Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott Schools Prepare For Worst With New Crisis Plan

School violence has been in the news often of late.

Children shooting children at a Jonesboro school in Arkansas and Columbine High School in Littleton, CO have made national headlines.

Schools across the nation are looking into possible solutions to school violence.

The Prescott School District is no different. Superintendent Ron Wright said the Prescott School Board has worked up a plan in case a crisis occurs.

The plan is broken down into color codes based on the problem to be addressed.

Wright said the district has radio communication in case of an emergency, along with telephone contact.

The plan was revised this year, he said, as the severity of incidents increases nationwide.

Secretaries in the district will be the first line for notification, he said, with all employees having specific roles in times of emergency.

Each school, from Prescott Elementary, to Prescott Middle and Prescott High, all have hierarchies for the crisis plan, with who should be called and who is in charge.

In the color code, yellow refers to a potential crisis, with red meaning a crisis is in progress. A code blue will get everyone's attention as it stands for an incident in which injuries and/or death has occurred.

Should an emergency occur, the superintendent is the lone person responsible for speaking to the media and public.

Principals will assess the situation and make determinations on whether the plan should be instituted or not.

The secretary will turn off the bells, with students remaining in their rooms until notified they can leave.

Secretaries will also be responsible for notifying the proper emergency service personnel, as needed, notifying the teachers and counselors according to the color code of the situation, call the superintendent's office to seek outside help, send notice of a crisis identifying what is happening to teachers (this will be done via intercom, other code or by resource persons), prepare information for the superintendent and/or principal about the incident, send notice with data on the crisis to teachers and contact any hospital, if necessary.

No student will be allowed to leave the premises unless a parent or guardian comes to the office and signs the student out.

Once a student has been signed out, they may not return to school for the remainder of the day.

The principal's job will be to secure the area of the incident, clear away bystanders and prevent intrusion at the site and be responsible to report all data to the superintendent's office, regarding what occurred.

When it gets to the superintendent, he will notify the other principals, who will monitor doors and the parking lot. But, should the crisis in question involve another school directly, other teachers may have to be used for this.

The superintendent will notify all school board members, call the crisis teams, have help sent to the school in need, call the police to secure the area and/or roads and then deal with the media and public only after parents have been notified.

Counselors will be responsible for monitoring the plan, contacting immediate family members, or appointing someone to do this, contact the student and staff significantly involved in the incident and call for a meeting of the crisis committee.

The teachers will stay with their classes, removing any from the room the crisis occurred, if possible, taking them to the library or cafeteria.

Those teachers with no student at the time an emergency occurs will check with the counselor or secretary at the main office to find out where they are needed the most, work with the secretary in helping notify other teachers, call the crisis committee, help the counselors and help calm students and other teachers.

Counseling and psychological services will be available to students and staff requiring them after the crisis is over.

Wright said the revised plan includes stress management as part of the counseling.

Emergencies, he said, will be dealt with on individual basis as they occur. Each one is different, Wright added, and, thereby, must be handled according to what it is.

The crisis plan, Wright said, will most likely be revised on an annual basis.