Clark County holds reunification training at Springfield High School

The training covered the Standard Response Protocol and the Standard Reunification Method.

Clark County EMA Director Michelle Clements-Pitstick said the goal of the training was to create “an orderly operation to get the children back with their family quickly.” She said the training helped the schools figure out their processes from getting their students from a disaster situation to the correct parent or guardian through an organized process.

“These are very stressful events, and we want to have the plan to make sure that it goes OK or as smoothly as possible when those high-stress events happen,” Clements Pitstick said. “The more that we do this and the more that we talk about it [and] the more we plan, the better off we’re going to be in those high-stress incidents.”

The training came from the I Love U Guys Foundation, which trains responders, schools and others on crisis response and post-crisis re-unification national best practices.

The I Love U Guys Foundation was started in 2006 by Ellen and John-Michael Keyes after their daughter was killed in a school shooting, according to the foundation’s website. A text she sent her mother that day read “I love u guys. K.” The foundation aims to “restore and protect the joy of youth” with educational programs and “positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities.”

The training was also an early step toward the county EMA and the Springfield City School District forming a countywide reunification team, something Clements-Pitstick said she believes is the first in the state.

Reunification is needed following school evacuations that can follow large disasters like the Northwestern School bus crash in August, or others like gas leaks, nearby SWAT team activity and SWATting incidents, Clements-Pitstick said.