Oquirrh Elementary School Zombie Survival GuideThe Salt Lake Community College Task Force has received alerts that a zombie attack has grown immensely with over 40% of the northern population being re-animated as zombies and an additional 20% with injuries (Lewis). As these attacks have been moving from northern Salt Lake City and will be hitting West Jordan any day now, it is important that we make sure our students are properly taken care of and protected from this threat. Our main goal is to keep the students and faculty safe while we are waiting to reunite them with their families. Your elementary schools need to be more prepared for the impending zombie attack. In fact, the US Department of Educations website for Emergency Planning states The content for this page will be updated at a later date (US Department of Education).

In other words, they are not as prepared as they should be. The only way to not prepare for a zombie outbreak would be to not have a zombie outbreak. Unfortunately, we do not have that luxury in these times. We constructed the following Zombie Survival Guide for Oquirrh Elementary School, due to their location in the south west part of the valley (away from the incoming zombies). As a Task Force we felt it was important to create a guideline including preparatory plans for when disaster strikes, how the school should handle zombies moving into their grounds, how the school can and should communicate with the families and local law enforcement and how the school can recover from the disaster.

PreparationAs Oquirrh Elementary School prepares for impact from the current zombie hoards, we will discuss what we can do as a community to prepare the elementary school with both long-term and short-term planning. Currently, the school district provides an emergency checklist on their web-site which includes items such as plan for internal intruder lockdown and external lockdown, building and grounds assessments conducted with custodians and law enforcement and emergency plans reviewed with fire, law enforcement, feeder system and executive director (Jordan School District). Its important that the school regularly reviews this checklist, at least quarterly, with school faculty. It would be helpful for Oquirrh Elementary to also provide this checklist, at least annually, to the parents and guardians of the students so they would know what to expect. Furthermore, along with reviewing the information, the District should regularly perform surprise inspections on the school to make sure they are compliant, and see where they can improve.While its great to have such a thorough checklist provided, its more important to make sure you have the items included on that checklist. With the approaching zombies, we need to be ready for any scenario that could come up including downed power and phone lines, needing to keep order in the building and a worst case scenario of fighting through the zombies to get to safety. Teachers must be aware of the students with special needs or medical conditions. The last thing we need is a student having an asthma attack and we arent prepared with a backup emergency inhaler. Not only should the schools nurses office have a first aid kit, each classroom should be prepared with one as well in case the nurses office in inaccessible.Keeping OrderWhile the approaching zombies are extremely scary, we must make sure to communicate with our students, in an appropriate way, the current threats (Matthews). Proper communication and setting expectations with our students, ahead of time, regarding any impending threats is essential in not losing complete control in the case we are attacked.It is necessary that we appropriately plan and take these precautionary steps.Now, as it is looking more likely that Oquirrh Elementary School is in the line of attack from the zombies, we must move on to how to react to this type of situation. Keeping order inside of the school is going to be crucial during a zombie outbreak. It is likely the children will be scared and confused and the faculty will all have to work twice as hard to keep them calm and stay calm themselves. We have developed a plan to make this an easier and safer process for everyone. Each faculty and staff member will have an assigned role. Some roles may include bringing available medical supplies, keeping traffic of people flowing in an organized fashion, making sure food rations are handed out evenly, and communicating updates to appropriate parties. Each teacher is in charge of his or her own class and other staff members will be available as needed. Each teacher will also have a designated safe spot to move their students to and get out of the classrooms. We will use the cafeteria, gym, auditorium, and any other rooms with doors only. We suggest using rooms without windows as they pose a potential risk and can be broken into. It will also be key to keep siblings together to make it easier in the event that we release them to their parents and guardians. The students will all be made aware of the true situation so that they know how to react. We will let them know what to expect so that they are prepared ahead of time. This constant communication will help them understand the importance of their cooperation. To keep students calm in the event of an emergency we suggest having books available and activities ready that they can use to keep their attention and draw them away from the real horrors occurring. CommunicationAnother way to keep order within the classrooms and outside the school is by communicating. Communication is vital. It also can be one of the hardest problems to overcome during a disaster. All faculty members need to communicate with each other, head of staff, parents and students. Within the school, walkie talkies will be an essential form of communication among the faculty in case there is no power so that if there are any updates about what is going on outside of the building it can be communicated effectively. If the staff and faculty do not have walkie talkies on hand already then they will need to be purchased as soon as possible.A fast and easy way of communicating with those outside the school is by keeping the Oquirrh Elementary PTA Facebook page updated with the status of the school and students (Oquirrh Elementary PTA). This way parents are can refer to the web-site and have live updates available. Having a Twitter account has also been proven to be effective with the launching of Twitter Alerts. Twitter describes their alert system as a new feature that brings us one step closer to helping users get important and accurate information during emergencies, natural disasters or when other communications services arent accessible. Government agencies and emergency responders jump into action on the ground and on Twitter, delivering critical and timely information and engaging with constituents (Coyne).Although the internet is a great source of live communication from the school, we need to have a backup plan in case the web is down. In the Jordan School District Emergency Checklist they have a Staff Calling Tree and a Parent Calling Tree. On the calling trees, each staff member and parent has a responsibility to call another specific staff member or parent so everyone is notified in a timely and organized way. Each parent needs to provide an emergency contact in case the parent is unavailable, cannot receive text messages or phone calls. This way someone will be reached in order to effectively relay updates. All faculty members need to make sure this list is current in case we need to manually make calls (What to Expect During a School Emergency). We realize for staff members to reach out to parents or guardians individually by phone maybe a time consuming process. In addition to the Facebook updates and Twitter updates, we also suggest sending mass text messages to parents with any news. It is more convenient and can save you a lot of time. If the internet and phone lines are down then having a portable radio is important. Whether that be listening to news updates or having a hand-held radio to communicate to law enforcements. If all else fails try signaling for help. Some examples of this would be hanging posters or signs in windows to signify the school is in need of help. Having an emergency flare gun available will also be resourceful in order to signal to helicopters or planes. It is also wise that at least one faculty member knows Morse code in case you are dealing with a threat versus a natural disasters.Evacuation PlanIf communication with the outside world is successful then its time to start thinking about getting people out of the building. When warranted, evacuation plans will play an important role in our preparedness plan because if it is safe we want to be able to get the children out to be with their families. Younger grades should be released first because they will be more difficult to control than the older students. We can use all the school buses if we have to in order to get them home, otherwise parents will be notified to come and get their children. There will be a release form that parents will need to bring signed along with proper identification before we can release the children (Snoqualmie Valley School District). Parents will drive to the back of the school and form a line that we will keep flowing and there will be no parking available; we will bring the students out in groups. The front of the school will be strictly blocked off for medical and other emergency vehicles. This process will be continued as we release each student. If there are children remaining towards the end of this process then we will try to contact a family member of theirs to come and pick them up. The major goal of the evacuation plan is to safely get these students to their parents in a timely matter as zombies are heading further south so we will need to do this as safely and quickly as possible.Plan BIn the worst case scenario, our task force has come up with a Plan B that would be implemented immediately if the intruders do manage to find their way into the school. If it was not done already, faculty should barricade the doors and windows with what is available. Filing cabinets and desks would then be piled upon each other making it more difficult for the zombies to get through. As stated earlier, the students would be moved to either the gym or the cafeteria area but if those rooms could not be secured, then the students and faculty would then be moved to the roof. From there the faculty would attempt to create SOS signals and students could also easily perform signaling tactics (Signaling Techniques) to get the attention of emergency responders such as the National Guard. If there is a school police officer, then he or she would stand by the main staircase or ladder to the roof ready to defend off intruders. Another option would be to use the legs of desks as weapons and have some members of the faculty prepared to fight off the zombies. There the main goal would be to try and get the students rescued, if this fails then the next step would be to try and get the students out of the building by diverting the attention of the zombies away from the school. Once this has happened someone would go down to check if any zombies are still inside the school. Once cleared, the students will be let out and then taken to the nearest safe zone. From there they will be awaiting a Crisis Team, which will aid faculty and parents. This is indicated by the Direct Student Intervention Services Department, where it states that it is A crisis team consisting of counselors and psychologists with specialized training. (Jordan School District) With the preparations and scenarios we have discussed thus far we are confident in the abilities of Oquirrh Elementary School to be able to accomplish this goal. Not only should this survival guide be utilized for Oquirrh Elementary, it can and should be implemented in other schools state and nationwide. This survival guide can also be applied as a guide for other possible situations, once the current situation with zombies has been resolved. Its important that as a community, we take action now instead of waiting for the doom to strike us.

Works CitedCoyne, Bridget. Introducing Twitter Alerts. 25 September 2013. 13 April 2015. .Jordan School District. Jordan District. 2 August 2007. 13 April 2015. .. "Jordan School District Student Intervention Services." n.d. Jordan District. .Lewis, Kati. Alert 9. 11 March 2015. Web.Matthews, John. Make your classroom safe for weather and violent emergencies. n.d. Web. 15 April 2015.Oquirrh Elementary PTA. Oquirrh Elementary PTA. n.d. 13 April 2015. ."Signaling Techniques." n.d. Wilderness Survival. .Snoqualmie Valley School District. n.d. 24 April 2015.US Department of Education. US Department of Education. 15 January 2015. 13 April 2015. .What to Expect During a School Emergency. 25 June 2014.