Athletic Management, 16.2, February/March 2004, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1602/riskplan.htm
Most schools have updated their overall emergency protocols since
Sept. 11. Does your athletic department have its own Emergency Athletic
Action Plan?
By Dr. Richard P. Borkowski
Richard P.
Borkowski, EdD, CMAA, is a sport safety consultant based in Narberth,
Pa. The former Director of Physical Education and Athletics at the
Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pa., his most recent book is titled
Coaching for Safety, A Risk Management Handbook for High School
Coaches, published by ESD112.
It's 5:30 p.m. and you're
running a varsity basketball scrimmage. The athletic trainer rushes in
to tell you there may be a bomb in the visiting team's locker room. Do
you have an Emergency Athletic Action Plan (EAAP) for our post-Sept. 11
society--a plan that goes beyond normal injury prevention and emergency
care?
Schools have improved their emergency plans since Sept. 11 to
include previously unheard of issues such as bombings, shootings, and
anthrax. Unfortunately, these school emergency action plans (EAPs)
sometimes include only the academic day.
What should an athletic
director do if an act of terrorism or other violence befalls his or her
school? The answer begins with preparation and ends with keeping
control.
Plan In Place
A cross country coach, getting ready
to lead his team in a practice run at a local park, received a call
from his wife telling him that there was a bomb scare at school. In a
panic, the coach packed his team into the van and returned to school!
Fortunately, it was a false alarm, but the coach should have remained
at the park and waited for further information. He didn't know what to
do, though, because this type of situation had never been
discussed.
Thinking about how to shelter your student-athletes from
emergencies like bombings and poison gas can be overwhelming. That's
why it's important to have a plan. That's also why it's important not
to develop your EAAP alone.
Start your planning by speaking with
the upper level administrators responsible for your schoolwide EAP.
They should have at least a basic plan in place for afterschool
activities, but you should work with them to make it specific for each
season and your particular operations. Explain to them how the athletic
program is run: where different teams are located, how they can quickly
be communicated with, whether the athletic director is always on site,
how you communicate during away games, and anything else that is
specific to your athletic program.
If upper level administrators are
not as helpful as you'd like, there are other resources. You can
contact local risk management agencies such as OSHA or nearby schools
that already have a plan in place.
You may want to also meet with
law enforcement and other first response personnel who would be
involved in a disaster situation. You will need to follow their
directions once they arrive on the scene, so it's important to know
what their plans entail. Does your plan work with what they will
typically do? What should you and your coaches expect from them during
an emergency?
Once you have a plan finalized, put it in your
athletic department handbook. Carefully review it with upper level
administrators and with your coaches before the start of each
season.
Communication Is Critical
The most important facet of
an EAAP is communication. There should always be a point person
designated as the communicator. This will usually be the athletic
director, but if coaches occasionally hold practice with no
administrator present, then coaches must be taught how to be the point
person. Then, make sure everyone knows who the point person is at a
given time.
The point person is the one who handles all
communication. In an emergency, this person will receive information
about a threatening situation from a pre-determined source established
by a district wide protocol. He or she must have two-way communication
with police and fire departments, hospitals, and any first response
squad. He or she must also know how to contact key school
administrators. And the point person should know where all the teams
are practicing or playing and how to quickly get in touch with them.
Communicating with coaches located in various gyms, fields, and
distant sites (cross country runners, golf teams) entails developing a
plan very specific to your athletic department. Options include public
address systems, warning sirens, cell phones, and runners. A runner
might be an assistant football coach--the head coach stays with the
athletes while the assistant coach is available (Paul Revere style) to
help the point person (e.g., the athletic director) communicate with
others. Ideally, all of these systems should be used--a public address
announcement is not going to reach the j.v. baseball team practicing a
half mile from the school.
What To Do
When an emergency
situation happens, the point person informs everyone they should move
into a sheltering mode. That's current jargon for a pre-assigned safe
area. This area may vary, however, depending on what the emergency is.
Gyms, locker rooms, auditoriums, and cafeterias are reasonably safe
sites. They are usually centrally located, have few windows and doors,
and are on the first floor, in case emergency exiting is needed. It is
also important to keep away from windows and exterior walls.
If
there is a bomb scare that is not specific to your school, outdoor
teams should move indoors and join indoor teams. Moving outdoor teams
indoors usually offers the coach or point person more control over the
group.
If there is an intruder who has trapped a team,
student-athletes and coaches should do what is asked of them and try to
stay calm. If a coach or administrator has the skill, he or she can try
to talk the violent person down. You can't expect your coaches to turn
into disaster counselors, but their leadership skills can be an asset
in these situations.
If there is an intruder somewhere else in the
building, you can use a code system that alerts the coach but not the
students about the danger. For example, an announcement asking Mr. X to
come to the office could mean an intruder is in the school. That would
alert the coach to secure the gym area.
Include information in your
EAAP about what to do if a team is in transit during an incident.
Generally a coach should get the bus/van off the road, into a safe
place, and wait for further instructions.
Special plans do need to
be developed for specific situations, such as schools near chemical or
nuclear plants. In this case, speak with risk managers at these plants
for insight on what to do.
No matter what the situation is, however,
the most fundamental strategy for the coach is to try to maintain calm.
Every coach has tried to settle his team down during a game, so they
have the skills. All efforts should be made to de-escalate the
immediate emotional response.
Try It Out
Once coaches have
been trained for this type of emergency, have them run a mock drill,
just as schools hold fire drills. It gives you a chance to check out
your communication system and demonstrates how long things will take.
One final tip is that parents should also be informed about your
EAAP. During preseason meetings, let them know the basics of your plan
and how you will communicate with them during an emergency. Ask them to
read about the plan in the handbook.
Have a plan for those students
who use the facilities after 3 p.m. and on the weekend. Then, hope you
will never have to implement it.