By AMY RILEY
One Citizen's Perspective

The Fayette County school system has recently unveiled a comprehensive safety plan under the leadership of Wayne Robinson, who is the director of Secondary School Operations. Those in attendance at the last meeting of the Board of Education witnessed a presentation of the new plan, and judging by the receptive murmurs heard in the audience, the plan was a huge success. I was so impressed by the professional caliber of the end product, that I went and met with Mr. Robinson to see it up close. As a parent, I am much more comfortable knowing that a concrete plan is in place now which will enable school officials to deal with any crisis swiftly and efficiently.

The Comprehensive System-Wide Safety Plan is the culmination of countless hours of effort on the part of many people which began last summer with a task force comprised of parents, students, local fire and police departments, school staff and administrators. Ultimately, what ensued was an impressive package designed to protect the lives of our children and school employees.

The first priority of the plan was consistency among schools, so that every person responding to an emergency would know, as second nature, how to respond. This is accomplished with a color-coded system for categories of emergencies. All schools will engage in the same protocol response to a code red, blue, green, or yellow. Each school will vary only in their exit routes and designations of “safe” evacuation locations.

Every teacher, administrator, and staff member has a copy of the comprehensive plan, which is accessible and clearly specifies appropriate responses. Employees are assigned to “teams” designed to uniformly cover all areas of need, including student assistance, security, crisis command, counseling, special needs, transportation, communication, and first aid, to name a few. Each school will conduct staff training to familiarize all employees with the plan. Periodic reviews will be done to foster automatic response.

A second major component of the plan is a “flip chart” to provide immediate access to important numbers and a quick review of procedures, understanding that a crisis is a stressful situation, and it may be difficult to think as clearly under these circumstances. Each school is provided with bright yellow tri-fold charts that are prominently displayed on wall mounts and in other strategic locations.

A third priority was to integrate the system plan with local public safety agencies to promote the most efficient delivery of assistance. This was accomplished by meeting together to share ideas and needs, then after the plan was completed, providing a copy of each school plan to the appropriate responding agency.

The most impressive part of the plan, besides the flip chart, is a CD-ROM technology system that provides local public safety agencies immediate access to each school's floor plan, an aerial view of all surrounding streets, and even digital photographs of hallways and common areas. With the click of a mouse, you can get a bird's eye view of each school.

According to Mr. Robinson, plans are also being discussed with public safety personnel to conduct a full scale multi-agency drill at one of the schools.

Safety plans are a major priority in the wake of recent tragedies at schools around the nation. The state Department of Education, in concert with Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), will review plans for all state school systems, as mandated by the Georgia General Assembly.

Mr. Robinson reports initial favorable reviews, though we still await our formal seal of approval.

Mr. Robinson is being modest. I believe what we have here is a potentially award-winning product that sets a very high standard for the rest of the state. In fact, it is quite possible that Fayette County's plan may become a prototype for other systems.

Mr. Robinson is currently looking into possibly applying for a GEMA grant to help fund the next generation of the safety plan which would allow public safety personnel to actually “see” from various set points in each school via the Internet during an actual emergency.

While the school system has clearly done its part to promote a safe environment, the rest is up to us as parents and as a community.

Many of us mentally calculated the chilling similarities last year between Fayette County and Columbine. We noted again, when Rockdale County experienced both a shooting rampage and then a televised documentary of scandalous sexual activity and disease among teenagers — young teenagers — that it could just as easily have been us.

Know your kids, know their friends, know their backpacks and the contents of their rooms. Each of us has an obligation to ensure that our own children are raised to have a respect for life, property, and their community. Start by respecting them enough to instill discipline in the home.

Remember that most children, if given the choice, would rather have “you” than some material possession.

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