14
Crisis situations story continued _________________________
Next, I worked with our District Communications
Coordinator to compose a press release for our
district webpage and district Facebook page. It
was simple and concise. It was updated as the
situation changed.
The two secretaries in the Morton HS office were
amazing, but they needed a script for the
numerous parents (and others) who were calling
the school to see what was happening. This was
an important
step to take
and a worthy
investment of
a few short
minutes
of
time. The
script was like
our
other
information --
simple
and
concise, telling
what we knew
at the time.
Support staff
need to know
that
the
administration has their back.
Approximately 15-20 minutes after the lockdown
commenced, the local media outlets began to call
the main office at our high school. They had
been alerted to the situation by parents. I
answered their questions with the facts as they
stood at that time, and encouraged them to
watch our webpage and Facebook for updates.
I believe and found that it’s better to talk to the
media, even if only briefly, and fill them in with
what you know at the time.
Throughout the incident, the status of the
lockdown changed from “hard” to “soft,” then the
incident was over and the school was released
from lockdown. We communicated those
changes in status via phone blast, emails, and
updates on our district webpage and Facebook
page.
After the incident was completely over, an email
and phone blast was sent to parents with a
simple summary/conclusion of the incident. This
provided closure and let parents know how the
incident was resolved. One parent called me
wanting (insisting upon) more information --most
of which was confidential. Out of more than
2,000 parents of high school students, that’s
pretty good. In addition, we received numerous
positive posts on Facebook thanking the district
for our ongoing communication throughout the
incident, and our quick response.
An area of improvement we will work on if there
is need in the future: letting our other building
administrators and our transportation department
know what was happening sooner. We should
have done this more quickly than we did.
Lesson learned. We are also considering if we
need to let neighbors of
our high school (or any
building) know if/when a
school is on lockdown-
and pondering the best
way to accomplish that
task.
It’s important to be
cognizant of the emotional
toll a threat of violence
and hard lockdown has on
students,
staff
and
parents. This incident
ended with the optimal
outcome -- no injuries or
fatalities. However, we
did allow our students to go home the rest of the
day. Few took that option, but it was the gesture
that was appreciated. These things scare kids --
and their moms and dads, and our employees.
Don’t downplay or minimize their reactions, even
if it’s not how we feel.
Thank those that were key to bringing the
incident to closure and who were instrumental in
handling the crisis -- especially those people
whose jobs don’t “normally” entail dealing with
crisis situations.
In closing, my big takeaway was the need for one
specific, designated person to coordinate and handle
communications during an incident such as this one.
This might seem obvious, but the multilayered,
multifaceted dimension to staying a step ahead of
the messages the kids and others are sending out
requires that the communication effort be
coordinated, not disjointed. The use of all of the
tools in the communications toolbox proved to be
essential in this situation. In any situation, the
absence of providing factual information means the
vacuum will be filled in a variety of ways -- mostly
with inaccurate rumors and speculation.
(Continued from page 13)
