Safety Solutions

Well summer is almost here for most schools in Pennsylvania and hopefully that means administrators will have a little bit of breathing room before it all starts up again in early August.  Between now and the first days back for the 2017-18 school year don't forget to review your All Hazards Plan as required by PA School Code.  

While your plan may not require any significant changes the deliberate act of sitting down and going through it is critical.  Reflecting upon experiences of the past school year and updating your plan with the information learned is vital; even if its a relatively minor detail. Equally critical is documenting that review.  The simplest way to accomplish documentation of the plan is to create a signature page in the front of your plan that is maintained in the district office.  If you develop the habit of signing and dating everytime your review the plan with a signature for each person that participated it can really help with future challenges to your districts All Hazards planning.

Just imagine a plaintiff's attorney is attempting to establish the case that your school was negligent in how it managed emergency preparedness.  If they can simply cause doubt in the eye's of the jury when you can't document the last time you reviewed the plan then you have made their job much easier.     

Many of you are doing the good work of emergency preparedness and you take your responsibility seriously.  Be sure to get credit for your hard work by properly documenting your efforts.

Until next time, this is John Baker for safetysolutions4schools.com.