Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Disasters

 No matter where we are located, there is always risk for crisis situations. Whether it is a natural disaster that may occur or a human-generated disaster, it is important for early childhood education facilities to be properly trained and prepared in order to keep themselves and the students safe. In this blog, I will discuss two potential scenarios that can affect a childcare facility and what professionals should do to prepare for a possible event and how they should respond if the event actually did occur.

The first scenario I will discuss a fire outbreak in a back storage room of a child care facility. It is the middle of the afternoon, and all three classrooms are filled with a total of twenty-five children and ten staff members. As an employee of the center and caregiver to the young children, it is your job to get them to safety before they are harmed. Another potential hazard of a fire is the possibility of smoke inhalation. You want to make sure the children are out of the building and in clear, clean air as soon as possible to avoid the dangers of this.

It is highly important for the facility to have a plan beforehand, in case a fire does occur. Training should be done with both the staff and the children. They should all know the layout of the building and how and where they would exit during this type of disaster. It would be helpful to have a map posted in each room, so that they are constantly reminded. The director of the facility should also make sure that all fire alarms and any sprinkler systems and extinguishers are always in working order. A separate alarm should be in the plan, such as a cowbell or whistle, should be used to warn everyone in the building of a fire in case the fire alarm does not go off. Additionally, “all staff should be thoroughly trained in the differences in the types of fires (electrical, oil, chemical, etc.) and the various materials and equipment available to combat each type of fire, including commonly available substances and materials (baking soda, sand, water soaked blankets, etc.)” (Bureau of Plans: Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, 2003, p. 13).

Aside from training all of the staff and children, it is important to involve the families of the students so that they are also aware of facility’s plan in case of this type of emergency. The teachers can talk with the parents about how they can discuss fire safety with their own children and possibly have them practice a fire drill at home. They should also considering having the emergency safety plan posted in the parent information area and a map of the building with directions of how to exit just in case a parent is ever in the building when a disaster occurs to just to make them feel more at ease knowing the childcare facility has a plan to keep their children out of harm’s way.

During the fire disaster, there are additional steps the staff needs to take in order to ensure the safety of the children. They should remain calm and follow through with the plan that was previously established in order to exit the building safely. They should be sure to grab all emergency information and files for the children so that they can contact their families and a first aid kit in case any gets injured while exiting the building. It would be wise to have these things in a designated spot at all times, so that when an emergency does happen, they are easy to grab on the way out. “After occupants are safe, the fire department should be notified without delay” ((Bureau of Plans: Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, 2003, p. 13).

 The second potential disaster that can strike an early childcare facility is a human-generated disaster. Unfortunately, this is something our country is beginning to know all too well, and as we all saw with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, it can happen in places we would never even expect. Here is the scenario. You are in your classroom in the childcare facility reading a story to your ten students and another teacher comes into the room and tells you that some unauthorized is in the building and a potential harm to the children. How would you react and keep your students safe?

It is an unfortunate reality that these disasters do happen spontaneously so there are not always warning signs. However, there are a few measures the facility’s staff can take to be prepared. There should always be someone near the entrance to the facility enforcing security and making sure that only authorized individuals are entering. Many childcare centers check identification cards and student files if they are not familiar with the person entering the center. It may also be helpful to have a signal to alert the rest of the facility in case someone does get past the entrance and they are not supposed to, such as a whistle, intercom signal, or separate alarm aside from those used for fire or other emergencies. Staff and children should also be trained and have a plan of how they would respond if this type of disaster ever does happen.

This can be a very scary kind of disaster for the children, so it is important for teachers and families to work together to teach the students about this. Parents can explain to the children that this is a rare type of disaster, but they still need to be prepared and know how to react. They should go over the facility’s safety plan with their own children and also explain to them that their teachers are there to keep them safe so they need to follow their directions during this type of occurrence.

If someone is may be violent or armed enters the facility, it is important for the teacher’s to try and remain calm for the sake of the children. If not already done so, the rest of the facility should be warned and the police need to be called immediately. If they are not able to get the children out the building quickly through a back door or such, teachers should lock their classroom door immediately and turn off the lights. Next, they should have the children stay quiet, away from door and windows, and hidden to where they cannot be seen from the outside. At no point should any of the center’s staff try to confront or take down the intruder. “Don’t endanger yourself or any of the other children by trying some sort of rescue” (Bureau of Plans: Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, 2003, p. 21). Staff should not open the locked doors for anyone unless they know for a fact that it is a police officer, but when authorities do arrive, staff and children should follow their directions.

Sadly, many other types of disasters aside from the two I described can affect a childcare facility at any time. However, with proper training and preparation, teachers, children, and families, can be ready and knowledgeable of how they should react in the cases of any natural or human-generated disaster.

 

References:

Bureau of Plans: Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. (2003) Daycare Facilities Emergency

Planning Guide. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201350_03/BS_BSCD/EDUC_1005/Week%202/Application/Week%202%20Assignment/embedded/day_care_facilities_planning_guide.pdf