in
theStorm
E
ver since the tragic school shootings inside
Columbine High School in
1999,
school
staff across Colorado have been active
in emergency response training. In fact,
Colorado law requires all schools to have safety
plans in place to ensure that we are prepared.
Many of us in central administration
have implemented our clistrictwide plans in
response to school-related incidents. More
recently, though, school districts in Colorado
have faced a new role as they became the hub
of their communities in the aftermath of trage
dies that did not take place on school grounds.
In summer
2012,
Colorado experienced sev
eral tragedies that affected communities across
the state. In my district, a gunman walked
into a theater and killed
12
people and injured
58
others. Nearby, wildfires killed three and
burned thousands of acres and hundreds of
homes. Although the tragedies did not occur
in schools, the impact was direct and required
immediate and long-term responses and sup
port for students, staff and entire communities.
Aurora’s Five Phases
in the predawn hours of July
20, 2012, I
was
awakened by a slew of sirens. Granted, I live
just a block from a police station, so hearing
sirens is not out of the ordinaty However, on
this particular night, the sirens kept going.
SchoolDistricts During Off
Campus
Tragedies
BY GEORGIA R. DURAN
OCTOBER 2013 SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
39
