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School security should be a top priority
“Parents will forgive boards and administrators if student test scores go down for a year. Parents will not be so forgiving if students are injured or die in a tragedy that could have been prevented or better managed by school leaders,” says Kenneth S. Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services.
That’s why it’s critical that school leaders ensure their schools are safe and secure and that the district is well prepared for any emergency, Trump says.
Trump and Curt Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council, gave a presentation on emergency preparedness at an Early Bird workshop Friday. Trump also will address this issue at a Saturday morning session with Pennsauken, N.J., school board member Matthew McDevitt.
Trump believes school safety is directly related to academic achievement and improvement. “Test scores are not going to go up when students, teachers, and parents are consumed with violence and safety concerns in their schools,” he says.
There have been at least 19 school-associated violent deaths since the current school year started in August. There also have been 77 non-fatal school-related shootings so far this year, compared to 52 during the entire 2004-05 school year.
Among the trends reported by Trump: an increase in violence at school athletic events, an increase in gang activity in many communities around the nation, and a wave of new safety challenges posed by the misuse of technology including Internet and e-mail threats made by and against students, sexually graphic information posted on Myspace.com and similar websites, and the inappropriate use of cell phone cameras.
As school violence and aggressive behavior appears to increase, funding for school safety is decreasing. Congress has approved large cuts in funding for the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Community-Oriented Policing programs.
At the same time, the pressure to focus on improving test scores means some schools are giving short shrift to full-scale crisis drills and other time-consuming preparedness efforts.
Trump recommends schools conduct “tabletop exercises,” where school administrators and crisis team members, along with their public safety community partners, go through unfolding hypothetical scenarios and debriefings designed to see if the plans they have written up would work in a real emergency.
Too often, he says, school emergency plans have questionable content, school staff members have not been trained in emergency preparedness, and schools have plans that look good on paper but have never been tested.
“These tabletop exercises can take as a little as a half of a school day but often result in improved communications, more realistic expectations, and much more meaningful emergency plan content revisions,” Trump says.
Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2006, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.
© 2006 National School Boards Association
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