A family “reunification drill” will be held at Westbrook Middle School Oct. 24. File photo
WESTBROOK — City schools, which have been holding comprehensive safety drills with the police and fire departments, are looking for parent volunteers for a drill later this month.
The Oct. 24 at the Middle School will be a “reunification drill,” said Assistant Superintendent Jodi Messanotte.
“We are going to evacuate and practice reunifying families at a given location,” she said, and parent volunteers would be helpful.
The schools’ recent safety drills looked at how to respond to a number of different emergencies. Rather than focus on a single issue, such as an active assailant on the premises, the drills practice response for everything from gas leaks to medical emergencies.
“What we are doing and have been doing for the past few years is to work with first responders to speak to the same language using a response protocol that is known to first responders, parents, students and staff in order to reduce the response time if something happened,” Mezzanotte said.
Over the past three years, public safety and school officials have been working together to create and master response plans, said Police Capt. Steve Goldberg.
“We also now have good relationships because of it, which improves our day to day operations,” he said.
Police from other communities watch the Westbrook drills both to both critique and learn from the exercise, Goldberg said.
“They’re observing us, giving tips and taking back tips,” he said.
Aside from the drills, the police have also secured grant funding to coherently number school rooms to help response times and to improve radio communications between school officials. The grant, applied for by the police for the school department, totaled around $153,000.
“We are upgrading their radios. … we are also renumbering the rooms to make sense. The room numbers don’t correspond, which can make it harder to respond to an event within the school,” Goldberg said.
To volunteer for the Oct. 24 drill, email Mezzanotte at MezzanotteJ@westbrookschools.org.
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