StrataSite® Active Threat Plan™ Adopted by St. John’s Jesuit and Hancock County Schools
TOLEDO, Ohio – August 7, 2024 – Today, most of the safety measures that are legally mandated, or otherwise widely deployed for Ohio public schools, focus on what needs to be in place inside the building -- including floor-plan mapping, evacuation protocols, physical entrance access technologies, and more.
Not widely addressed, however, is pre-planning for what needs to happen outside of a building during an active threat event. Specifically, the coordination of emergency response stakeholders around a single plan of action that includes roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, and mapped tactical positioning.
This school year, Hancock County Schools and Toledo St. John’s Jesuit are addressing this “outside” challenge by adopting the Active Threat Plan™ software platform from StrataSite, a company founded and headquartered in Toledo.
The StrataSite platform helps minimize the chaos of an active threat event by giving responders across multiple agencies a tool to collaboratively build, share, and train around a plan that includes command and control information, primary initial response locations, communications worksheet data, and more.
In addition to saving up to 90% in development time versus previous plan development methods, StrataSite Active Threat Plans integrate with common responder communication technologies – enabling real-time notification of the incident location and related plans to law enforcement, fire, and EMS services.
StrataSite is currently deployed in 22 schools across the city of Findlay and elsewhere within Hancock County.
According to Matt Cooper, Findlay Fire Department Battalion Chief and Findlay School Board member, the StrataSite Active Threat Plan provided the missing component needed to ensure their preparedness to respond in coordination with local agencies.
“The safety team at Findlay City Schools understands that complete emergency preparedness requires all potential responding agencies be on the same page. All of this can help save time and lives during an active threat. The StrataSite platform enables our emergency responders to easily develop plans for a unified response,” Cooper said.
The Findlay City Schools safety team recently presented their forward-thinking approach to school safety, including response plan development with StrataSite, at the 2024 Ohio School Safety Summit in Columbus, July 31.
“Findlay City Schools was honored to share our comprehensive approach toward school safety with Ohio safety planners and stakeholders. Positive feedback from session attendees was immediate, and many expressed that our approach to pre-planning for collaborative response with the StrataSite platform makes sense and fills a much-needed gap in complete safety preparedness,” Cooper said.
In Toledo, St. John’s Jesuit High School recently engaged StrataSite to augment its emergency operations plan. For Jennifer Saba, Safety Coordinator at St. John’s Jesuit, StrataSite has helped ensure that the school and community stakeholders are prepared to act swiftly, and in unison.
“St. John’s is now ahead of other area schools as we can initiate a response from first responders faster than any other school in the Toledo area. We are also very excited that we can continuously train our teachers and staff with the learning management system within the StrataSite platform. Protecting the safety of everyone in the building is one of the most important aspects of operating our school,” Saba said.
