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:

• Ask them how they dial 9-1-1 from their school phones.  Must 9 be dialed first and then 9-1-1, or can they dial 9-1-1 direct without dialing 9 to get an outside line?
• Do all faculty and staff members know the street address of their school if they are asked by a 9-1-1 dispatcher?
• If your school’s walking evacuation site is a community church, do you have keys to get in the building if nobody is at the church when you arrive?
• How long will it take to mobilize your district’s school bus drivers in the middle of the school day if needed in an emergency?  What if you need to evacuate multiple buildings at the same time? Have you drilled this to get a realistic feel for the amount of time between the school’s call and the arrival of buses?
• Have students been trained not to open doors for individuals on the outside trying to get in the school?

These and other questions often draw blank stares and a bit of anxiety when we ask school crisis team members.

School support staff are also often an overlooked school crisis planning resource.  School secretaries, custodians, bus drivers, and food services workers are critical players in our day-to-day school operations, as well as in a crisis.  Yet we consistently find them under-trained and under-represented on school safety and crisis teams.

As the Columbine 10th anniversary nears, reflections on the  state of school security and school crisis planning grow.  In recent years, we have heard questionable proposals such as arming teachers, equipping kids with bulletproof backpacks, and training students to throw books at armed intruders.  We have also had security product vendors pushing their products as “the” solution to school violence.

Yet where we have really lost focus is on our people.   We need to return to the basic fundamentals of school safety so those on the front lines in our schools know what to do in crisis situations.

How would your school’s staff  respond to the above questions?   Are they really prepared?

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:

1. Schools are working on school safety issues.  School districts vary in  their levels of prevention, planning, and preparedness, but every school district has a number of things in place, according to our discussions.
2. Board members from smaller and rural communities shared their frustrations with still trying, ten years after the Columbine attack, to overcome the mindset of, “It can’t happen here,” in their school communities.
3. Leaders of larger and more urban districts stressed they know it can happen there.  Their problem is not acknowledging the problem, but instead trying to find enough resources to deal with overwhelming problems many of them readily acknowledge exist.
4. Most school districts have watched outside school safety funding steadily decline.  District security and prevention budgets are also tighter than in the past.
5. Boards and superintendents are concerned about the gaps between written policy and plans, and actual day-to-day practice.  Boards set policy and superintendents lead the implementation, but many are concerned their guidance has not filtered down into everyday practice.

“We all know we need change,” one board member said.  “And on the board, we know we can vote for change. However, the change does not necessarily quickly move from the top down to meet students on the front line.  It usually takes a long time, if ever,” she said.

School safety leadership begins with the school board and superintendent.  Each school building’s school safety leadership begins with the principal and his/her administrative team.  School safety must be reasonably ingrained in both the district’s culture and its operating budget.

Boards and superintendents should require internal audits of prevention, security, and emergency preparedness measures.  Periodic engagement of outside evaluators can supplement internal efforts. School boards should establish committees or subcommittees specifically for school safety policy, planning, and oversight.  Superintendents should provide board members with data and briefings on school crime and discipline incidents, as well as school safety programs and strategies in place in their district.

What are you and your school leaders doing to keep school safety on the front burner?

The Columbine 10th anniversary arrives on April 20, 2009.   Anniversaries offer us time for reflection on lessons learned and future directions.

The legacy of Columbine at its tenth anniversary is a mixed bag of lessons learned and implemented, with many glaring gaps and a lot of work remaining.

The good news is that progress made on school safety in the past decade has included improved school climate, better threat assessment protocols, enhanced physical security measures, and a heightened awareness of the importance of school safety.  School leaders have also created crisis plans and teams, added new drills, and enhanced relationships with first responders.

The bad news is that while many schools have invested money in security technology, they have invested less time and effort in their people.  The first and best line of defense is always a well-trained, highly-alert staff and student body.  A reasonable amount of time is needed to reach this goal. 

Time and training for school safety and emergency planning is harder to come by than money in many districts.  Time for the delivery of prevention programs is even tighter, all due to competition for instructional time.

Today’s federal budget is thinner for a number of school safety programs than it was right after Columbine.  Local school budgets continue to decrease.  School safety dollar needs typically lose out to academic needs when internal battling over the budget occurs in a district.

The end result: school safety professionals are increasingly competing for both money and time, and in many districts they are losing on both accounts.

Both resources and leadership are needed to make safety sustainable in local school districts.  We have seen schools with strong leadership on safety but few resources.  We have seen schools with the resources but weak leadership on safety.  Simply one or the other (or neither) will not result in a meaningful, long-term approach to school safety.  

Visit our web page for more on the Columbine 10th anniversary.