March 2003

Safety and Security in a Time of Uncertainty

As the clouds of war loom ever closer we find ourselves worrying more and more about how to help our children deal with these uncertain times. I wrote last month about encouraging them to learn as much about the issues underlying the world situation as they could and helping them draw reasonable conclusions about what should happen next. I restated our principle that no matter what views each of us holds, at PDS we will listen to one another respectfully. I want to reiterate that, because it becomes more difficult as anxieties rise.

I also want to tell you about some of the practical things we are doing to try to assure your children’s personal safety and well-being. Like schools everywhere, we are mindful that, although our children will be safe from any violence that may occur in Iraq, our country has shifted into a very different posture in matters of individual safety here at home. The article in The New York Times magazine section on Sunday, February 22 brought it home clearly. If bad things happen on a large scale there, they may happen on smaller scales here, and while I can’t believe that Poughkeepsie Day School, or even Poughkeepsie, New York will be the target of major retaliation, we must, nevertheless, be prepared for emergencies.

To that end, we are preparing emergency plans for several kinds of contingencies: situations in which we have to evacuate children from the school and situations in which we must confine the children to the safety of the school and exclude all others from our premises. We have been working with a number of agencies and experts to develop these plans, including the Arlington Fire Department, the local chapter of the American Red Cross and the school resources officer of the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department. We are now officially registered with the latter, so that PDS will be notified, as are all public schools in the area, if and when an emergency is declared via the local or state authorities. We have also “mapped” our campus for the police so that all spaces have been numbered and are easily identifiable from outside as well as inside the buildings.

In addition to collaborating with our neighbors, we have consulted an ever-growing literature on the subject, including work done by the National Association of Independent Schools and The Aspen Institute. While no two school situations are alike, there are some common principles on which everyone seems to agree. Among these are the need for careful planning, simple organization, consistent communication and ongoing training. Indeed, these key elements have formed the basis for our crisis management plan.

Clearly, it is essential that everyone understand his or her responsibilities in time of crisis. We are developing a core crisis management team as well as satellite teams of helpers, which are assigned specific responsibilities according to the situation. You are part of this larger team, particularly in the evacuation plan, and we will define your role carefully. In so doing, we will require your full cooperation.

We also must practice the procedures. This is a little tricky. On the one hand, we don’t want to frighten children unnecessarily. Yet we need to be sure that, if necessary, everyone knows what to do in an emergency situation. We do this with fire drills, of course, and those of us who come from the mid-west remember tornado drills. We’ll try to keep the new drills
in perspective and, when possible, err on the side of restraint.

Our draft has had one administrative review and, following the next iteration, we will share it with authorities, the faculty and you. If there is interest, we will schedule a discussion for parents and staff to be sure that we haven’t overlooked anything. When we are confident that we have provided well for all contingencies, we will share the plans with the kids, and then move into practice. When that time comes, please help us by talking honestly with your child about why we are doing these things, and about how important it is that we work together to keep one another safe.

I wish this weren’t what I have to write about this month. I’d much rather talk about your children’s activities and triumphs and about program and curriculum issues. Those things are much more my style! The times are what they are, however, and we must deal with them honestly and realistically. Accordingly, we must have your emergency information entered into our database; if you have not given it to us, it is imperative that you call Mary Lou Hudak, extension 109. In this most difficult time, we need to take care of one another.

Mary Jane Yurchak