ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A partnership between Colorado Early Colleges and the "I Love U Guys" Foundation is teaching educators how to be ready in case of an emergency.
The two-day course recently took place on the CEC campus in Englewood. The program brought together first responders and educators and provided hands-on instruction to learn the Standard Reunification Method, or SRM.
“The intention was to bring together partners with law enforcement, emergency management, different schools, independent charter schools and the CEC,” said Kitty Moore, safety and training coordinator for Colorado Early Colleges. “To train them on how to reunify students and their parent or guardian in the case of having to do a reunification.”
Moore said reunifications can take place for a variety of reasons -- from a water main break to a school evacuation.
Educators and first responders participated in a series of exercises simulating the process of reconnection by playing the roles of students and parents. She said the purpose of this course is to make sure everyone is on the same page before an incident happens.
“We’re actually going through the steps, we’re actually trying the different things, and this is what an actual reunification looks like,” Moore said. “I’m an incident commander, but if I don’t understand how it feels to be a parent or what it feels like to go through this process, I’m not going to be as good of an incident commander as I should be.”
The courses were taught by instructors from the "I Love U Guys" Foundation. The Colorado-based foundation was started in 2006 by Ellen and John-Michael Keyes following a school shooting at Platte Canyon High School that took the life of their daughter, Emily.
According to their website, they’ve taught emergency preparedness to school staff and administrators in more than 40,000 schools, agencies and organizations around the world.
“It’s important that everybody’s on the same page and common language and common approach,” said Michael Carlson, adjunct instructor for the foundation. “What we’re promoting with the standard response protocol is five actions in response to any sort of crisis event that might happen in a school setting, whether that’s hold or secure or lockdown or an evacuation or a shelter.”
Carlson is also an assistant principal in the Douglas County School District. He believes training courses like these are helpful in building up muscle memory.
“I think it’s important that everybody be on the same page, and they practice, and they are prepared,” Carlson said. “We know that schools need to reunify for a variety of reasons and to be prepared for that so that we’re not caught in the moment trying to figure out what to do.”
Patrick Molinari is the director of campus culture at the Colorado Early College in Windsor. He’s in his second year in administration for the school and participated in the exercise playing a parent. He said increasing situational awareness is important.
“I think one of the ways we do that is by thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong so they don’t go wrong,” Molinari said. “We practice, we practice, we practice because no matter how many times we practice, there’s always going to be something we don’t recognize, that doesn’t fit, and we can adjust.”
CEC hopes the strategy will help educators keep their students safe in the upcoming school year, by planning over the summer for the unexpected.
“I hope they walk away with a sense of almost security in that they know what to do if something comes up. They’ve been trained [and] they know what to do.” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter what school you go to or where you work, we’re all in it for the kids.”
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