New Crisis Training Program Helps San Juan USD Protect Students and Staff

District Using Federal Grant Money for Crisis Management Training Classes

SACRAMENTO, CA -- May 31, 2007 -- The San Juan Unified School District today announced that district schools are undergoing training to protect against emergencies. The district received a $497,203 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Emergency Response and Crisis Management grant program in October 2005 to strengthen the district’s emergency response plans and to conduct training classes. The district has held a series of training sessions including Critical Incident Planning Teams, Biomedical Emergency Planning and Threat Assessments with school personnel from all over the district. The classes are being conducted by Prepared Response, Inc., which previously deployed a district-wide crisis management planning and response system called Rapid Responder® for the school district.
 
In the Critical Incident Planning Teams training course, school personnel learned how to form campus safety teams and were taught tools for safety planning, including how to conduct in-depth safety assessments using the Rapid Responder School Mapping System. In the Biomedical Emergency Planning sessions, school personnel were trained on the history of pandemic influenza, including current biomedical threats and how the World Health Organization’s alert system relates to the National Response Plan. In addition, participants examined several elements of a comprehensive pandemic response plan and a continuity of operations plan (COOP). The Threat Assessment workshops taught participants how to properly identify threats and how to develop threat assessment processes to prevent violence.

“The San Juan Unified School District already has robust security plans in place and these training programs will further enhance the district’s readiness in case of an emergency,” said Ethan Hoff, San Juan Unified’s coordinator for emergency training.

“We are very pleased to support San Juan Unified School District in their efforts to be proactive with crisis management and emergency preparedness. This is a large district and they clearly recognize their role to protect students and faculty and be an integral part of community emergency preparedness,” said Jim Finnell, President & CEO of Prepared Response, Inc.