New revisions have been made to Poly Prep’s safety protocols, now allowing students to evacuate to Seventh Avenue when the Back Fields or Oval are inaccessible. This decision, enacted by Xerxes Vizcaino, Director of Security, Safety and Transportation, in collaboration with Poly’s Crisis Team, comes amidst unexpected fire drills on Thursday, February 12, at 11:50 a.m., and Friday, February 13, at 8:05 a.m., due to construction in the former squash courts.
“I think that everybody was caught off guard,” said Vizcaino, when reflecting on student and faculty reactions to the alarms. “People reacted fine, because they knew what to do, but some were a little nervous, because when the fire alarm goes off, everybody’s gonna panic at first.”
On February 12 at 11:50 a.m., Poly’s fire alarm surprisingly went off. The alarm was triggered by construction work in the new Student Center in the Novogratz Building, which previously was used as squash courts, according to Vizcaino. “They were cleaning out the air conditioning system, and dust flew into the smoke detector. The detector thought it was smoke and that’s what set it off,” he said. A similar situation occurred the next day at 8:05 a.m., again when the fire alarm was set off due to construction.
These events amplified an issue in the evacuation protocol. Typically, during a fire drill, students and faculty evacuate to the Back Fields or Oval, which have recently been inaccessible due to snow. Now, in any event that makes campus unsafe and the oval or backfields are unavailable, students will evacuate to Seventh Avenue and walk towards Fort Hamilton. “We just put that [protocol] into place because we have not had that much snow in a long time, so we didn’t have that problem before,” said Vizcaino.
Vizcaino made this decision in consultation with Poly’s Crisis Team, which oversees all emergencies. The purpose of the crisis team is to “make sure that we’re keeping up to date with the ever changing landscape and the unfortunate types of events that could happen,” said Charles Polizano, Head of Technology. The team is currently made up of Polizano, Vizaino, the division heads for the academic curriculums; Head of Student Support, Health and Wellness Juliet Moretti; Chief Finance and Operations Officer Monique Lopez; and Head of Facility Management & Capital Projects Matthew Stelluto. “[The events of February 12] highlighted some areas of improvement for our drills and crisis communication,” said Polizano.
Sklyer Reyfman ’29 was in her lunch period when the alarm went off and evacuated toward the Back Fields. “It was not very organized because, since it was during lunch, none of us had class and we didn’t know what to do. But we all figured it out eventually,” Reyfman said. “We should practice [fire drills] more when students aren’t in class.”
The following day, Noni Thomas López, Head of School, briefed faculty to acknowledge the incidents and clarify the events. To prevent further confusion, on February 21 at 9:32 a.m., Vizcaino sent a proactive email to faculty, writing that, “Due to construction in the Science Building, there is a possibility that the alarms might go off. Please disregard unless told differently by security.”
The Poly Prep website details the school’s Fire and Lockdown Drill policies. In accordance with New York State Senate Education Chapter 16, Title 1, Article 17, Section 807, the school conducts four lockdown drills and eight evacuation drills from September to June. The purpose is to “instruct and train the pupils by means of drills, so that they may in a sudden emergency be able to respond appropriately in the shortest possible time and without confusion or panic,” according to the New York State Senate website. Any school not in compliance with these regulations will be subject to a misdemeanor and a fine of up to $50.
In the event of a lockdown drill, Poly’s public address system will issue an automated announcement, and teachers will use Ruvna, a safety and operations software, to account for students. Poly also uses A+ Technology Solutions, a premier system integrator, responsible for automatic door locking, according to Security Distributing and Marketing Magazine. This system was implemented several years ago, and in the event of an emergency, all door locks will engage and can only be opened from inside or until Vizcaino disengages them.
For fire drill protocols, students will be escorted out of the building and accounted for by faculty using Ruvna. In an effort to efficiently alert first responders, Poly uses five indicators to signal the location on campus where the fire threat is occurring, according to Vizcaino.
“Everyone has to take drills seriously. Students do not tend to take it too seriously, and the faculty and staff have to model the right behavior,” said Polizano. “It is important so that when something does happen out of the blue, everybody knows what to do.” Vizcaino and Polizano stress the importance of listening to teachers during all emergency situations. “Every year, we try to think what we can do better. So when we do the first drill, I always send an email out to all the faculty [to gain their feedback],” said Vizcaino. “Every drill is a learning step to make the next one better.”
