Lenape Regional High School District recently held a two-day emergency planning course, designed by FEMA and hosted by the state police, to prepare the schools to handle emergency situations.
“Back in the fall after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, of course we did what we could to put everything in place for school shootings,” said Carol Birnbohm, superintendent of schools during the April 17 board of education meeting. “We didn’t want to just train for a school crisis with just a school shooting in mind. We wanted to look at everything in a school setting.”
Medford Township Emergency Management Coordinator Lt. Jeffrey Wagner of the township police department brought the program to the attention of Birnbohm.
The training program is implemented nationally and presented by FEMA. Normally, the actual training is hosted in Maryland, but in this case, it was brought to the district.
LRHSD Security and Emergency Management Coordinator James Kehoe, all eight sending districts’ representatives, resource officers from Cherokee, Shawnee, Lenape and Seneca, fire, EMS, state police, buildings and grounds and transportation personnel were in attendance, according to Birnbohm. Additionally, police from Evesham and Medford townships attended the training.
“We immediately made sure we had procedures in place to address incidents similar to last fall’s events, but we also put some distance between those incidents and took a look at the big picture in emergency planning and response,” Kehoe said in a statement from LRHSD. “This was a rare chance for all attendees from different agencies who respond to school emergencies to sit down and discuss procedures and strategies to handle a wide range of hazards and threats that may affect our schools.”
According to Birnbohm, LRHSD utilizes many of the practices already in place.
The core of the program is to establish a standardized method for schools to develop customized emergency operations plans that adhere to a national standard, according to Sgt. William Craney of the State Police Emergency Management Section South Region in the release.
“LRHSD already has a comprehensive plan in place, and by training with key emergency responders, they are well on their way to improving their response to all school hazards. A lot of the best practices are already in use in the current Lenape Regional High School District Crisis Plan,” Craney said.
“This was a great opportunity to strengthen the already excellent relationships built over years among the schools and public safety agencies while sharing new ideas to continually improve our crisis response plans,” said Wagner in the release.
In other news:
• Seneca High School senior Abby Saiia presented Highlights from the Student’s Perspective, a series where the board brings in students to present from the four schools.
Saiia chronicled the students’ activities outside academics including No Place For Hate, which students would learn how to be an “upstander,” spread kindness, signed a contract and mix it up day, where students would sit with peers they may not have known.
Seneca students also held a homecoming parade during halftime of the game, a powederpuff game where the junior girls took on the senior girls in football, a character breakfast, Hugs for Brady charity dinner, the Spirit Carnival and A Walk Under the Stars, as part of the One Book, One School program.
Students and faculty read “A Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, about two teenagers dealing with childhood cancer.
“A Walk Under the Stars” was organized based on the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
“It was a really great way to bring the book to life,” Saiia said. “It was one of those things I will never be able to forget.”
Additionally, students and faculty donated hair and shaved their heads after donating money to the cause.
Saiia noted the Precious Gems Memorial Run is coming up and will be done as “color run” with colorful powder being thrown as runners do the 5k, to be held April 27.
“We’ll see how that goes, a lot of us are excited,” Saiia.
• Seneca’s cross country team will be honored by the state board of education for good sportsmanship on May 15.
According to Birnbohm, the team came in first at the Cross Country Shootout at Gloucester County College. The team placed first after a Mt. St. Dominic runner, slated to win first place, collapsed several feet from the finish line. As a result, Mt. St. Dominic didn’t place, and Seneca ended up with the title.
“At the awards ceremony, Seneca knew the way in which they won the trophy and didn’t feel right,” Birnbohm said. “They turned over their trophy at the awards ceremony. That was a pretty special thing to happen.”
The next board of education meeting is scheduled for May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the District Administration Building located at 93 Willow Grove Road in Shamong.
