By Lizzy Tsuang
Executive News Editor
Kathryn Cross
News Editor
Costa administration and the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Health and Safety Committee are revising Costa’s prior method of creating evacuation plans following the Dec. 7 campus evacuation due to an anonymous threat directed at Costa.
They plan to make revisions to the method in which evacuation plans are created by making the process more specific, Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter said. Currently, administrators create plans in response to the immediate situation, such as in the Dec. 7 off-grounds evacuation. Costa Principal Dr. BenDale stated that he designed the Dec. 7 plan on the spot in response to the specific threat and orders from the Manhattan Beach Police Department.
He stated that he purposely designed the plan so that it could accommodate the immediate needs of the situation Costa was facing. Dale said he selected the evacuation location as the baseball field on the west side of campus because it included multiple exiting points and an open area to increase communication among staff members.
The administrative plan consisted of students checking out with their first period teachers before separating into designated areas to leave campus, depending on the students’ methods of leaving.
Students driving themselves left through the softball field, students walking home left through the Meadows Avenue ramp and students whose parents were picking them up left through the tennis courts.
Dale initially required all students to sign out before leaving campus at the Meadows Avenue exit, but the method was largely ineffective, Dale said, so the administration transitioned to allowing students to leave in regulated amounts at this exit.
“We should not have done that,” Dale said. “That is my fault.”
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Health and Safety Committee is working on revisions to the current evacuation plan. Hofreiter stated that by including specifics into the plan, it will mitigate confusion during off-grounds evacuations as experienced during the Dec. 7 evacuation.
“It was obvious the line between the stuff we do well and the stuff we’ve never done before,” Dale said. “What we’ve drilled, we did well. The things we’ve never drilled before, like getting kids off campus, we had to come up with on the fly.”
In one particular email, Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association Vice President Laurie Resnikoff expressed that she felt that many factors were potentially dangerous for students.
Committee head Ian Uhalt stated that the Safety Committee will consider parent, student and staff concerns while revising the current plan.
Dale said that immediately following the evacuation, he encouraged staff members to email him with feedback. Many staff members emailed Dale with supportive feedback, he said. He added, however, that teachers also provided constructive criticism that will assist the revision process.
Uhalt stated that the Safety Committee will continue to draft possible revisions to present to administrators.
“We will continue to meet and discuss future revisions,” Uhalt said. “The committee has reviewed feedback, and we are taking it into consideration but, ultimately, administration has the final say.”
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