For fires, earthquakes, hostage situations and several other potentially threatening emergencies, Kings County has a plan of action. Each of the county's agencies has a plan in accordance with that plan, as well as state and federal regulations.

In case of an emergency, the Kings County Office of Education would act as the liaison between the county and its schools. On Thursday, county education employees held a training to familiarize themselves with the respective resource roles they would be assigned to if necessary. Less than 24 hours later, they teetered on the possibility of having to put their training to use, as propane tank explosions led to the evacuation of Kettleman City residents into Kettleman City School.

Tamara Ravalin, county assistant superintendent of educational services, said they monitored the Friday morning precautionary evacuation and "maintained open lines of communication," but weren't called on as a resource. Had it been a larger scale emergency, or if school were in session, a few county office of education employees may have taken on their emergency responsibilities.

In the meantime they will continue to prepare.

"We need to learn what we are supposed to do," Ravalin said, adding that law mandates they act according to protocol in every situation.

On Thursday, they met at the Central Union School District office with Rick Smith, captain of Corcoran's fire department, who fed to them details of horrendous imagined scenarios for which they would be resources.

In the first scenario, on a foggy February Friday, a fight broke out near the baseball backstop at Kings Community School. Staff attempted to break up the fight and a student grabbed a weapon from the probation officer, and then barricaded himself in the principal's office with the principal and secretary.

The fight continued. The school's walls, furniture and doors were destroyed.

County office of education employees reacted, using the plan to guide them in deciding how to administer necessary services. Smith hoped they began to understand their responsibilities in case of emergencies, because "these sorts of things can happen in Kings County." Smith added that he was "pleasantly surprised" at how quick to react the employees were.

Of course, it wasn't a completely smooth ride. Part of the reason for training is to "figure out where the kinks are so we can work them out," Ravalin said. Among kinks, they found that prolonged reaction to an emergency -- like housing or feeding students -- would require tricky shift changes, so people could get short bits of rest.

Some employees weren't sure how far their responsibilities went. Smith told them the fire department would fight fires, and other emergency response agencies would be called on to execute their roles.

"You can only do what you have been trained to do," Smith said, reminding them that attempting to provide aid in a way unfamiliar to them could worsen the situation.

In the second scenario, Smith told the employees that the multi-purpose room roof collapsed at Shelly Baird School during a wind storm, trapping students and staff. The power went out and emergency response was delayed due to citywide calamity.

Becky Hudson, generally the county career education supervisor, took on her emergency plan role of public information officer. Two students died, at least another 50 students were injured and 29 students and staff went missing during the disaster, Hudson said in her statement to the press on the early known facts from the imagined scenario.

"I've learned that this can actually happen and how unprepared we were for a disaster situation," Hudson said of the training. "But I'm glad to see that we are getting ready."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(June 15, 2008)