Castlebay Lane Elementary School: Sesnon Fire

SESNON FIRE 2008
CASTLEBAY SAFETY DEBRIEF MEETING

Taking A Critical Look at Castlebay Evacuation Plans

The evacuation of Castlebay Lane Elementary did not go as any of us would have liked admitted Bob Spears, Director of LAUSD Emergency Services, and Jean Brown, LAUSD Superintendent of District 1 at the beginning of the meeting on October 29, 2008 to review Castlebay’s emergency response during the Sesnon Fire. The meeting was requested by Tom Waldman, LAUSD Tamar Galatzan’s Chief of Staff at the request of concerned parents. Also in attendance were Parents And Teachers Helping (PATH) members, Castlebay teachers and administrators, District 1 staff and Becky Leveque and Sue Hammarlund from the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council.

Spears explained that there were multiple challenges in the lines of communication that day. One of LAUSD’s key sources of information in deciding to call an evacuation is the City’s command center downtown, which is notoriously behind in updated information. LAUSD also sent an officer to the Sesnon Fire Incident Command Center to gain first hand information on the fire’s progress. But this too failed to capture necessary data. Officers were also sent to Castlebay and amazingly this too did not result in an order to call the evacuation.

The Principal, Vivian Ihori called her supervisor at District 1, who contacted Jean Brown the District 1 Superintendent. Their immediate response was to send several people from the District 1 office in Van Nuys to help with parents picking up their children. When the District 1 staff was not able to get through police lines to the school, then the evacuation was called. By the time the school was evacuated around 2:20pm on October 13, 2008, 750 of the more than 800 students had already been picked up by frantic parents.

Of the 70 parents, teachers and community members at the meeting, many wanted to know why the District did not just use the TV media for intelligence gathering like they did. The images of helicopters accessing water from the Porter Ranch Country Club golf course ponds for water drops was sufficiently compelling for parents to evacuate their own children.

The rallying cry was, “Why didn’t you listen to the request of the Principal to evacuate? The Principal should be empowered to call the evacuation.” Many parents have signed a petition calling for the principal to be empowered to call an evacuation.

One mom wanted to know why she was told not to pick up her children. Spears emphatically stated that “Parents are always welcome to pick up their kids.”

Parents expressed their lack of trust in the school to take care of their children safely. A frustrated dad commented, “ The failure of our government to take care of our children is the greatest failure. You should all step down and work at Walmart.”

Listening patiently to the many concerns, Jean Brown stated, “I have learned my lesson.” When the Principal calls, “I will make the decision immediately…We screwed up and we’re not going to let it happen again.”

Some parents are concerned about LAUSD actions and actions the Incident Command Center could have taken during this fire. “In addition to changes needed with LAUSD communication and evacuation procedures, we need the Incident Command Center to call for the evacuation of affected schools as soon as access roads are closed. This is to reduce parent traffic on the streets, improve access for emergency vehicles and above all, improve the safety of our children.” Wrote Wendy L. Moore, parent and PATH Web Communications, in a letter to the Incident Commanders.

The discussion wandered from when the evacuation should be called and by whom to how parent pickup should be executed. Some of the suggestions included: sending out a ConnectEd voicemail early during an incident notifying parents of the problem, even though an evacuation has not yet been called. Jean Brown said that this was a viable option. Parents were also admonished to review the emergency cards to make sure the right people are listed for pick up and to legibly provide home, cell and office phones to the ConnectEd system.

The school has kept the emergency cards all in one box. They commented that it’s one thing to plan for an emergency, but when you’re in the middle of it, you clearly find opportunities for improvement. They plan to put the cards in several alphabetized notebooks for faster access. Teachers will have students wear their emergency cards to the reunion gate.

Someone suggested that parents keep a completed copy of the blue form required to pick up your child, in the car at the ready.

The use of the request and reunion gates was discussed. The reunion gate is too narrow and funnels parents such that no one can move. Jean Brown is reviewing the need to possibly use other gates or construct new ones. If the reunion gate is used, it was suggested that parents remain lined up next to the fence, not on the steps up to the gate. LAUSD Police could be used to organize the parents. It was also suggested that for this type of emergency, the reunion gate was too far from the students, requiring runners to traverse the length of the school through the smoke to retrieve children. The school should consider which gates to use for which kind of emergency. A dad asked if the parents could wait in the multipurpose room, out of the smoke, especially as the wait was 45 minutes.

One mom complained that her fifth grader was used as a runner, which was not why he was at school that day. The administration presented the idea of combining classrooms such that one teacher supervises two classrooms while another teacher assists with the evacuation. They are also exploring walkie talkies or other devices to improve communication with classrooms during an emergency.

Anne Bierling, PATH Safety Co-Coordinator asked that all the changes be documented so that whoever was on duty during the next emergency it would be clear what to do. She noted that the kindergarten teachers still do not have a key to exit the kindergarten play yard in case they need to evacuate in that direction. They would have to lift children over the play yard wall. She reminded parents about traffic safety in the morning with respect to J-walking and u-turns in front of the school. Spears noted that children are frequently hit in school traffic and that this is a key everyday safety point.

Parents are invited to be part of the solution and further fine tune these changes to the emergency plan. You are especially invited to participate in the upcoming emergency drill on campus scheduled for November 13, 2008 at 10:45am. Join us. Dare to make a difference!