By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News
Evacuation during a wildfire is something most Four Points families lived through in September 2011, and with the continued drought and threat of wildfire, one local parent wants to know more about the evacuation plans for Vandegrift High School and Four Points Middle School.
Vandegrift High School traffic after school on Monday. There is one road in and out of the campus and some parents are concerned that during an emergency, one road is not enough.
Leander ISD parent Jannine Farnum said all she wanted was a better understanding of the school’s evacuation policy in case of emergency, prior to her son starting school at Vandegrift. She contacted VHS but said she was given a vague answer.
“I’m not asking for information on a bomb threat, which I can understand why you might keep that info private,” Farnum said.
“My question is in response to a wildfire. These two schools, FPMS and VHS, are at the end of a dead end road that backs to a canyon preserve that, if it caught on fire, would travel up the canyon to the schools direction. There is only one way in and one way out for those schools and several apartments,” Farnum said.
But, according to officials, a vague answer is all Farnum and other parents will get. LISD spokesperson Veronica Sopher said it is standard practice for school districts to keep their schools’ evacuation plans out of the public eye.
LISD emergency response plans
Veronica Sopher, Leander ISD executive director of school/community relations.
“Security experts recommend not putting out your evacuation plan information,” Sopher said. “The state allows you to keep it private. We’re not going to release that kind of stuff. Having said that, we have to assure the community that we do have (evacuation plans). We have different variations and we practice them by law. That’s always the way it is at every school.”
Sopher said that emergency response plans differ depending on the type of emergency, and regardless of the type, LISD always works with and follows the recommendation of emergency management officials.
