Emergency response workshop held

Schools and law enforcement regularly undertake drills and training to be prepared for emergencies. Last week, representatives from the three Wright County school districts and all county law enforcement agencies took preparedness a step further by participating in a joint school safety workshop.

Jim Lester, county emergency management coordinator, said that Wright County schools already have plans in place for various emergencies, including an active shooter situation.

“Parents expect that their kids are safe when they go to school,” Lester said. “This is another thing we can do to help improve our plans.”

The workshop was sponsored by the I Love U Guys Foundation, headed by John-Michael Keyes, whose daughter Emily was the sole fatality of the 2006 Platte Canyon High School hostage incident. The foundation is so named because Emily was able to send her father a text message while she was a hostage: “I love u guys.”

In the aftermath, Keyes and his wife, Ellen, decided to set up the foundation in order to “restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities.”

A large portion of this mission is educating groups about the Standard Response Protocol, actions to take during different school crises to keep staff and students as safe as possible. The SRP outlines steps for four responses to an emergency: the lockout, lockdown, evacuation, and shelter scenarios.

For the full story, see the May 17 edition of the Monitor.