Can ………..safety? safety be done
Lockdown and fire drills additional safety concerns as officials prepare to reopen schools amid the pandemic
Stop. Drop. Roll. Wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose completely. Keep a distance of 6 feet. Wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds.
While school leaders across the state have spent months planning a safe return to school in the fall, mindful of things such as social distancing and mask-wearing, some say they have not considered how regular safety protocols, such as fire drills and lockdown practices, could be maintained amid a pandemic.
Gov. Ned Lamont has ordered that all schools in the state reopen this fall for the 2020-21 school year, with teachers conducting instruction in buildings five days per week.
Then, at a more recent press conference, Lamont spoke about ways to reduce air-flow issues within school buildings.
At top, students enter a school bus in Old Greenwich last June to learn about safety regulations. Above, fourth-grade teacher Kathleen Durkin makes sure doors are locked and blinds closed during a lockdown drill at Naramake Elementary School in Norwalk on Nov. 22. At right, the Heart of the Coronavirus Crisis details state guidelines and other information on the reopening of schools this fall.
He said, “We have been following the news, to be blunt, over the last couple of weeks, about the nature of the air flow inside a building and filtration systems.”
“So, we are looking at the schools right now to see what we can do in short order to help limit that spread indoors. I am also hoping schools might be able to have some nice outdoors classes in the near term, as well, which is much safer. No need for the mask,” he said.
He later told a reporter that he hadn’t considered how teaching students outside would be in violation of safety protocols that emerged following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in Newtown.
“People are worried about young people and masks. I just know how much safer it is outside,” he said.
Drills and lockdowns
Meanwhile, school district leaders around the state have discussed ways to protect teachers and students in the classroom, but safety protocols such as monthly fire drills could complicate those plans.
“I guess I’ll have to start considering and make it part of the plan!” West Haven Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro said in an email when asked about maintaining social distancing during fire or lockdown drills.
New Haven Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said it was “a good point” that had not been accounted for in the district’s planning thus far.
“That’s one thing we really haven’t gotten to yet: how we would run any type of drills,” said Bridgeport Superintendent of Schools Michael Testani.
“Right now our biggest obstacle obviously is trying to plan for the reopening, and doing that in a safe manner,” Testani said.
According to New Haven Public Schools policies, fire drills are required at least once a month.
“Students must leave the building in an orderly and rapid matter and teachers are required to check to ascertain that no student remains in the building,” the New Haven policy says.
For students and teachers to leave rapidly, maintaining a 6-foot distance from one another would be difficult.
The state Department of Education has not provided specific guidance.
“Every district is different, which is why they can develop plans based on their local considerations,” department spokesman Peter Yazbak said. “The state plan provides an outline for what they should be considering as they develop their local plans.”
Jeff Solan, superintendent of schools in Cheshire,
said he is hoping the state education department will offer some guidance, or a waiver.
“Having 1,500 kids at Cheshire High, they can’t all walk out on top of each other in a fire drill. It flies in the face of the health guidance, so we’re trying to balance those things,” he said.
Lockdown drills require students and teachers to huddle in a corner, out of the view of windows.
“Now you’re sitting on top of each other,” Solan said of that scenario. “So we need to balance health and safety guidance.”
Michael Urban, director of the University of New Haven’s doctorate of occupational therapy program, said it might be wise for districts to run those drills with modifications.
“It’s like teaching kids if someone gets sick, who do you call? 911. They don’t call 911 physically, but you might have a play phone,” he said. “If you do a simulation, that still gives you the knowledge of what to do in a time of emergency.”
Urban compared it to how some fire departments are scaling down their live burns for new recruits going through the academy.
“That is now down to a little bale of hay on fire or fog machines. It’s a simulation, so they don’t experience the impact of the heat,” he said. “That still gives you the knowledge of what to do in an emergency.”
A plan in progress
Many districts say they still have work to do and expect questions to arise as they plan.
About drills, Winchester Superintendent of Schools Melony Brady-Shanley said none of the safety standards have changed. “Safety is always the number one priority. During drills, we will continue to implement safety measures as specified in state guidance.”
Brady-Shanley also said Winchester “is taking the social distancing protocols as a key component of our reentry plan.”
“As such, we are in the process of leasing an additional school building to ensure we have optimal social distancing,” she said.
Region 6 and Litchfield Public Schools Superintendent Chris Leone said there are plans in the works.
“It’s too broad a question to ask what we’re going to do about social distancing and outdoor classes, because it’s sitebased,” Leone said. “We are working on our plan to reopen the schools and will unveil it next week.”
Cavallaro said he fully expects further operational issues and questions to emerge as the start of the school year draws nearer.
“I also understand that we will not immediately have all the answers, and we even may make a few mistakes along the way,” he said in an email. “I believe, however, that as long as our families understand that we will always act in the best interests of our staff and students and do everything we can to keep them safe, they will respect our decisions, even though there will be some disagreements along the way.”
He said all but a few of the district’s schools are located on large, open areas, so spreading out during drills should be possible.
Middletown Superintendent of Schools Michael Conner said the district still is formulating a plan as it awaits more guidance from the state as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is all new territory. This is all new, creative thinking and alignment to the recommendations from the state and national level. These are all scenarios we are planning and articulating as we speak,” he said. “This is a new world for everyone. It’s going to take copious planning, a lot of collaboration between local and state health officials, as well as guidance from the governor’s office.”
In Hamden, Superintendent of Schools Jody Goeler said a reopening subcommittee is paying special attention to things such as safety drills, although currently there is no plan.
“One of the subcommittees assisting in the development of reopening plans is our Safety Committee,” he said. “They are working on plans related to your question on other safety related matters. They have not yet developed a plan regarding fire and other drills.”
Although some school districts are publicly working through their thinking as they plan how to reopen, others emphasized that their planning is incomplete.
“At this time we are still developing all of our plans for the 2020-21 school year based on the current guidance,” said Stamford Public Schools spokeswoman Sharon Beadle. “We have not finalized anything, as of yet.”
Outside?
Occupational therapy expert Urban said the key to ensuring safe outdoor instruction and play would be having more faculty on hand for supervision.
“You just might need to ask more front office staff to come out and supervise kids. Instead of planning, teachers might be asked to help supervise kids in case they try to run or there’s a medical emergency,” he said. “I think it could work; it depends on the age.”
The only apparent reference to students outside of schools in the state’s official guidance on COVID-19 refers to playgrounds.
“Schools should assess ways to minimize exposure from playground and fitness equipment use, including but not limited to ensuring only the team cohort uses it at the same time, hand washing before and after use or use of hand sanitizer, and disinfecting fitness equipment or other smaller outside equipment after each group of students’ use,” the guidance says, adding that districts might consider staggering recess times.
Cheshire’s Solan said his district already had been thinking about the possibility of outdoor classes.
“Is there a potential security risk? Yes, but we send classes outside today for physical education and other things. We’re balancing that against the health benefits as well,” he said. “There are adults outside monitoring during the periods while we’re outside and we have recess outside now, so we anticipate spending more time outside in a return to school situation.”
Solan said mask breaks, especially for younger students, will be “critical.”
“One of the things we’re looking at is classroom density: classrooms where we have more students returning versus going remote would be prioritized for spending time outside,” he said.
Unlike Cheshire, many superintendents admitted they hadn’t thought much about outside instruction.
“We didn’t have outside in our plan,” New Haven’s Tracey said.
Hamden’s Goeler said outside classes had not been a consideration.
“We also haven’t developed a plan for conducting classes outside across the district. These are all in development,” he said.
Determining whether classes could work outside, how lunch waves could be conducted and what safety drills might look like are among the considerations, Middletown’s Conner said.
“The primary goal is to keep students and staff safe, and to keep students and staff healthy,” he said.
Testani of Bridgeport said mask breaks have been a topic of considerable interest among his team.
“We have to be less interested in making sure kids are in a classroom for whatever amount of time and ensuring instruction is happening from bell to bell,” he said.
“Some of the instructional time is going to be taken up with doing other things like wiping down desks or eating in a classroom or taking a mask break and getting up and going outside and sanitizing,” he said. “I think once people get off the logistics of making sure things are operating exactly as they were before COVID, I think people will understand and be a little less stressed. It’s hard for people to imagine school in a different way.”