Monticello High School Evacuated after Bomb Threat

Monticello High School in Charlottesville was evacuated for approximately 3 hours January 28 due to a bomb threat. Police cleared the scene after nothing suspicious was found.

Bomb Threats

Bomb threats occur with varying frequency, most often in middle and high schools.  Children will think that calling in a fake bomb threat can get them out of class for while.  In fact, false reporting of a bomb threat is a crime.

Schools cannot ignore bomb threats.  Each one must be taken seriously, with schools acting as if each bomb threat is real.  School personnel should have a bomb threat checklist by their phones.  This will allow them to collect as much information from a caller as possible, to pass along to law enforcement.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has such a checklist HERE.

Be Prepared

Schools should provide training to all school personnel on not only how to use the checklist, but being able to use one under duress.  When a person realizes they are talking to a person who is threatening them, their heart rate will elevate, reducing cognitive function and fine motor control.

A functional exercise involving the calling in of a bomb threat to each of its five schools showed a Central Indiana public school district that its personnel, who had been recently trained, did not always handle stress well.  The exercise was coordinated with the county's 911 Call Center.  The person taking the call had to use the checklist, then call 911 to relay the information.  Such exercises can identify issues that need to be addressed, and can help innoculate the participants against stress, and so will be more capable in a real bomb threat.

Are your schools prepared?

Just What is a School Safety Expert?

School Safety Expert

A dictionary will tell you that an expert is, "A person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area." That leads to the meaning of authoritative, "Able to be trusted as being accurate or true; reliable," and the meaning of comprehensive, "Complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something."

Putting all that together, a school safety expert is one who has comprehensive knowledge of or skill in the area school safety, and is able to be trusted as accurate, true and reliable.

School Safety

So now that we know what an expert is, what is school safety?  Michael Dorn says, "School safety is a process of education being able to continue without disruption, without harm, without danger. It's basically the best way to get the most out of the learning process. It's actually the foundation for an effective learning environment." Here Michael gives us the goal of school safety.

In the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans, we find that school safety is providing a safe and healthy learning environment for public and nonpublic schools from threats and hazards. Threats are man-made, and hazards are natural, so now we get a clearer picture of school safety.

Threats and Hazards

Man-made threats include: Assaults, bullying, victimization, theft, classroom disorder, fights, robbery, use of weapons, sexual attacks and violent crime.  Comprehensive knowledge of threats includes knowing their causes, as well as strategies to prevent, mitigate, respond and recover from them.  A school safety expert will have skills and knowledge of threat assessment, crime, suicide prevention, weapons and bullying. 

FEMA defines a hazard as, "Anything that can cause loss or damage to a school or its occupants." These can include natural disasters, fire hazards and accident hazards.  A school safety expert will have skills and knowledge of risk assessment, mitigation and prevention, as well as current laws, regulations and codes relating to the physical facility.

There will come a time where school safety will evolve as a true profession, with a standard set of knowledge and skills.  A profession that provides licensing or certification based on a knowledge set learned in a formal setting.

But before that happens, we have to define what it is. 

What do you think?

Keeping it Real

Reynoldsburg High School

First responders in Reynoldsburg County, Ohio conducted a full-scale exercise last week. The training exercise started with a bomb threat at a Reynoldsburg library.  Then, vapor was reported leaking from a suspicious vehicle near the high school. That was followed by an explosion in the parking lot. After that, a gunman forced his way into the school, shooting those in his path.

For several hours, first responders from about a dozen agencies in Reynoldsburg, Pickerington, Whitehall and Bexley, and Franklin, Fairfield and Licking counties cooperated to evacuate students, rescue victims and neutralize the threats.

Analysis
Students were present during the exercises, being exposed to the sights, sounds and chaos of the situation.  Whether students should be present or not is a topic for another debate.  What I would like to address is the exercise itself.

This blog is not about analyzing right or wrong in the above exercise, but to take a moment to share with schools what their exercise program should look like. 

FEMA and Homeland Security have established that a robust, progressive exercise program is best practice for emergency management, especially in schools.  Being progressive means that each type of exercise is preceded by another, with each exercise developing skills that build upon skills learned in earlier exercises.  There are various types beginning with the very simple, to the very complex, and increasingly hazardous.

For schools, any exercise program should begin with an orientation.  This is where all patrons are alerted to the various types of protocols their district has, and their role in those protocols.  This can be done in a classroom, using a lecture format.  Many schools do this at the beginning of the year.  Remember to document attendance, and to provide a similar orientation for substitute teachers.

Drills are used to practice a specific skill.  For example, an evacuation drill practices the act of getting students out of the building as safely and quickly as possible.  If you add additional skills to be practiced, it ceases to be a drill, and becomes an exercise.  Remember, drills focus on one skill.  What skill is being practiced requires assessment and planning.

Tabletop exercises are a low-stress way of practicing a developed protocol.  They can range from a formal type using multiple agencies, to scenario-based exercises that ask the important question, "What do I do when.....?" It is not necessary to hire someone to conduct a tabletop for you, as they are relatively simple to plan and execute.  If you do hire someone, make sure they are building internal capacity.  Take a hard look at vendors who insist on returning for "recertification".

Functional exercises are more complex, and introduce more stress through realistic messages.  For example, calling a school to deliver a bomb threat (Make sure they know it's coming!) and then having that person call 911 to report it trains the school personnel to react under simulated stress.  The scope is still relatively narrow, but operating correctly under stress increases confidence, and identifies issues with the protocol that may not have been identified otherwise.

Full-scale exercises should only be conducted after all protocols and procedures have been rigorously tested by prior exercises and drills.  They use full mobilization of resources, thus increasing the complexity and danger.  They are not something to just do to show everyone that you are doing something.  They require careful planning, preparation and communication with all stakeholders.

Information on Exercise Design can be found at FEMA's EMI Institute.  The courses are free, and well worth the time.