LM March 2018

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they plan an attack” or perhaps “if we talk about it too much,
will that give them ideas”. At this point, keeping our practices
a secret is not working. We need to take a page from the
more than 500 pages of the National Fire Protection Code
that expressly denotes all of the fire safety features we have
instituted over time because we have learned from our
mistakes. So if we are truly going to learn from mistakes,
we need all of the efforts of our school and community to
come together to identify how we move forward together
or we will continue to languish in “what ifs” as a top-down
committee of one.
Conduct a threat assessment of the learning
environment in a way that will motivate people,
implement smart policies, and evaluate
movement to provide for the mitigation of
those threats. The U.S. Secret Service provided
a framework for this several years ago when
they suggested we “develop the capacity to pick up on
and evaluate available or knowable information that might
indicate that there is a risk of school violence and employ the
results of these risk evaluations in developing strategies to
prevent potential school violence from occurring”. But where
do we start? The first amendment’s Free Speech Clause
requires courts and school districts to weigh and balance
two potentially contradicting ideas: 1. the need for a safe,
orderly school environment conducive to learning and 2.
the guaranteed American entitlement to speak or engage in
expressive activity. It is not a secret that social media is the
one thing that is different in the 21st century versus the days
where we never really heard of school shootings. Social
media IS the factor that must be a variable when considering
your education climate. The threats that schools are receiving
today are largely terroristic threats through some social
platform and they are causing clear anxiety with parents,
teachers and students across the nation. However, the good
news is that at least they are talking about it and if we know
about it—we can address it. The U.S. Secret Service and
U.S. Department of Education studied 37 separate school
attackers; 98% had suffered a recent loss or failure, 93%
planned their attacks in advance, and 81% of shooters had
explicitly revealed their intentions. Implement a way for
people to provide information and maybe you can prevent
tragedy. To start a basic assessment today, download
CPTED guidelines (Crime Prevention Through Environmental
Design) and identify how many of those you do or do not
have and contact your local law enforcement now to discuss
how you are going to handle the next social media threat,
because it is no longer a matter of if but when.
Lastly, take a close look at your response plans.
No, don’t simply put together another committee of
administrators and teachers and maybe even law
enforcement officers to analyze the plan on paper, we
mean to put the plan in action and see if it works. We
all have seen and most likely used the sample plans
sent to us from the Illinois State Board of Education or some
other entity long ago. That’s certainly a start. But what exactly
are you training your staff to respond to and when? Who can
institute a response? Teachers? The Principal? The Secretary?
How about the janitor? Do they know it is their responsibility
and do you provide them the necessary tools to effectively and
efficiently institute a response or are we still in control mode? Do
you hold scenario trainings at the most inconvenient times of the
school day? Do your students know what to do if there are no
teachers around to tell them what to do? In other words, having
a plan on paper is not really a plan—it is a policy. Policy in action
is a plan.
As we continue down the road of “hardening our target”
remember the words of Bruce Schneider—author of several
books on general security topics, computer security and
cryptography. “Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism
is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly
destroy our country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that
attack that can do that kind of damage.” Schools are still one
of the safest places a child can be. Our willingness to improve
upon that is the key.
Review these sources regarding school safety:
AASA Position on School Safety
ABCs of School Safety from AASA
IASA School Safety Guidance Memorandum:
School Safety Plans in Spotlight-School Safety Procedures--
Article from IASB Blog
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