Communicating in an emergency: staff, families and the media

In almost every review of a school emergency, communication comes up as a problem. The announcement could not be heard in the gym. The radio batteries were dead. A teacher in a portable did not know what was happening. Families heard about the event on social media before the school said anything, and the rumours were worse than the truth. A reporter interviewed a student in the parking lot. This lesson covers the communication that happens inside the school during an emergency, with emergency services and the board office, with families, and with the media, and the habits that make it work.

Inside the building

The first job of communication is to tell everyone in the building what action to take. Schools use several channels, because any one of them can fail:

• The public address system, which should reach every room, corridor, washroom, gym, portable and outdoor area.
• The fire alarm, for evacuation.
• Two-way radios carried by administrators, custodians, office staff, yard supervisors and staff in remote areas such as portables and the field.
• Text or app alerts to staff phones, which many boards now use to send the action and updates.
• Panic buttons or alert apps that let any staff member trigger a lockdown or call for help.
• Runners, as a last resort, but never sending students into danger.

Announcements use plain language and a standard form: the action, repeated, and whether it is a drill. 'Lockdown. Lockdown. This is not a drill.' 'Hold and secure. Hold and secure. Bring everyone inside and lock the outside doors.' Updates follow the same pattern and say what has changed. Staff should never have to guess what an announcement means.

Communication also runs the other way. Teachers need to tell the office about missing students, injuries and problems, but in a lockdown they cannot leave the room or make noise. Many schools use a short text message to an office number, an app, or the red and green card in the door window during lockdown drills, so that police and administrators can see which rooms need help.

Redundancy and testing

Each channel has weak points. The public address system may not reach a portable or the far end of the field. Radios run out of battery or have dead spots in basements and stairwells. Mobile phone coverage is poor in some older buildings, and networks may be overloaded in a large event. Power failures can take out phones and the public address system together. The plan should list each channel, its known gaps, and its backup.

Drills are the time to test channels. At Pinecrest Secondary School, the fall drill checks the public address system in every space with a staff member listening and ticking off each room. Radios are checked weekly and kept on chargers in the office. Every portable has a radio and a phone. The program below shows the results of Pinecrest Secondary School's public address check, with spaces marked as clear, faint or not heard.

# Public address system check: list spaces where announcements were faint or not heard.
results = {
    "Classrooms 101-130": "clear", "Classrooms 201-232": "clear", "Main gym": "faint",
    "Small gym": "clear", "Change rooms": "not heard", "Shop wing": "faint", "Portables 1-4": "clear",
    "Library": "clear", "Cafeteria": "clear", "Field": "not heard", "Boiler room": "not heard",
    "Washrooms 1F": "clear", "Washrooms 2F": "faint",
}
for level in ("not heard", "faint"):
    spaces = [k for k, v in results.items() if v == level]
    print(f"{level:9}: {', '.join(spaces)}")
ok = sum(1 for v in results.values() if v == "clear")
print(f"clear in {ok} of {len(results)} spaces checked")

not heard: Change rooms, Field, Boiler room
faint    : Main gym, Shop wing, Washrooms 2F
clear in 7 of 13 spaces checked

The check found that the change rooms, field and boiler room could not hear announcements at all, and the main gym and shop wing only faintly over the noise of games and machines. The fixes were a speaker in each change room, a rule that staff on the field carry a radio, visual alert lights in the gym and shop wing, and adding the boiler room to the custodians' radio check.

With emergency services and the board office

The office calls 911 for any real emergency and stays on the line if asked. The person calling gives the school's name and address, the best entrance, what is happening, how many people are affected and any immediate dangers. When emergency services arrive, the principal or a delegate meets them with the floor plans, keys, the accounting list and information about the building.

The principal also calls the board office early, usually the superintendent responsible for the school and the health and safety officer. The board office supports the school: it sends staff, arranges buses, activates reunification sites, handles communication with the media and other schools, and keeps senior leaders and trustees informed. The board office should not have to learn about a school emergency from a reporter.

The written log

Someone in the office, usually the office administrator or a delegate, keeps a written log from the first moment: the time of each action, each call made and received, each decision, and each message sent. Memory is unreliable under stress. The log helps the principal make decisions, helps hand over to emergency services and the board, and is the foundation of the debrief and any later review. A simple paper form on a clipboard works when phones and computers do not.

Families

Families want to know three things as soon as possible: Is my child safe? What is happening? What should I do? The board's emergency messages are built around those questions. They are sent through the mass notification system, which can send texts, emails and phone calls to every family in a school at once, and posted on the school and board websites and social media accounts.

Good messages to families are:

• Quick. A short first message within minutes is better than a perfect one an hour later. Families will hear about the event from students' phones and social media almost immediately.
• Accurate. Say only what is known and confirmed. If something is not known, say so and say when the next update will come.
• Clear about action. Tell families exactly what to do, or not do: do not come to the school, go to this reunification site, bring photo identification, expect a delay.
• Calm. Plain, factual language, no speculation and no blame.
• Private. Do not name injured students or students involved in an incident.
• Followed up. Send updates at set times, even if there is little new, and a final message when the event is over.

The board keeps pre-written templates for common events, such as hold and secure, lockdown, evacuation, shelter in place, weather closure and reunification, so that the first message can be sent within minutes by filling in a few blanks. Templates are translated in advance into the languages most spoken by the board's families. The program below fills a template and checks that the text version fits within a single text message.

# Fill a family message template and check its length for a single SMS (160 characters).
template = ("{school}: Students are safe inside. Doors are locked as a precaution due to police "
            "activity nearby. Please do not come to the school. Update by {time}.")
msg = template.format(school="Willow Park", time="2:45 pm")
print(msg)
print(len(msg), "characters", "- fits one SMS" if len(msg) <= 160 else "- too long for one SMS")
short = msg.replace("as a precaution ", "").replace("Please do not", "Do not")
print(short)
print(len(short), "characters")

Willow Park: Students are safe inside. Doors are locked as a precaution due to police activity nearby. Please do not come to the school. Update by 2:45 pm.
155 characters - fits one SMS
Willow Park: Students are safe inside. Doors are locked due to police activity nearby. Do not come to the school. Update by 2:45 pm.
132 characters

The first draft is a little too long for a single text, so the template is trimmed by cutting words that add little. A message that splits into two texts may arrive out of order or be cut off, so short, complete messages are better.

Social media and rumours

Students with phones will share what they see and hear, and some of it will be wrong. During a hold and secure, a rumour that there is someone with a weapon in the school can spread across a whole community in minutes. Schools cannot stop this, but they can reduce it by communicating quickly and accurately, so that the official message is out there before or alongside the rumours, and by posting updates in the places families look, including the school's social media accounts.

Staff should not post about an emergency on their personal accounts, share photos or videos of the event, or speculate. During a lockdown, teachers can remind students that posting their location or what they see could put people in danger and that the school will tell families what is happening.

The media

Reporters often arrive quickly at a school emergency, especially in a large event. The board's rule is that only designated spokespeople speak to the media, usually the board's communications manager or a senior leader, sometimes alongside police or fire officials. Principals and staff refer media questions to the board and do not give interviews. This is not about hiding information. It is about making sure that what is said is accurate, consistent with what families have been told, and respectful of the privacy of students and staff.

Staff should know how to respond politely if approached: 'I can't comment, but the board's communications office will have information. Here is the number.' Reporters should be directed to a media area away from students, the reunification site and emergency operations. Students should not be interviewed on school property without permission, and staff should gently steer them away from cameras.

Communication for students and staff who need it

Emergency communication must reach everyone. Students and staff who are deaf or hard of hearing need visual alerts and messages. Students with intellectual disabilities may need simple words and pictures. Families who do not speak English, or who are more comfortable in another language, need translated messages. Assistance plans from Lesson 3 should include how each person gets emergency information, and the board's templates are written in plain language for everyone.