When you think of the United States Attorney’s Office, you think of serious crimes, indictments, and big-time jail sentences. You certainly don’t think of school safety. Not so in South Carolina. For the past 19 years, the South Carolina U.S. Attorney’s Office has taken a strong leadership role in promoting safe schools, school violence prevention, and school crisis […]
Category Archive: School Safety and Crisis Training
Send Your School Board Members to NSBA School Safety and Crisis School
In today’s education world of declining budgets and increasing safety concerns, could your school board members benefit from cutting their learning curve for beefing up security and crisis preparedness while still being fiscally responsible? Once again, I have the pleasure of co-presenting a half-day “Early Bird” afternoon pre-conference workshop on school security and emergency planning […]
Educators are our Very-First Responders
In the post-Columbine era, we have trained school administrators and crisis teams to plan, train, and drilll closely with first-responders. I have always been an advocate for school resource officers (SROs), other local law enforcement, fire fighters, and emergency medical service personnel. The Deer Creek Middle School shooting this week reminds us, however, that critical school incidents can […]
School Emergency Preparedness: A Quote to Live By
By all accounts, the school and police response at Tuesday’s shooting at Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado, reflected their planning and preparedness efforts. This was heard time and time again in media interviews. It was quite evident to those of us who advise school boards, superintendents, and school staff on school crisis planning, […]
School Safety Quotes: On Motivational Speakers
“They make you laugh. They make you cry. And then they leave you wondering, ‘Why?’ All fluff, no stuff.” Dr. Stephen Sroka, President, Health Education Consultants Dr. Steve Sroka is an internationally experienced speaker and consultant on youth sex, drugs, and violence issues. As a veteran health educator and crisis intervention expert, Steve shares a concern that many people […]
Nuts and Bolts Fundamentals Missing in Many School Safety and Crisis Plans
Missing nuts-and-bolts fundamentals in school security and emergency planning come back to haunt us when a crisis or high-profile security incident occurs. We can prevent many situations with the proper training and time allocated to doing the leg work critical to meaningful school safety and crisis planning. Want to stump a school crisis team? You don’t need to ask complex questions. Instead: […]
School Safety Blogging from the NSBA Annual Convention
It has been a great five days at the National School Boards Association annual convention in San Diego. The staff at NSBA is terrific, as always. Board members and superintendents I met from around the nation are genuinely concerned about the safety of their students. Several themes came from our work with these school board members and superintendents: […]