Diocesan schools receive guidelines for bio-protection

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
Posted April 3, 2003

All schools should have a procedure to follow in the event of a fire or tornado. After the shootings at Columbine in Littleton, Colo., many schools took precautions just in case something similar took place at their schools.

Today, with the possible threat of chemical warfare, are schools prepared for a bio-emergency?

The Catholic Schools of Sioux City (CSSC) have taken some initial steps to help the schools in Sioux City and throughout the diocese in case this threat became a reality.

"We had a pretty good plan in place for the things we're used to facing like severe storms, intruders in the building and some of that," said Jim Rouse, superintendent for the CSSC. "We were trying to figure out if this new potential of chemical or biological warfare would present other issues.

"We'd searched a number of web sites, including the American Red Cross, department of education and others. We also checked with other schools, including our Sioux City public schools, and no one seemed to have any real, definitive guidelines for this kind of situation that would differ from other situations."

With that in mind, CSSC put in place an extensive Emergency Response Plan, which includes precautions similar to the responses already in place for other emergencies. The guidelines were outlined in a letter, signed by Rouse and the principal of each school in Sioux City, and then they were sent home to all of the CSSC families.

Kevin Vickery, superintendent of schools for the diocese, said the Office of Education has forwarded these guidelines, as well as other emergency preparedness materials, to each of the schools in the diocese to aid them in developing a course of action. As new information comes in it will be forwarded to each of the schools.

"Anytime we get anything, I send that out," Vickery said. "We try to support them if they need help in making that plan. We will adapt all of those plans to whatever the local entity is that's making the decisions on public safety."

According to Eugene Meister, president of Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona, the school is working with their local emergency management.

"Jim Kelly is our coordinator, and he's given us some guidelines of what we go through, what we do and the process with anything that occurs," Meister said. "We also have Kossuth County Health involved and our local AEA (Area Education Agency). Basically we lock down when anything occurs.

"Obviously communication and identifying anything that's going on with the people here and also communication with parents is important. We attempt to have emergency numbers with all of our families. They have registered cards here listing all health issues, who do we seek treatment with and they have numbers for us to contact."

The principal of St. Michael School in Sioux City, Brenda Ferrie, said the guidelines are important to give the students and their parents reassurance that school officials are doing what they can in these times.

"It lets them know that we are being cautious of anything," she said. "A copy of a letter that shows what we are doing went home to the parents. The teachers also talked to the kids in the classroom, and then we did a mock drill of what we would do when we sound the alarms to go into the procedure.

"The most important factor is the calming of the children. The students are praying for peace pretty much everyday and praying for any military families. We're doing a lot more of that just to keep them calm."

At this point, Vickery said the guidelines have been followed, but if the unthinkable were to happen, each school would need to get direction from local authorities as to how to respond.

"This is just simply saying that we have a basic piece," he said. "I think if you asked the chancellor, he'd say we have a general plan for an emergency, but we really couldn't tell you what we would do with our employees if all of the sudden there was an alert that there was a biochemical threat to Sioux City."

A specific plan of action is not in place, and as Vickery joked, "I didn't bring my duck tape to work today." However, he added, "We're in the same boat that everyone else is, but we're aware of it."