Would you like to know how to create a comprehensive plan for coping with school-related crises?

Are you interested in practical tips and tools that can help your school put its crisis response plan into action?

Would you like to learn about successful strategies for preventing crises from occurring at your school?

If you answered YES to these questions, then this online workshop is for you!

Last year at this time, in response to the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Education initiated a series of activities to better understand and enhance the capacity of schools to cope with traumatic events. Click here to learn about some of the steps taken and lessons learned by the Department following the events of September 11th, as well as about future plans for helping schools and communities prevent and respond effectively to crises.

This online event, and the Middle School Coordinators/National Coordinators initiative overall, is part of the Department's broad-based effort to promote safe and secure learning environments for young people across the nation.

Objectives

This four-day, facilitated event is designed to provide drug prevention and school safety coordinators with the knowledge and skills to facilitate a comprehensive approach to crisis response and prevention. By the end of this event, you will be able to:

• Identify the range of individuals and organizations that should be represented on a crisis response planning team

• Collaborate with community and district personnel to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated response to potential crises

• Determine if there are gaps in your school's crisis response plan and make sure that your school has the necessary "crisis kit" supplies

• Help establish effective programs and strategies to prevent crises from occurring

The Center's online continuing education training program offers a menu of skills-based, interactive learning activities designed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge into practice, enhance the exchange of effective practices among drug prevention and school safety coordinators, and strengthen their capacity to implement effective prevention efforts.

Visit the Drug Prevention and School Safety Coordinator website to learn more about the next online event, Middle School Coordinators as Change Agents.

You are ready to begin this workshop if you have (1) received confirmation of your participation, (2) visited the Orientation to Online Events website (to ensure that you and your computer are prepared for this event), and (3) complete the Pre-Event Assessment Form. Then, please take a moment to read through this page. It will help you understand how the site is organized, how much time you should expect to spend participating in the event, and where to go for technical support.

Crisis Response: Creating Safe Schools is a three-part case study designed to be completed over four days. On Days 1-3, participants are expected to read the designated materials, answer the accompanying set of questions, and share their responses with other participants in the Discussion Area. On Day 4, participants can continue their online discussion and will be asked to complete an online evaluation.

Each day will begin with a video/audio quote from expert speakers on crisis response. The quotes are taken from a three-hour video conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and created in partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health, Prevention Institute, and Education Development Center entitled, The 3 Rs to Dealing with Trauma in Schools: Readiness, Response, and Recovery*. During the videoconference, Judge Eric Andell, special counsel to the secretary at the Department of Education, posed questions to panelists on various aspects of crisis response. His questions and the experts' answers provide a framework for each day of this online event's presentation and activities. For more information on the videoconference, see the Resources & Links section.

• Day 1: Preparing for a Crisis
  On Day 1, you will meet middle school officials in Virginia who have reviewed their crisis plans, organized crisis teams, made critical changes to the plans, and practiced those plans. You will be given a step-by-step guide of how to review and facilitate the implementation of a crisis plan that will work for your school.

• Day 2: Responding to a Crisis
  On Day 2, you will see how school officials in Newton, Massachusetts responded when a school bus on a music trip crashed in Canada, killing four middle school students. You will learn how a well-prepared and practiced plan helped officials respond to unforeseen problems in the days following the tragedy. You will also learn how to map community resources so that you can call in outside assistance when you need it most.

• Day 3: Preventing a Crisis
  On Day 3, you will learn how school officials in Palm Beach County, Florida began a comprehensive prevention program after a middle school student fatally shot his teacher.

• Day 4: Sharing Key Learnings with Other MSCs
  On Day 4, you will receive a summary of the week's discussion and be asked to complete an online evaluation. You are also invited to continue your online discussion.

Participants should log on at least once a day, although past participants have found that they could better monitor and contribute to the online discussion if they logged on several times throughout the day. Please allow enough time each day to read through the daily materials, complete any associated activities, and visit the Discussion Area.

On average, past participants have spent approximately one hour per day reviewing materials, completing activities, and contributing to the discussion. The training facilitator will check in two to three times a day to answer any questions and to facilitate online discussion.

Each online event website contains these sections:

• Daily Materials (Days 1, 2, 3, and 4)
  This is where participants can acquire a basic understanding of the event topic. Materials will appear in a variety of formats and can be printed for future reference. Each day, participants will also be asked to answer two or three discussion questions, which are intended to help you reflect on and apply the information contained in the materials.

• Discussion Summary
  This section will contain a summary of the previous day's online discussion. On the final day of an event, it will contain a summary of the entire week's discussion. Please read through the summary before beginning your day's work.

• Resources & Links
  The information contained in this section is designed to complement the event materials, facilitate your participation in the event, and enhance your overall learning.

• Event Support
  Participants with technical questions can go to this section and submit an online request for assistance.

• Discussion Area
  After reading each day's materials, participants will be asked to share their experiences and lessons learned in this section of the website.

Take some time to tour the site and familiarize yourself with its layout and content.

All of the materials and tools on this site can be printed and used for future reference. However, we strongly suggest that your review the materials online before you print them so that you can see how the different sections fit together. To print a specific page, go to the page of interest, place your cursor on File (at the top of the page), go to Print, and then press OK. This will print everything on the screen in front of you.

To print only the text (minus the navigation bars at the top and side of the screen), you must first open the site using the Web browser Internet Explorer. Then place your cursor on the page you want to print, right-click with your mouse, select Print, and choose OK.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to print the entire site with a single click of the mouse.

Participants with technical questions or problems can submit a request for assistance to Event Support. Your inquiries will be responded to immediately. You may also find answers to your questions in Tips for Participating in Online Events.

You will be able to visit this website at this address for one week after the event ends, though the Discussion Area will be closed during this time. After that, this event will be archived and housed in the Online Events section of the MSC website, where you will be able to access it at any time.

*Copyright 2002: U.S. Department of Education and Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice.

Not long ago, Richmond, Virginia was viewed as the homicide capital of the country. Shootings took place so regularly that children and adolescents began to see them as a natural way to resolve conflict. Then, in 1995, four students walked home from school one day and got caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival gangs. All were seriously injured. That shooting galvanized the community.

Floyd A.Wiggins Jr., the chief of the Department of Safety and Security for Richmond Public Schools, took on the task of creating a citywide school safety plan. One critical piece of that plan was to develop a strategy to respond to crises.

Wiggins assembled a team of nearly 80 people, including representatives from the police and fire department, city council, local university, religious organizations, housing department, parks and recreation, architectural firms, and others. In building the team, Wiggins essentially invited anyone whose work touched on the lives of students.

Team members researched other crisis response plans around the country to learn what worked well. Many school systems had plans that Richmond could use as a basis for its own. Members researched studies to find empirical data on the best practices in crisis response. Wiggins gave the team four months to develop a plan. Each member had specific tasks and deadlines for completing them.

The team worked closely with police, fire and rescue officials to make sure that their plan meshed with the emergency responders' Incident Command System, the standard protocol used by police, fire and emergency medical technicians in responding to a crisis. The process resulted in a plan that was embraced by the community. About 80% of the plan's many goals have been implemented, Wiggins estimates.

To keep people on track, Wiggins sends out a quarterly newsletter to school crisis teams. The newsletter provides updates on school safety, reports the latest research on crisis response, and reminds school crisis teams to hold regular meetings. Team members are assigned tasks and given due dates to complete them by.

Many schools already have crisis plans in place. But the plans might sit on the shelf with no one knowing about them, or they might not address the broad range of crises that occur. Further, they may be out of date, for example failing to plan for the possibility of a terrorist attack, such as the events of September 11.

Shortly after Alice Spence, head counselor at Rosemont Middle School in Norfolk, Virginia, began her job, she learned something surprising about the members of her school's crisis response team: Many did not know that they were on the team.

Spence's job duties at the middle school included updating the school's crisis response plan each year. One of her first tasks was to talk to the crisis team members.

"I wanted to make sure that they knew that they were on the team and what expertise we expected from them," Spence says. "Some of them said that they were glad I came to them, because no one had ever told them about their responsibilities before."

Spence also noticed some glaring absences from the team, including the school's security officer, psychologist, social worker, and nurse. All of those staff members had key roles to play if a crisis erupted, and Spence added them to the team. Spence thought about other needs that might arise during a crisis, such as having someone who could perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation or restrain an out-of-control student. Spence learned that some of the physical education teachers had this expertise. They became part of the team as well.

At the beginning of each school year, Spence convenes the crisis team to review each person's responsibilities and ask for any changes that should be made to the plan. Each member is assigned specific tasks. The assistant principal might be in charge of making sure that all the school doors are locked or calling in community resources, such as pre-screened crisis counselors. A guidance counselor might be responsible for activating a phone tree to notify parents of a crisis event at school.

"During a crisis, things happen so fast," Spence says. "If you know beforehand what you are supposed to do and where you should go, then you don't have to worry about it."

At Washington Irving Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia, school psychologist Paula DeForest is part of a crisis team that had a comprehensive district-level plan in place. But the thick blueprint was too unwieldy to use during the chaos of an actual crisis.

"The plan was in a four-inch binder. Are you going to grab that when you're running out the door?" DeForest says. "We needed something that was really procedural."

The team went through the plan, culling it to its most essential elements. The first few pages list the members of the crisis team, their contact information, and their responsibilities. Most experts recommend that each task be assigned to a primary person, with one or two back-up people in case the first one is not available. Also, it is critical to update phone numbers to make sure that they are current.

The Washington Irving crisis team includes police officers and head school bus drivers as well as school personnel. That outside perspective is critical in planning for a crisis, DeForest says. For example, the head school bus driver helped point out that an aerial photo of the school could be used to plan alternate evacuations for students and school staff.

Like many schools, Washington Irving has a crisis bag that a team member can grab on the way out when a school is being evacuated. The bag includes updated student rosters, contact numbers for parents, blueprints of the school, a bus schedule, the crisis plan, and other critical information. Several of these bags are located around the school, with someone designated to take each one out of the school. That way, team members know that they will have access to at least one bag with the critical information and tools that they need in a crisis.

To practice its readiness for different types of crises, the team practiced drills with faculty and students and tabletop exercises of different crisis scenarios. These are exercises in which team members are given a crisis scenario and then decide how they would respond.

In a scenario where students needed to get off school grounds quickly, team members proposed sending them to the neighboring elementary school to be picked up by their buses. The head bus driver pointed out that the elementary school parking lot was too small for the number of buses needed.

"We never would have known that if the lead bus driver hadn't been there," DeForest says.

Many of those exercises came from the Fairfax County Police Department, which lent its expertise on crisis situations. Examples of crises included everything from a fire to an estranged husband coming into a school with a gun to pick up his children.

"The table-top exercises really get you thinking about things that hadn't occurred to you before," DeForest says. "Like, if there is a fire, do we have a safe room where we can take students who aren't mobile? How do we alert the fire department about where they are?"

These school systems in Virginia illustrate the importance of developing, adapting, and practicing a school crisis response plan. Before developing their own plans, school systems researched studies to find empirical data on the best practices in crisis response and obtained copies of other school crisis response plans. Each school brought key faculty and administration members to the crisis response team. Schools also developed good working relationships with the community agencies they would depend on in the event of a crisis. By rehearsing examples of potential crises in advance, school crisis teams honed their abilities to respond to a real crisis.

Please review the Day 1 Activity and then think about the following questions:

• As a middle school coordinator, what has been your role in creating or refining your school's crisis response plan?

• How has the school responded to crises in the past? What are the biggest lessons learned that can help in planning for responding to a crisis in the future?

• During a practice session, crisis team members at Thoreau Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia realized that if there was a lockdown, they had no way to communicate with the teachers in the classrooms other than the public address system. There were no telephones or radios in classrooms. What are some other ways of communicating with teachers in that situation?

* U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program; The Harvard School of Public Health; Education Development Center, Inc., and Prevention Institute (April 23, 2002). The Three R's for Dealing with Trauma in Schools (satellite broadcast). Retrieved August, 2002, from www.walcoff.com/prevention/. (Copyright 2002: U.S. Department of Education and Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice.)

• Day 1 Activity
• Building a School-Based Crisis Team
• Additions to School Safety Plans
• Crisis Kits
• Planning and Preparing for a Crisis
• Protocol for Dealing with a Crisis

This activity is designed to enhance your understanding of the event content through hands-on learning. You will be asked to perform a series of tasks and then reflect on your experience.

Objective

To review your school's crisis response plan (or another school's, if yours is unavailable) and determine whether it is up to date or requires changes. You may not be able to complete this activity in one day. You can use whatever parts that you cannot finish as a template for the first steps in crisis response planning. Much of this work will be done as part of a crisis team.

Overview

The first step in crisis response planning is to determine whether your school has a plan and, if possible, obtain a copy. From there you can review the plan and see if changes need to be made in terms of membership, duties, practice, and types of crises envisioned. School districts often have crisis plans that local schools can adapt as long as they follow district policy. This activity is designed to help MSCs ensure that their school's crisis plans are up to date, familiar to key participants, and consistent with the school's overall safety plan.

Please review the materials from Planning and Preparing for a Crisis and Additions to School Safety Plans before beginning this activity. After completing this activity, please share your results and comments in the event's Discussion Area.

Part 1: Reviewing the Crisis Plan

For the first part of this activity, you will obtain a copy of your school's crisis plan and review it.

Step 1
Obtain a copy of your school's crisis plan. If your school does not have a plan, find out if a district-level plan exists, and obtain a copy of that plan. You can also go on the Internet and do a search for sample school crisis plans.

Step 2
Review the crisis plan. Make a note of anything that seems unclear to you. Ask yourself if any key elements are missing, such as a plan for a national terrorist attack or guidelines to assess for trauma in students.

Step 3
Find out whether your school has an active crisis team. If so, who are the members, and do they know that they are part of the team? Who heads the team? Are there people who should be on the team but are not, such as the head custodian, school security officer, school social worker, and school nurse? Make a list of those people.

Step 4
Ask for a meeting of the crisis team, if one exists. If it does not, then work with key staff, such as counselors, to form one.

Step 5
Hold a meeting of the crisis team. At the first meeting, ask members to review past crises in the school. What worked and what did not work? Assign tasks to each member, using Building a School-Based Crisis Team and Protocol for Dealing with a Crisis as a guide.

Please respond to the discussion questions that appear at the end of Day 1.

The process of organizing a school-based crisis team begins with the site's leadership. Someone must be given the responsibility of building the team. That person begins by identifying those who have formal roles that they must play during a crisis, those with specific skills that are needed, and any others who may be especially motivated to be part of such a team.

The next step is to set a meeting time and invite the potential members. To increase the likelihood that the meeting is focused and productive, it helps to do some pre-session structuring which includes the following:

• Asking others to play a role during the meeting (e.g., meeting facilitator, time keeper, note taker)

• Providing copies of the site's existing crisis response plans and some general material to read on the subject of a school-based crisis response

During the meeting, it helps to use worksheets that focus the discussion on key topics and decisions about task, assignments, and timelines.

The purpose of the meeting is to review the site's existing crisis response plans and discuss a variety of related matters.

The following is a sample agenda for the first meeting.

Focus on Planning

What are our roles and functions as team members?

1. Meeting facilitator reviews the key team roles and functions.

2. Decide who will take each role (fill in worksheet below). If there are enough people, designate a back up for each position. Discuss chain of command: Who will be in charge? Who will be next? If these two were not available, who would be third? Enter all necessary contact information (e.g., home numbers, cell phone numbers, beepers).

   Role/Function	Name (A person may serve more than one role/function.)	Chain of Command (Who's in charge? Back-ups?)	Contact Information
   Team leader
   Administrative liaison
   Staff liaison
   Communications liaison
   Media liaison
   First aid coordinators (medical, psychological)
   Communications coordinator
   Crowd management coordinator
   Evacuation / transportaion coordinator

   Click on the following link to view and print this worksheet in Microsoft Word: MS Word (24K).

3. Discuss the latest crisis at the school. If one doesn't come to mind, use the possibility of a car accident outside school involving a student and observed by many students and parents. Each team member should assume his or her role in talking through the specifics of what to do. Brainstorm, with no discussion until the exercise is finished. Then take five minutes to highlight good ideas and suggestions for action.

4. Plan on a way for each team member to inform others at the school about the crisis team membership and roles. For example, who will talk to the faculty, the parent center coordinator, the office staff, and the PTA?

5. Prepare for the next meeting, which will focus on action.

Reference

Center for Mental Health Services at UCLA (2000). A Resource Aid Packet on Responding to a Crisis at a School. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

Schools need to develop comprehensive school safety plans that address the variety of crisis events they may face. While many schools and school districts revised plans to address school shootings following the tragedy at Columbine High School, the terrorist attacks in New York City and Virginia raise concerns that may not be addressed in current school safety plans. Following the events of September 11, the U.S. Department of Education issued the following guidelines for addressing these types of broad-based crises:

• Evacuation: A major crisis may require several schools to be evacuated simultaneously. Because school plans frequently call for students to be evacuated to other schools in the district, alternative evacuation sites (and alternative evacuation routes) should be identified. This concern also suggests that safety plans for individual schools must be coordinated with overall school district plans. Special plans are also necessary to address situations in which bioterrorism is threatened or suspected. In these cases, evacuation procedures must ensure that cross-contamination does not occur.

• Attendance: In a major crisis, schools may need to quickly account for students. A plan for collecting and maintaining accurate attendance figures throughout the school day provides the data necessary for this process. Schools should remember that attendance records should be maintained in locations that are readily accessible to teachers, administrators, and emergency service workers, including law enforcement officials.

• Parental Notification: Parents will expect schools to provide quick and accurate information about the location and status of their children. Schools should have established procedures for making such notifications and should share those procedures in advance with parents. A major crisis that impacts an entire community may also mean that parents or other caregivers have been evacuated from their jobs. As a result, school safety plans need to address additional alternatives for communicating with parents in these situations. This scenario also demands that schools examine their procedures for releasing students to parents or other caregivers. If parents or other designated individuals can't reach students, or if students can't be transported to their homes because of a crisis, schools need to have a plan to respond to that situation.

• Transportation: During a large-scale crisis, usual methods for transporting students may not be available. Alternative strategies for transporting students during evacuations and to home must be in place. And schools located at some sites (for example, on military bases) may be closed to the public; thus, alternatives for transporting those students are also needed.

• Lead Official: Every school site should have one person designated as the lead official, that is, the person who is in charge when a crisis occurs. This person has responsibility for implementing the school's School Safety Plan. In addition to the lead official, schools should have a deputy or assistant lead official in case the lead official is not available in a time of crisis. Lead officials should meet regularly with law enforcement and other emergency responders to clearly define the roles and responsibilities for everyone involved.

Reference

US Department of Education, (2002), Letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige to Chief School Safety Officers.

Crisis kit items should be gathered and stored at strategic locations inside and outside of schools. These items can be kept in a large bag, plastic garbage can, or barrel. Common locations include principals' offices, local fire and police departments, police car trunks, and specially designated places in all areas of schools. Information in the crisis kits should be updated periodically, as appropriate. Gather the number of supplies that are needed for the size of the school.

• Separate placards with directional words, such as PARENTS, COUNSELORS, MEDIA, CLERGY, VOLUNTEERS, KEEP OUT

• Color-coded name tags and sign-in sheets for the service personnel listed above

• Blank white poster board for additional signs and duct tape to attach signs to tables

• Notebooks, pens, and magic markers

• Preprinted referral pads to be given to each counselor and clergy person:

  Name of counselor/clergy _____________________________
  Name of person to be referred for follow-up _________________
  Concerns __________________________________________
  Date ______________________________________________

• Walkie-talkies to communicate with members of the crisis response team and other emergency personnel and extra batteries

• Ankle bands or wrist bands (such as used in a hospital) to identify victims

• First aid supplies

• Blankets

• School site layout, building floor plans, and aerial maps

• Current roster of students and staff with pictures, addresses, phone numbers, emergency contacts, and important medical information

• Attendance rosters

• Brief summary of school history, number of teachers and staff, and name of principal

• District fact sheet with enrollment, number of schools, etc.

• County map with school district bus routes marked

• Bus rosters and routes

• Resources list of support personnel, e.g., contact person for local phone company

• Caution tape to keep people outside restricted areas

• Emergency response telephone numbers

• Telephone directory for school system

Reference

Kramen, A.J., Massey, K.R., & Timm, H.W. (1999) Guide for Prevention and Responding to School Violence. Alexandria, VA: International Association of Chiefs of Police.

• Establish or identify a crisis response team. Members should include principals, assistant principals, faculty members, custodians, school nurses, school mental health providers, security officers, transportation heads (lead bus drivers), and others who would play key roles in a crisis.

• Review any existing crisis response plan. Determine if it is up to date and comprehensive. For example, does it cover a variety of school crises, such as school shootings, suicides, and major accidents, as well as broader crises such as the 9/11 events? Does it have a procedure for notifying parents about where to go to get information on their children in the event of an emergency? Plans should also address school policies on possession of cell phones, bioterrorism hoaxes, hate crimes, and threats against schools, students, and faculty.

• Find out whether the policy is being used and is familiar to staff, including teachers and parents.

• If a crisis plan does not exist, make the case for developing one. Cite research about the effect of a crisis environment on student achievement and guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service.

• Get on the crisis response planning team.

• Find out how the school has responded to crises in the past.

• Ask key players in the school about what worked and what did not work.

• Bring questions about the plan to the table. Who is responsible for implementing the different parts of the plan? Is there a plan to assess for trauma in students? Offer resources that can help others do their job.

• Make sure that the school crisis response plan is developed with input and support from a variety of public and private agencies representing law enforcement, fire departments, emergency services, victim services, and agencies responsible for homeland security. Whether schools are reviewing an existing plan or developing a new one, they should include agencies with relevant expertise that may not have routinely partnered with schools.

• Reach out to other agencies that are involved in responding to crises, such as local law enforcement and fire departments, state, county, and local emergency preparedness agencies, and the National Guard, to ensure that they are part of any community preparedness drills. Make sure that the school safety plan coordinates with the Incident Command System, a nationally recognized system used by law enforcement, fire departments, etc. to prepare for and respond to all types of crises. School district officials should work closely with law enforcement officials and other emergency service agencies to ensure that clear lines of authority are established and well-known.

• Practice elements of the crisis response plan, such as evacuations, on a regularly scheduled basis. These practices can be woven into other safety drills (such as fire drills) that schools are required to conduct. Practice does not always mean drills. It can include table-top exercises (simulations of different types of crises and how to respond that can be discussed around a table) and other events that do not tie up school time.

References

Kramen, A.J., Massey, K.R., & Timm, H.W. (1999) Guide for Prevention and Responding to School Violence. Alexandria, VA: International Association of Chiefs of Police.

U.S. Department of Education, (2002), Letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige to Chief School Safety Officers.

These are questions to answer with your school-based crisis management team. The spaces to the left of each question are for the names and/or titles of people assigned to carry out the different tasks.

Click on the following link to view and print this worksheet in Microsoft Word: MS Word (28K).

Reference

Quarcoo, M & Daynard, C. (2000). Crisis Prevention, Intervention and Response Handbook. Newton, MA: Newton Public Schools.

At about 6 a.m. on Friday April 27, 2001, Assistant Superintendent Carol Daynard received a call from another superintendent with terrible news. A bus of middle school students on a music trip to Canada had skidded off a highway and flipped several times. By the time Daynard had dressed, the superintendent called back. Four students had been killed. Dozens more were injured.

Daynard quickly drove over to Oak Hill Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts. As head of the districtwide crisis response team, Daynard had to put the school's crisis plan into action. By the time she arrived at 7:30 a.m., most of the school and city's crisis response team was at the school. They briefly met to figure out the first step. Parents, hearing the news on the radio and television, had come as well, anxious for information about their children.

First, the city and school team brought the children into the gym. The school superintendent and principal made an announcement, saying that there had been an accident with fatalities. Police had not yet identified the children who died. Then school officials sent the children to their homerooms and parents to the library, where clergy were available to talk with them. At the same time, people showed up to volunteer as crisis counselors. The Red Cross arrived and set up a table for volunteers to sign in and fill out a form, which was used to gather information on the background and qualifications of potential volunteers, as well as contact information. Team members chose only those volunteers whom they knew personally or by reputation.

The principal's office became the command center. At 10 a.m., the team learned the names of the students who had been killed. The school-based team set up notification teams to tell the families before making a general announcement. Each notification team included a clergy member, a school administrator, a counselor or school nurse, and someone who knew the child. Because this incident happened away from school and, in fact, out of the country, law enforcement officials were not part of the notification team, as is typical in other types of school crises. Working with the counselors, the team developed a statement that would be read to the students in their homeroom classes. When the teacher read the statement, a counselor or clergy member was available in each classroom to provide support to the teacher and the students. That meant sending 35 counselors or clergy to each of the 35 homerooms in the school.

The team set up counseling centers in the library, counseling suite and faculty suite for anyone who needed to talk. They made sure that each area had plenty of water and food. When people are traumatized, they have a physiological response that makes them very thirsty. In the end, a local water company donated about 5,000 bottles of water.

School superintendent Jeffrey Young was the chief spokesperson on the tragedy, coming out as often as every hour that first day to give reporters and others updates on the situation.

"He was just terrific," Daynard says. "He was open and clear and set a tone that we were taking care of the children, and we were being responsive. It was very comforting."

The school principal sent out a letter and e-mail message that day informing the parents about what had happened. He continued to send out daily updates for the next week. When there was a memorial service, he told students and families what would be appropriate to wear, depending on the religious traditions of the deceased students. For example, one student was Buddhist. In that tradition, it is customary to wear white to a funeral service. In crises that involve schools, police agencies, hospitals and other community agencies, a crisis team would typically hold a multi-agency press conference to coordinate the release of information.

The crisis team had been in place for several years and developed close working relationships with community organizations, such as the police and fire departments, and the local mental health hospital. Those relationships made it easier to respond quickly to unexpected needs, Daynard says. The team had to coordinate logistics with another country in getting information and making arrangements. The town mayor helped arrange flights back for the surviving students and chaperones.

While the team had prepared carefully for a crisis, they still ran into unexpected problems. "The kids' belongings from the bus were soaked in diesel fuel," Daynard says. "One of the crisis team members from the local hospital was able to arrange for the hospital to autoclave the belongings and return them. We also had to make sure that the belongings of the deceased were not among them. We did it quickly and got them cleaned up."

The afternoon of the accident, the team set up committees to deal with different aspects of the crisis. These included a memorial committee to plan and coordinate memorials and a counseling committee to set up counseling and provide materials on trauma and grieving.

"We discovered that we only had three phone lines in the school," Daynard adds. "We kept one open to Canada, and the other two to make arrangements for parents to fly up to Canada and, once reunited, for the students and parents to be flown back." Cell phones did not work because the school was located in a "dead zone." Daynard recalls that she and the mayor hung out of the school library windows with their phones, trying to get a signal.

The bus accident occurred on a Friday morning. School officials decided to keep the school open over the weekend for students, parents, and faculty members to gather. Team members made sure that there were shifts of seven counselors at all times. Crayons and paper were available for kids to draw and write messages for a makeshift memorial in front of the school. Some of the boys played basketball. Counselors held a group for parents on how to talk to their children about the tragedy and gave them handouts to take home. They also held a group for the survivors of the bus accident. Teachers also met in groups over the weekend.

The next week, four memorial services were held for the students who had been killed. Each morning at around 6 a.m., the team met to plan the day. The team arranged for substitute teachers so that faculty could attend the services. The school held its own memorial service for all of the students, parents, faculty and staff the Thursday following the tragedy. Families of the students killed and the surviviors were invited to a luncheon on the day before the schoolwide memorial.

At that point, the crisis team felt that the students needed some closure. After a week of attending memorial services every day, the next day, Friday, would be a regular school day. After the service on Thursday, team members gathered up the messages on the memorial area in the front of the school. Students and parents helped. Volunteers organized the notes and drawings into books for each of the families of the children who had been killed. By Friday, most outward signs of the tragedy were gone.

"At some point you have to get back to a normal life," Daynard says. "Sometimes it's better to let people go numb as opposed to hitting them hard right away with counseling. We tried to make it available and let people make choices as opposed to insisting that people process."

Afterward, the team held debriefings each week until the end of the school year with faculty, counselors, and staff. The staff included administrators, teachers, custodians, and those who worked in the cafeteria. It is easy to forget about those staff who can also be traumatized by a crisis, Daynard says.

The team also held debriefings to determine what they could have done better in the crisis. One thing was clear: The school team needed a representative from the parent-teacher organization to provide a clearer link to the parents. The team also met with the citywide crisis team on ways to make it easier to make phone calls during a crisis. As a result, a new phone system is being installed.

In the following school year, a social worker from a local mental health agency who helped during the tragedy came to the school one day a week to check in and counsel students and faculty. School counselors and psychologists made lists of children they thought might be particularly vulnerable. Those included children who had been close friends with those who had died and children who had suffered other major losses in their lives. Counselors kept a close eye on them.

It is critical to make sure that support systems are in place over the long term. Any crisis or trauma can produce stress and other difficulties that last weeks, months, and years. Some people will not realize that a crisis has affected them until months later. Then they will need support. For others, the effect will be immediate and may continue long after the initial crisis has passed.

Counselors, teachers and other school-based personnel in Newton and other school districts have found that concrete activities can help student recovery. Teachers can ask students to write about their feelings in journals after a tragic event. Students can mark on the front of the journal whether they want a teacher to read their entries. Adolescents are often more willing to write about their feelings than speak up about them. From those entries, teachers have identified students who are struggling and may need some extra attention. Teachers have also incorporated lessons that address specific crises, such as the September 11 events. They have included lessons that address racial and ethnic bias and teach students about other religions, such as Islam.

"More than a year after the tragedy", Daynard says, "we are still a traumatized community." The events of September 11 triggered further grief and other reactions among the students, parents, and school staff.

"We have to be much more vigilant watching the kids now," she says. "The bus accident was a trauma, and anytime you have another traumatic event, those memories can get rekindled. So you look for any change in affect, sleeping patterns, any kind of mood changes. Around September 11, some kids cried a lot. Many of them thought that they were jinxed -- two terrible things happened in their community. The thing to do is to let kids talk about it, give them places where they feel comfortable, where they can feel sad. But you also tell them that these are unusual things that don't happen very often."

To mark the one-year anniversary of the bus accident, a committee of Oak Hill students, parents, faculty, and administrators planned a memorial site on school grounds. They thought about installing a stone from Canada with the names of the students who had died. When planning any memorial, it is important to take into account the needs of the parents whose children died, Daynard says. School officials also realized that they needed to develop a policy on memorials. In the year since the accident, other students had died. Neither students nor school officials wanted to minimize those deaths. While the policy was still being developed, Daynard said that officials were leaning toward "living" memorials, such as scholarship funds, concerts, and book awards, rather than permanent memorials, such as stones and benches.

Please review the Day 2 Activity and then think about the following questions:

What role could you play as a middle school coordinator during a crisis at your school?

How would you involve community organizations?

As a member of the crisis team, think about how you would handle an unexpected situation during a crisis. For example, what would you do in the following scenario: At the Oak Hill School in Newton, one of the students who died was Buddhist. As part of his religious tradition, the funeral cortege, including the hearse, drove to the school. The hearse was opened to release his spirit. His family asked the school to open all of its doors as well to release his spirit from the school. The crisis team received 10 minutes' notice that the processional was coming. The funeral procession was to arrive just as the buses were scheduled to pick up students from school.

* U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program; The Harvard School of Public Health; Education Development Center, Inc., and Prevention Institute (April 23, 2002). The Three R's for Dealing with Trauma in Schools (satellite broadcast). Retrieved August, 2002, from www.walcoff.com/prevention/. (Copyright 2002: U.S. Department of Education and Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice.)

• Day 2 Activity
• Sample Crisis Checklist
• Informing the Students and Staff
• Sample Letter to Send Home
• Mapping Community Resources
• Memorials Following Traumatic Events
• Activities to Help Students Recover from Traumatic Events
• Identifying Seriously Traumatized Children
• Practice Table Top Exercise

This activity is designed to enhance your understanding of the event content through hands-on learning. You will be asked to perform a series of tasks and then reflect on your experience.

Objective

To map your community's resources and practice a mock crisis event.

Overview

A key step in crisis planning is to determine the resources in your community that you can call on during a crisis and to make sure that your team has practiced what it will do before an actual crisis takes place. Again, you may not be able to complete this activity in one day. You can use whatever parts that you cannot finish as a template for taking the next steps in crisis response planning and practice.

Part 1: Mapping Community Resources

Step 1
Using the worksheet, Mapping Community Resources, begin researching the resources in your community that could respond to a crisis. Include police, fire, and emergency responder contacts, as well as mental health centers, the Red Cross, and the parent/teacher association, if they are not part of the crisis team.

Step 2
Fill out the worksheet, including updated contact names and numbers, along with the expertise or assistance that each contact can offer.

Part 2: Practicing a Mock Crisis Event

Step 1
Arrange for a meeting of the crisis response team to practice a table-top exercise of a possible crisis event.

Step 2
Using the practice crisis event, go through the exercise outlined.

Step 3
Discuss with the team what you learned. Make any changes necessary to your plan as a result.

Please respond to the discussion questions that appear at the end of Day 2.

1. ASSESSMENT

   1. Identify the problem and determine the degree of impact.
   2. Take steps to secure the safety and security of the site, as needed.
   3. Make an incident report to the district administrator.
   4. Determine if additional support is needed. If so,
      1. Call school police and/or city police.
      2. Call cluster crisis team.
      3. Call other district crisis personnel.
   5. Alter daily/weekly schedule as needed.

2. INTERVENTION: COMMUNICATION

   1. Set up a command center.
   2. Establish sign-in procedures at all campus entry sites.
   3. Administrator/designee/crisis manager should do the following:
      1. Review facts and determine what information should be shared.
      2. Consider police investigation parameters.
      3. Notify family, with sensitivity and dispatch (consider a personal contact with family).
   4. Develop and disseminate bilingual fact sheet (written bulletin). Distribute to the following groups:
      1. Faculty
      2. Students
      3. Parents and community
   5. Begin media interactions:
      1. Identify a media spokesperson (office of communications may be used).
      2. Designate a location for media representatives.
   6. Contact neighboring schools.
   7. Contact schools of affected students' siblings.
   8. Initiate other communication activities:
      1. Classroom presentations or discussions
      2. Parent/community meetings
      3. School staff meeting
   9. Provide for rumor control:
      1. Keep a TV set or radio tuned to a news station
      2. Verify facts
      3. Update fact sheet as needed
      4. Work with student leaders:
         • As sources knowledgeable of rumors among students
         • As peer leaders to convey factual information
         • As runners (written bulletins should be sealed when necessary)

3. INTERVENTION: FIRST AID AND EMERGENCY RELEASE PLAN

   1. Designate rooms/locations/areas for the following:
      1. Individual counseling
      2. Group counseling
      3. Parents
      4. Staff (certified)
      5. Sign-in for support services
   2. Initiate the referral process, including procedures for self-referral:
      1. Identify a crisis team member to staff all locations.
      2. Provide bilingual services as needed.
      3. Distribute appropriate forms for student counseling referrals to staff.
      4. Disseminate student referral information to teachers and other staff.
   3. Identify and contact high-risk students.
   4. Identify and contact other affected students, staff and personnel.
   5. Initiate appropriate interventions:
      1. Individual counseling
      2. Group counseling
      3. Parent/community meetings
      4. Staff meetings
      5. Classroom activities and/or presentations
      6. Referrals to community agencies.

4. INTERVENTION: DISSEMINATE APPROPRIATE HANDOUTS TO STAFF/PARENTS

5. INTERVENTION: DEBRIEFING

   1. Daily and mandatory crisis intervention activities. Include the following:
      1. Review the actions of the day.
      2. Identify weaknesses and strengths of crisis interventions.
      3. Review status of referred students.
      4. Prioritize needs and personnel needed for the next day.
      5. Plan follow-up actions.
   2. Allow time for emotional debriefing.

Reference

Center for Mental Health Services at UCLA (2000). A Resource Aid Packet on Responding to a Crisis at a School. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

Many administrators prefer not to make a P.A. announcement when there has been a crisis event that affects the school. There is no hard and fast rule here. It depends in part on the situation and in part on the ability of the administrator to use the P.A. in an effective manner.

The most common means of communication is a note to teachers and school staff members. Such communications should be made as quickly as feasible and should be done in a clear and open manner (providing all known information). In turn, teachers and staff are directed to inform students, doing so with concern and caring. If feasible, students should be informed in small-group settings where questions can be answered, rumors clarified, and concerns addressed.

The following is a sample of a statement used to provide staff and students with relevant information about the death of a student.

Reference

Center for Mental Health Services at UCLA (2000). A Resource Aid Packet on Responding to a Crisis at a School. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

Date

Dear Family Members,

We regret to inform you about an unfortunate event affecting our school. Yesterday [brief factual statement about event]. An investigation is underway, and until it is complete, we will not have all the details about this tragedy.

The school's crisis team has begun meeting with students and staff. We anticipate that some may need continuing support for a while to help them deal with the emotional upset that such an event produces. Enclosed are some materials that you may find helpful in talking about the matter at home.

If you have any questions or concerns that you think we can help address, please feel free to call the school [phone number] and ask for any of the following staff: [________________]

The following community agencies also are ready to help anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by their emotions:

• Community mental health center (phone)

• Family services (phone)

• Etc.

We know that events such as this are stressful. We are taking every step we can to be responsive to the needs of our students and their families.

Sincerely,

Principal's signature

Principal

Reference

Center for Mental Health Services at UCLA (2000). A Resource Aid Packet on Responding to a Crisis at a School. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

What resources are available in the school district and community to assist during and after a crisis? List all the community resources you know about (consult any resource books and look in the local phone book).

Divide up the list and contact each resource to get updated information about services. Include mental health agencies, law enforcement, social service agencies, local hospitals, school district resources, Red Cross, victim services agencies, and others.

Click on the following link to view and print this worksheet in Microsoft Word: MS Word (24K).

Reference

Center for Mental Health Services at UCLA (2000). A Resource Aid Packet on Responding to a Crisis at a School. Los Angeles, CA: Author.

Click on the link below to view and print a publication from the National Association for School Psychologists titled "Memorials/Activities/Rituals Following Traumatic Events: Suggestions for Schools".

PDF (24K).

After a crisis has occurred, students need help to recover from their loss and find a sense of safety again. School personnel can help that process by engaging students in a variety of age-appropriate activities. The following activities are suggestions. Local schools can adapt these depending on the type of crisis experienced and the school population.

• Ask students to keep journals. Adolescents are more likely to write what they feel than talk about it. Teachers can ask students to put a yellow sticky note on top of their journal if they want their teacher to read it. At one school, following the sudden violent death of a student, the principal asked students to write him letters about their feelings. He received 3,500 letters. From those, school officials identified 300 students at risk for mental health problems, such as depression and self-destructive behavior.

• Facilitate other types of expression, such as drawing, singing, or writing letters to the local newspaper or elsewhere that articulate students' feelings about the event.

• Allow adolescents to express feelings of anger and let them know that they will feel better over time.

• Be sensitive to cultural differences among the children. In some cultures, for example, it is not acceptable to express negative emotions. Also, the child who is reluctant to make eye contact with a teacher may not be depressed but may be exhibiting behavior appropriate to his or her culture.

• Encourage children to develop coping and problem-solving skills and age-appropriate methods for managing anxiety.

• Provide some activities that will comfort adolescents, such as listening to music.

• Limit the number of reminders of the event in the classroom.

• Hold meetings for parents to discuss the traumatic event, their children's reaction to it, and how they can help. Involve mental health professionals at meetings if possible.

• Create memorials where students can attach flowers, poems, messages, etc.

• Provide students with opportunities to help. This can include raising money for the victim's families or helping people who are suffering in other ways in one's community (homeless shelters, battered women's shelters, soup kitchens, etc.). Students can also clean up school grounds, a park, or a vacant lot together. Encourage students to come up with ideas of how to help as well.

• Create a service learning project in which students are given credit for performing service and reflecting on what they have learned.

• Introduce curriculum that teaches children about diversity and different cultures, such as Beyond Blame.

• Plan an event for the anniversary of the crisis with the input of students, parents, faculty, and victims' families. Anniversaries give people the chance to step back and reflect on what happened and the positive steps that they and their community have taken in the aftermath. They are also an opportunity to set new goals for the next year.

References

The Three R's to Dealing with Trauma in Schools: Readiness, Response & Recovery (2002), Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education

Diener S. Responding to Violent Events By Building Community: Action Ideas for Students and Schools (2001). Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social Responsibility.

Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disaster. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Mental Health.

Click on the link below to view and print a publication from the National Association for School Psychologists titled "Managing Strong Emotional Reactions to Traumatic Events: Tips for Parents and Teachers". It provides an overview of warning signs of anger and serious emotional trauma in young people.

PDF (68K).

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.

Before Nathaniel Brazill age 13, shot and killed his language arts teacher, he told his friend that he would come back to the school that day with a gun. He told her four times.

She thought he was joking and did not report his threat to teachers or anyone else at the Palm Beach County, Florida middle school. On that last day of school in May 2000, Brazill was angry over his suspension for throwing water balloons. Witnesses later testified that Brazill told them that he was going to shoot the counselor who suspended him. He told one friend, "Watch, I'm going to be all over the news."

Later that day, Brazill walked up to seventh grade language arts teacher, Barry Grunow -- one of his favorite teachers -- and asked to see a girl in Grunow's classroom. Grunow refused. Brazill pulled out a gun and shot him once, killing the Lake Worth Middle School teacher.

At a youth assembly in Palm Beach County, Florida Nathaniel's friend Michelle spoke, urging her peers to take threats seriously. As school officials grapple with ways to prevent a crisis like a school shooting, they realize that students may be their best ally.

"We know that students have a lot of impact on fellow students in middle school -- more influence than adults. Students see and know things that adults don't know on campus," says Rick Lewis, training coordinator for the Department of Safe Schools of the School District of Palm Beach County. According to a U.S. Secret Service report, in more than 75 percent of school shootings, other students knew of the potential violence but did not report it to authorities.

The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Secret Service recently released reports detailing the results of a three-year study that examined 37 incidents of targeted school shootings and school attacks that have occurred in the United States since 1974. Investigators paid particular attention to identifying pre-attack behaviors and communications that might be detectable and could help in preventing future attacks. Their full findings and recommendations are detailed in two publications on threat assessment in schools. Threat assessment is an essential part of a school's comprehensive violence prevention strategy.

A key component in threat assessment is persuading students to speak up about threats made by their peers. But that can be tricky. After Grunow's death, the Sunshine State School Public Relations Association (SUNSPRA) searched for ways to encourage students to speak up when they learn about threats. SUNSPRA staff held 14 focus groups with teenagers across Florida. Teenagers expressed strong reluctance to report threats. They did not want to be labeled a "snitch", and they did not trust adults to be responsive or protect their anonymity.

But if anyone could persuade teenagers to speak up, it's fellow students, the focus groups reported; in fact, they said that adolescents need to be reminded of the serious consequences of not speaking up.

Based on the focus groups and national research, SUNSPRA piloted the Silence Hurts campaign. The campaign teaches youth to speak up if someone's life is in danger. It seeks to build a community of caring that will make students feel safe enough to talk to adults about potential threats from other students. Strong messages, developed by teens for teens, are crafted to help break the "code of silence" to prevent school violence.

A student-led youth group, called Safe Ambassadors, guides the school in the initiative. Safe Ambassadors are either popular or influential kids in the school. The campaign gets the message out through public service announcements, banners, posters and other means. It teaches students to talk to a teacher or another adult if someone's life is in danger. Various teachers are identified as "listeners". They have information posted in their classrooms so that students know that they can share important information with them. The teacher will then notify an administrator who can take action. The student's identity is kept confidential.

"I have seen a change in students at Lake Worth Middle since [the shooting]," wrote Joanne Gendreau-Gaydos, a teacher at Lake Worth Middle School who witnessed the shooting, in the Palm Beach Post. "Under Principal Frank Mascara and Lake Worth police officer Debbie Wilson, students are learning about how silence hurts. The school's peer mediators and guidance counselors direct students as they watch a video and discuss the important topic of students bringing weapons to school. Students have come to understand that there are severe consequences when they don't speak up about a friend who plans to bring a weapon to school. Students now realize that seeking an adult's help could save people's lives."

The Silence Hurts campaign is part of a broad strategy to prevent violence and create safe schools by officials at the School District of Palm Beach County, which oversees 150,000 students and 150 schools. The district has its own safe schools center, which coordinates these initiatives. Although just one example of many possible approaches to violence prevention, Palm Beach County's plan is quite comprehensive; it includes creating a school climate of ownership and pride, including clear expectations about behavior, involving students in decision making, encouraging warm student-teacher relationships, building partnerships with families, teaching conflict resolution, and providing a safe physical environment.

Like many school districts, Palm Beach County has a lot of students who do not have the skills to manage conflict. Officials looked for a curriculum that addressed all types of kids -- popular, on the fringe, rich, poor, and of all ethnic backgrounds.

They settled on Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders: Thinking and Acting to Prevent Violence, a 12-week curriculum developed by Education Development Center, Inc. The aim of the curriculum is to equip students with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to successfully resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. The 12-week class focuses on the key role that bystanders can play in helping to defuse a conflict. In Palm Beach County, police officers assigned to schools teach the course.

"Police officers bring something to a classroom that teachers can't bring, and that's their personal experience around this issue," says Rosemarie Backhus of the Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders program at the School District of Palm Beach County. "Police officers have a lot of training in how to defuse a person and disengage them from their behavior. It's that and the relationship that develops between the officer and the teenagers, which spills over into the campus and the community. They see each other. It's the familiarity, the rapport, and the trust that is built between them."

The curriculum was pilot-tested at about 12 middle schools and is now expanding to all 30 middle schools in the Palm Beach County school district. The curriculum ties into the Silence Hurts campaign so that students have someone to talk with when they learn of a threat.

A police officer who teaches the curriculum to sixth graders wrote a letter about an incident he witnessed:

"I was in the hallway as classes were changing. I was between two sets of lockers. I noticed two students standing face to face with angry looks on their faces, and it looked like they were going to fight. I didn't recognize the students, so they must have been in the seventh or eighth grade. Just as I was going to step out and separate the two, I noticed one of my sixth graders pass by and stop. Of all the sixth graders that had to stop, it had to be Junior. You could classify Junior as an active aggressor. Throughout my program, while Junior was my student, he did nothing but talk and clown around. At one point I had to send him out of class, because his interruptions were hindering other students from learning.

"I thought to myself, I am about to have a three-way fight on my hands.

"But I couldn't believe what unfolded. Junior began to talk to the students. In a calming voice, he began to reason with them, telling them that fighting wouldn't solve the problem, and it would get them suspended. Junior became a successful problem-solving bystander. The two students listened to what Junior had to say and went their separate ways.

"Stunned and proud, I stepped out from behind the lockers. Just then, Junior turned and saw me. It was what he said next that made me appreciate the program even more. 'I guess I was paying attention in class,' he said.

"This just goes to show you that even though students may look as though they aren't paying attention, we can't give up, and we must continue to teach them. They are listening, if we are willing to instruct them."

Please review the Day 3 Activity and then think about the following questions:

• What is missing from your school's prevention plan that specifically addresses crises?

• How would you prioritize which prevention interventions to advocate for your school?

• What are some no- or low-cost prevention ideas that you could easily help put in place?

* U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program; The Harvard School of Public Health; Education Development Center, Inc., and Prevention Institute (April 23, 2002). The Three R's for Dealing with Trauma in Schools (satellite broadcast). Retrieved August, 2002, from www.walcoff.com/prevention/. (Copyright 2002: U.S. Department of Education and Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice.)

• Day 3 Activity
• Elements of a Crisis Prevention Plan
• Prevention Activities Worksheet

This activity is designed to enhance your understanding of event content through hands-on learning. You will be asked to perform a series of tasks and then reflect on your experience.

Objective

To conduct an inventory of your school's crisis prevention activities and determine what additional activities are needed.

Overview

While schools need to be prepared for a crisis, they also need to try to prevent crises from occurring. While you have developed a school prevention plan, you may not have included specific elements designed to prevent crises. This activity is designed to help MSCs determine the types of prevention programs and approaches that best suit their school, specifically in the area of crisis response.

Part 1: Creating Your Inventory

For the first part of this activity, you will compile a preliminary list of prevention activities taking place at your school.

Step 1
Print Elements of a Crisis Prevention Plan.

Step 2
Using that list as a guide, complete the Prevention Activities Worksheet, filling in the prevention activities that your school is already engaged in under each category. You may have done a lot of this work in the previous online event "Identifying Prevention Priorities and Strategies for Success." If so, focus on categories that you believe are missing in your school's prevention response that could be aimed at preventing crises, such as threat assessment. Make note of the specific characteristics of your school and student population that may lend themselves to interventions, such as having Muslim students or students with parents in the military.

Part 2: Planning a Prevention Response

Step 3
Brainstorm ideas for measures needed under prevention activities specifically directed at preventing a crisis.

Step 4
Meet with your school safety committee or crisis response team (whichever is appropriate) and ask members for their input.

Step 5
Choose one idea and make plans to put it in place, establishing a timeline with specific tasks.

Please respond to the discussion questions that appear at the end of Day 3.

Establishing and Enhancing Clear School Policies Regarding Appropriate Behavior

• Create a climate of ownership and school pride, for example a graffiti and community clean-up program.
• Ensure that behavior expectations are clearly communicated, consistently enforced, and fairly applied.
• Develop and enforce a school dress code. Students and staff tend to behave the way they are allowed to dress.

Developing Threat Assessment

• Develop threat assessment procedures. Include descriptions of the early warning signs of potentially violent behavior and the procedures for identifying children with these signs.
• Refer troubled, agitated, ot depressed youth to mental health services and make sure that they get help.
• Identify and track repeat offenders. Most school crime problems are caused by a small percentage of students.

Enhancing Students' Personal and Social Skills

• Ask students to sign a pledge not to tease, bully, or put down others.
• Encourage students to report suspicious individuals or threats. Provide a toll-free anonymous hotline to report weapons and other criminal activity.
• Actively involve students in making decisions about school policies and programs:
  • Implement a peer-counseling and peer mediation program.
  • Involve students in managing student events and campus beautification projects.

Building Family Partnerships

Conduct formal discussions with parents about safety and security:

• Encourage parents to teach their children healthy ways of responding to bullying, teasing, and harassment at school.
• Advocate home security for weapons and promote gun safety instruction for all family members.
• Give parents information on effective parenting practices and offer training to those who seek additional support.

Fostering Diversity

• Create written policies that prohibit all forms of harassment and publicize them.
• Promote cultural diversity and tolerance through classroom discussions, lesson plans, etc.

Influencing School and Community Norms Related to Violence

Identify appropriate research-based programs and strategies to promote student safety:

• Teach conflict resolution, anger management, mediation, social problem solving, etc.
• Bully-proof schools by adopting effective, anti-bullying/harassment programs.

Securing School Grounds

• Provide a safe physical environment. School grounds should be assessed for such things as ease of access by dangerous individuals and natural barriers to surveillance, such as shrubs. Eliminate dark, secluded, and unsupervised spaces.
• Control campus access. Minimize the number of campus entrance and exit points used daily:
  • Establish uniform screening procedures to monitor visitors and potential intruders.
  • Require picture ID cards for all students and staff.

References

Adler, A. Schools Checklist: Creating a Positive and Safe School Climate. Jacksonville, FL: Silence Hurts

Oregon School Boards Association (2002). What Can Schools Do? Salem, OR.

Stephens, R. 40 Ways to Safer Schools. Westlake Village, CA: National School Safety Center.

Click on the following link to view and print this worksheet in Microsoft Word: MS Word (20K).

• Discussion Summary

  This document summarizes the questions and comments posted by participants throughout the four-day event. Please review the summary and then visit the Discussion Area to share your impressions.

• Evaluation

  The evaluation form is no longer available. Please submit any comments or suggestions to amalia.cuervo@ed.gov

Thank you for making this event a great success by asking important questions of one another and sharing your own ideas and experiences on the topic of crisis response. This is a sensitive, yet vitally important issue that all schools must make a priority as they work to create safe and effective learning environments for young people. Below you will find a brief summary of the discussion from Day 3, as well as some of the key points from the first two days of this event.

MSCs began the third day of this event by describing school and community activities to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the September 11 th terrorist attacks, including:

• Wearing red, white, and blue

• Sharing a moment of silence

• Holding ceremonies/assemblies (e.g., students saying they are proud to be an American in different languages, principal discussing the importance of respect and tolerance, music, guest speakers)

• Readings over the intercom

• Classroom projects, including writing about the heroes of 9-11

• Explaining the significance and history of TAPS followed by a moment of silence and the playing of TAPS

• Signing a community banner

• Holding community meetings

• Passing out patriotic stickers

• Driving with headlights on

On Day 3, MSCs also discussed their schools' efforts to prevent crises. Many highlighted the research-based conflict resolution and bullying prevention programs that are in place at their schools while also sharing some ideas for no- and low-cost strategies that can be used to supplement such programs. Suggestions included the following:

• Discovery groups, similar to focus groups, only ask for "time" from parents, teachers, and students. They are opportunities to get their observations and perspectives about an issue/topic. We don't necessarily focus on solutions...but "raise issues"...so we can target the next step.

• Our MS students do projects to create their own "anti-drug" messages and we will be doing this with violence and bullying.

• I use our school newsletter to educate parents and community members.

• Radio PA announcement and newspaper articles offer free ways to educate parents and other community members.

• Integration of prevention across the curriculum and enhancing the use of technology can also help provide low cost prevention activities.

• We are also networking with other small rural districts in our county to share resources and materials.

• Create a team of teachers who want to reduce violence. There are always interested teachers and they have great ideas. In one of our schools, an English teacher asked all of her students to write about the violence they have seen in their schools. She then made transparencies, which she showed to teachers at a faculty meeting to raise their awareness.

• Our PTO has two programs a year, one on violence and one on drugs. They are always looking for materials for these programs because they bring in a lot of parents who are not on the PTO but are concerned about their kids. PTOs are also great sources of money

• What we are doing that is low/no cost are the following: staff-to-student mentorship, peer mentorship, peer mediation, and CPI training for teachers and school social workers providing class lessons on bullying.

• Student-developed posters/poster contests, rap contests, chain letters, and skits.

• A low-cost plan that I am implementing with my schools is the 40 developmental assets (from the Search Institute) in order for students to make connections and develop relationships with caring adults on campus (teachers, clerical, cafeteria workers, custodians etc.). Signs have been made for teachers to place on their doors letting students know that the teacher is a part of a team of caring teachers that they can talk to.

• A low cost whole school prevention program that one of my three schools has decided to implement is democratic class meetings. Class meetings are wonderful for problem-solving, conflict resolution, team-building, and much more. Plus, they provide that "connectedness" that we are all working towards.

MSCs also discussed some of the elements that seem to be missing from their crisis prevention plans, including:

• Being able to really think beyond the "unthinkable" and having the "time" & "opportunity" to solicit information & perspectives from all the necessary key players -- from administration to counselors to law enforcement to students. Everyone is just too busy to make it a priority.

• The main thing absent in our crisis planning process is practice, practice, practice. There simply does not seem to be enough time to really show people how important these plans are. Unfortunately, some people hold to the belief that "it won't happen here."

• What is missing in my school is an effective conflict mediation program.

• Another major component missing is appropriate supervision during transition times.

During the past few days, MSCs have engaged in a rich discussion about many different aspects of crisis response. One important area of reflection involved the different roles that MSCs can play when preparing for and dealing with a crisis. Suggestions included the following:

• Assess school needs pertaining to crisis response

• Share best practice information on the topic as well as model crisis response plans

• Help organize a crisis response team if one is not already established; if a team is in place, help ensure that all of the key players are at the table

• Network with community agencies that may have a role during a crisis

• Facilitate the development and or/review of crisis response plans, making sure that they are up-to-date and coordinated with the crisis response plans of other relevant agencies

• Coordinate trainings for crisis response team members as well as practice drills and exercises

• Help provide debriefings

• Make sure that new staff understand their duties pertaining to crisis response

• Prepare relevant materials for distribution

• Model appropriate and effective behavior during an actual crisis

• Fill in as needed during an actual crisis, since no students are assigned to MSCs

• Contact and coordinate community services during an actual crisis, since MSCs have established strong working relationships with relevant community agencies

Tip Sheets

• Tips for Participating in Online Events
• Glossary

Audio Clips

• Day 1: Alan Steinberg, Ph.D., associate director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, speaks about the steps that schools and communities can take to help prepare for a crisis.
• Day 2: Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D., director of the Division of Public Health Practice, Harvard School of Public Health, describes a key way to make your school safety plan relevant and useful.
• Day 3: Mark Weist, Ph.D., director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance, University of Maryland, explains the importance of a positive school climate for student well-being.

Links to Information on Crisis Response

• U.S. Department of Education's Response to September 11, 2001
• Crisis Response Planning
• Model Crisis Response Plans
• Threat Assessment
• Violence Prevention
• Anti-Bullying and Conflict Resolution Programs
• School Climate and Culture
• Cultural Understanding
• Service-Learning
• Research

Facilitated communication among participants in this online workshop will be asynchronous, meaning that drug prevention and school safety coordinators can log on to the event at their convenience to read and contribute messages. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you participate in this exciting online event.

• Your involvement is the key to event success! We hope to have enjoyable and stimulating discussions, but that can only happen if you log on and participate.

• Make sure that you have adequate time to review new information and messages.

• Log in at least once a day and participate in the online discussion as often as you can. You can share long or short messages, ask big or small questions, or contribute brief reactions to the messages posted by other MSCs and facilitators.

• You can compose, review, and edit messages in a word-processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word) or in the event's Discussion Area prior to posting your messages online. Your messages will not appear online until you actively choose to post them. This allows you time to think about what you want to say and how you would like to say it.

• When you reply to a message that was posted by a fellow coordinator or a facilitator, make sure to refer to the original message in your response so that others can follow the conversation.

• To participate more fully during the event, try enabling the mailing list feature. This will enable you to receive all discussion postings by e-mail.

• If you have any technical questions or problems, please do not hesitate to submit a request for assistance to Event Support. We promise you a quick response.

• Relax and have fun with this opportunity to learn and connect with your fellow coordinators!