They’re talking about your school on social media: gossip on Facebook, school fights on YouTube, threats on Twitter. Every child with a cell phone, every driver who sees a bus accident, every parent who disagrees with a teacher…they’re all texting and tweeting and posting pictures, videos and comments. Do you know what they’re saying? Information […]
Category Archive: Media and Parent Communications
You do have a school Crisis Communications plan – don’t you?
If you ever face a major crisis at your school – and we hope you don’t – you’ll learn the real meaning of the phrase “misery loves company.” Hundreds of reporters will descend upon you, and they’re not just the local reporters on the education beat. You will face reporters from major newspapers and online […]
Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy provides bullying, media training for new generation of safety leaders
A new generation of superintendents, principals, teachers, school resource officers, and other school-community leaders embarked on their first round of training on Wednesday at the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy (ISSSA). A record number of more than 330 participants learned best practices in school law, managing bullying without new programs and expenses, and managing media and parent communications […]
Bibb County Schools hire police captain fired from last job
The Bibb County school system hired a former small-town police chief who was fired from his last job and has a pending complaint against him with the state agency that oversees police ethics and certification, according to an October 23rd story in The Telegraph newspaper in Macon, Georgia. Ronald Rodgers, the former chief in question, […]
Bibb County Schools: No conflict in hiring consultant as police chief
The Bibb County School District’s leaders see no conflict in rehiring as its police chief the chief financial officer and senior analyst of a school safety consulting firm that just conducted a safety assessment for the district, according to local news outlets. The Georgia school district has been under fire for its handling of discipline and […]
Bibb County school crime, discipline data questioned with multiple safety reports
The Bibb County (GA) school district remains under fire as two versions of a school safety assessment consultant’s report, along with state safety incident data, bring into question the district’s accuracy and consistency in reporting fights and weapons. The Macon Telegraph on Tuesday ran a story entitled, “Bibb school fights, weapons reported tallies differ widely.” The report claims […]
Draft school safety reports jeopardize integrity of security consultants, school boards
School security consultants with strong integrity will lose some jobs here and there. But in the long haul, they will retain their integrity and their credibility, and their school district clients will likely do so as well. “Draft” school safety assessment reports can trigger questions on security consultant, school leader credibility One of my long-standing […]
School security under microscope after 10-year-old runs away
Parents and the media are questioning a Georgia elementary school’s security and supervision procedures after a 10-year-old fifth-grade student ran away from his elementary school on Tuesday. The student, Kit Colburn, was sent to the office around 8:45 a.m. but not reported missing to police until 12:19 p.m., according to a story by The Telegraph newspaper […]
Phone threats trigger heightened security, parent communications
Threats by irate students, former students, parents, disgruntled current or former employees and others are requiring school administrators to take quick action to heighten security. They also create a necessity for schools to have crisis communications plans to get accurate information out quickly to parents, media and the school-community. Phoned threats target local schools Two […]
Beware of school safety analysts’ double-talk, mixed messages
School shootings are down, they are nothing new and they are not that common. But please fund my research proposal on school shootings, pay me thousands of dollars to teach you my model for assessing threats of shootings and hire my fellow consultant for a few thousand bucks to show you how many dozen guns he can conceal […]