The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report to the response to the active shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. This blog highlights failure points in the medical response and reunification as well as presented recommendations to address those failures. Simple Tracking System is a solution to assist public safety agencies, schools, and hospital systems in tracking patients to account for their location, status, and injuries in a mass casualty incident. By accounting for patients at every point in an emergency response, our technology enables the accurate and efficient reunification of family with their loved ones.
Failures in Emergency Medical Response
- EMS was also not included in triaging or assessing any of the “walking” victims’ potential medical needs.
- Several students with bullet wounds, grazes, and other injuries were directed onto buses that went to the civic center without ever having been brought to the medics’ attention.
- Injured child victims were being tended to or put on school buses with injuries unknown to law enforcement.
Reunification
- Family members encountered many obstacles to locating their loved ones, getting access to the hospital, and getting information from leadership, law enforcement, and hospital staff in a timely manner.
- Many family members were at the school for hours without status updates, becoming more fearful and anxious than needed.
- Leadership was unaware that at least 91 children were being held at a funeral home chapel, and children waited an extra hour before being transported to the Reunification Center.
- Four teachers who were shot were not present at the Reunification Center to handle roll call for class.
- One family was told their child was seen being brought into the hospital, but was then told their child was not there. It took hours for hospital staff to find their child at the hospital, deceased and unidentified.
Death Notifications
- An official incorrectly reported that an additional bus was coming to the Reunification Center, creating hope that more kids were alive.
- A family of a deceased victim was told their child was still at the school, giving them hope that they would be reunified with their child.
- Several people reported that responders told them their family member was being treated at the hospital. At the same time, it was already known that none of the children who were present in room 111 had survived.
Recommendations
- School districts should have a safety plan for each school which includes a reunification and communication section.
- School district leadership needs to develop a system for documenting which children are present and which parent or guardian has retrieved them using a sign in/out, checkoff, and/or smartphone picture system to document for safety, notification, and reunification process.
- Photos and, in particular, the clothing descriptions aided in the identification of children.
- Hospitals should create an emergency management process for the identification of victims and survivors.
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