Hello, Scecina family,

I continue to work with our Emergency Operations Planning Committee to secure the safety of everyone at Scecina Memorial High School as it is a top priority of mine. For this reason, I attended basic school safety training in November, and I will receive advanced training next month. When I complete my advanced training, I will obtain the School Safety Specialist Certification.

I want to share what basic training taught me. I will follow up with two more articles in the coming weeks.

During my basic school safety training, I learned more about the Four Phases of Emergency Management. The four phases include Prevention/Mitigation, Protection, Response, and Recovery. The best way for me to explain each one is in an outline format.

Prevention/Mitigation involves preventing future emergencies or minimizing their effects.;

• Activities taken to prevent an emergency, reduce the chances of an emergency happening, or reduces the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies
• Buying flood and fire insurance for your home is a mitigation activity
• Activities that take place before and after emergencies

Preparedness involves preparing to handle an emergency.

• Plans or preparations made to save lives and to help response and rescue operations
• Evacuation plans and stocking food and water are both examples of preparedness
• Activities that take place before an emergency occurs

Response involves responding safely to an emergency.

• Actions we take to save lives and prevent further property damage in an emergency
• Putting your preparedness plans into action
• Seeking shelter from a tornado or turning off gas valves in an earthquake are both response activities
• Activities take place during an emergency

Recovery involves recovering from an emergency The actions we take to return to a normal or an even safer situation

• Getting financial assistance to help pay for the repairs
• Activities that take place after an emergency
• Reuniting victims with their loved ones is essential.

My next blog post will contain information on the online training and assessments I took to supplement basic training and prepare me for advanced instruction.

Please pray that we keep our school safe every day! Have a great weekend,

Joseph Brettnacher, Ph.D.
Principal