Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND – Friday afternoon the students of Worland South Side Elementary School silently walked from their school to the Worland Community Center Complex where they continued the silence as they sat on the front gymnasium floor in class groups waiting for their parents to pick them up. The reason: a reunification drill.
Worland South Side Elementary School parent Andrew Martinson shows his photo identification at the Worland Community Center Complex Friday afternoon to collect his son during the reunification drill.
WORLAND – Friday afternoon the students of Worland South Side Elementary School silently walked from their school to the Worland Community Center Complex where they continued the silence as they sat on the front gymnasium floor in class groups waiting for their parents to pick them up. The reason: a reunification drill.
In the case of an emergency where the students and staff are required to leave the school, the reunification process needs to be done in a way that makes sure every student is accounted for and safely returned to their family.
"The purpose of this drill is to ensure that all the kids get home with the correct person and that the person that takes them home is somebody that the parents have identified as a safe adult to take them home. It also gives us the accountability that we know exactly which adult a child went home with, what time they went home, that kind of thing. Because in a situation like that where you are not at your regular school, it just helps to solidify that so you can make sure all the kids are safe," South Side Elementary School principal Ken Dietz said.
Parents who came to the community center to pick up their children had to fill out paperwork and present staff with a photo identification. After which the parents had to go to a separate door to receive their child or children after paperwork was once again double checked.
About half of the students were reunified with their parents Friday afternoon at the community center. "The way we set it up this time is that we advertised it so the parents knew that it was coming and we gave parents the option of reunifying at the community center or we ran a regular release at the end of the day just like normal. So for parents who couldn't get off work, the end of the day ran just like normal but the kids still got a feel for what it would be like to actually have to be there for a while. In a real situation it would be an extended period of time that the kids would be somewhere else," Dietz said.
Dietz stated that for the first ever reunification drill, he was pleased with the outcome. He said he feels that there are still a few things that need to be done to make the process run even smoother and that the community center needs to be placed on lockdown before the students arrive to make sure that no one is able to enter the building but through the front doors.
