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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
1. Assemble a crisis team
and prepare them for action
Superintendent,
Assistant
Superintendent,
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.
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.
(Continued on page 10)
Death of students proves
challenging for all involved
Lessons
Learned
Associated Press photo
Students from Wilmington High School hold a candlelight
memorial for fellow students who died in an accident
.
