Our School's Emergency Response Plan

Recent headlines about school violence and emergency situations across the country are a painful reminder that safety is and must be our first priority in our schools. We want to assure everyone that we take student and staff safety very seriously. Each student at Ginnings Elementary and their parents should feel that they are safe each and every moment at our school.

It is through preparation, practice, and evaluation that we will continue to provide the most secure and safe environment for our students. In this document we will go over the basic types of crisis response drills that our school is practicing this year.

We are all familiar with Fire Drills from our own school years. A Fire Drill is one type of evacuation. We now have three different types of emergency plans: shelter in place; lockdown; and evacuation.

Shelter in Place: This procedure would be used if there were a danger from outside the school, such as a chemical spill or tornado. If this were to happen, students and staff would be alerted via the PA system and they would follow the practiced procedure inside the school so that we can ensure everyone is kept safe during the crisis. Please be aware that if a parent is in the building during this, they will also be asked to follow safety procedures.

Lockdown: This procedure would be used if there were a situation inside the school that would make evacuation impractical. We would advise the students and staff  about the incident over the PA system, but in this case, all classrooms would be secured and no one, except the police, would be allowed to enter or leave the school. (This includes parents.) Teachers and students would be directed to stay in their classrooms until further notice. Teachers and students outside the school building would be directed to return to the school or to go to their evacuation site.

Evacuation: This procedure would be used in an extreme emergency situation. An evacuation would mean that the students and staff would move quickly to a secure location other than the school campus. This type of drill is practiced to keep students aware of what to do in an emergency that requires them to exit the school.

Please check back from time to time on our web page to check and see if we have made updates to procedures, such as the parent pick up process, if we ever need to dismiss from an off-site location.