Thompson School District promotes emergency readiness through comprehensive planning in collaboration with emergency service providers (police, sheriff, fire, and medical). Readiness planning is conducted through school crisis teams and the district's Crisis Incident Response Team. Every school has a crisis team that plans and prepares for emergency needs within their building. In order to further support schools, the district has a response team referred to as "DIRT" (District Incident Response Team). These two teams work in unison to bring about immediate and appropriate responses to any emergency incident that may occur.
Emergency incident response plans are aligned with guidance from the Department of Homeland Security, the Colorado Department of Public Safety, and the U.S. Department of Education. The universal elements of readiness are:
Prevent / Mitigate, Plan / Preparation, Response / Intervention, Recovery / Reunification.
Standard Response Protocol
Since the Thompson School district has over 30 public schools and charter schools that serve more than 16,000 students, emergency planning must be a primary objective of each individual site. All sites must plan, coordinate, exercise, and respond accordingly to potential incidents that threaten their students, staff, and facilities.
To assist site administrators, Thompson School District utilizes a system called Standard Response Protocol (SRP) to guide administrators, staff, classrooms, and individual students through standardized responses regardless of the threat. This all-hazards approach focuses not on the incident itself, but rather on the required response by those involved. The SRP provides four simple concise actions to be taken regardless of whether a tornado has been spotted nearby or criminal activity has been reported or a wildfire is on the horizon. Instead of initiating different actions for each scenario, the SRP utilizes the four actions for all potential threats. The four responses are:
Action: Secure the Perimeter
If there is a threat outside the building, bring everyone in and lock the outside doors. Lockout is called by district or site administrator. Lockout can be called when staff or students notice something weird or strange. A Lockout could be the response to a violent person or incident in the community near your school. Teachers, staff or administration will get students back into the building. Teachers will take roll and notify the office of missing or extra students. Lockout means an increased situational awareness, but class will be conducted as usual.
Action: Lock, Lights, Out of Sight
Lockdown is the protocol used to secure individual rooms and keep students quiet and in place. Teachers will lock classroom doors and turn lights out. In addition, teachers and students will move away from corridor line of sight and maintain silence. The teacher will take roll and account for all students. Occupants of rooms will not unlock their rooms for anything or anyone. When the incident is over, a responsible person capable of unlocking the room from out in the hall (administrator, custodian, Law Enforcement, etc) will unlock the door and brief the occupants.
Action: Follow the Directions
Evacuate means moving students in an orderly fashion from point A to point B. A fire drill is really: “Evacuate Out of the Building.” With the SRP, Evacuate is always followed by a location. For instance: Evacuate to the Gym. The order to evacuate will always be followed by a location. Administrators, teachers, and building staff all need to work together to quickly, quietly, and safely evacuate students to the evacuation point. Students and staff will leave stuff (backpacks, books, etc) behind. Instructions detailing specific actions during the evacuation may take place such as holding hands, covering heads, and/or crawling. Teachers will ensure they bring a roll sheet. Immediately upon reaching the evacuation point, teachers should take roll.
Action: Follow the Directions
This action is similar to “shelter in place”, however the SRP gives specific instructions within the action. For example, instead of just announcing shelter, the command may be “Shelter for tornado, drop cover and hold”. The command will be to shelter, what we are sheltering from, and the specific self-protection action to do. Some examples of announcements could include:
Shelter for Earthquake
Drop, Cover and Hold
Shelter for Tornado
Drop, Cover and Hold
Shelter for Hazmat
Seal the Room
Shelter for Fire
Drop and Crawl
Shelter in Silence
About Standard Response Protocol
The Standard Response Protocol was developed by the "I Love U Guys" Foundation, headed by John-Michael Keyes and his wife Ellen-Stoddard Keyes as a result of the tragic and unfortunate death of their daughter Emily Keyes on September 27th, 2006 at Platte Canyon High School. On this day, a gunman entered the high school, held seven girls hostage and ultimately shot and killed Emily Keyes. During the time she was held Hostage, she sent her parents text messages..."I Love You Guys" and "I Love U Guys, K?" The "I Love U Guys" Foundation was created to restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government agencies. If you would like to know more about the foundation please visit www.iloveuguys.org
Several Front Range School Districts, including the Thompson School District, have incorporated the Standard Response Protocol into their emergency planning as well as collaborated with our first responders (law enforcement/fire/medical). Utilization of the Standard Response Protocol puts all staff, students, and first responders on the same page. By standardizing the announcements, responses, actions, and recovery, the district hopes to provide the safest most successful incident outcome.