As protected as our students are within the boundaries of our school, the real world still looms large just outside our gates. In our 50-year history we have never had to evacuate our campus for any reason; however, for us to assume that we are beyond harms reach would be misguided judgment on our part, and an irresponsible act towards our children. Because we realize that anything is possible, we have developed an Emergency Operations and Recovery Plan to be executed in the event of any incident that might make remaining on campus a danger to our students.
We categorize possible emergencies that would cause a precautionary evacuation in to two areas: Nuclear and Non-Nuclear.
Nuclear
Because we are within the Emergency Planning Zone of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), we have planned for the possibility of a Nuclear Emergency Evacuation. This plan calls for the precautionary evacuation of students to a federally designated evacuation center at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
Non-Nuclear
A somewhat more likely situation requiring student evacuation would be a fire in the adjacent hills or structures, police activity in the neighborhood, or a chemical spill on the nearby Interstate Highway. These types of events are unpredictable; and as a result, our plan for evacuation, or sometimes non-evacuation, needs to be more fluid. In these situations, we have several local facilities that are available to us. In the event of a non-nuclear evacuation a notice will be posted on campus and information will be available at our out-of-state contact, Community Church of Joy in Phoenix, AZ to inform parents as to where we have relocated.
The bottom line is that your children are in good hands with a good plan. We hope that we never have to execute these procedures, but we don't discount the possibility. Just to be safe, we urge all parents to review the detailed information found at the following links. In addition, a copy of our Emergency Operations and Recovery Plan is available for review upon request.
Rather than finding yourself at a loss for information in the event of any future emergency, it would be a good idea to download and print the PDF plans, maps, directions and contact numbers that are available from the above page links, and then place them in the glove box of each of your vehicles. This way, if an emergency does occur, you will have all the information you need at your ready.
