School Safety

Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense currently has a School Safety and Terrorism Program that includes partnerships with other Government of Guam agencies such as Guam Department of Education, Guam Fire Department and the Guam Police Department.

Goals and objectives include training, exercise and drills for school personnel, awareness and education through presentations and dissemination of information, and evaluation and assessment of all school emergency plans and response capabilities.

The School Safety Team also conducts training that helps with:

• Understanding how the Incident Command System structure is used when responding to multiple hazards in the school.
• Understanding the Incident Command Structure and the roles and responsibilities of the Incident Commander, his command staff and the four section leaders, Operations, Planning, Logistics and Admin/Finance.
• Being able to apply the Incident Command System principles on the job and when responding to emergencies.
• Knowing how to use the schools Emergency Response Plans.
• Determining the role that they will play in any particular response to an incident or hazard on campus.
• Being able to work in teams to respond to emergencies in the schools and communities.
• Having the ability to form emergency response teams in the school to assist in search and rescue.
• Using of the buddy system for fire suppression.
• Having an awareness of the types of bombs used by terrorist and the vulnerabilities of their schools campus to terrorist attacks.
• Being able to recognize the security vulnerabilities of their school and be able to recognize suspicious behavior and activities in and around the campus.
• Being able to assist in planning and staff assignments for the schools emergency response procedures.

Resources:

• FEMA School Programs
• US Department of Education
• Teacher Tools
• New FEMA for Kids Online Board Game Release
• Guam Department of Education (www.gdoe.net)