As Goose Creek CISD’s (GCCISD) Dr. Anthony Price said as he opened the day’s train derailment exercise, in a perfect world, no one in the room would ever have to put the safety preparedness and emergency protocols into place.
Not himself, the assistant superintendent of operations at GCCISD, or any of the more than 100 education and emergency management professionals who gathered on June 4 at Mann Junior High School for the Schools’ Action for Emergency Rail Readiness (S.A.F.E.R.R.).
Still, they gathered to prepare and observe emergency protocols and procedures in real time and offer compliments and suggestions to outcomes that could potentially happen at any given campus across the Houston area. This exercise was a train derailment near Carver Elementary School in Baytown, which stands adjacent to railroad tracks.
Participants walked away feeling confident about the communication and collaboration between local agencies, but also found areas of improvement.
“You don’t want to learn how to do this stuff in a real event,” said Lance Tannehill with The Response Group, an industry leader in crisis management and emergency response brought in to facilitate the day. “The group here is being proactive and in the event of a real thing happening, we are prepared. That’s why we do this exercise. It’s to identify these findings and implement corrective actions if needed going forward for potential events.”
S.A.F.E.R.R. is hosted by The Center for Safe and Secure Schools (CSSS), a division of Harris County Department of Education (HCDE), through Neighbor Helping Neighbor, which creates opportunities for Harris County school districts to exercise their emergency operations plan with neighboring districts. CSSS held Operation Standard Reunification Method-Reunification Exercise training in both Alief and Goose Creek school districts in 2022, and two virtual events the year before.
GCCISD served as host for the one-day workshop, which included representatives from local school districts, law agencies, fire/EMS, public health, emergency management and railroad offices. The Response Group was brought in courtesy of grant funding spearheaded by the Greater Baytown Area Local Emergency Planning Committee.
With the exercise, personnel faced issues including hazardous materials in the area, a shelter-in-place at the campus, communication to stakeholders, evacuation of students and staff to a nearby site, and eventual reunification of students with parents.
“When you think about emergency preparedness, people think about active shooters, but we also know weather plays a big factor in emergencies,” said Leslie Etheridge, CSSS director. “In Goose Creek, there are a lot of trains so we thought that this would be a great exercise to explore what would happen if there was a train derailment.”
Following a welcome and briefing, participants transitioned to their respective sites. The exercise began at 9:30 a.m. with the incident reported and announcement of a shelter-in-place over Carver’s intercom. Carver staff activated their standard response protocol (SRP) and worked with district personnel and various Baytown and local agencies to respond effectively and timely in ensuring the safety of students, staff and additional stakeholders.
“These types of training exercises are important to execute a plan. We’re all in it together,” said Robert Marquez, GCCISD director of safety and security. “A train derailment is not specific for a school district. If a community has to evacuate and there’s a school in that area, then there has to be communication between partners so they know what’s going on. Each of our plans feed into each other.”
Exercise “injects” – additional information or scenarios – were used and required participants to respond in real time.
Everyone returned to Mann following the exercise for a debrief and critique of the day. The group discussed both positives from the exercise but also noted areas for improvement.
“The biggest accomplishment was moving beyond just active shooter,” said Janice Owolabi, CSSS safety specialist. “Emergency management is a big field and it’s a community effort that happens for so many different things. In the case of this school, the train track is right there, so this is something they need to prepare for.”