Anyone who’s struggled with the Herculean task of getting school children out the door each morning might be surprised to learn about a recent effort that evacuated 320 of them in under five minutes. Even more amazing, perhaps, is the fact the feat was pulled of by a handful of teenagers using the power of the Incident Command System.

“Resiliency is a process that starts young,” said Camilla Yamada, a graduate intern at the Natural Hazards Center and creator of the pioneering student-led drill held April 28. “I think it's never too early to help kids learn how to become managers. We don't think of them that way because we never really give them the tools to handle the responsibility.”

Not so at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning (RMSEL), where Yamada first pitched the idea of training students in the ways of the National Incident Management System. The timing couldn’t have been better, since a 2008 Colorado law requires schools to incorporate NIMS and ICS into their emergency planning.

“People are looking for creative ways to work [NIMS] into their EOP [emergency operations plan],” Yamada stated. “This is an answer. RMSEL is in the process of updating their EOP, and they had not done an off-site evacuation…ever.”

The school’s inaugural off-site drill began in early April with two training sessions for the school’s senior class where they learned the basics of ICS and disaster management, worked out their command positions, and even developed tools—such as dual-sided cards for teachers to indicate their class was accounted for—to use during the drill.

When the big day came, the students sprang into their roles as incident commanders, public information and safety officers, operations and planning chiefs, and logisticians. In a scenario worthy of professional envy, the team managed to shepherd hundreds of their fellow students, Kindergarten through 11th grade, off the school grounds to a nearby park. They even identified a missing fourth grader who had been “locked” in a lab two minutes into the exercise. Everyone was back in school within 13 minutes.

“Students had a lot of fun with the responsibility,” Yamada said, adding that the drill helped them realize even crossing the street—which might be full of emergency vehicles—could be problematic in a real disaster.

The students, Yamada, and school officials are still assessing the event, which is thought to be the first time ICS-trained students have led an evacuation. Although they haven’t fully examined the strengths and weaknesses of the program, Yamada said RMSEL is interested in continuing the program with the added element of letting each senior class train the juniors to take over. Others have shown interest in testing the evolving curriculum in their schools, she said, and she’s all too happy to oblige.

“Teaching high school students the management skills in ICS will help shape tomorrow's leaders,” she stated. “Resiliency is a process, not a statement, and equipping our communities with managers of all ages is a pivotal step in that process.”