With little fanfare, Paly principal Scott Laurence implemented a new emergency plan on Wednesday, October 20. The new plan has many long overdue improvements over the previous plan.
According to Laurence, if an evacuation were necessary, all students would evacuate to the football field under the new plan. This allows the administration to better exercise effective command and control over the situation. In addition, this places the evacuated students right next to a storage container full of emergency stores, such as food rations and medical supplies.
Students who have a prep are also encouraged to return to the school in case of an emergency. Not only does it lessen confusion for administrators, but also allows the school to better ensure the safety of the students. According to Laurence, the school is working to convince parents and students that returning to the campus is the best and safest course of action in an emergency.
"Our goal in life is for you to come back from T&C, come over here, and teachers will take care of you," Laurence said.
According to Laurence, in the previous plan, many students would evacuate to the parking lot behind the 300 and 400 buildings. The problem with the previous plan was that the parking lot behind the two buildings is one of two access ways emergency vehicles use to reach a storage area for natural gas and other chemicals behind the portables.
"Getting run over by a fire truck defeats the purpose of evacuating you to the parking lot," Laurence said.
Other security changes at Paly include addressing the issues of theft from lockers. One of the foundations of the new locker security plan is to increase student awareness for the safety of their belongings. In addition, the school has replaced the lockers in the gym.
"With the old lockers, you can kick them, and they open," said Mr. Laurence.
Mr. Laurence also addressed the relationship between theft and alcoholism and drug addiction.
"[In relation to alcohol at Paly], there’s people here who need cash who can’t get it in typical ways. If we can identify the students at risk, we can reduce [theft]," Laurence said.
The school is also changing the enforcement of the carpool parking policy. Previously, the school itself would hand out tickets and take in fines from violators. According to Laurence, the school is planning to bring in the Palo Alto Police Department to enforce parking, meaning that the proceeds from fines would also go to the Palo Alto Police Department. However, in order for the Palo Alto Police Department to agree to enforce the parking policy, the school has had to bring the parking lot up to city standards.
"We’ve tried very hard to get this campus to compliance. Everything has to be perfect. For example, we had a bunch of signs up on six-foot poles. The PAPD came and told us the signs had to be on seven-foot poles," Laurence said.