Unless, of course, Marie Waldrop is your school’s principal.  Marie is a veteran educator who has served the past 11+ years as principal of Irmo Middle School in Irmo, South Carolina.  She is also a well respected and highly acclaimed reserve deputy sheriff for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

I met Marie earlier this year as we toured the South Carolina for a series of workshops I presented in four cities over four days for educators and law enforcement professionals.  She was a part of the team from the U.S. Attorney ‘s Office, South Carolina Department of Education, South Carolina Association of School Resource Officers, and others who organized the 19th annual South Carolina school safety conference.

Listen to Marie’s leadership perspectives on the role of school safety, emergency planning, and school resource officers (SROs) from the lens of a veteran school principal:

It was not surprising for me to learn why, given her rich and diverse background, Marie also serves on the board of the South Carolina Association of School Resource Officers.  Her no-nonsense, yet compassionate and caring, traits blend together to make a principal who is firm with discipline, has no tolerance for crime on campus, makes crisis  planning a top priority, and recognizes the importance of all of these elements in creating a safe and supportive school environment which is conducive to enhanced academic achievement.

It is for these reasons I am pleased to recognize Marie Waldrop as a “School Safety Leader”!*

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

*”School Safety Leaders” are individuals on the “front lines” of education who have demonstrated proactive leadership in addressing school safety, security, and/or crisis preparedness.

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Matt McDevitt, Board Member and Security Committee Chair, Pennsauken (NJ) Board of Education

Matt McDevitt is a school board member who does not just talk about school security.  He has served on the District Security Committee as Chairperson since 1997.

As an elected member of the Pennsauken Board of Education in Pennsauken, New Jersey since 1995, Matt has served terms as President and Vice-President of the board.  Over the years, Matt could be seen at the National School Boards Association conference not only attending sessions related to board leadership, but also attending and presenting on school security and emergency preparedness trends and best practices.

Pennsauken is an urban, middle class community of approximately 35,000 people in Camden County, New Jersey. It is a 10.5 square mile, diverse community. The district is across the state line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Dr. Karen Schulte, Superintendent - School District of Janesville (Wisconsin)

When you think of schools in the welcoming town of Janesville, Wisconsin, your first thought may not be about school safety.  But if you know Dr. Karen Schulte, the Superintendent of the School District of Janesville, you know school safety is one of her very first priorities.

Dr. Schulte, or “Karen” as many of us know her, was appointed superintendent in January of 2009.  Prior to that time, she served as the district’s Director of Student Services for five and one-half years. In that capacity, a short list of her many duties included serving as the district’s Safety Officer, overseeing student services related to numerous prevention and intervention programs, and directing the district’s federal-funded Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant.  

I had the pleasure of working with Karen on school emergency preparedness assessment, training, tabletop, and related activities with the REMS grant.  My colleagues and I came to quickly respect her sincerity, commitment, and genuine passion for school safety and emergency preparedness.  Karen has the unique feature of being a “gentle giant” who is a great listener, genuine communicator, and consistent leader capable of moving projects and tasks forward while engaging the respect and participation of various players along the way without a lot of fanfare. 

Karen completed her course work for a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is not uncommon to encounter a superintendent with an advanced degree.  It is not so common, however, to find a superintendent like Karen whose dissertation focused on school safety and student related issues. 

Top School Safety Challenges

Karen identifies three top areas she has seen as most challenging in school safety:

1. Threats by students to do harm to the school, staff and building.  All such threats must be regard as serious.  In these cases it can take a lot of time and investigative work to determine the potential and to react (and not over react) with the appropriate actions.  This, of course, must be done while keeping in mind the confidentiality of the student and family, and the safety of the student making the threat.
2. Death of students is a difficult process that is often played out in the media and the hallways of our schools. We had two of our students and their mother murdered, and three students who died car crash where fire consumed the bodies.  These two incidents were in the media for months; the car crash until the bodies were officially identified and the murder trial which lasted for nearly two years.  You need to respond to the immediate reaction from the staff and students, community and media.  You must also prepare for the ongoing reactions as new information is released and the murder conviction is played out in the courts.   
3. Working with parents and the community to educate and help them understand the levels of lockdowns.  Educating and getting them to understand that students are safe and will not be released until the incident has been resolved.   We experienced a tornado warning at dismissal and a police stand-off.  In both incidents we held students until we were certain our staff and students were safe.  Though that was not the most favorable decision in the opinion of some of the parents, staff and media.

Proactive School Security and Emergency Preparedness

Karen points to three proactive efforts she and her district have taken to enhance school safety, security, and emergency/crisis preparedness:

1. Installed an all doors locked – buzzer system policy.   Cameras and buzzers have been installed on the main entrance of all school sites and the administrative building.  Visitors must be buzzed in and sign in at the front area where they receive a badge.  The hardest and still most challenging portion of this is during Summer School.  We now are making security checks to be certain staff is abiding by this policy.  
2. Ongoing training at our Administrative Workshops.  Having administrative staff work through crisis scenario as teams and discuss their action steps, explain their process has served as a great learning tool.   
3. Applying for the REMS grant and being awarded it, allowed us to evaluate, train and develop and take our crisis management and school safety to a level of excellence.  We have been able to involve more community agencies, parents and partners in our process.  This has proven to be a positive step in dealing with an incident. 

I might add that Karen and her team were among the best I have seen nationwide in implementing their REMS grant!

School Safety Advice to Colleagues

What are Karen’s top pieces of advice for other superintendents and boards on school safety, security, and emergency planning?

1. Be prepared!  Review  your process and plans on a regular basis. 
2. Training!  Your staff needs to know how, and when to react.  We cannot rely on a manual to guide us through a crisis.  Some steps must be immediate and done without thought or checking to see if it is right.
3. Train student and staff to report and question anything that does not seem right or information that they may have. 
4. Create relationships and MOUs with community agencies and neighboring districts.  Meet with them on a regular basis and train with them when needed. 

Dr. Karen Schulte not only talks the talk of school safety.  She walks the walk. And for that reason I am proud to recognize her as a “School Safety Leader”!*

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

*”School Safety Leaders” are individuals on the “front lines” of education who have demonstrated proactive leadership in addressing school safety, security, and/or crisis preparedness. 

Additional Background on Dr. Karen Schulte:  Dr. Schulte has over 25 years of experience in education. In addition to her positions as Superintendent, and prior to that Director of Student Services, for the School District of Janesville, Dr. Schulte was employed in the Beloit Turner School District as principal of Turner Middle School for five years.  Prior to her Principalship she was Assistant Principal at Marshall Middle School in Janesville for two years.  Her related work experience includes serving as a special education teacher, unit leader, and Dean of Students in Des Moines, Iowa.

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Asia Jones, Executive Director for Student Services, Roanoke City Public Schools

You would not expect to find a school administrator responsible for the challenging areas of school safety, student health, discipline, truancy prevention/intervention, and alternative education to be smiling and upbeat every day. Of course, it is also not every day you meet someone like Asia Jones.

Asia is the Executive Director for Student Services in Roanoke City Public Schools in Roanoke, Virginia. She has served in this position for three years. Asia also has eight years experience as an elementary and a middle school principal, prior to which time she was a high school teacher for nine years. She has also served three years in higher education as an adjunct professor.

I had the pleasure of working with Asia on a Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) federal grant, for which she was the district’s project director. She is an exceptionally bright, dynamic, and talented education professional.

Climate, Time, and Communication are Priorities

Asia has no fear of tackling the challenges which come with leading school safety efforts. She identifies three important challenges as ones which school leaders must focus on for safer schools:

1. Maintaining a safe and welcoming environment:

“A healthy school climate facilitates student learning. Teachers are most effective when they feel empowered and supported by their administration. Similarly, students become engaged in the school community when they feel safe, respected by and connected to their teachers,” Asia says. 

Asia believes there are many tools that can be used to build the foundation for a welcoming environment.  She stresses it is important to ensure tools that include, but are not limited to; threat assessments, conflict mediation and resolution, progressive discipline, anonymous reporting, and student perception surveys are a part of the routine practice.

“Finding creative opportunities for parental involvement and awareness of safety practices and procedures go a long way with building community support and trust,” according to Asia.

  2. Finding time to practice the plan:

Educators have a seemingly insurmountable task of educating all students to meet all state and federal academic expectations and benchmarks. 

Asia strongly believes, “As instructional leaders, principals must protect instructional time to ensure that teaching and learning take place. Finding a balance of time to ensure the learning environment is safe is a priority and must be communicated as such. Principals must ensure the emergency management plan is accessible, understood and practiced routinely within their school community.”

  3.  Communicating safety as a priority:

Asia believes it is important that everyone within the school community understands their role in maintaining a safe environment.

“School officials must maintain open lines of communication with first responders. The partnership between school officials and first responders can be nurtured by routine team meetings/summits and practice drills.  Everyone in the school community must understand the importance of safety drills, as well as the importance of reporting concerns,” according to Asia.

She notes that once concerns are reported, parents and students must trust that the teacher/administrator will listen and respond accordingly.  

Proactive School Emergency Planning

Roanoke City Public Schools was recently awarded the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant, a competitive federal school emergency planning grant program from the U.S. Department of Education. 

As the project manager, Asia had the opportunity to work closely with experts in the field of school safety and security to enhance the school district’s ability to respond to critical incidents. 

“Among the most valuable and substantial REMS initiatives were training workshops and modified tabletop drills facilitated by National School Safety and Security Services. Ken and his team’s workshops were all inclusive to include the Superintendent’s cabinet, central office administrators as well as staff members from transportation, custodial services, school cafeterias, parents and school-based safety teams. 

Our school administrators had not experienced such professional development prior to these safety and crisis preparedness exercises. As a result, school teams can implement the emergency response plan with confidence when responding to a crisis,” Asia shared.

What was the most important lesson from the REMS project?

“Most importantly, we’ve learned that a well trained and highly alert faculty and staff are essential for keeping the school community safe,” Asia said.

Priority Advice for School Administrators

Based upon her experience as a school district and building level administrator, Asia has three pieces of advice on school safety for her counterparts:

• Have an emergency management plan that is a “living document”. As a “living document”, it is reviewed, updated and practiced routinely. 
• Communicate school safety as a priority.  As the instructional leader, the principal routinely reviews discipline data and concerns identified by the school safety team.  These concerns may include issues surrounding hallway supervision, visitor passes or sign-in/out procedures or even referrals to the office.
• Build and nurture positive relationships with students.  Be intentional when identifying ways to connect the disconnected student.

In recognition of her commitment, dedication, and leadership on school safety and emergency planning initiatives, I am pleased to recognize Asia Jones as a “School Safety Leader”!

Ken Trump

[“School Safety Leaders” are individuals on the “front lines” of education who have demonstrated proactive leadership in addressing school safety, security, and/or crisis preparedness. ]

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com 

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Dr. Gary Pack, Superintendent, Princeton City School District

Dr. Gary Pack believes there are two important lessons all school administrators should know about school safety:

1. You are never as prepared as you think you are, but a safety and security plan that is practiced and part of everything we do in our schools tends to make the critical incidents which do occur more manageable. 
2. Solid communication networks are very much necessary for successfully managing a crisis. 

Veteran Educator Experienced in Crisis Response

Dr. Pack has served in education 39 years as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent (for twenty of the years) in four states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Colorado, and Ohio.  He is currently superintendent of the Princeton City School District in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he has led the district for the past two years.

While serving as superintendent of the Blount County Schools in Maryville, Tennessee, Dr. Pack experienced a crisis situation in which a student held an elementary school principal hostage for three hours with a .357-caliber gun pointed in his face. 

Dr. Pack was a high school principal in Kentucky when a student stabbed another student ten times while in the school hallway in follow-up to a fight the previous evening.

And in while superintendent in Colorado, Dr. Pack experienced a situation where an escaped convict overpowered a state trouper and killed him alongside the interstate.  “School was in session and trying to evacuate in a blizzard without knowing where the convict was located was very trying,” Dr. Pack shared.

Safety and Security Assessment a Top Priority

Dr. Pack believes it is very important to quickly evaluate school safety as soon as possible once he takes leadership over a school district.

“When I enter a district as superintendent for the first time, a top priority is to audit all  safety and security measures and accepted practices.  I bring in a team to provide recommendations to the school board and district to tighten up these practices,” Dr. Pack said.

Upon taking leadership of the Princeton City Schools two years ago, Dr. Pack had a full plate of priorities for strengthening the district.  His progress has focused on improving academic achievement, making new leadership appointments, enhancing community input and involvement, and introducing a new bond/levy issue to build a very much needed new high school and middle school.

Dr. Pack made sure school safety is kept on the front burner, as well. While simultaneously managing all of the aforementioned challenges, he pushed for a comprehensive school safety assessment to review school safety and security policies, security measures at all facilities, and emergency preparedness guidelines and practices for the district. 

While conducting the contracted assessment for the district, our team quickly found Dr. Pack to be genuine and serious about school safety.  He “walks the walk,” and does not just, “talk the talk.”  School safety is a key, integral part of his leadership.

Advice to School Administrators

“The advice I would give to other school administrators is to regard safety and security as a top priority, because when issues come and they surely will in time, the parents and public expect best practices and protocols must be in place.  They do not like to hear, ‘Well we messed up, but we plan to get better’, especially if a student or staff person is injured or killed in the incident,” Dr. Pack explained.

For his commitment to school safety, I am pleased to recognize Dr. Gary Pack as a “School Safety Leader”!

Ken Trump

“School Safety Leaders” are individuals on the “front lines” of education who have demonstrated proactive leadership in addressing school safety, security, and/or crisis preparedness. 

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Dr. John Hutton, Superintendent of Gurnee School District 56 (IL)

Dr. John Hutton’s 35 years in education have taught him many important lessons.  His most important lesson on school safety: Be proactive!

Dr. Hutton is Superintendent of Gurnee School District 56 in Gurnee, Illinois.  He served an assistant superintendent and building administrator in Valparaiso, Indiana.  Dr. Hutton was also a math teacher and a basketball coach in Portage, Indiana.   

School Safety Challenges

Dr. Hutton is no stranger to school safety challenges. 

In 2004, while serving as an assistant superintendent in Valparaiso, Indiana, Dr. Hutton dealt extensively with the response and recovery from an incident where a high school student armed with bladed weapons attacked seven students in a classroom. 

As Gurnee District 56′s superintendent, Dr. Hutton took the lead in resolving issues related to repeated burglaries and vandalism at one of his district’s schools.  The repeat offenses not only damaged school property, but threatened the morale and spirit at the school and in the surrounding school-community.

A third significant school safety challenge he faces as a school leader:

“Maintaining vigilance to be alert for safety and security concerns at all times,” says Dr. Hutton.

Proactive Leadership

Dr. Hutton and his colleagues in Valparaiso faced an uphill battle in managing the school district and school-community recovery after the brutal 2004 attack.  Media coverage was intense and community emotions ran high.  While the crisis incident itself was horrific, the energy and focus of efforts to manage the recovery was also intense.

In addition to overseeing the implementation of mental health responses and liaison with law enforcement, Dr. Hutton worked with his superintendent, board, and building administrators to reassess the district’s overall security and emergency preparedness.  The district hired a national consulting firm (headed by this author) which reviewed policies and procedures, assessed each school in the district, facilitated a community meeting, and worked with the media to get out accurate information on the district’s recovery efforts.

Following the rash of burglaries and vandalism in Gurnee, Dr. Hutton again worked closely with local law enforcement.  He also engaged the same consultant firm to evaluate security practices and make recommendations relative to these incidents, as well as other school safety matters in the district.

Three proactive things Dr. Hutton and his team have done in their district to address safety, security, and crisis preparedness are to:

1. Conduct a safety audit at all district schools;
2. Participate in tabletop exercises with first responders in their community; and
3. Update safety and emergency preparedness plans and discuss them annually with the local police and fire departments.

Advice for Fellow Superintendents

“The advice I would offer my colleagues is to develop and maintain a relationship with a school safety expert.  It is impossible for a superintendent to stay current in all the aspects of school safety and emergency preparedness without some expert help.  Secondly, I would recommend that superintendents invest resources in school safety and emergency preparedness before a problem surfaces.  Avoiding problems is much less expensive than solving problems after the problems occur,” Dr. Hutton stressed.

When it comes to school safety, Dr. John Hutton “gets it,” as we like to say.  He understands the value of having a proactive working relationship with first responders.  He recognizes the need to annually update crisis plans.  And he knows plans must be exercised in order for schools to be best prepared for an emergency.

For that reason, I am proud to recognize Dr. John Hutton as a “School Safety Leader”!!!

Ken Trump

“School Safety Leaders” are individuals on the “front lines” of education who have demonstrated proactive leadership in addressing school safety, security, and/or crisis preparedness. 

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John Weicker, Director of Security - Ft. Wayne Community Schools (Indiana)

John Weicker knows a lot about school security and discipline.  He has lived it every day for close to 19 years as Director of Security for Fort Wayne Community Schools in Indiana. 

Experience and Passion

Prior to taking on this district level role, John served as Dean of Boys at the largest of six Fort Wayne high schools from 1978 to 1991.  Add those 13 years to his current role and you’ll find a school safety specialist with about 32 years of day-in and day-out, hands-on experience tackling all types of school discipline and security challenges. (He began teaching at the secondary level in 1973.)

Anyone who knows John knows that he is as passionate about school safety and discipline today as he was his first day in an administrative position. While being a strong advocate for the academic side of educational services, John strongly believes security and discipline plays more into the public perception of a school district’s success or failure than any other factor.

“I learned early on that you could have the greatest curriculum and, the greatest teachers and administrators in the world in a school or a school system, but if the kids, their parents, teachers, and administrators do not feel they are safe and  secure, those schools and school systems will rightly or wrongly not be perceived as being successful. That is reality,” he said during our recent interview.

Greatest School Safety Challenges

While many school security administrators would be quick to point out declining budgets and staffing for school safety, Mr. Weicker points to three other greatest challenges he faces in leading school safety efforts in a large urban school district:

1. Getting fellow educators to recognize security as a professional disciplinary expertise.  “It is extremely tricky to convince educators that they need to listen to the real experts when it comes to security. Those experts are the local law enforcement and emergency responders who are located in all communities around the country.  So many times, I have seen mistakes that need not have been made, if only principals and central office administrators would have simply sought out, listened to, accepted, and then supported and acted on the advice of the security experts that are located in their individual communities,” Weicker said.
2. Practicing emergency plans, just not having them.  Weicker’s challenge: “ To actually get educators to see the importance of not just having plans to address emergency preparedness issues, but to buy into the fact that these plans must in fact be practiced if they have any hope of actually being effective.  I believe this challenge has become more serious of an issue with security practitioners as more and more pressure had been placed on the importance of “Time on Task” and “No Child Left Behind.”  Folks seem to use the pressure placed on them regarding student achievement as an excuse to indicate they have no time to take the time to have staff and students be actually involved in practicing lockdown drills, off-site evacuations, and scenarios that are designed to actually get people to respond to possible emergencies that could  become reality life and death situations in their school,” he said.
3. Acknowledging and tackling issues head-on.  His third challenge is, “Attempting to convince educators that they would be so much better off to openly address security/discipline/law violation incidents that occur in their buildings, rather then attempting to keep the occurrence of those events “Secret” and or hidden.   Those attempts do not work, and are perceived rightly or wrongly as an attempt on the part of the school administration to hide what is occurring in their buildings. Everyone knows that any school’s students represent what is going on with kids in the community that they are located in, so if kids in a community are involved in gangs, drugs, weapons, etc., then to try to insinuate that the schools in those same communities do not have kids attending them that are involved in the same activities is just plain nuts.  Doing so does not lead to people believing that they can trust the fact that you are being honest with them,” Weicker says.

Proactive School Safety Leadership

Among his many accomplishments, John Weicker points to three proactive things for which is particularly proud:

1. Having aggressively addressed the often forgotten yet critical area of athletic event security.  Weicker and his colleagues brought in national experts in special event security to review athletic event security plans and practices, and to train school staff around the county. The efforts were highlighted on the CBS Evening News, NPR, and in national print media. 
2. The Allen County School Safety Commission, and the Fort Wayne Community Schools, were instrumental in championing a bill that became law in Indiana making it mandatory that every school in the state hold at least one emergency lockdown drill every semester.  The Commission was also successful in getting the Allen County Elections Board to remove/relocate election polling sites from most county schools in order to reduce security risks to schools.  
3. Middle school central administration mandated Fort Wayne Community Schools’ middle schools (11 total) practice off site evacuation drill once every year.  Due to this emphasis, many of the district’s elementary schools (34 total) and high schools (6 total) have followed suit on a voluntary basis.

Most Important Advice

John provides two simple, but powerful, pieces of advice to his colleagues around the nation: 

1. “First and foremost, I discovered early-on the absolute necessity of forming and maintaining  a positive collaborative working relationship with local law enforcement and other emergency responders  The trust and working relationship that I began to develop in 1978  has served our schools and myself well  over these many years.  Such relationships are not universally shared in many locations around the country,” Weicker said.
2. “Equally important is to have people who you can depend on to tell you what they believe to be right, not what they believe you want to hear.  I have sadly seen many folks in authority who have been destroyed after making stupid decisions that perhaps would not have been made had they had in their “Band of Better Angels” those who would have argued and/or expressed an opposite point of view.This is especially something people should consider when choosing to employ a school safety consultant,” Weicker stressed.

The bottom line, Weicker says, “I, like most, want desperately to be able to look at that ‘Man in the Mirror’ on the day after a tragedy and be able to tell him with honest confidence that I had done everything that I could to have avoided it.”

I am proud to have Mr. John Weicker as a trusted professional colleague and friend, and to name him as our first formally recognized School Safety Leader!

Ken Trump

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