School for the Deaf pines for better warning system

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Everyone recalls being in school and practicing for an emergency — lining hallways in the case of a tornado or exiting through the nearest doors in the case of a fire.

And the Board of Regents-run Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs is no different — it also regularly drills students on how to respond in a variety of scenarios, including fire, extreme weather, and active shooters on campus.

But what does make the School for the Deaf unique is many of its 100-plus students can't hear specific instructions broadcast over an intercom system. They rely on staff communication, if those adults are around, or electronic warnings delivered via text to their phones.

In some cases, those vital resources aren't available or accessible — as the schools hosts students ages 6 to 21, many of whom live in residence halls during the weekdays without adults in their rooms. And school officials say something needs to change, although the cost of installing an updated alarm system that is more hearing-impaired-friendly is steep and likely years off.

'I imagine it would cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to run through campus,' said John Cool, assistant administrator for the school. 'We are actively pursuing this, but we don't have a timeline. Because in order for us to accomplish this, it takes money. And it's outside of our budget.'

Prominent across campus right now are bright, clear strobe lights that flash in emergencies. Those are in classrooms, hallways, main buildings and bedrooms. And somewhere in all of the campus' eight buildings are amber-hued lights — paired with the clear strobe lights — that flash specifically in weather emergencies.

But those amber lights aren't widespread, leaving many students without details of the threat they face and how best to respond. Should they evacuate, lock down or move away from the windows?

'They could be in a building and have the light going off, and it's going to look like fire,' Cool said. 'They would exit and run outside, only to go out into a tornado or put themselves in danger because it's a lockdown.'

That's actually happened, Cool recently told members of a Board of Regents's safety and security subcommittee. An administrator heard and saw the alarm and took students outside.

'Then he realized it was a tornado drill and took the kids to the basement,' Cool said.

Color-coded alarm technology is available today and being used in special schools across the country. Those visually advanced systems typically include three lights — clear for fire, amber for extreme weather and blue signaling the need for a lockdown.

Cool said administrators want to have those hued lights everywhere they currently have the clear strobe lights — including in student bedrooms and classrooms.

'All of the buildings have the amber lights some place, but you don't want people having to go down and look for them,' Cool said. 'I don't want them wandering around if they should be in the basement.'

Again, he stressed, the school does have both clear lights signaling fire and amber lights signaling weather somewhere in every campus building.

'But we need to get them into the bedrooms where the children are sleeping,' he said.

'We don't live in that time anymore'

The Iowa School for the Deaf is equipped for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade, and it has some who stay on for a post-high school program. Of the school's on-campus fall enrollment of 104, 69 students live on campus during the week — they head home on most weekends.

Those living on campus range in age from 6 to 21, resulting in a broad range of abilities in responding to emergencies, Cool said.

In addition to lights, the school has audible alarms for those who do have hearing or some degree of hearing. And it has a messaging system that can send a variety of alerts and notifications to student and parent mobile devices via text message or email.

The campus has a fire-suppression system everywhere 'a child lays their head,' Cool said.

The school also runs extensive drills and training sessions on how to respond in emergencies — making sure students understand that a clear light doesn't always mean fire and that they need to check for an amber light to confirm.

'But those lights are not available in enough places right now,' Cool said.

Money for a new system is not available in the 2017 budget, and lawmakers have been wrangling over limited education funds for months — leaving both K-12 administrators and the Board of Regents disappointed with lower-than-requested appropriations.

Cool said he doesn't think capital improvement funds will be available for any alarm system upgrades until the 2019 budget year. Because that year begins July 2018, Cool said, that's the soonest he expects any progress.

Still, he said, the issue does have some degree of urgency.

'Certainly, school safety is kind of at the forefront of everything nowadays,' he said. 'It is important to me.'

School administrators have done everything they can to ensure student safety with the tools they have, according to Cool. But, he said, the level of risk is hard to gauge.

'Like Sandy Hook, you never thought it was going to happen,' he said. 'You never think those bad things will happen. But they can. And there is a concern behind it, yes.'

School administrators historically might not have wanted to spend their limited capital improvement dollars to prevent what-if scenarios, he said.

'But we don't live in a time where it's a waste of money to do a big system,' he said. 'We don't live in that time anymore.'

'You're not sure what it is'

Erica Bloomhall, 16, is a high school sophomore at the school and said she understands her school's special circumstances and notification limitations. That's why she's getting involved.

She's writing a proposal — due in June — for a grant that would land the school two large TV monitors that could be used in cases of emergency to notify the campus about specifics of a threat.

'ISD has alarms for fires and storms, things like that, and you have some students that have phones or computers,' Bloomhall told The Gazette with the help of an interpreter.

But, she said, sometimes students don't get the messages immediately or teachers are too busy helping other students.

'If you have a TV, that would be there immediately and you could walk by and see it and think, 'OK, I can see that,'' she said.

Bloomhall said she expects to find out about the grant sometime after August, and the school aims to match the value of the grant by adding two more monitors, for a total of four. Those would be mounted in main buildings near heavy-traffic areas — increasing the speed with which details and specific messages are disseminated and giving students more control over their ability to gather information.

But, Bloomhall said, she'd like to see the campuswide alarm system upgraded sooner than later. Because, she said, if the alarm goes off in her room at night, she isn't completely sure what to do.

'We just have to wait for the staff to tell us, and sometimes we don't even know until we get to …

well, sometimes we just really don't know,' she said.

The text- and email-alert system typically is useless at night because staff aren't updating it or students aren't connected, Bloomhall said. That leaves late-night alarms somewhat useless.

'The only alarm in my room is the fire, so it means fire,' she said. 'But at the same time, you're not sure what it is.'