Communications During an Emergency
- General Information
Communications During an Emergency
OSSD follows a comprehensive Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), which includes procedures for a wide variety of emergencies. Student safety is the priority in every phase of the EOP and we remain in constant contact with local emergency management officials throughout any emergency.
Communication is a major component of our EOP. OSSD utilizes several communications methods to keep parents informed, depending on the nature of the incident and the actions we may need parents to take. These include the all-new OSSD mobile app, website, social media, an automated notification system (text, e-mail and/or telephone messages), and when needed, the news media. In order to focus our attention on student safety during an emergency, communications efforts are coordinated at the district level through OSSD Communications.
In a true emergency, events happen fast and situations can vary from campus to campus. We will do our best to keep you informed in a timely manner, especially as it pertains to early or delayed dismissal times, transportation issues and any other changes to your child’s instructional day. Below is the order of operations in which we communicate during an emergency:
Step I: Ensure Student/Staff Safety & Campus Security
- Our first priority in an emergency situation is to ensure the safety of our students and staff, and secure all campuses and facilities. It is the responsibility of every district employee to ensure student safety.
Step II: Gather Information & Establish Event Timeline
- School and district leadership work closely with the OSSD PD, The City of Ocean Springs Police Department, and other partners when a critical incident affects a school. We do not make decisions based solely on rumor or conjecture. Each threat is swiftly and thoroughly investigated to determine its credibility. That process can take time, because it can involve search warrants, interviews, home visits, and more.
- This can be a difficult time for families. You may have heard of a situation from your student or rumors online, but as it is investigated, you likely will not receive much information from official sources like the school, district or police department. This is intentional, because communicating before we have all of the facts can delay or impede the investigation and unnecessarily escalate a situation. We rely on you to trust us, and have patience, during this time.
- While it can be tempting, please avoid speculating or participating in the spread of misinformation online and in messaging. This creates unnecessary stress and concern for others, and it can put your student, our staff, and campus in danger.
Step III: Create Messaging that Adheres to Legal & Ethical Guidelines
- State and federal law, as well as district policy, restrict what information is public about students and investigations. When it comes to students, very little information can be shared publicly — and districts must comply with data practices and investigatory requirements. That means we are often unable to share any information about a student who is involved in an incident, including whether they are a student at our school, whether they are attending on a certain day and any disciplinary action they will receive.
- In a moment when you don’t have all the information you want to have, please know we are making decisions to keep our students and staff safe, hold people accountable for their actions, and when possible, help them to learn from their mistakes. To do this most effectively — and legally — we cannot share most of the details that could make some families feel more fully informed.
Step IV: Distribute Messaging
- Once we gather facts and develop appropriate messages for each unique situation, we begin a second period of reviewing those messages for any inaccurate or misleading information, having them reviewed by partners and our legal advisors to be sure we comply with legal requirements, and determine who should receive a message. At times, it is only a small group of individuals directly impacted; other times, it may be the entire school community.
- If a message needs to go to the entire school community or a large group of people, it must be loaded into our mass communication systems and sent. While you wait to receive a message, there are often dozens of school leaders, district administrators, law enforcement and legal professionals working as fast as they possibly can to get information to you. It matters to us that you are informed quickly, and we ask for grace and understanding as we make that happen.
- OSSD will first notify staff and parents via email and/or phone call. The district will then publish information on social media and communicate with local media, if necessary.
Here are our requests for students and families:
-
Trust us to keep your children safe. We all receive extensive training and practice emergency response so we are prepared to manage these situations. Our decisions are based on facts and deep situational understanding.
-
Remember: OSSD employs a full-time police department, which consists of nine sworn-in police officers that are lawfully armed and will use necessary force to protect our students and staff.
-
-
Avoid spreading misinformation or speculation: in today’s world, news travels fast but misinformation travels faster. Please avoid speculating or participating in the spread of misinformation online and in messaging, as it creates unnecessary stress and concern for others, and it can put your student, our staff, and campus in danger.
-
Have conversations with your children about social media and their digital citizenship, and actively monitor their online activity.
-
Continue to keep us informed any time you learn of information that could affect student or school safety. We take all reports seriously, investigate them, and take appropriate action.
-
Show grace and practice empathy. Being a school staff member can be one of the most rewarding and the most challenging careers — and our faculty and staff go far above and beyond for our students, families, and one another. In critical situations, we ask for our community to support our staff members just as they support our students each and every day.
- AEC
- K-3
- OSHS
- OSMS
- OSUE