer from the sheriff’s office in place, they can help streamline the involvement of the fire department and deputies in actual campus incidents.

So far, the fire department has been involved with the fire drill in August, and they have also been invited to the upcoming earthquake simulation in March, where they will recommend possible solutions to any unexpected problems that may occur.

“If we have a big 7.4 [magnitude] earthquake in the Bay Area, [the fire department] is going to be stretched all over the place,” Louie said. “We’re going to be on our own.”

The Safety Team has since reviewed simulations with a collapsed or unresponsive coach, run hide defend drills, medical emergencies, fire evacuations, classroom situation drills and classroom safety scenarios. Additionally, they hope to prepare for future years drills as well as collect valuable safety data on what went well or wrong to improve on these drills in the future.

“It’s an expectation and a requirement at the state level that this is a common thing on school campuses, so that’s part of what we’re building towards,” Louie said. “The benefit is getting feedback from students, who are at the ground level, to be able to anticipate these things so students have an idea of how to respond in these situations.”