Emergencies, disasters, accidents, injuries, and crime can occur without warning at any time. Being physically and psychologically prepared to handle unexpected emergencies is an individual as well as an organizational responsibility. The Information being provided contains agency resources and resource information to assist you in minimizing the negative effects of emergencies. Please read this guide thoroughly before an emergency occurs. Become acquainted with the contents and Bookmark it for future reference. The crisis response initial actions can be found here.
Emergency Communication & Notification
Porterville College has a variety of tools to communicate with the public in the event of an emergency. Depending on the type of emergency, we may use some or all of the following tools to communicate with faculty, staff and students:
Local Press and Social Media
Porterville College's communications staff sends emergency information to the press and update social media with public safety messages. The campus depends a great deal on the press and social media to keep students, faculty, and staff informed during campus emergencies.
Social Media can be found at the bottom of any webpage on this website.
Texts, E-mail, and Voice Calls
The campus community can receive emergency text messages to their cell phone via PC ALERT.
PC Alert will enable quick communication with you in the event of an emergency. The PC Alert system will alert and provide pertinent information and instructions to students, faculty and staff via voice, e-mail and text messages to the phone numbers and e-mail addresses registered on file. This mass notification system sends emergency messages instantly and simultaneously.
Injuries on Campus
Employees
Report all work-related injuries immediately no matter how slight, to your division chair, dean, or supervisor, and Human Resources. All injuries must be reported to Human Resources regardless of whether you intend to seek medical treatment or not.
Serious Injury or Illness
Call 911 for immediate medical attention. The appropriate division chair, dean, or administrator must report the injury to Human Resources immediately. Make note of details such as date & time of injury, the time the injury was reported, witness names/addresses/phone numbers, and injury specifics will be requested.
Non-Emergency Injury & Illness & Work-Related Injuries
After notifying your supervisor, division chair and/or dean, contact and report the injury to Human Resources as soon as possible for injury/illness reporting and medical referral under Workers' Compensation. Details such as date/time of injury, the time the injury was reported, witness name/address/phone, and injury specifics will be requested.
Student Workers
A Crime/Incident Report Form must be completed. Collect details such as: the student's name, address, phone, birth date, date/time of injury, time the injury was reported, witness name/address/phone, and any other pertinent injury details. Report the injury to Human Resources as soon as possible. If needed, medical referral will be made by Human Resources. Human Resources will report the incident to the appropriate dean or administrator.
Students
Under NO circumstance should you transport an injured or ill student to the hospital. Call 911. In the event a student is injured, NO MATTER HOW SLIGHTLY, notify the appropriate dean or administrator. A PC Student/Visitor Accident Form must be completed. Collect details such as: the student's name, address, phone, birth date, date/time of injury, time the injury was reported, witness name/address/phone, and any other pertinent injury details. Refer students to the Business Office for student insurance claims.
Guests/Visitors
A PC Student/Visitor Accident Form must be completed for all injuries, illnesses, or accidents that occur on the PC campus, during campus-sponsored field trips, and campus-related organized activities. All injuries must be immediately reported to help ensure appropriate medical attention is obtained and to remedy the condition or circumstances that caused the incident. Please DO NOT use this form to report sexual assaults, harassment, theft, unsafe conditions, or other crimes. To report a crime or safety concern, please use the Crime/Incident Report Form.
Incident Command System (ICS)
Emergency management is how we take responsibility and accountability for our capacity to respond to a wide variety of incidents and hazards that could adversely affect the College. Emergency management is a whole community effort accomplished with several partnerships throughout the campus and our surrounding community. Porterville College follows the guidelines of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as set out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). We utilize the Incident Command System (ICS), which provides a common organizational structure for incident management that helps facilitate interoperability for our collaborative relationships with multiple organizations.
Porterville College’s ICS
Below is the detailed ICS structure for Porterville College. Individuals are assigned to these positions based on their role within the college and the incident itself.
ICS Forms
When the ICS is activated, documentation is necessary, important, and helps guide us through the successful management of any incident.
FEMA provides a set of standardized ICS forms in their Resource Center. These are used by ICS staff during an incident to document actions, decisions, assignments, updates, communications, etc.
Emergency Responders
In the event of a physical campus emergency or evacuation, Porterville College has two teams that will assist in the Incident Command System and will carry out Emergency Response and Emergency Management operations.
• R.E.D. (Response & Emergency Disaster) Bag Team: The Response & Emergency Disaster team help ensure all persons in our campus buildings have been accounted for and they relay important information to their lead. R.E.D. bag team members participate in annual training facilitated by the Public Safety Department. This training teaches the assigned team members the necessary skills to respond to potential on-campus emergencies, like fire, earthquake, flood, power outage, etc. It also incorporates Porterville Colleges’ Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) with our campus community and local law enforcement agencies.
• Crisis Management Team (CMT): The crisis management team exists to manage, plan and prepare the college before, during and after a crisis. The CMT’s primary goal is to minimize or possibly avoid a calamity, and if disaster strikes, to recover as quickly as possible with minimal negative repercussions.
Emergency Situations
In any emergency, the first thing you should do is call 911 or College Safety at 559-791-2440. The guides below will help you understand how to respond during certain emergencies that could adversely affect the college.
