Rarely does a week go by where I don’t receive emails from parents with concerns about safety at their child’s school.  While I have no firsthand knowledge of the facts of these cases, many appear on the surface to be rational and legitimate issues.

Although the facts vary case-to-case, a few common themes have emerged:

• School safety is perhaps the only school issue more important to parents than their child’s academic achievement.
• Parents, like the media and others, have become much more educated on what should and should not be in place to address safety at school.
• Today’s parents have little tolerance for bureaucratic responses or having their concerns minimized.

Parents know when they are being given half-truths, politically-correct answers, and/or the “company line.”  Such dismissive responses from school administrators can severely hurt the credibility of the administrator, the school, and the overall district’s leaders. 

It is also clear that many parents do not know the best route to take to constructively address their concerns and frustrations.  Some basic steps to help parents bring their school safety concerns to the attention of school officials include:

1. Start closest to the source.  If an incident such as bullying, harassment, or threats occur in the classroom, first talk with the teacher in charge of that classroom. 
2. Engage the student’s counselor.  Many schools have counselors, psychologists, social workers, and related support staff.  Counselors are there to help students with climate and relationship issues.
3. Follow the chain-of-command.  Every now and then, parents may need to take their concerns “to the top” school leaders (the superintendent and/or school board).  But jumping the chain-of-command without making an effort to deal with the administrators at the building level is not a wise move.  Start by talking with the school’s assistant principal and principal on specific safety concerns at their school. Then work up the “chain-of-command” to the superintendent and school board, if necessary.
4. Document your concerns and requests, especially those related to school safety.  Written complaints provide a paper trail of a parent’s effort to communicate and resolve his/her concerns.
5. Notify police if a potential crime is involved.
6. Educate yourself on district policies and appeals processes. Many parent safety concerns I receive are questioning disciplinary action or inaction by school administrators.  Parents should familiarize themselves with student and parent handbooks, school board policies, and related documents to help determine if they have a legitimate complaint.  Understand due process appeal procedures if you believe your child has been unfairly disciplined.  Appeal up the chain-of-command if your safety complaints are not reasonably resolved.
7. Constructively communicate with school officials.  Going on the attack, pointing fingers, placing blame, and making threats will not move the conversation closer to resolving a concern or issue.  Try to sincerely work with school administrators cooperatively, not in an adversarial manner.
8. Consider if there is “strength in numbers” in addressing the concern.  Specific incidents are typically best handled individually on a one-on-one basis.   But some issues, such as getting easy access inside a school or chronic safety hazards not addressed over time,  may be shared by many parents.  If parents collectively communicate these concerns through the school’s parent organization or as an informal but collective group, greater attention may be paid to the matter by school administrators and/or the school board. 
9. Consult outside advocacy support if necessary.  If you have taken issues to the teacher, counselors, principal, superintendent, and school board, and they remain unresolved,  then you may have need to seek outside assistance.  Personal legal counsel may be necessary in extreme unresolved matters. Unfortunately, in some cases needed change may not occur until legal inquiries and media inquiries push issues to the front burner for school decision-makers.   But legal and media intervention should be last resorts and on extreme situations.  Try to work within the system and through all steps in the system first.  The best scenario is where parents and school officials work cooperatively, sincerely, and collaboratively to resolve issues in a manner focused on the best interests of the child.
10. Parents should seek outside professional support for mental health issues (such as, but not limited to, depression, withdrawal, substance abuse, etc. etc.) and other social, psychological, and support needs for their child(ren) and their family, as they deem appropriate.  A number of parents will report they have exhausted all efforts in dealing with school officials and/or they do not feel school staff has been responsive enough to meeting their child’s needs, especially in cases where their child has been the reported victim of ongoing harassment, bullying, physical assaults, etc.  If as a parent or guardian feels this way, they should not sit idly but instead pursue services and support from medical, mental health, social services, community-based organizations, government agencies, etc.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good starting point for parents to consider regardless of the specific complaint or concern they want to address at their child’s school. 

For more detailed questions parents can ask, visit our checklist for parents on my web site.

How are parent concerns about school safety communicated to school officials at your school?

Ken Trump

Failing to communicate school safety and crisis incidents to parents and the media in an effective and timely manner can become its own separate story.  It can also put a dent in the credibility of a school district and its leaders from the superintendent to the building principal.

One reporter working on a story which questioned a school district’s communications on a gang-related threat asked me:  At what point should schools communicate with parents and the media on specific school safety or crisis incidents?

My answer was simple:  When the buzz has spread through the student cafeteria and teachers’ lounge, a half-dozen parents have arrived in your office, and reporters are on your phones, it is a little too late to get ahead of the communications curve.

Most schools across the country have some type of written emergency guidelines for dealing with different crisis situations.  However, many schools do not have formalized, detailed crisis communications plans to guide school officials in the timely management of parent and media communications as a crisis incident unfolds. 

Today’s world of social media has students, parents, media, and others in school communities engaged in rapid communications immediately as a crisis incident unfolds.  School officials must be prepared to manage not only the crisis incident itself, but also the corresponding communication needs which build along with the incident.

Does your school have a solid plan for communicating with parents and the media in a timely, effective manner as a rumored threat or actual school safety crisis incident begins to unfold?

Ken Trump

A Cleveland elementary school teacher was robbed and her car was stolen as she arrived outside the school around 7:30am today.

This incident illustrates the importance of thinking about school security beyond just the hours when students are present.  All schools, especially those in high-crime areas, should have security considerations in place from early staff arrival until the last staff member is out the door in the evening.

School safety planning for this time period should include things such as:

• Physical security measures such as lighting, access control, alarm system operations, restricted times for unlocking/locking doors, etc.
• Establishing communications capabilities and protocols for times when limited staff are working in the building.
• Training custodial, teaching, and other support staff on emergency plans designed specifically for before and after regular school hours.

Several years ago, one school was forced into a lockdown on a teacher planning day before school opened for students at the start of the school year.  An armed male was on the attack in connection with a domestic situation involving one of the school’s staff members.

Security is the job of everyone in a school.  It is also something we must factor into school safety planning beyond just the traditional school instructional hours.

Does your school’s safety plan include risk reduction measures and emergency guidelines from opening to closing of the building?

Ken Trump

Will the Obama Administration and Congress continue the decade-long cuts to school safety funding in 2011, or will they reverse the downward decline?

Federal School Safety Funding:  Past and Present

Last Friday, an American Association of School Administrators (AASA) bulletin section entitled, “Obama Budget to Shrink Number of Education Programs,” advised members:

“According to our sources, the President’s 2011 budget (money districts will receive for 2011-2012) is expected to propose a major elimination of small programs and a shift of others toward competitive grants, as opposed to formula grants that distribute directly to districts based on student demographic data.   We also are concerned about the fate of larger programs, given this year’s elimination of the Safe and Drug-Free schools program and 63 percent slash in the Education Technology program.”

Congress, the Bush Administration, and most recently the Obama Administration have leveled repeated cuts to federal school safety funding programs. 

Ken Trump and expert panelists testify at House hearing on school safety (July 8, 2009)

Most notably, the state grant component of the Safe and Drug Free Schools (SDFS) Program bled toward a slow death during the Bush terms.  The program was finally put to rest in the recent Fiscal Year 2010 budget process at the request of the Obama Administration and subsequent actions of both branches of Congress.

Ironically, the House eliminated the program from the FY2010 budget two days after myself and seven others testified to a House joint subcommittee hearing on strengthening federal school safety policy. The Senate subsequently made the same cut in their FY2010 budget and, as it stands now, the SDFS state grant program is “history.”

Other federal school safety programs have been sliced and diced over the past decade, including the COPS in Schools grant program in the U.S. Department of Justice.  Even in today’s world of “homeland security,” the level of funding for the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) school emergency planning grant is less today than it was in its first year of awards in 2003.

What Will the FY2011 Budget Bring for School Safety?

This brings us to the FY2011 budget to soon be unveiled by the Obama Administration.  Will it bring federal school safety funding back to life and back to the levels of years past?  Or will school safety get lost (until the next major school shooting or other national headline story) in a Congress focused on health care, terrorism, and of course, the upcoming 2010 Congressional election campaigns?

Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, has been a strong leader and advocate for improving school safety, security, crime reporting, and emergency planning.  She and her staff have consistently demonstrated leadership in working to keep school safety on the agenda on Capitol Hill.  I have encouraged Congresswoman McCarthy, her staff, and Congress as a whole (in my July 2009 testimony) to replace cut programs with new ones and to restore (and expand) federal school safety funding. 

The FY2011 budget, along with the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provides great opportunities to undo the decade of damage Congress and two administrations have done to federal school safety funding.  Will they step up?

Education Community and Parents Need to Step Up, Too

In fairness, the full blame cannot be placed upon Congress and the Presidents alone.  The education professional community as a whole failed miserably to be  strong, proactive vocal advocates for protecting federal school safety funding.   Instead, the primary focus of their lobbying over the past decade has zeroed in on the academic angle of the federal “No Child Left Behind” education program.

Parents (aka: voters) have not done any better when it comes to voicing their concerns about school safety funding cuts.  They understandably get vocal after a school crisis in their local communities.  But where is their collective voice on protecting the already limited federal school safety funding?

If school safety funding trends are not reversed in the FY2011 budget and ESEA reauthorization, chances are good we will not see any significant federal attention (or improvements) for a number of years barring another high-profile national school safety tragedy.

Will you step up to actively, vocally, and forcefully let your Congresspersons and Senators know you expect better federal school safety policy and funding?

Ken Trump

Photo credit:  U.S. House of Representatives

An uptick in gang activity in many communities has forced schools around the nation to grapple with school security issues in and around campuses. 

Just since the beginning of this school year last August:

• A 16-year-old female high school honors student in Long Beach, CA,  was shot and killed while leaving a high school homecoming game. Police reported the victim was an innocent bystander in the middle of two rival gangs engaged in a conflict. 
• Two 19-year students were shot, and a 10-year-old was hit by a bullet, outside of a Phoenix, AZ, charter school at dismissal. A 16-year-old former student was arrested. Police reportedly believe the incident was gang-related.
• Middle school students in Yakima, Washington, were caught in the middle of gunfire by two gang members firing as the students were walking home from school.  One male was wounded with a gunshot injury to the arm.

In “Gangs in Schools: Signs, Symbols, and Solutions” (Research Press, 1998), Drs. Arnold Goldstein and Donald Kodluboy advise us:

“A proportionate, considered response early in the evolution of the gang presence will help prevent more serious problems on down the line.  If educators can agree with their colleagues, administration, parents, the community, and the school board that it is better to plan ahead than it is to apologize for not being prepared, all are served.”

School officials too often deny the existence of gangs until a tragedy occurs and they can no longer be denied.

Are your schools being proactive or reactive about gangs? 

Ken Trump

Highlights of school safety, security, and crisis incidents and issues around the nation for the week of January 11-15, 2010:

Fort Wayne, IN:  Concordia stunned by student attack   A 14-year-old male student allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old male student with a large military-style knife, and then chased the victim through the hallways at a private high school.    

Rosemead, CA:  Principal at Rosemead school is stabbed; student arrested   A 15-year-old male student was arrested after allegedly stabbing the principal at an all-boys Catholic school.

Pomaria, SC:   “Irate” mother jailed after causing lockdown at child’s school  A 39-year-old mother was arrested at an elementary school after becoming irate and sending the school into a lockdown.

Miami, FL:  Miami-Dade students organize to end violence in schools  The summits come in the aftermath of a fatal stabbing at Coral Gables Senior High in September. One student was killed. Another is charged with second-degree murder.

San Francisco, CA:  Principal boots cop over student’s arrest  A  San Francisco police officer was ordered out of John O’Connell High School for arresting an alleged gang member in connection with a double homicide without first consulting the principal.

Ken Trump

He is most free from danger, who, even when safe, is on his guard.  

          Publilius Syrus (85 BC- 43BC)

               Latin Writer, 1st Century BC

 Ken Trump

Educators generally do a great job in preparing for the mental health recovery of students following a crisis.  They typically do not prepare enough for their own recovery.

In the past five years, I worked with educators after a high-profile school stabbing, a school shooting and student-shooter suicide, and a gang-related student killing in a community where safety concerns spilled over into a school.  In each situation teachers, administrators, support staff, and safety professionals rose quickly to meet the mental health and enhanced security needs of students.

Not once, though, did we hear any unsolicited or self-focused comments from these adults about their own mental health needs.  They worked tirelessly for days, weeks, and months to make sure their students were taken care of, moving forward, and protected as best possible.

Yet closer observations found pain and recovery needs for the caretakers themselves.  We heard from teachers who had nightmares and staff who jumped at the sound of a dropped book.  We spoke with one school support professional who cried when a colleague and I simply asked, “How are you doing?,” because no one had asked her that question even once within several months after the incident.

School crisis recovery plans must put student needs at the top of the list.  But we need to put caring for their caretakers right next to them on the list.  Those who act “in loco parentis” (in place of the child) deserve nothing less.

Do your schools have crisis recovery plans for both students and the adults who care for them?

Ken Trump

Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, provided opening comments at a school emergency planning training we provided in September of 2009 for a Virginia school district.  

In his remarks, Mr. Jennings made a powerful observation on how school emergency planning and other school safety tasks can easily fall to the back burner in school districts due to the busy nature of day-to-day school activities:

“It is easy for the urgent to drive out the important.”

School officials typically cite academic demands, time constraints, and tight budgets among the top reasons for not being up-to-date with school crisis planning. 

School crisis team meetings, emergency plan development, staff training, tabletop exercises with community partners, student support services, and related school safety planning take reasonable time.  And time is one of the few things more scarce than money in most school districts today.

How can school officials make sure the important task of school emergency planning is not driven out by the other urgent issues in schools?

• Make school safety a leadership issue.  It is only a priority if boards, superintendents, and principals exert leadership in keeping safety and crisis planning on the front burner.
• Create accountability by requiring documentation of crisis plan updates, crisis team meetings, training, etc.
• Include school safety as an ongoing part of school district professional development programming.
• Be creative.  Dedicate five minutes to discuss security and crisis plans at every faculty meeting.  Include a regular section on safety and preparedness in principal bulletins to school staff.
• Work with first responders, emergency management, mental health, and other community partners as force multiplers for maximizing school emergency response and crisis planning.

The good news is there are many educators, school safety officials, and others in school-communities who are making sure the urgent does not drive out the important obligations for school safety.  We will be highlighting these “School Safety Leaders” in an ongoing series in School Security Blog.

Who are the school safety leaders in your school and how are they demonstrating safety leadership?

Ken Trump