Situation 1: Medical Emergency

When an event on school grounds brings in a crowd of parents, siblings, grandparents, and the general public, there will be situations that require emergency preparedness. A medical emergency can involve a student, staff member, or even a spectator. Make sure your staff know how to respond. Here are a few things to consider regarding potential medical emergencies:

Make sure all emergency medical equipment is mapped. This may include:
- AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator): for use when someone experiences sudden cardiac arrest
- EpiPens
- First Aid Boxes

Emergency medical equipment should be close to any extracurricular or sporting event venue. Make sure that staff members locate these items prior to any event.

For more information on how to map these items, see our article on Drawing Tools.

Coordinate communication beforehand.

If your school has the nSide|Lockdown app, there is a Medical emergency button in the app that can be used during or after school hours. Make sure staff members have their app updated and easily accessible during an event. If you do not have the Lockdown app or another mass communication app, designate points of contact beforehand.

Questions to consider:

Do you have medical responders pre-stationed at your event?
Do you have an easy entrance in and out for medical responders?
Do your medical responders know what pre-existing medical issues your students or staff may have at these events?
Have you worked with the medical responders to know what they are capable of as well as what they may need and expect from you during an emergency?
Have you communicated with the visiting team's leadership/contact about medical issues? (did they bring emergency personnel?)

Situation 2: Evacuation

Several situations can lead to the need for evacuation from an extracurricular event, but the most common may be fire. While fire drills are a staple of school safety training, remember that most attendees of an extracurricular event will not be familiar with a school's safety procedures.

Things to consider when planning for an evacuation event:

Make sure that evacuation routes specific to events are included in your EOP and map.
Work with first responders to insure you have the best plan
Know the building capacity limitations and assign someone to monitor capacity at each event.
Test all your emergency warning equipment to make sure it is working properly prior to each event.
Make sure all exit doors and gates will open for evacuation.
Make sure that your plan & relocation areas are shared with all entities of the visiting team, officials, and security personnel at the event.

Situation 3: Travel

Travel is a big part of many extracurricular activities- traveling to away games, traveling to competitions or conferences, or just traveling across town for an excursion. When travel is required for extracurricular activities, there are often students and staff traveling on a bus who do not regularly ride a bus. A few reminders about bus safety may be necessary for these riders. In addition to the logistics of travel itself, here are a few more things to consider with travel events:

Map your route prior to the travel date and let parents and staff know these plans.
Be prepared to monitor weather prior to departure and during travel.
Verify emergency contact information for all students and staff who are traveling.
Know the Shelter in Place, Evacuation, and Lockdown plans at the away venue.
Establish a direct line of communication with the contact person and security team at the away location.
Make sure you know how you will receive notice of an emergency and updates during an emergency at the travel location.
If your school does not have nSide|Fleet, consider adding this essential tool for school transportation tracking.

Situation 4: Shelter-in-Place

The most common scenario that requires shelter-in-place plans would be severe weather. While most extracurricular events are canceled ahead of major severe weather systems, we know how unpredictable weather can be at times. That's why shelter-in-place plans specific to extracurricular events must be made. A stadium or gym may easily hold a crowd, but where will the crowd go when a severe weather threat is imminent?

Points to Consider with Shelter-in-Place:

If there is a weather threat prior to an event, information should be shared with all entities of your team, the visiting team, officials, and gate workers.
Make sure there is at least one person responsible for monitoring possible weather threats - even if nothing is in the forecast.
Identify shelter-in-place locations for event venues prior to each event, giving consideration to unusual crowd size or any other factor that could affect the plan.
Inform first responders and any staff workers of the shelter-in-place plan and how you will communicate with them to execute your plan if there is an emergency.
Ensure that communication infrastructure is in place to inform/warn everyone in attendance of an emergency with the ability to provide critical information and updates. (Intercom, Mass Notification, nSide|Lockdown App)
If a weather event which will affect road conditions develops, have a plan in place for evacuating not only the venue, but the parking lots as well.

Situation 5: Lockdown

A lockdown at an extracurricular event is usually going to be related to an intruder/trespasser or an active shooter. Because of the nature of large events, lockdown is a little more complicated for extracurricular activities, but here are some general guidelines to follow when considering such an event:

Work with your local police department or SRO to insure that there is a coordinated response plan for an intruder/active shooter incident. (There should be both an overarching plan, as well as an event-specific plan.)
In the event there is a threat prior to an event, detailed information should be shared with all entities of your team as well as the visiting team, officials, and gate workers.
Make sure you have communications infrastructure in place to communicate threat information, updates or Lockdown instructions to all attendees during an emergency event. (nSide|Lockdown App, Intercom, alarms, radios etc.)

Be sure to check out our blog post on Sports and Extracurricular Activities!