Vernonia's voice., August 18, 2016, Page 16, Image 16

16
community
august18
2016
Standard Response Protocol
school staff, students and first responders.

The Actions included in the SRP are:
• Lockout, followed by the Directive “Secure the Pe-
rimeter,” and is used to safeguard students and staff
within the building.
• Lockdown, followed by “Locks, Lights, Out of
Sight,” and is used to secure individual rooms and
keep students quiet and in place.
• Evacuate is always followed by a location and is used
to move students and staff from one location to a differ-
ent location, either in or out of the building.
• Shelter is always followed by a type and method and
is used for group self-protection.

“It’s standardized for our kids, teachers and
families and they will be taught them, so, as they go
through our school system, it will become automatic,”
says Knight about the four Action and Directive proce-
dures.

“It gives us a common language with both first
responders and parents for all the different scenarios
and allows us to share, to some degree, the level of dan-
ger we might be in, because a Lockout is very different
from a Lockdown in terms of the immediate threat,”
adds Superintendent Miller.

Miller and Knight say the District has been
working on implementing the new SRP since last
school year with the plan to initiate it at the beginning
of this year. Miller says this was not a direct response
to two incidents that occurred during the last school
year.

In one incident, a man with a firearm was bar-
ricaded in his home overnight and into the following
morning several blocks away from the school campus,
while students were on their way to school. In the sec-
ond incident, a drawing by a student, that the student
claimed was a joke, was handled as a perceived threat
by school administrators.

Miller noted that, while the new protocols were
not officially in place last year, the District’s response
to those incidents were based on this SRP. “We didn’t
have it prepared to be shared with parents at that time,
but this is the system we’ve been using in our responses
and how we address emergencies for the last several
years,” said Miller.
continued from front page

Knight says the District’s new SRP is also in drills each year, as well as monthly emergency drills.
direct response to Oregon House Bill 2661 which came Miller also said SRP materials explaining the proce-
from the work of the Oregon Task Force on School dures will be placed in the hallways of the school facil-
Safety and their report to the Oregon Legislature in ity as a way to promote the consistent language. “All
the fall of 2015. The task force included State Sena- of this has been developed in coordination with our
tor Betsy Johnson, along with school administrators, Safety Committee which includes administration, as-
public safety officials, school board members, other sistants, teachers, maintenance and other employees,”
legislators, and governor policy advisors. They began said Miller. “In the past we’ve included local first re-
meeting in August of 2014 and developed recommen- sponder agencies in our drills and we anticipate they
dations to strengthen school safety, including establish- will continue to assist us with these practices.”
ing the standardized terminology used in the “I Love
In addition to implementing the new SRP,
You Guys” campaign.
Superintendent Miller says he has also been attend-

“I was delighted to have the opportunity to ing regular meetings of a county-wide First Respond-
serve on the Oregon Task Force on School Safety,” said ers Group, initiated by the St. Helens School District
Senator Johnson in a recent interview. “This was an that includes law enforcement agencies and all school
important undertaking that brought together all of these districts, which is designed to facilitate common re-
parties that were relevant to this discussion to both edu- sponses to all types of emergencies. “This gives us a
cate ourselves on lessons learned and then to chart a coordinated system region-wide,” says Miller. “If we
proactive path to make our physical facilities safer. I have everybody on board with the same system then
commend the Vernonia School District for beginning we’re more likely to be effective with our response.”
to implement the recommendations, specifically in the
“Nobody wants to talk about these potential
adoption of the common terminology that will now be emergencies, but that is the whole point of the ‘I Love
used by school districts and first responders.”
You Guys’ foundation,” says Miller. “We need to talk

House Bill 2661 took effect on July 1, 2015, about it if we’re going to make a difference in maxi-
based on the task force’s recommendations, and re- mizing student safety.”
quires all Oregon Schools to instruct and drill students
in the Lockdown, Lock-
out, Evacuate, and Shel-
ter procedures.

Miller says that
as the new policy is be-
ing implemented, staff
continued from page 3
will be trained in the

“That night the State called me ran for safety. Webb remembers pro-
procedures during in-
and
said,
‘Don’t burn tomorrow,’” re- ducer Virginia Stone using her briefcase
service days in August
members Webb. “It was already loaded
to shield herself from the flames; the
before students arrive
and
ready
to
go
and
if
we
had
waited
briefcase ended up blistered at the end of
on campus for the new
school year. Miller says and it had gone off accidentally in the the scene. With the train locomotive in
once students begin the afternoon, we would have had a real danger of being consumed by the blaze,
school year there will problem. We would not have had a way Webb remembers a local resident and
be student assemblies, to put it out. I told the State, ‘Sorry, we railroad buff, Lynn Michener, jumping
have it ready to go and it needs to burn aboard and moving the train down the
along with specific train-
ings in each class room, in the morning.’ So we went ahead and track and out of harm’s way.

Webb says he had plenty of lo-
along with two practice burned it.”

According to Webb, the fire re- cal firefighters on hand in case of a prob-
ally took off when it was ignited. “We lem. “They all wanted to take the day
had fall out about five miles away,” says off from work and be there to watch that

Webb.
planer shed burn,” says Webb. Fortu-

Webb says the filmmakers set nately everything went smoothly and
up flame throwers to shoot into the air Webb, and the rest of Vernonia, survived
behind buildings on the town’s main the big burn.
street to make it look like the whole
After the filming ended the rest
town was burning. “I thought they were of the mill was dismantled, although
really going to burn the town down,” remnants of the mill are still visible on
says Webb. “I was pretty nervous.”
the site. The mill pond was donated to

The big final scene called for the the City of Vernonia and became Ver-
townspeople, played by local residents, nonia Lake, a city park. The mill office
to climb aboard a train and ride to safety was converted into the Pioneer Museum,
as the town burned around them. The a wonderful spot to learn about the log-
train was parked at the planer shed for ging history of the region, and of course,
the filming, but the fire grew so hot that the heyday of old Oregon-American
many of the actors and film crew aban- Mill, before Hollywood burned it down.

doned the train, and their filming, and

TEXAS
HOLD’EM

Vernonia American Legion Hall • 627 Adams Avenue
The Day They Burned
the Mill Down