My students need 2-way radios, for the security of knowing that parents and teachers can communicate during a storm if the power goes out and intercom is unavailable.
May 20, 2013 is a day to remember, though many would like to forget. As the sirens were warning of the approaching deadly tornado, our faculty guided students to the safety of the inside hallways. Unfortunately the intercom had quit working and communication in the building was a challenge.
Our schools serves a varied population, many of whom are from low income families.
We have a variety of ethnic cultures in our school. On May 20, 2013, our students were safe in the inside hallways of our schools, while parents were understandably anxious to be reunited with them. Hindering that process was the fact that our intercom system had gone down making it difficult to communicate across the building. We want to take every precaution that we can to see that we have better communication if this unimaginable crisis were to happen again.
My Project
With the failure of our intercom system, it became very difficult to contact teachers in the building to inform them of parents waiting for their children in order to take them home before the arrival of the deadly tornado on May 20. Two-way radios became the only means of communication, though not every teacher had one in their rooms. The teachers with the radios had to find those students and get them to the office. If every teacher in the building had a radio, each would know if their students was being checked out and could get them to the parent more quickly, so we want to get them to as many of the faculty as we can. While it may not be realistic to expect to be able to get one to every teacher, this grant would enable me to have a radio so that I could more easily assist in uniting anxious parents with their students. Even without these dire circumstances, the two-way radio is effective in locating any student or faculty if needed.
While we hope to never face this type of situation again, we know that having these two-way radios will help us more effectively communicate with each other in case of emergency.
We are constantly evaluating what can make our schools as safe as possible, and communication is one area where we hope to improve. Our students will be secure in the knowledge that we are connected to everyone in the building through the use of radio.
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