Everett Schools Practice Reuniting Parents And Students After A School Evacuation

So if an entire school has to be evacuated for some reason how do parents get back with their kids?

In the Everett School District that would likely involve meeting at Everett Memorial Stadium.

Back in October of 2015 we observed a reunification exercise there and today Everett Schools held another drill for staff to go through the process.

Today’s exercise involved about five classrooms of students from Jackson High School. Volunteers acted as parents and Everett School District Staff went through their roles on how the unification process would work.

The kids arrived on busses at one end of Everett Memorial Stadium while parents received instructions to bring I.D. and enter the stadium at the other end.

Students stayed together with their classmates while parents lined up and after checking in were escorted individually to a table for verification.

The parents and students were reunited and directed to a specific exit.

Because the Everett School District Administration building is next to Everett Memorial Stadium there are already nearly two hundred district employees available to quickly respond and set up the reunification site.

Today employees learned their roles. Each role had two or three employees take the training so if someone wasn’t available in the event of an incident, a different employee would know the process and be able to take on that duty.

“Our student’s safety is a top priority and we want to be pro-active and ready to meet their needs,” Communications Director Kathy Reeves told us during the drill today. “In the event of an evacuation, parents would receive a phone call, text or email advising of where to meet.”

The drill looked to go smoothly and lasted about an hour and a half. Here are a few photos.

Here’s a link to the Everett School District’s Unification page for more information.