If a parent unexpectedly asked your school’s principal, superintendent, or school board member the following two questions, could they immediately answer each one with specific responses? Will you name 10 specific strategies your schools are using to prevent crime and violence in your schools? Will you list 10 specific measures your schools have taken to prepare for, […]
School Crime Statistics Underreported and Unreliable
Parents don’t know what they don’t know, and nobody is rushing to tell them. School crime statistics overall are under-reported and unreliable. Student Victimization in U.S. Schools: Results For the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey was released this week. It didn’t take long for Tweets to pop up on Twitter […]
Making Gang Training for Educators Practical and Useful
Gangs can be a scary subject for many educators. Gang violence can be “ugly” and something some educators would prefer not to envision as having a possibility of occurring in their schools. Talking about gangs in schools can also make school administrators uncomfortable due to image and school-community relations concerns. My colleague, Chuck Hibbert, and I were fortunate […]
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS): MSD Wayne Township
Tight school budgets and decreasing school safety grants are making school emergency planning more challenging today. The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana, has a solid record of being a leader of Indiana school corporations in school emergency/crisis planning. Under the leadership of Dr. Terry Thompson, Superintendent, and a proactive school board, […]
School Safety Leader: Dr. Karen Schulte
When you think of schools in the welcoming town of Janesville, Wisconsin, your first thought may not be about school safety. But if you know Dr. Karen Schulte, the Superintendent of the School District of Janesville, you know school safety is one of her very first priorities. Dr. Schulte, or “Karen” as many of us know her, was appointed […]
School Safety Quotes: On Political Correctness
“What is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular.” Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this sign was posted in my offices and/or at my desk when I worked in school safety departments. It reflected my rather well known “political incorrectness” in speaking my mind and speaking the […]
More of What Parents Want to Know About School Safety
Prevention and preparedness. Parents want to know about both of these school safety components. Could you and your school leaders answer these two questions with specific examples if asked unexpectedly? What specific steps have you taken to prevent incidents of violence and crime in your school(s)? How well prepared are your school staff to respond to and […]
“Getting to School Safely” Video Tackles Widespread Elementary Safety Concerns
School shootings get a lot of attention, but traffic and adult behavior at student drop-off and pick-up poses major safety concerns at many schools across the nation. Some of the great challenges occur at elementary schools. In our school safety assessments across the nation, we repeatedly find elementary principals frustrated with juggling school buses, massive parent […]
Managing Media and Parent School Safety and Crisis Communications
You’ll take a hit if you effectively manage an overall school crisis response, but drop the ball in communicating with parents and the media. That was one of my main messages to school communications and public relations directors when I spoke last week at the annual conference of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). As […]
Tips for Managing Gangs in Schools and Communities
Gang incidents impact school safety differently than non-gang incidents. Two of the biggest differences: Gang incidents are typically higher-risk for rapidly escalating violence and the use of weapons. I spoke at the California Gang Investigators Association (CGIA) national conference in Anaheim on June 29th. My topic was on gangs and school emergency preparedness. The workshops […]