“You can handle the incident perfectly, but if you screw up the communications you can lose your job.” This insightful observation was shared by a school superintendent many years ago. His guidance was spot-on. In the past few years, it has proven to be true as numerous superintendents and other school administrators have directly or […]
Blog Archives
Communicating school safety to parents: Superintendents and principals need strategic support on what to say, how to say it, and when to say it
If we don’t better support superintendents and principals in becoming strategic school safety leaders and communicators, they will lose the trust and confidence of parents, students, staff, and their school communities. They might also lose their jobs. Yesteryear’s school safety communications spin no longer works During the first couple of decades of my school security […]
New Webinar! COVID-19: Communicating effectively with school stakeholders in highly ambiguous and uncertain times
Wednesday, May 20, 2020 – 1pm Eastern New Webinar! Register Now – Space is limited for this one-hour program Register Here COVID-19 SCHOOL REENTRY COMMUNICATIONS: This free webinar is designed for PreK-12 superintendents, assistant superintendents, heads of private schools, principals and assistant principals, school communications and community relations administrators, school-based police and security administrators, school board […]
Swatting, school bomb and shooting threats: Are FBI federal charges coming soon?
Schools across the nation experienced an uptick in school bomb and shooting threats in recent weeks. Many of these threats are believed to have been made by local individuals such as students or former students. But there are also increasing indicators that a number of these threats are “swatting” incidents — hoax threats intended to trigger […]
Study finds rapid escalation of violent school threats
[Originally published: 2/9/15; Updated: March, 2016] A nationwide epidemic of violent school threats is breeding fear, anxiety and frustration for educators, children and parents. While the vast majority of these threats are anonymous and turn out to be hoaxes, they have to be investigated and taken seriously. Hundreds of schools are losing classroom teaching time, […]
Five lessons from the NFL for school superintendents, boards and principals
Domestic violence and child abuse cases involving National Football League (NFL) players have dominated the headlines this week. How the NFL and individual teams have managed, or in some aspects mismanaged, the cases have been even a bigger focus of news coverage. The NFL experience provides five important teachable moments for superintendents, school boards and principals […]
Schools face new wave of violent threats sent by social media and other electronic means, study says
More than one-third of violent threats to schools since the beginning of this school year were delivered by social media, email, text messaging, and other electronic forms, according to a new study by our national school safety consulting firm. “The cost of these threats in taxpayer dollars for police response, lost instruction time, and anxiety […]
Lockdown communications with parents during school emergencies
Few things scare a mother more than a lockdown or safety crisis at her child’s school. Fear makes calm, sensible people frantic and fierce. This is a tough time for schools. Their first priority is protecting children. A lockdown is serious business. School staffers are tied up assessing the threat, talking to police, making sure […]