Emergency workshop captures attention of NWT educators
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Dec 08/00) - Northern schools and education councils are preparing for an emergency.
Pictures of the aftermath of school shootings in Columbine, Colo. and in Taber still haunts many. Touched by the images, the NWT Department of Education wanted to make sure all schools here have an umbrella plan in place.
The emergency preparedness workshop held by the department in Yellowknife Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 was a way to calm the fears.
About 30 principals and others from the education arena from all NWT jurisdictions attended.
The emergency plan overview was handed out as a guideline for dealing with natural disasters, fires, intruders, shootings and bombs as well as suicides.
"Schools are not the safe havens they used to be," said Don Morrison, co-ordinator of educational opportunities for the department.
"The plan is very comprehensive and calls for the development of partnerships within communities to provide the resources that you need and the issue for small communities is that they don't have many resources."
The Yellowknife Fire Department and the RCMP are some of the resources Morrison was talking about.
Representatives from both were at the workshop to offer insight, suggestion and themselves as future contacts.
Mike Lowing explained a fire at Mildred Hall school several years ago, in which one child was taken to the hospital because of asthma complications. A paper towel dispenser was lit and caused a small fire in the bathroom. He explained what happened and what could have been done better. He also offered to work with other fire departments in other Northern communities to put specific plans in place.
"All the communities have different resources and I think it is a question of identifying what resources are available," said Doug Blakely of Norman Wells.
Blakely is a consultant that assists with school division's programming.
He said a community like Norman Wells has to be "contextual and flexible" such as when the lone social worker is out of town or if some of the nurses from the hamlet's station are on a conference, for example. Smaller communities such as Colville Lake and Rae Lakes do not have any RCMP members in town and Colville Lake has no nurses.
"You have isolated communities, great distances, fewer resources and a harsher climate and geography," said Ron Kuban, president of Turning Point Group Inc.
The company -- which specializes in preparing, managing and communicating during crisis and emergency -- was hired through funding from each jurisdiction as well as municipal and community affairs.
"What you have going for you is tighter knit communities, independence and self-reliance, which is a tremendous asset when responding to disaster," Kuban said.
"But when something happens the impact on people as human beings are always the same no matter where you are."
