On 9/11 what did DCPS do for parents who worked outside DC and had to get back into the city?

[Anonymous]

Not DC, but MD. I stayed with kids until close to 5 when my principal decided I could leave to get my own child. I had to walk to do it.

[Anonymous]

I worked in VA and lived in DC that day. We were not able to cross into DC at all. It wasn't about traffic, it was ban.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Lockdown" wasn't a thing then. Nobody had plans for something like this because nobody had considered the possibility. Basically, schools had somebody who volunteered to stay with the kids.

Reading this brought back how chaotic that day was...

No people knew it could happen and considered it a possibility but a low possibility. So no plans were made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that there were DCPS children and teachers killed on 9/11. That is still one of the most heartbreaking part of it all.

Carry on.

?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does each school have a plan now? I never thought to ask really - they have the shooter lockdowns but what about these?

What is the plan if a meteor hits? What is the plan if the killer bees finally get here? What if sharks grow legs and come onto land to attack? You should ask, PP

Thanks for the snark, but it’s not a crazy question (and I’m not the PP). I remember in 2010 (?) back when there was a quick-moving and unexpectedly heavy snow storm. I managed to leave work early, had been on a bus when the bus driver announced he couldn’t make it up the incline on Wisconsin Ave. We all got off — I made it home an hour later because the snow was so bad by foot, but it was even worse by car. Some people were stuck in their cars for hours.

So no...it’s not a crazy question.

A good question to ask the school, but OP, also something to consider with your emergency pickup list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Lockdown" wasn't a thing then. Nobody had plans for something like this because nobody had considered the possibility. Basically, schools had somebody who volunteered to stay with the kids.

Reading this brought back how chaotic that day was...

Columbine happened before 9/11. I had friends at Stuyvesant, not far from the twin towers. They were all locked in the school. One of my friends said f it and walked home not wanting to possibly die locked in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that there were DCPS children and teachers killed on 9/11. That is still one of the most heartbreaking part of it all.

Carry on.

?????

Google it, they were on the plane that hit the Pentagon. I didn't know either, thanks for the reminder PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that there were DCPS children and teachers killed on 9/11. That is still one of the most heartbreaking part of it all.

Carry on.

?????

Google it, they were on the plane that hit the Pentagon. I didn't know either, thanks for the reminder PP.

DCPS tweeted out their pictures on the anniversary. They were supposed to be going on the trip of a lifetime.

So sad.

[Anonymous]

Your school probably does have a plan. It may need updating.

After 9/11 our charter got a grant and assistance from the City to develop response plans for various scenarios. It was communicated to families each year. There were plans for communication, evacuation, sheltering in place etc.

I think as the memory of that day fades it is being communicated less frequently, or perhaps those plans should be dusted off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no good administrator who would leave children unattended, no matter how long that meant staff had to stay at school. This was an incredibly rare event. It doesn't make sense for them to have a plan for EVERY single thing that could go wrong.

The kids would be kept safe at school.

In a lot of ways we have it much much better now because there is so much immediate information. In 2001 there was no texting or social media.

That is true, but should we rely on that if we had another such emergency? We did have cell phones back on 9/11, and they were not helpful then because so many people were trying to call and find out what was happening. Maybe also because at least in NYC, certain cell towers went down? Nobody could get through. Could our data networks handle such a load emergency now? I don't know.

I didn’t get a cell phone until the days after, but I recall it was difficult to even make a landline call and so many people were trying to load various news sites that you couldn’t access those either. Someone in my office had an old radio and he turned it up so we could hear it around the floor until we were told to evacuate. Would anyone even have a radio these days?

Being evacuated to the street in NYC with no way to contact anyone and no where to go since I didn’t live in Manhattan remains one of the scariest moments of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does each school have a plan now? I never thought to ask really - they have the shooter lockdowns but what about these?

What is the plan if a meteor hits? What is the plan if the killer bees finally get here? What if sharks grow legs and come onto land to attack? You should ask, PP

Thanks for the snark, but it’s not a crazy question (and I’m not the PP). I remember in 2010 (?) back when there was a quick-moving and unexpectedly heavy snow storm. I managed to leave work early, had been on a bus when the bus driver announced he couldn’t make it up the incline on Wisconsin Ave. We all got off — I made it home an hour later because the snow was so bad by foot, but it was even worse by car. Some people were stuck in their cars for hours.

So no...it’s not a crazy question.

A good question to ask the school, but OP, also something to consider with your emergency pickup list.

NP. The plan at my school varies based on the type of attack. In all honesty, they're all terrible plans. If it's something like 9/11 (not in our immediate vicinity and with no perceivable risk to us), then we just stay in our classrooms until parents arrive to pick up their kids. Chemical attack with possibility of affecting us: huddle in the auditorium, tape the doors and vents. Nuclear attack: see chemical attack. Any type of attack close to us: treat it like a school shooting and lock down the building. With little access to food (lunch needs to be prepared...no power=no food), we don't really have any long-term options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Lockdown" wasn't a thing then. Nobody had plans for something like this because nobody had considered the possibility. Basically, schools had somebody who volunteered to stay with the kids.

Reading this brought back how chaotic that day was...

No people knew it could happen and considered it a possibility but a low possibility. So no plans were made.

Well, it's still a low possibility, and since most DCPS schools aren't downtown, the kids are probably safer in school than they would be anywhere else. So I'm perfectly fine with my kids' school not making plans for a terrorist attack on D.C. (Also, because I work in journalism, I didn't leave my office in downtown D.C. until about 9 p.m. on 9/11, and if I survived a terrorist attack downtown I'd probably have to stay at work after that, too, anyway.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no good administrator who would leave children unattended, no matter how long that meant staff had to stay at school. This was an incredibly rare event. It doesn't make sense for them to have a plan for EVERY single thing that could go wrong.

The kids would be kept safe at school.

In a lot of ways we have it much much better now because there is so much immediate information. In 2001 there was no texting or social media.

That is true, but should we rely on that if we had another such emergency? We did have cell phones back on 9/11, and they were not helpful then because so many people were trying to call and find out what was happening. Maybe also because at least in NYC, certain cell towers went down? Nobody could get through. Could our data networks handle such a load emergency now? I don't know.

I didn’t get a cell phone until the days after, but I recall it was difficult to even make a landline call and so many people were trying to load various news sites that you couldn’t access those either. Someone in my office had an old radio and he turned it up so we could hear it around the floor until we were told to evacuate. Would anyone even have a radio these days?

Being evacuated to the street in NYC with no way to contact anyone and no where to go since I didn’t live in Manhattan remains one of the scariest moments of my life.

I worked a couple of blocks from the White House. When our office was closed and I left to walk home through the grid locked streets there were people huddled around parked cars listening to the car radio and the TV shop on Connecticut had a throng of people around it watching the TV through the window.