Pocahontas County Schools Develop an Emergency Management Plan

It seems that now days every time you listen to the national news, there is some sort of new tragedy- caused by man or nature- happening at some school somewhere. Usually the report is accompanied by interviews with teachers or students who inevitably say something like “I never thought that could happen here.”

Well, the people running the Pocahontas County Schools are smart enough to know that just about anything can happen just about anywhere, so they have developed comprehensive emergency management plans for each school. Ron Hall, the School System’s Director of Maintenance/Attendance /Safe Schools – as well as being the new Principal at Hillsboro Elementary School, talked to us about these vital emergency plans which we all hope never have to be activated. Mr. Hall.

“We have talked to all of the Principals and each school has come up with a plan and an area to evacuate the kids to in the event that we would have an emergency such as a bomb threat or maybe a chemical spill at school that was major or something like that” Ron said. “Each evacuation place will have restrooms and heat and will be prepared for the weather. Each Principal has submitted their plan to the Board (of Education) and we will go over that plan with them.”

Ron emphasized that each the schools have worked to find suitable evacuation points.

“At this point everyone has at least one evacuation point, if not 2 or 3 evacuation points that they can go to in the event of an emergency” said Ron.

Ron emphasized that all of the evacuation points have to be within walking distance of the school. There is only one possible exception to that “within walking distance” rule, as Ron explains.

“The exception would be the High school” Ron says. “We may have to bus students there to a different location; however we do have a location around the school at Pocahontas County High School we can evacuate the kids to.”

Ron did assure us that in the horrifying event of an active shooting situation at a school, there are contingency plans; however he wisely did not want to reveal those plans publically, just to assure the public that they are prepared.

Well, I am sure that parents can be assured that the County Schools are prepared for emergency situations.