ALEXANDER COUNTY, N.C. — School districts and first responders are meeting ahead of the school year to prepare for a possible emergency.
The school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas in May is on the mind of many parents and students as they head back into the classroom this year.
In Alexander County school principals, school leaders, and administrators spent hours Monday learning about emergency protocols and who’s in charge.
"We want to do the simple things the right way and we want to do it the right way, every single time and every single day," Jacob Lail, the principal of Alexander Central High School said. "So when our kids come into the building, it doesn't matter the day we're prepared."
The conversation on safety was led by Alexander County's Emergency Management team. It happens each year prior to students coming to the classroom.
Knowing who’s in charge during a school emergency can save lives.
"The first 10 minutes of any emergency seems chaotic," Mark Earle, Alexander County Fire Marshall Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator said. "The earlier we can get the management set up through this command system, the quicker we can get control of the scene."
Now it’s more critical than ever to know who to answer to.
"We are all very passionate about what we do in our schools are our priority," Janel Lingle, Taylorsville Elementary School Principal said. "However, in the event of a lot of a large-scale event, we all have to know what our role is."
In Alexander County school principals play a primary role in being incident commanders until, more senior school staff emergency management, or another member of law enforcement can take over.
In the Uvalde school, shooting first responders and school personnel was criticized for not knowing who was in charge.
The first responder in Alexander County said they don’t ever want that to happen.
"Once the school system and the first responders come together, then we work as a team to find out what best suits that incident and how we can deal with it to mitigate that process," Earle said.
School shootings are not the only thing they’re preparing for.
"You have chemicals, driving up and down these roads every day," Earle said. "If one of them was a wreck, and it can be some pretty, pretty bad significant chemical spill, that may affect the school and they would have to evacuate and things like that."
The principals at the safety meeting will bring back everything they learned in the two-day training to staff before the new year. The training last until Tuesday afternoon.
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