Communication, coordination, and complacency. These three themes repeatedly surfaced in comments by morning panel members for The Press Club of Cleveland’s: Behind the Scenes of a Crisis, September 11 10 Years Later program. The September 7th program’s morning panel included representatives from the FBI, Red Cross, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cleveland Police, Regional Transit Authority, and […]
It’s Time to Rejuvenate School Safety, Security & Preparedness
Overloaded. Burned out. Unemployed. Distracted. Disjointed. Stressed. These are just a few words describing what I see and hear more and more every day. I find them among school staff, parents, neighbors, family, and about everywhere else life takes me each week. Uncertain Times Breed Stress and Anxiety We live in a time of economic uncertainty, political […]
Celebrate Bin Laden Death with Caution, Not Blind Elation
Americans deserve to feel excitement and a sense of closure with the death of Osama Bin Laden. But the closure must be viewed as the closing of one chapter of the book, not the entire book itself. We owe a debt of gratitude to our military, intelligence, and law enforcement officials who have doggedly pursued […]
School Safety Book Tackles Columbine Anniversary Challenges
What have we learned and what is the state of school security and emergency planning 12 years after the Columbine High School attack in 1999? The answer is simple: We need to return to a focus on the fundamentals. A new generation of school board members, superintendents, central office administrators, school safety specialists, principals, teachers, […]
Are Domestic Terrorists Targeting Your Child’s School?
Libya, Iran, Al-Qaeda, Mexican drug cartels, and the list of other possible threat sources to U.S. national security and public safety continue to grow. In fact, one veteran national public official openly asked this week if the U.S. has more international enemies now than we did just prior to 9/11. When you think about it, […]
Pop Quiz for School Maintenance: Shots Fired – Who Do You Call?
Shots are fired in a high school bathroom. The suspects flee. Who does the maintenance worker and his/her supervisor call? Not the police. Shots Fired, Suspects Flee; School Staff Delay Police Call A March 22, 2011, MercuryNews.com article reporting on Shots fired at Berkeley High School, three arrested says the school’s maintenance worker who heard the shots […]
An Expert Analysis: Why Crime Rises in Charlotte NC Schools
Criminal or violent acts rose 19% in one year in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg, NC, schools according to a Charlotte Observer news story in early March. Yet security staffing continues to be dramatically cut by school officials. In a January story by WBTV, the district’s superintendent recommended cutting nearly $1 million from the district’s school law enforcement division, cutting […]
Should Police & Schools Keep Parents in Dark on Sex Assault?
How would you feel if a stranger abducted and sexually assaulted a female during lunchtime and in the same block as your daughter’s school? And how would you feel if your school administrators and police officials never told you, other parents, and students about the incident for 12 days? This happened near David Douglas High […]
When Did Common Sense End in School Discipline and Safety?
Training students not to open exterior school doors to let someone inside is a best practice. Suspending a student who violated the rule to help a woman with her hands full is not a best practice. A Southampton County, Virginia, middle school student was suspended from school after opening a door for a woman with […]
Have Students Forgotten the Lessons of Columbine?
An Arizona student with a loaded gun reportedly intended to shoot a teacher. Students knew he had a gun the week before. Have students forgotten the lessons of Columbine? One of the top lessons from the 1999 attack at Columbine High School is that students often know ahead of time of a potential threat to school […]