Our presentation services include keynote presentations, workshops and seminars, and facilitated school safety and crisis preparedness planning team meetings.  Presentations may also be combined with our school security assessment services, school emergency planning consultations, facilitated tabletop exercises, and other school safety consulting services.

Experienced School Safety Keynote, Seminar, and Professional Development Presenter

Dr. Kenneth S. Trump

is a seasoned presenter, trainer, and educator capable of effectively communicating to diverse, multidisciplinary audiences.

He has more than 40 years experience speaking before audiences ranging from superintendents, principals, school board members, heads of independent schools, teachers, and school support staff to state and federal elected policymakers, professional association conference attendees, first responders, attorneys, academicians, and the media.

Be aware & prepared – not scared!!

New…

Strategic School Safety Leadership and Safety Communication Strategies for School Leaders: School Safety Leadership in Times of High Ambiguity and Uncertainty

Typical presentation length:  1 to 3 hours; tailored programs to meet specific needs

Audiences: Superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals, heads of independent or parochial schools, charter school heads, school communications executives, school security directors, school board members, school crisis team leadership, police chiefs and sheriffs

Typical Venues:  National, state, and regional education, school safety, and law enforcement conferences, workshops, and seminars

You can survive the crisis, but can you survive the leadership, political, and communications challenges that follow it?  Designed exclusively for school leaders and executives responsible for school safety functions, this session examines research and best practices for strategic crisis leadership and emergency risk communications applied to school safety, security, and emergency preparedness contexts.

What are the three critical components of a crisis and how can we apply a strategic focus on managing both the emergency and its political context? What we have we learned from high-stakes school security civil litigation cases? What can we learn about managing school crises from the research on how Navy Seals, hospitals, and wildfire fighters adapt to unfolding ambiguous crisis contexts?

Join “Dr. Ken” as he shares his most recent doctoral research findings at Johns Hopkins that explores the intersection of strategic crisis leadership and emergency risk communications theory, research, and practice.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

• The top five emerging school security threat trends challenging school administrators
• The evolving realm of threat assessment: Bomb threats, shooting threats, cyber threats, adult-originating threats, and the threat of unknown unknowns
• Security theater versus meaningful safe schools actions: Why quick fixes like simply adding security hardware after a crisis does not work and could backfire causing you great safety and potential liability risks
• Training for unknown unknowns: A shift from training on school emergency checklists to new cognitive models for uncertainty management
• Situational awareness, pattern recognition, and cognitive decisioning making under duress
• Five critical tasks for strategic crisis leadership and how they apply to leading during school safety crises
• Characteristics of high-reliability organizations that can guide your school security and emergency preparedness processes
• Creating a school and school district culture of safety
• The politics of managing school crises: What research and experience tells us about the political exploitation of crises and how to survive while leading under public pressure
• Who do I listen to? How to distinguish critical differences in school safety advice from advocates, activists, and experts
• Lessons from high-stakes school security civil litigation cases:  What do school leaders need to know about lawsuits against schools in active shooter, stabbing, kidnapping, rape, and other litigation cases?
• How school safety policy is being hijacked by special interests, businesses, and others: Avoid being blindsided by rapidly evolving federal and state policy, regulation, and funding changes
• Understanding and countering the media framing of school shootings and resulting public discourse
• Understanding and communicating a school threat continuum and a continuum of prevention to preparedness strategies
• Meaning making: A school and safety leader’s role in defining crises and communicating convincing and inspiring narratives for school-communities
• Facework: Navigating the challenges of social interactions with parents and the school-community when discussing sensitive and emotional school safety issues
• Communicating effectively with parents about school safety issues during, and more importantly before, times of high ambiguity and high uncertainty
• Why traditional crisis communications methods alone no longer work with parents and the media: Applying emergency risk communications to critical school safety contexts

Ken’s most popular program:

Proactive School Security and Emergency Preparedness Planning: Managing School Safety Best Practices in the Schoolhouse, Courthouse, and Court of Public Opinion

Presentation length:  1 to 6 hours, or tailored two-day training programs

Audiences:  Principals, assistant principals, deans, school crisis teams, district crisis teams, psychologists, counselors, social workers, support staff (facilities, food services, health services, office staff, transportation, etc.), central office administrators, school communications directors and public information officers, school security directors, School Resource Officers (SROs), school security staff, community-based first responders, community mental health representatives, and other community partners

Typical Venues:  Local school district and regional education agency in-services, workshops, and seminars;  Independent, private, parochial, and charter schools; National and state school safety, education, and public safety conferences, workshops, and seminars

Bomb threats sent by Facebook, through international proxy servers and computer-generated robocalls to your school office. A death threat scribbled on a restroom wall that triggers texting rumors throughout the school community. An irate parent with a gun headed to your school office. An elementary school child custody issue that sends your school on lockdown. And don’t forget the news reporter who is asking for public records about your security cameras and required emergency drills.

Do you fortify the front entrance to all of your schools? Should you be teaching students and teachers close combat training for attacking heavily armed gunmen? How can you better prepare your staff on best practices, compose crisis teams with the correct players at the table and regular meetings, and test the emergency plans you have on paper to see if they might actually work in a real emergency? And how do you communicate all of this to your parents, staff, students, and the media in a social media world on digital steroids?

Dr. Kenneth S. Trump brings more than 30 years of national and international school security and emergency preparedness expertise with his practical, cost-effective and reasonable analysis of school security threat trends, best practices, school safety litigation trends and the court of public opinion. “Dr. Ken” has worked hands-on with school leaders for more than 30 years including in the post-Columbine, post-Sandy Hook, and now post-Parkland and post-Uvalde eras. Dr. Ken’s presentations provide insights and inside information into the latest school of thought on practical risk-reduction measures to provide a physically and psychologically secure school setting while keeping balance and commonsense.  He shares insights into his highly groundbreaking national study of more than 800 violent school shooting and bomb threats, and the practical implications for managing school threat assessment best practices.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

• An insider’s look at school safety best practices learned over three decades post-Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde and more

• Security theater versus meaningful safe schools actions: Why quick fixes like adding security hardware after a crisis does not work
• The school threat continuum and the continuum of prevention to preparedness strategies
• What is comprehensive school safety planning and what are the obstacles to implementation?
• Looking beyond the active shooter threat, refocusing on threat assessment for identifying and preventing violent school incidents
• Roles and limitations of physical security (security hardware and products)
• Access control and visitor management
• School threat assessment teams, training, and protocols
• Critical emergency/crisis guideline components focused on comprehensive multi-hazard emergencies
• Crisis team and school staff roles during emergency situations,
• Preparing for drills (lockdowns, evacuations, shelter-in-place, student and staff tracking)
• Parent-student reunification challenges
• Planning for supporting special needs students during emergencies
• Central office and support facility security and preparedness
• Roles of school police and school relationships with first responders and community organizations
• Lessons learned from school security litigation cases
• Communicating effectively with parents and the media during a crisis
• Communicating school safety effectively prior to a crisis

The training content will focus on identification of risks and risk reduction best practices at various levels including school policies and procedures, awareness and training activities, physical facilities, and school-community safety planning processes.

School Safety Training Audiences

Programs can be tailored to a single-profession audience or to an audience mixed with different youth-service professionals and/or parents. Due to our front-line experience as school support officials, our programs have been especially well-received by school support staff such as bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, and similar classified personnel. Special programs geared to parents, community members, and policy-makers are also available.  We also facilitate crisis teams as they work on their crisis guideline plan development.

We believe in designing every program with the client and the target audience in mind.  Our audiences have ranged from federal agency heads and state leaders to school bus drivers, secretaries, and parents.  The ability to effectively address the needs of such diverse audiences, both individually and collectively, is one of the top factors contributing to the success of our programs.

In addition to public school districts, parochial schools, independent schools, regional education offices, and other schools nationwide, examples of organizations that have engaged Ken’s presentations include:

Education Association Conventions, Conferences, Workshops, and Seminars; Association conferences for Public Safety, Prevention, Communication, and Other Professional Associations: National School Boards Association (NSBA), American Association of School Administrators (AASA), National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO International), National Christian School Association, National PTA,  National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), National Governors Association, National Lieutenant Governors Association, National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), National Police Athletic/Activities Leagues (National PAL), Education Writers Association, Ohio School Boards Association, Ohio Schools Council, Ohio Association of Pupil Service Administrators, Ohio Education Association, Ohio PTA, Texas School Safety Center, Wisconsin School Safety Coordinators Association, Kentucky Prevention Network, Student Assistance Professionals Association of Georgia, Montana Behavioral Institute, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Michigan Schools Educators Police Liaison Association (SEPLA), Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Association of Nova Scotia Educational Administrators (ANSEA), Education Law Association, Ohio Catholic Education Association, and others.

Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, and Other First Responders: FBI National Academy, California Gang Investigators Association, Midwest Gang Investigators Association, MAGLOCLEN Law Enforcement Network, New Jersey State Police Street Gang Unit, Minnesota Juvenile Officers Institute, Missouri Police Chiefs Association, Indiana Governor’s Summit on Homeland Security, Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, Western Regional Institute for Community Policing, Michigan State Police – Emergency Management Division/Homeland Security, Wisconsin Department of Justice, Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, Central Illinois Police Training Center, and more.

Governmental Entities and Public Policymakers: United States Senate (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee), United States House of Representatives (House Education and Labor Committee), United States House of Representatives (House Homeland Security Committee), U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity, Executive Office of the United States Attorneys, U.S. Attorney’s Offices in 10 states, U.S. Department of Justice,Hawaii Department of Education, Indiana Department of Education, Illinois Department of Education/Regional Offices of Education, South Carolina Department of Education, Arkansas Department of Education, Arizona Department of Education, Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, New Jersey School Security Task Force, Oklahoma Commission on School Security, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Council of State Governments, Education Commission of the States, City of Cleveland – Healthy Cleveland Sub-Committee on Violence, and others.

Academic: The Ohio State University’s Criminal Justice Research Center, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Purdue University, Cleveland State University, Ohio University,Virginia Commonwealth University, and others. 

School Safety Training Costs

Costs for training programs are based on the type of presentation, on-site time, preparation time, and travel time. Quotes are based on this information and will reflect speaking fee, preparation time, and customary expenses (travel, lodging, meals, etc.).

National School Safety and Security Services has rich, solid history in providing school leaders, policy-makers, parents, community members, and youth-service providers information on the latest trends and best practices in school security and emergency preparedness planning.  We offer balanced, practical, cost-effective and common-sense approaches based on our front-line experience working with public and private K-12 schools in rural, suburban, and urban communities from all 50 states and internationally.

Contact Ken Trump to discuss your conference or training needs, costs, and related information!