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House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	October 15, 2018 09:51 AM
From:	Representative Dom Costa
To:	All House members
Subject:	Emergency Response Drills in Schools

One of our most essential roles as parents is to send our children out into the world as prepared for life as possible. Schools further carry this out by enriching their minds and preparing them for the worst through fire, natural disaster, and security drills. While such drills better equip our children to handle some safety threats, they do not prepare them for emergency situations in which an adult is not present or responsive. When an adult supervising a classroom is unresponsive, as a result of a medical emergency for example, or when the same happens to another student in the absence of an adult, school children currently do not have a protocol to follow. In these situations, rapid response could mean the difference between life and death. Recently, a student in my district came to me with an idea prompted by her own experiences with this. That is why I will be introducing legislation that, based on her suggestions, would require school classrooms to conduct annual emergency response drills that will help our children gain practice in protocols such as finding a classroom phone, calling an emergency contact, and describing the classroom location so that other adults may find them. Please join me in equipping our children with the skills needed to ensure the safety of themselves, their fellow students, and the adults tasked with their wellbeing by co-sponsoring this legislation.

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