Littlestown Area SD emphasizes situational awareness in drills after consulting fire officials
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Summary
District safety staff and administrators described evacuation guidance focused on adult situational awareness, confirmed state requirements for intruder and monthly fire drills, and discussed balancing surprise drills with student wellbeing; safety officer John Lawrence participated in the discussion.
Speaker 2, an administrator, said he and the district safety officer, John Lawrence, have been working on evacuation guidance and situational-awareness approaches and consulted the deputy fire commissioner of Pennsylvania for guidance. “He said use that situational awareness as the adult leader of that classroom,” Speaker 2 said, reporting the fire official’s advice not to habitually rely only on an alarm-triggered evacuation.
Speaker 2 described the district’s current practice of conducting intruder drills and monthly fire drills and said state requirements call for a safety (intruder) drill within 90 days and a fire drill every month. “Right now, we do the intruder drill and the fire drill,” Speaker 2 said.
The meeting included discussion of communications improvements — Speaker 2 said additional radios are available for staff in outdoor classrooms so they can communicate with the front office — and of the educational framing of drills. Speakers said drills are framed as 'practice' with coaching and situational-awareness instruction rather than simply sounding an alarm, and participants debated how much surprise to include in drills to preserve authentic responses while limiting student stress.
No policy changes or formal votes were recorded; the discussion described operational coordination, training, and continued consultation with state fire officials.