Oquirrh Elementary School Zombie Survival Guide

The Salt Lake Community College Task Force has received alerts that a zombie attack
has grown immensely with over 40% of the northern population being re-animated as
zombies and an additional 20% with injuries (Lewis). As these attacks have been moving
from northern Salt Lake City and will be hitting West Jordan any day now, it is important that
we make sure our students are properly taken care of and protected from this threat. Our
main goal is to keep the students and faculty safe while we are waiting to reunite them with
their families. Your elementary schools need to be more prepared for the impending zombie
attack. In fact, the US Department of Educations website for Emergency Planning states
The content for this page will be updated at a later date (US Department of Education).

In other words, they are not as prepared as they should be. The only way to not
prepare for a zombie outbreak would be to not have a zombie outbreak. Unfortunately, we
do not have that luxury in these times. We constructed the following Zombie Survival Guide
for Oquirrh Elementary School, due to their location in the south west part of the valley
(away from the incoming zombies). As a Task Force we felt it was important to create a
guideline including preparatory plans for when disaster strikes, how the school should
handle zombies moving into their grounds, how the school can and should communicate
with the families and local law enforcement and how the school can recover from the
disaster.

Preparation
As Oquirrh Elementary School prepares for impact from the current zombie hoards,
we will discuss what we can do as a community to prepare the elementary school with both
long-term and short-term planning. Currently, the school district provides an emergency

checklist on their web-site which includes items such as plan for internal intruder lockdown
and external lockdown, building and grounds assessments conducted with custodians and
law enforcement and emergency plans reviewed with fire, law enforcement, feeder system
and executive director (Jordan School District). Its important that the school regularly
reviews this checklist, at least quarterly, with school faculty. It would be helpful for Oquirrh
Elementary to also provide this checklist, at least annually, to the parents and guardians of
the students so they would know what to expect. Furthermore, along with reviewing the
information, the District should regularly perform surprise inspections on the school to make
sure they are compliant, and see where they can improve.

While its great to have such a thorough checklist provided, its more important to
make sure you have the items included on that checklist. With the approaching zombies, we
need to be ready for any scenario that could come up including downed power and phone
lines, needing to keep order in the building and a worst case scenario of fighting through the
zombies to get to safety. Teachers must be aware of the students with special needs or
medical conditions. The last thing we need is a student having an asthma attack and we
arent prepared with a backup emergency inhaler. Not only should the schools nurses office
have a first aid kit, each classroom should be prepared with one as well in case the nurses
office in inaccessible.
Keeping Order
While the approaching zombies are extremely scary, we must make sure to
communicate with our students, in an appropriate way, the current threats (Matthews).
Proper communication and setting expectations with our students, ahead of time, regarding
any impending threats is essential in not losing complete control in the case we are
attacked. It is necessary that we appropriately plan and take these precautionary steps.
Now, as it is looking more likely that Oquirrh Elementary School is in the line of attack
from the zombies, we must move on to how to react to this type of situation. Keeping order
inside of the school is going to be crucial during a zombie outbreak. It is likely the children
will be scared and confused and the faculty will all have to work twice as hard to keep them
calm and stay calm themselves.
We have developed a plan to make this an easier and safer process for everyone.
Each faculty and staff member will have an assigned role. Some roles may include bringing
available medical supplies, keeping traffic of people flowing in an organized fashion, making
sure food rations are handed out evenly, and communicating updates to appropriate parties.
Each teacher is in charge of his or her own class and other staff members will be available as
needed. Each teacher will also have a designated safe spot to move their students to and
get out of the classrooms. We will use the cafeteria, gym, auditorium, and any other rooms
with doors only. We suggest using rooms without windows as they pose a potential risk and

can be broken into. It will also be key to keep siblings together to make it easier in the event
that we release them to their parents and guardians. The students will all be made aware of
the true situation so that they know how to react. We will let them know what to expect so
that they are prepared ahead of time. This constant communication will help them
understand the importance of their cooperation. To keep students calm in the event of an
emergency we suggest having books available and activities ready that they can use to keep
their attention and draw them away from the real horrors occurring.
Communication
Another way to keep order within the classrooms and outside the school is by
communicating. Communication is vital. It also can be one of the hardest problems to
overcome during a disaster. All faculty members need to communicate with each other,
head of staff, parents and students. Within the school, walkie talkies will be an essential
form of communication among the faculty in case there is no power so that if there are any
updates about what is going on outside of the building it can be communicated effectively. If
the staff and faculty do not have walkie talkies on hand already then they will need to be
purchased as soon as possible.

A fast and easy way of communicating

with those outside the school is by

keeping the
Oquirrh
Elementary PTA

Facebook

page updated with the

the school and students
Elementary PTA). This way

status of
(Oquirrh
parents are can
refer to the web-

site and

have live
updates

available. Having a Twitter

account has also been proven to be effective with the launching of Twitter Alerts. Twitter
describes their alert system as a new feature that brings us one step closer to helping users
get important and accurate information during emergencies, natural disasters or when other
communications services arent accessible. Government agencies and emergency
responders jump into action on the ground and on Twitter, delivering critical and timely
information and engaging with constituents (Coyne).
Although the internet is a great source of live communication from the school, we
need to have a backup plan in case the web is down. In the Jordan School District Emergency
Checklist they have a Staff Calling Tree and a Parent Calling Tree. On the calling trees, each
staff member and parent has a responsibility to call another specific staff member or parent
so everyone is notified in a timely and organized way. Each parent needs to provide an
emergency contact in case the parent is unavailable, cannot receive text messages or phone
calls. This way someone will be reached in order to effectively relay updates. All facu lty
members need to make sure this list is current in case we need to manually make calls
(What to Expect During a School Emergency). We realize for staff members to reach out to

parents or guardians individually by phone maybe a time consuming process. In addition to

the Facebook updates and Twitter updates, we also suggest sending mass text messages to
parents with any news. It is more convenient and can save you a lot of time. If the internet
and phone lines are down then having a portable radio is important. Whether that be
listening to news updates or having a hand-held radio to communicate to law enforcements.
If all else fails try signaling for help. Some examples of this would be hanging posters
or signs in windows to signify the school is in need of help. Having an emergency flare gun
available will also be resourceful in order to signal to helicopters or planes. It is also wise
that at least one faculty member knows Morse code in case you are dealing with a threat
versus a natural disasters.
Evacuation Plan
If communication with the outside world is successful then its time to start thinking
about getting people out of the building. When warranted, evacuation plans will play an
important role in our preparedness plan because if it is safe we want to be able to get the
children out to be with their families. Younger grades should be released first because they
will be more difficult to control than the older students. We can use all the school buses if we
have to in order to get them home, otherwise parents will be notified to come and get their
children.
There will be a release form that parents will need to bring signed along with proper
identification before we can release the children (Snoqualmie Valley School District). Parents
will drive to the back of the school and form a line that we will keep flowing and there will be
no parking available; we will bring the students out in groups. The front of the school will be
strictly blocked off for medical and other emergency vehicles. This process will be continued
as we release each student.
If there are children remaining towards the end of this process then we will try to
contact a family member of theirs to come and pick them up. The major goal of the
evacuation plan is to safely get these students to their parents in a timely matter as zombies
are heading further south so we will need to do this as safely and quickly as possible.

Plan B
In the worst case scenario, our task force has come up with a Plan B that would be
implemented immediately if the intruders do manage to find their way into the school. If it
was not done already, faculty should barricade the doors and windows with what is
available. Filing cabinets and desks would then be piled upon each other making it more
difficult for the zombies to get through. As stated earlier, the students would be moved to
either the gym or the cafeteria area but if those rooms could not be secured, then the
students and faculty would then be moved to the roof. From there the faculty would attempt
to create SOS signals and students could also easily perform signaling tactics (Signaling
Techniques) to get the attention of emergency
responders such as the National Guard.
If there is a school police officer, then he
or she would stand by the main staircase or
ladder to the roof ready to defend off intruders.
Another option would be to use the legs of desks
as weapons and have some members of the
faculty prepared to fight off the zombies. There
the main goal would be to try and get the students rescued, if this fails then the next step
would be to try and get the students out of the building by diverting the attention of the
zombies away from the school. Once this has happened someone would go down to check if
any zombies are still inside the school. Once cleared, the students will be let out and then
taken to the nearest safe zone. From there they will be awaiting a Crisis Team, which will aid
faculty and parents. This is indicated by the Direct Student Intervention Services
Department, where it states that it is A crisis team consisting of counselors and
psychologists with specialized training. (Jordan School District)
With the preparations and scenarios we have discussed thus far we are confident in
the abilities of Oquirrh Elementary School to be able to accomplish this goal. Not only should
this survival guide be utilized for Oquirrh Elementary, it can and should be implemented in

other schools state and nationwide. This survival guide can also be applied as a guide for
other possible situations, once the current situation with zombies has been resolved. Its
important that as a community, we take action now instead of waiting for the doom to strike
us.

Works Cited
Coyne, Bridget. Introducing Twitter
Alerts. 25 September 2013.
13 April 2015.
<https://blog.twitter.com/2013/introducing-twitter-alerts>.
Jordan School District. Jordan District. 2 August 2007. 13 April 2015.
<http://jordandistrict.org/wpcontent/uploads/safe_EmergencyPrepChecklist.pdf>.
. "Jordan School District Student Intervention Services." n.d. Jordan District.
<http://studentintervention.jordandistrict.org/>.
Lewis, Kati. Alert 9. 11 March 2015. Web.
Matthews, John. Make your classroom safe for weather and violent
emergencies. n.d. Web. 15 April 2015.
Oquirrh Elementary PTA. Oquirrh Elementary PTA. n.d. 13 April 2015.
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oquirrh-ElementaryPTA/245799525460619>.

"Signaling Techniques." n.d. Wilderness Survival. <http://www.wildernesssurvival.net/chp19.php>.

Snoqualmie Valley School District. n.d. 24 April 2015.
US Department of Education. US Department of Education. 15 January 2015.
13 April 2015.
<http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/emergencyplan/index.html>.
What to Expect During a School Emergency. 25 June 2014.