Guidelines require schools to file crisis-management plans

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

The guidelines, adopted Wednesday by the Commission on School Safety and Juvenile Violence which was created following Colorado's Columbine High School killings, will be forwarded to Gov. Kenny Guinn for his consideration.

The panel, created by the 1999 Legislature, wants an initial plan and yearly updates from Nevada's 17 countywide districts as well as private and charter schools.

The panel - including legislators, educators and law enforcement officials - also expects each school principal to have assured district supervisors that its emergency management plans are workable and understood by school staff members.

Plans should be similar from school to school within a district because teachers switch jobs, especially in Clark County, the panelists said.

The commission chairwoman, state Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, said it wasn't the panel's intent to micromanage the school districts or reinvent plans that already exist.

What ideally will happen, Wiener said, is that Nevada's smaller school districts will benefit from the plans already in place in Clark and Washoe counties.

Clark County School District Police Sgt. Phil Gervasi said there is a need for stepped-up coordination between educators and police agencies.

With the state-mandated school and districtwide committees, Gervasi said he hopes the school district police force will have a greater say in how emergencies are handled.

Gervasi said a drill at Green Valley High School, where police and rescue workers responded to a mock shooting of students and teachers, took place this summer. To his surprise, school police officers were excluded.

"We need to be included," he said. "We're the ones who know the schools and the students."