Thoughts and views on the state of child and school safety in K-12 education today. Useful tips and insights into emergency management and severe weather preparedness as well.
You pose an interesting question.. and not one I have a ready answer for. If you look at other schools incidents that DID NOT end in violence...what was the ingredient there? It was a staff member who was able to intervene through words or actions to calm the intruder down. So at least a part of the answer is the have procedures and processing in place to understand there may be a threat in the first place... a sign in procedure at the front office, staff who are trained to notice when someone doesn't sign in and who are supported by administration if they ask even the parent they know or the police chief to sign in as a standard part of the entrance procedure. And other procedures such as trainings and drill of what to do if there is a threat either inside or outside. And then we add a training to all staff on how to descalate a situation with an additional training for a specific team of people who are trained in Suicide Intervention (many homicides now are actually pre suicide behavior) and training in Verbal Descalation. And a procedure to get them out of their offices or classrooms and to the area where the problem is occuring.
You pose an interesting question.. and not one I have a ready answer for. If you look at other schools incidents that DID NOT end in violence...what was the ingredient there? It was a staff member who was able to intervene through words or actions to calm the intruder down. So at least a part of the answer is the have procedures and processing in place to understand there may be a threat in the first place... a sign in procedure at the front office, staff who are trained to notice when someone doesn't sign in and who are supported by administration if they ask even the parent they know or the police chief to sign in as a standard part of the entrance procedure. And other procedures such as trainings and drill of what to do if there is a threat either inside or outside. And then we add a training to all staff on how to descalate a situation with an additional training for a specific team of people who are trained in Suicide Intervention (many homicides now are actually pre suicide behavior) and training in Verbal Descalation. And a procedure to get them out of their offices or classrooms and to the area where the problem is occuring.
ReplyDeleteMary, thank your your comment. You raise some great points, and have provided food for thought. Thanks!
ReplyDelete