Dublin City Schools put its entire staff through a full-scale emergency reunification drill at Scioto and Jerome high schools on Aug. 18.
The exercise simulated a building threat requiring school closure and tested how quickly staff could account for every student and reunite them with a verified parent or guardian. Staff from all 25 district buildings participated across morning and afternoon sessions, role-playing parents, students and exit directors.
"We want to build that muscle memory and build the idea that we can do this," said Matt Sachtleben, assistant principal at Emerald Campus and the district's safety coordinator. "It may be chaotic, but we're going to get it done, and we're going to make sure every student is accounted for."
The drill followed the "I Love U Guys" Foundation's Standard Reunification Method, a protocol used in more than 50,000 schools and organizations worldwide. Ohio law requires districts to conduct a full-scale exercise every three years, and this one brought four agencies to the table: Washington Township Fire, Dublin Police, Columbus Police and the Emergency Management Agency.
What parents would experience
In a real emergency, the process would mirror what staff rehearsed Tuesday. As NBC4 reported, mock parents received a card bearing a child's name, then passed through several identity-verification checkpoints before reaching the gym where students waited. Exit directors stationed at the final step confirmed sign-outs before families left the building.
Mary Lempke, a paraprofessional at Olde Sawmill Elementary, played a mock parent. Her assigned "child" was colleague Amanda O'Neil, a music teacher at the same school. Lempke said the process was calm, not chaotic, with parents directed clearly and her student brought to her quickly.
O'Neil, playing the student role, said the rehearsal gave staff confidence about how the system would work in a real situation and helped them get acquainted with the full process.
Why now
The timing was deliberate. Dublin City Schools' first day for the 2026-27 school year is Aug. 20. As we reported Aug. 11, the district announced the drill alongside its redistricting calendar earlier this month.
Sachtleben said the district wanted to demonstrate its safety commitment before the new year. District leaders called Tuesday's exercise a success after extensive multi-agency planning.
The "I Love U Guys" Foundation was started in 2006 by Ellen and John-Michael Keyes after a school shooting killed their daughter, Emily. Its reunification method, created in 2012, is free for any school to adopt.
Dublin's next required full-scale drill falls around 2029 under the three-year state cycle.
