All crisis response teams need to practice before a crisis occurs. The following is a table-top exercise that a team can use. To make the exercise seem more immediate, modify it to include today's date and your own geographic area.

The War on Terrorism at Home and Abroad: America Responds

The Office of Homeland Security

________________________________________
EVENTS   Homeland Security News and Events

June 26, 2002
12:07 p.m.

Attorney General Ashcroft has declared [your geographic area] under an orange-high level of threat condition after intelligence unearthed a threat to public schools in the Greater [your geographic] area. The higher the threat condition, the greater the risk of a terrorist attack. Risk includes both the probability of an attack occurring and its potential gravity. There has been no specific threat. However, you, the school community, are being alerted immediately, before this information is reported to the media.

You, the administrative staff of [the name of your school], now face a series of questions:

1. Now that you have received this notice of alert:
   1. How do you go about alerting the rest of the school community?
   2. Do you alert parents? If so, how do you go about alerting them?
   3. How do you handle the pick-up and/or dismissal of the students in your school?
2. Not knowing the outcome of the threat:
   1. a. How do you go about setting up mental health support/after-care for the school community?
   2. b. What resources or programs should be made available for staff in the case of an attack? For students? And for parents?

Reference

Miller EF (April 2002). Training Exercise as part of videoconference The Three Rs to Dealing with Trauma in Schools: Readiness, Response & Recovery. Boston, MA: Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice.