Anchorage schools practice emergency reunification procedures in large-scale drill

Anchorage schools practice emergency reunification procedures in large-scale drill

Anchorage School District holds drill to practice reuniting students with their parents during an emergency

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - There may be nothing more unsettling for parents than getting word that there’s an emergency at their child’s school. Anchorage School District Chief of Schools, Kersten Johnson, said that’s one reason the district held a large drill on Friday to practice procedures for getting students safely reunited with their parents in an emergency.

“What I want to assure parents is that school staff train for this,” Johnson said. ”It’s an unfortunate part of the world we live in, but we do train for it, and we work with law enforcement, and we work with paramedics and the fire department, and it’s something that we do plan for and have a system for.”

Friday’s drill, which included secondary principals from across the district as well as more than 150 volunteers playing students and parents, involved the scenario of a wildfire on the Anchorage Hillside. Students were evacuated from Goldenview Middle School and bussed to Dimond High where parents were instructed to go.

“In an event like this we would bus students from one location to another, we would do communication out to parents to meet their students at Dimond, and we would essentially walk through getting them to their student as quickly and as safely as possible,” Johnson said.

“The protocol is essentially the same,” Johnson added. “Whether it’s for a natural disaster or a school shooting or a violent event. And we practice these things because we know that parents are going to want to get back to their kids as soon as possible.”

Johnson said one thing parents should not do is rush to their children in the event of an emergency.

“That isn’t always the best, it actually complicates emergency services in a lot of ways from getting to the kids who potentially need help in an emergency.”

Instead, Johnson said, parents should watch out for messaging from the Anchorage School District which should tell them where to go and what to do.

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