SCHOOL SAFETY

                                                                                                                             

THE STANDARD RESPONSE PROTOCOL
A critical ingredient in the safe school recipe is the uniform classroom response to an incident at school.
Weather events, fires, accidents, intruders and other threats to student safety are scenarios that are planned
and trained for by school and district administration and staff.

Historically, schools have taken a scenario-based approach to respond to hazards and threats. It’s not uncommon to find a stapled sheaf of papers or tabbed binder in a teacher’s desk that describes a variety of things that might happen, and the specific response to each event.

SRP IS ACTION BASED
The Standard Response Protocol is based not on individual scenarios but on the response to any given scenario. Like the Incident Command System (ICS), SRP demands a specific vocabulary but also allows for great flexibility. The premise is simple: there are five specific actions that can be performed during an incident. When communicating these actions, each is followed by a “Directive.” Execution of the action is performed by active
participants, including students, staff, teachers and first responders.

• Hold is followed by “In your Room or Area. Clear the Halls” and is the protocol used when the hallways need to be kept clear of people.

• Secure is followed by “Get Inside, Lock Outside Doors” and is the protocol used to safeguard students
and staff within the building.

• Lockdown is followed by “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight” and is the protocol used to secure individual
rooms and keep students quiet and in place.

• Evacuate may be followed by a location, and is the protocol used to move students and staff from one location to a different location in or out of the building.

• Shelter is always followed by the hazard and a safety strategy and is the protocol for group and self-protection.

These specific actions can act as both a verb and a noun. If the action is Lockdown, it would be announced
on public address as “Lockdown! Locks, Lights, Out of Sight.” Communication to local responders would then
be “We are in Lockdown.”

ACTIONS
Each response has specific student and staff actions. The Evacuate action might be followed by a location: “Evacuate to the Bus Zone.” Actions can be chained. For instance, “Evacuate to Hallway. Shelter for Earthquake.
Drop, Cover and Hold.”

BENEFITS
The benefits of SRP become quickly apparent. By standardizing the vocabulary, all stakeholders can understand the response and status of the event. For students, this provides continuity of expectations and actions throughout their educational career. For teachers, this becomes a simpler process to train and drill. For first responders, the common vocabulary and protocols establish a greater predictability that persists through the duration of an incident. Parents can easily understand the practices and can reinforce the protocol. Additionally, this protocol enables rapid response determination when an unforeseen event occurs.

The protocol also allows for a more predictable series of actions as an event unfolds. An intruder event may start
as a Lockdown, but as the intruder is isolated, first responders may assist as parts of the school “Evacuate to
a different building,” and later “Evacuate to the bus zone.”