Homewood school safety plans ‘living, breathing’ documents

On Jan. 10, Homewood City Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Cleveland joined superintendents from across the Birmingham area to discuss school safety – specifically the plans in place to deal with scenarios similar to the horrific shootings in Newtown, Conn.

School district leaders heard from Alabama Department of Homeland Security Director Spencer Collins at the Jefferson County Board of Education. Topics presented there included the Department’s new Run Hide Fight campaign, which encourages civilians to understand and employ a “survival mindset” during what Collins termed and “active shooter event.”

“The days of being passive and of laying there and being a victim are over,” Collier said. “When all else fails, you have to take action yourself.”

Collier said Run Hide Fight, which was presented in a video shown at the meeting, is part of a three-phase component of school safety being rolled out by Homeland Security that the department was developing in response to 2012 shootings in a Colorado movie theater.

The first item on the agenda is to raise the number of Alabama law enforcement officers who have active shooter training. Currently, Collier said, only 27 percent are, and the financial requirement to train the other 73 percent is minimal in comparison to the benefit of having a population of public servants who know how to behave in dire situations.

The Department’s second phase is to educate the public on safety plans for active shooter events and, third, to employ the use of Virtual Alabama, a Google Earth-based program that permits layers of pertinent information to be placed over school sites.

Law enforcement and medical personnel will have access to the plans via Internet connections and can see on-scene where gathering areas, hazardous materials, escape routes and more are located at each school. For those with a series of passwords, Virtual Alabama also allows remote access to in-school cameras.

The State requires all districts to have complete information about their schools input into Virtual Alabama by July 19. Homewood is one of three districts in the Birmingham area that has all its facilities updated in the program. And according to HCS Communication Director Merrick Wilson, HCS believes that in an ever-changing world, maintaining safety plans is vital to being prepared.

“We were in the process of updating (our safety plans) even before the tragic events at Sandy Hook,” Wilson said. “We constantly train our faculty and students on them. They are living, breathing documents.”

Wilson said Cleveland was not available to comment on the Run Hide Fight campaign and whether it would be included in future versions of HCS safety plans.

Collier said Homeland Security will continue to push other Alabama schools to update both their safety plans and input information into Virtual Alabama. He added that the Run Hide Fight campaign would be soon be paired with a one-hour training course for those interested.

“It’s unfortunate that Newtown, Conn. happened,” Collier said. “It’s unfortunate Colorado happened. If there is a positive, it’s that it’s fresh on our minds. We cannot lose this opportunity.”

To view the Run Hide Fight video visit homelandsecurity.alabama.gov/activeshooter.aspx. Disclaimer: this video contains graphic violence.