Leadership Matters - May 2013

Death of students proves challenging for all involved

Lessons Learned

By Jay Plese Superintendent of Wilmington District 209U It is a good idea to always have current contact names and phone numbers for the Mayor, Police Chief, Fire Chief, County Sherriff, and any other community leaders with whom you would need to stay in touch during an emergency situation. Have them programmed into your cell phone and be sure that someone else in your office has access to them for you as well. This is a proactive step that can save valuable time when a crisis occurs and you need to start gathering information from authorities. When a crisis occurs Building Principals, Assistant Principals, Guidance Counselors, Psychologists, Social Workers, School Nurse, anyone else whose presence may be considered appropriate. Consult your existing crisis plan, if one exists. At this meeting it is important to gather information on the students directly involved, such as names, ages, parents’ phone numbers, siblings’ names and their grade levels if also attending in the school district, and as much information as possible on the incident that prompted assembling the crisis team. Also at this meeting, identify who the leaders will be at each building within your district. This is a critical part of the communication plan. The Superintendent and each building leader (Principal, Guidance Counselor, etc.) should be one another’s primary sources of information and all communication should go from the Superintendent to the Building Leader and then to the rest of the staff. Select one person to whom all outside requests for information are directed, and decide what your District’s initial response to inquiries will be. For example, when the media started calling us, we said: “We are unable to comment at this time but plan to release whatever information we can by 2 o’clock this afternoon.” We then told the media that we did not know if we would release a written statement or hold a live press conference, and advised them to call us back at noon to find out. 1. Assemble a crisis team and prepare them for action Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent,

Finally, upon leaving this meeting (if it has not already been done), someone should lock / secure the lockers of the students involved in the incident. No one should have access to their items except for administrators. Don’t forget to secure the contents of gym lockers (often shared with another student), musical instrument lockers, art room project storage areas, etc. 2. Seek professional guidance The second step will be for the Superintendent to contact the attorney for the School District, and then the IASA in order to develop appropriate Alert Now messages and press releases. You will need both. Be sensitive to the timing of critical events before releasing information to anyone, including students while they are at school that day. For example, you should get confirmation from law enforcement officials that family members have been officially notified of loss of life before calling them to express your condolences. The local Coroner’s Office is responsible for officially releasing identities of decedents, so it is wise to wait until after that confirmation is made before publicly referring to specific aspects of a victim’s identity -- even if everyone already knows thanks to social media and word-of-mouth. Associated Press photo Students from Wilmington High School hold a candlelight memorial for fellow students who died in an accident .

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