Evaluating and Optimizing Emergency Management in High Schools: An Empirical Study from S City, China

Campus safety is a top priority in education. In recent years, frequent sudden campus incidents and some schools’ failure to handle them promptly and effectively have exposed weaknesses in campus emergency management. Influenced by traditional education, senior high schools overly focus on students’ college entrance exam scores, neglecting emergency management of sudden incidents. This leads to improper handling, negatively impacting teachers, students, and the school. Research on emergency management in China’s education system started late. Most studies on campus emergency management focus on colleges and compulsory education, with few exploring senior high schools specifically. However, senior high schools are often boarding schools with dense populations; students face academic pressure and adolescent sensitivity, creating complex situations. This paper sorts out relevant emergency management theories, investigates the current situation and problems of emergency management in senior high schools in Renqiu City, and proposes optimization suggestions. Field research finds issues in all stages: in the prevention stage, training remains merely formalistic and material reserves are insufficient; in the disposal stage, personnel lack professionalism and responses are slow; in the recovery stage, evaluations are one-sided and responsibility definitions are unclear; in the learning stage, case analyses are fragmented and inter-school communication is lacking. Corresponding suggestions include building professional emergency reserves, establishing professional teams, improving post-event evaluation and responsibility mechanisms, and constructing a learning and sharing case database.