Crisis situations can occur at any time and in any settings; whether they are generated from a natural disaster or brought on by adult individuals; but in any case it’s best to be prepared to deal with these sort of crisis especially those individuals in a Head Start program. After learning about crisis situations in a real-life event, it is a true fact that they can cause so much hassle and a big ordeal for both children, and their caregivers, because they causes a threat to the lives of innocent victims. In some cases there are a lot of all Head Start programs who are being target with some sort of problem or disaster; whether it’s early morning or during noon time. So no matter what the cause may be dangerous situations can pop up at any time and it’s best to have a thoughtfully action plan in place for dealing with them.
When dealing with a crisis situation, whether they occur in Head Start programs or even Daycare settings, it's best for individuals to be prepared for them, because a crisis situation is a disaster that can harm innocent individuals. There are a lot of disasters that have occurred in many schools across the nation, where innocent peoples have lost their lives, because they weren’t prepared for them and they didn’t have an action plan in place. So in order for all school settings and Head Start programs in today’s world to deal with a crisis situation, they need to be on task with getting and organizing their plans to be able to deal with any type of event that may occur.
During the year of 2010 in my home town of Fayette Mississippi, a terrible tornado hit our small town and a lot of people received major damages to their homes, cars and business. The drastic problem about this situation was that we knew that a storm were supposed to hit our town that day, but by having irresponsible individuals in charge and being in charge school was not canceled for that day. So we went to work and uncaring parents sent their young children; ages three and four years old to school and to my surprise a majority of the classroom had all twenty children present that particular day. Well what happened after that seemed so strange because it started off being a beautiful day. At around 9:30 that morning some of the children in my class started to notice the sky was getting dark, and one of the student stated that his mother told him a storm was coming; how uncaring and unconcerned parents can be about their children, but I got all of them down on the rug and phoned the office but it didn’t do any good. So after everyone else started to notice what was getting ready to take place, we got the message to phone parents while the buses started to load the children in preparation to take them home; but it was too late. The storm hit and knocked out power and phone lines, so we had no way of getting in touch with anyone; but the sheriff department came over to check on us and stated to our supervisor to never let that happen anymore.
The most danger posed by this situation was that we saw it coming and could do nothing, because we didn’t even have time to go out in the hallway to get on our needs and cover our heads. While this ordeal seemed so scary at the time, we didn’t realize until later that a lot of lives could have been lost because of individuals who were trying to make money and get a school day in for that particular day. They chose not to realize and understand that all of our lives were in danger, and it took the sheriff department to explain to them that having a school day on the day a storm was supposed to hit was totally out of the question; no matter how much time will be lost in making up for that day. In being prepared for that particular day and knowing that we had to go to work, my colleagues and I should have phoned parents upon our arrival and told them it that would be best to keep their children at home, if the children were on the bus already could they please be in prepared to come to get them. The consequences of not being prepared caused so many innocent lives to be in danger of being lost, and young children crying and wailing for their parents; but by the grace of God we all made it through it safely.
The appropriate steps which I would take to develop a plan in advance for this disaster would be to first cancel school a day ahead of time, when I receive word that a storm is in route to hit the following day. The next step would be to have the sheriff’s department to phone the school ahead of time in order to get everyone safely home if a tornado is occurring during school hours. The third step would be to have a weather radio installed in all classrooms, so that all the teachers would be up-to-date about what the weather would be like even in a normal day. In dealing with this type of disaster I think that it would be a great idea for all Head Start programs to have sirens, so whenever a storm is approaching the sirens would go off to let employee’s know something seriously is about to happen.
Some disaster’s in Head Start programs are brought on by parents, and or employees who decides to bring their problems to their job site; with the involving of guns, or fist fights for uncertain reasons to others, and they fail to realize that children are around, and they are endangering their lives. A lot of times there may be parents who wish to come out to the school to settle a problem with an employee there, or husbands or wives who wish to settle a problem with the opposite sex while on their jobs. This type of situation has happened in many Day Care programs and in some Head Start programs across the world as well. A majority of innocent people have lost their lives because of ungrateful stunts like these. Once again at the Head Start program where I work, it was during the year of 2009 and a parent decided to enter into the building with a knife. This particular parent was thought to have been on some type of medication, because she walked the hallways back and forth using unpleasant words about different teachers, and their personal lives. This situation could have really gotten out of hands, because that parent could have easily gone into a classroom and targeted innocent victims. The strangest thing in this situation was that her son was in my classroom, and she never thought about entering into my room not once.
The most danger posed by this situation, were that the parent could have tackled one of the employees and harmed them seriously, or she could have harmed one of the young children attending school that day. In this situation everyone was at risk because the parent was walking up and down the hall and she could have gotten into either classroom of her choice, but she didn’t. It was not like she couldn’t because our classroom doors do not lock from the inside, but during that time I think God was on our side that day to not let her have the desire to want to enter into either room. “Children need safe environments if they are to thrive. When that safety is disrupted, for whatever reason, adults need to reassure children that they will be protected. Crises can range from school-related incidents to incidents in the community, such as natural disasters, or the world at large, such as terrorism or war (Electronic Retrieved from http://www.schoolcounselor.org/content.asp?contentid=533)”.
In preparing for this situation, my colleagues and I could have phoned the police ourselves and explained to them the situation that was taking place, instead of waiting for the supervisor to phone authorities stating that there was a deranged parent on campus who had not taken her medication. My colleagues and I need to be prepared for a situation like this because by that parent having a child in my classroom she could have easily targeted me and my assistant first, and then the other children in my care that day. The consequences of not being prepared caused a parent to easily walk into the school building with a deadly weapon, and exposed personal business of some employees.
The appropriate steps in dealing with this situation is there should have been metal detectors installed so that when the parent came through the doors with her deadly weapon the alarms would have gone off. Next the receptionist should have not allowed the parent to proceed down the hallways to where the classrooms were, with her arm folded under her clothes. Third when the supervisor phoned the authorities, she should have explained to them the situation with the parent, while adding that she was threatening the lives of innocent people because she was concealing a deadly weapon. In both of these situations, there should have been an emergency plan in place where everyone had access to important phone numbers and we all should have taken action in an appropriate manner. Being that there were children involved in both cases, I feel that in neither of them that the lives of the children were thought of, because things went undone and their lives were at stake in both situations. I think it would be best for all parents who have children enrolled in a Head Start or Day Care setting should have a say about what they feel should be done to protect their children, whenever any type of crisis comes about because their children’s lives are the one hanging in the balance during times like these.
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