There are more than 13,000 schools in Ukraine, and about 90% of them already have shelters in which students must go down during air raids. In part of the schools, the reconstruction and construction of storage facilities will continue in the summer, so that by the new school year the bomb shelters in the institutions will be ready.
Parents of high school students already know some rules of behavior during air alarms when the child is at school. This information is more for parents of future first graders and those children who studied remotely and will go to school from September 1.
The first advice – don’t worry. Teachers escort students to the storage room in an organized manner immediately after the siren sounds. Children who have not done this before are trained, they should be told in detail about the safety rules during the descent into the shelter and behavior directly in the shelter.
All school shelters are equipped according to safety standards. There are toilets, ventilation, two exits, places to sit, there is technical water and a supply of drinking water, a first-aid kit, fire extinguishers, and means of communication.
Parents are allowed into school shelters during an air raid alert. The Ministry of Education does not recommend taking students home while the alert is in progress, but you can wait for the alert to end with your child in a shelter.
How to prepare for parents (advice from UNICEF and the Department of Education and Science of Kyiv):
- Join class, school groups in messengers.
- Give the management of the educational institution your contacts and the contacts of those who can pick up the child from school instead of you.
- Inform the health worker about the health characteristics of the child, if any.
- Make sure that the child knows his Rh factor and blood group, chronic diseases, if any.
- Plan a safe route with your child to and from school, where there must be shelters that the child can use along the way in case of an air raid warning. If the child cannot get to school or home quickly, when the air-raid alarm goes off, the child should go to the shelter you have designated and stay inside until the alarm goes off.
- Have a conversation about not touching exposed electrical wires, unknown objects, talk about mine safety rules.
- Alert your child to let you know their whereabouts during an air raid as soon as they reach shelter.
- If the anxiety finds the child on the way to school and he is not in the school shelter, tell the teacher which shelter he is in.
