As part of the commitment to safety, Good Spirit School Division Schools carry out the Provincially mandated emergency drills each year. We are required to conduct 6 fire drills, 2 evacuation drills, 2 bus evacuation drills, and 2 lockdown drills. These are spread equally across the school year to ensure all staff and students are well versed in the procedures.
To date, we have already conducted one fire drill, one evacuation drill, and we will practice our lockdown drill for this semester today. As some of these drills can cause emotions in students, please speak to your student about the importance of the drills and that these simple actions are the best way to keep safe if an unfortunate event occurs.
If your student rides the bus, it is likely that they already practiced the bus evacuation drill under the supervision of the driver. We extend this practice to all our students as many will ride on a school bus during field trips or extra-curricular activities. We coordinate this with a bus driver appreciation breakfast and we confirm that all drivers have completed their drills at this time.
As a parent or guardian there are a few very important components of which to be aware. First, after a real emergency, you would be contacted via School Messenger. School Messenger is a communication device that will send a written and voice message to the email and phone number you have provided to the school. As our phone connections are our primary means of coordinating Emergency Response Protocol, We insist that you do not phone the school during an emergency situation. We will update the situation as we are able to do so.
Secondly, please be aware of our reunification plan. After an emergency, we will not be able to release our students to a parent or guardian until we are approved to do so by the emergency responders (police, fire, EMS). Although we understand the strong desire to have your student safe in your care, we have to ensure everyone’s safety by having a safe and danger-free environment in which to release our students to you. At the very least, ensuring we have all our students accounted for in an emergency situation takes time and must be managed closely. Once we are clear to release the students from our evacuation muster sites (Community Works or HCUC arena), we would ask you to proceed to the parent assembly point. There, you will proceed to the correct line (alphabetical by last name) to complete a reunification form. Staff will only release students to those individuals that are listed as parents, guardians, or emergency contacts listed on the student Demographic report.
As we take the safety of your student very seriously, we will continue to send this information in a yearly reminder and it will continually be available on our website.
Yours in Education,
Michael Sweatman
Principal, Melville Comprehensive School