Jane’s School Safety Handbook: 2nd Edition

Jane’s School Safety Handbook, Second Edition is a practical guide and has been designed to assist in the prevention of, planning for, responding to and recovery from emergencies or disasters that are possible at, near or within schools. Please not that this document should be augmented with advice from emergency services and other literature where appropriate. Examples, detailed discussions as well as terms and definitions are provided for the use of school staff and administrators. The information contained in this document is based on current research, knowledge and understanding.

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The need for a school safety plan is addressed in addition to detailed directions on how to develop an appropriate school safety plan for your school. Steps in recognizing the warning signs characteristic before a crisis such as perpetrator profiles, social circumstances contributing to problems and threat assessment are provided. Emergency Operations Planning, the Incident Command System, response to specific crisis types, how to prepare for and manage stress and crisis communication are all discussed in detail. Specific types of training exercises such as orientation seminars, drills, tabletop exercises, functional and full-scale exercises are detailed as well as the evaluation of the exercises – specifically the Hot wash, debriefing and After Action Review -- are discussed, and education and training recommendations for staff and administration are provided. Real life case studies can be found in Chapter ten of the handbook and includes the violent incidents that occurred at Columbine, Thurston, Santana and Granite Hills High Schools as well as those that happened at Lake Worth Middle School, Margaret Leary and Ikeda Elementary Schools, Dunblane Primary School and the attacks at World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The examples provided originate in various countries, economic and cultural backgrounds and illustrate that such incidents can occur anywhere. Useful incident specifics are provided in addition to school staff and administration reactions to the crisis and profiles of the attackers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 CHAPTER 1: WHY DOES MY SCHOOL NEED A SAFETY PLAN?

1.1 Introduction -- schools are charged to provide students with a safe and secure environment and through taking appropriate planning measures can minimize the effects of harmful events.
1.2 Understanding the risks – an effective safety plan anticipates a wide variety of dangers such as student violence, terrorism, natural disasters, mechanical disasters/accidents, and community spillover.
1.2.1 Student violence -- can be prevented if schools adopt proactive policies.
1.2.2 Terrorism -- schools may be an appealing soft target for terrorists seeking publicity.
1.2.3 Natural disasters -- preparedness planning and response are crucial to student safety.
1.2.4 Mechanical accidents/disasters -- periodic maintenance and safety inspections can mitigate the risk.
1.2.5 Community spillover -- the same measures that can make a school a more difficult target for criminals and violent gang members will make it a harder target for terrorists and student violence.
1.3 Prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (P2R2) planning – a four stage incident management process is provided and discussed.
1.3.1 Prevention – how to put procedures in place to ensure as risk free an environment as possible, in cooperation with local, state, and federal officials.
1.3.2 Preparedness -- planning for various contingencies, although they may be rare, can minimize the effect of unavoidable disasters and save lives.
1.3.3 Response -- understand the risks associated with different types of disasters so as not to respond in ways that increase harm.
1.3.4 Recovery -- planning and implementing procedures for recovery can rebuild the learning environment.
1.4 Roles and responsibilities -- schools should consider and plan how to handle potential dangers to mitigate their impact before they happen.
1.4.1 School and staff – assign and provide members for each emergency management team.
1.4.2 School district – responsible for setting and enforcing standards.
1.5 Conclusion -- school safety plans are never final and must continue to evolve.

2.0 CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPING A SCHOOL SAFETY PLAN

2.1 Introduction -- an effective four step safe schools plan is discussed.
2.2 Developing the plan -- create a system plan first, and then have each school develop site specific procedures tailored to their school.
2.3 Consultants -- when seeking consultant services consult the list provided in order to determine if a specific consultant can meet the needs of your school.
2.4 Establishing safety policies – adopt and apply common policies along with specific safe schools plan components.
2.5 Vulnerability and hazard analysis – a five step vulnerability and hazards analysis that includes threats with the potential to disrupt the school, cause damage and create casualties.
2.5.1 How to conduct a hazard analysis -- tactical site surveys and community hazard assessments are two main types of of hazard analysis.
2.6 Prevention and mitigation strategies -- prevention and mitigation strategies are discussed.
2.6.1 Preliminary steps -- one of the best methods to prevent or mitigate the effects of an incident at a school is to involve school, emergency management and public safety officials in the design of new school facilities or remodeling of existing properties.
2.7 Partnerships with law enforcement -- develop partnerships with law enforcement and other emergency response agencies.
2.8 Emergency planning and preparedness – perform emergency drills and exercises in addition to fire drills.
2.8.1 All hazard emergency operations plan -- should include an all hazard emergency operations plan tailored to the individual risks, resources and needs of the school system and community.
2.8.2 Plan components -- the bulk of the planning is completed when the system plan is functional and incident specific protocols are complete.
2.8.3 Functional protocols -- form the core of the emergency operations plan.
2.8.4 Site specific procedures -- add a site specific procedure insert behind each protocol that needs tailoring.
2.8.5 Supplemental plan components -- a variety of supplemental plan components can be developed to enhance the system plan.
2.9 Crisis response team – an organizational unit designed to deal with a variety of crises.
2.10 Training of staff -- provide in-service training for all staff to explain both the emergency operations plan and what to do in a crisis and include community police, youth workers and other community members.
2.11 Incident command -- a top-down command chain headed by the incident commander and is established early in the incident response phase.
2.11.1 Single command -- there is one incident commander from one agency who directs the response to an incident.
2.11.2 Unified command -- involves shared responsibilities and decision- making for officials from a variety of agencies and organizations and is usually in response to larger scale emergencies.
2.12 Other incident specific considerations – make certain that plans include the eventuality of athletic events, after hours meetings, graduation ceremonies, school board meetings and other activities that take place outside of traditional school hours.
2.13 Who, what, when, where, why and how? -- the questions raised by asking Who, What, When, Where, Why and How? are discussed.
2.14 Overall school responsibility – school responsibilities during all phases of an emergency are discussed.
2.15 Emergency evacuation and family reunification kit -- have different types of emergency kits for use upon evacution.
2.16 Response kits – are classified by the team that will use them and can reside in a box in the command post to make them readily available.
2.17 Post crisis management toolbox – specific steps to be used once the crisis is over to manage the crisis recovery phase are discussed.
2.18 Major incident aftermath -- include several alternative locations for closed schools as well as additional security resources.
2.19 Emergency operations plan checklist – a twenty-five step checklist developed to address various types of emergency situations.

3.0 CHAPTER 3: RECOGNIZING WARNING SIGNS

3.1 Introduction – specific pre-crisis indicators of student violence aid in the identification of potential problems and help eliminate or decrease the probability of crises.
3.2 Characteristics of violent youth – student attackers in school shooting incidents from 1994–1999 shared specific characteristics.
3.3 The Secret Service/Department of Education and FBI studies -- there is no profile for a school shooter, however, some common characteristics are related to incidents of school-associated violence.
3.4 Incidents are rarely impulsive -- in nearly all incidents the shooter thought to harm others at least two weeks in advance and planned the shooting more than two days in advance.
3.5 Other people knew -- in 81 percent of all incidents, included in the study the shooter told someone else of their intentions and in 59 percent of the incidents, the shooter told more than one.
3.6 The shooter previously used weapons -- 63 percent, of shooters studied had a known history of weapons use, over half, 59 percent, had experience with a gun and less than half, 44 percent, demonstrated a fascination with weapons prior to the incident.
3.7 There is no accurate profile -- the FBI study and the Secret Service/Department of Education study found that there was no uniform profile of a student who might turn violent.
3.8 Incidents were resolved quickly -- in 47 percent of incidents included in the study, the attackers were apprehended, surrendered or stopped shooting within 15 minutes.
3.9 Involvement of other students -- although the attacker worked alone in most incidents at least one other person knew that the shooter was planning an attack before it occurred.
3.10 Warning signs -- violent students almost always exhibit some form of communicative or unusual behavior before an outburst.
3.11 Bullying -- 71 percent of attackers felt persecuted by others prior to the incident.
3.12 Department of Education: warning signs -- the U.S. Department of Education developed a list of warning signs that potentially violent students may exhibit and they are discussed.
3.13 National School Safety Center: warning signs – has also developed a list of potential warning signs a potentially violent student may exhibit.
3.14 Threat assessment -- an expression of an intention to inflict injury or damage on an identified or identifiable target.

4. 0 CHAPTER 4: EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLANNING

4.1 Introduction -- schools must be prepared to work closely with emergency responders in order to effectively manage critical situations.
4.2 Multidisciplinary emergency preparedness – people from a range of disciplines – including law enforcement, emergency management, fire service, public health, education, administration, mental health, school safety, transportation, finance and maintenance – are ideal for developing effective emergency operations plans.
4.3 The all hazards approach – effective emergency operations plans address a wide range of potential situations such as natural disasters, medical emergencies, acts of violence and accidents.
4.3.1 Terrorism planning –incidents of terrorism are no different than any other type of emergency situation and should be included in an all hazards approach plan.
4.3.2 Facilities and properties covered – be sure to develop emergency operations plans for non-educational buildings and facilities that are owned or operated by the school system.
4.3.3 Off-property incidents – address incidents that occur off school property as well.
4.3.4 Before/after hours incidents -- include how personnel should react to incidents that take place before and after school hours in your emergency planning.
4.3.5 Field trips – to ensure a safe trip, appropriate emergency operations planning is required.
4.3.6 Special events planning -- any type of emergency that can occur at a school can also occur at a special event such as graduation ceremonies, convocations, charity benefits, dances and athletic events.
4.4 Special needs persons -- specifically address requirements of students, employees and visitors with special needs including those who are not fluent in English.
4.5 Customized planning – school systems must customize emergency operations plans for their specialized needs.
4.6 The emergency operations planning process -- provides a framework for all other preparedness activities but be sure to meet with a representative from the local emergency management agency to discuss your specific planning needs.
4.6.1 Risk/vulnerability assessment driving planning efforts -- results of the assessment should direct the planning process, therefore, a customized emergency operations plan involves adapting it to address the types and levels of hazards present in the community.
4.6.2 Redundancy in planning – no matter how well one plans, response actions will inevitably stray from set plans during a major crisis, therefore, redundancy is important.
4.7 Plan format and sample protocols – samples are provided for clarity.
4.7.1 Plan format -- logically organized content, large font, page numbers, color-coded sections make a plan user friendly.
4.7.2 Plan content -- work closely with public safety and other response officials and develop practical and useful procedures.
4.7.3 System-wide protocols – are designed for use by all schools in the district.
4.7.4 Functional protocols – are the core of the emergency operations plan and are written action steps that are implemented when a crisis situation calls for specific response procedures.
4.7.5 Sample functional protocol – protocol samples are provided for clarity such as shelter-in-place, alert signals, staff responses and lead administrator responses.
4.7.6 Incident-specific protocols -- address event categories rather than specific functions.
4.7.7 Sample incident-specific protocol – examples of incident-specific protocol are provided for clarity.
4.7.8 Site-specific procedures – are addenda used to tailor the functional and, in some cases, incident-specific procedures to fit the school’s unique situation.
4.8 Supplemental plan components -- individual schools can develop a variety of supplemental plan components to enhance the system-wide plan.
4.8.1 Flip charts – are useful for providing guidance for school employees who do not require the entire plan.
4.8.2 Crisis cards -- can be kept in an employee’s wallet or worn with identification badges and can provide short and concise action steps for lockdowns, evacuations or other functions.
4.8.3 Signal cards -- can be displayed in a classroom window to inform emergency response personnel of the status of students and staff in the room or held up by staff when they evacuate to allow CRT members and public safety officials to spot problems from a distance and should be standardized.
4.8.4 Incident tracking systems (ITSs) – consist of checklists developed from the system emergency operations plans.
4.8.5 Electronic virtual tours -- typically include building schematics, digital photographs, aerial photographs, site maps, video clips and other useful information and can provide emergency response personnel with ready access to critical information relating to the interior and exterior of the facility as well as to the location of key controls, hazardous materials and other items.
4.8.6 Indexing -- a well designed index will help CRT members quickly find information in a crisis.
4.8.7 Internal review -- establish an internal review process for the emergency plan.
4.8.8 External review -- also have your plan reviewed by personnel external to the school system.
4.9 Ready reference versus plan depth -- there is often conflict between the need for easy ready reference documents and/or very specific action steps.
4.10 Checklists – a list of hazardous situations possible on campus such as intruders, kidnapping, fire natural disasters, sexual assault, suicide, death and bus accidents.

5.0 CHAPTER 5: INCIDENT COMMNAND SYSTEM

5.1 Introduction -- by properly organizing resources and providing training to all staff, schools can enhance safety and their abilities to provide aid to responders.
5.2 Incident command system (ICS) -- unifies terminology use, operations, planning, intelligence, logistics, finance and administration so that all agencies may respond more effectively to an emergency by working together.
5.3 Command section -- each agency will have an incident commander managing their own response.
5.3.1 Incident commander – is responsible for emergency/disaster operations and must remain at the command post.
5.3.2 Safety officer -- ensures all response activities are conducted in as safe a manner as possible given the circumstances.
5.3.3 Public information officer (PIO) -- acts as an official spokesperson in the event of an emergency.
5.3.4 Liaison officer -- serves as point of contact between the school district and outside agencies.
5.4 Operations section -- student release is typically handled by school personnel, however, search and rescue is handled by first responders.
5.4.1 Operations chief – is responsible for direct actions taken in response to an emergency or disaster.
5.4.2 Search and rescue team leader – is in charge of the search and rescue team.
5.5 Medical section -- most basic medical functions are handled by professional medical first responders, however, first-aid trained personnel can assist in a larger response and provide equipment and support for EMS.
5.5.1 Medical team leader – provides emergency medical response, first aid and counseling support.
5.6 Planning section – the planning section is discussed in detail.
5.6.1 Planning section chief – collects documentation and reviews information pertaining to the emergency.
5.7 Logistics section – the logistics section is discussed in detal.
5.7.1 Logistics section chief – assures that facilities, services, personnel, equipment, and materials are provided to support a school’s response to an incident.
5.8 Finance and administration section – the finance and administration section is discussed in detail.
5.8.1 Finance and administration section chief -- tracks costs and retains financial records related to an emergency.

6.0 CHAPTER 6: RESPONSE

6.1 Introduction – after an emergency or crisis school administrators and authorities will be judged on how well the school was prepared and responded.
6.2 Emergency code review -- specific emergency code systems are detailed and sample terms are provided.
6.3 Agency roles during an incident -- the roles of police, fire department, principal administrators, crisis response teams, school administration and staff, school resource officers, teachers and school incident command posts are detailed.
6.4 General emergency response procedures – a simple nineteen step plan is provided.
6.5 Crisis types – an appropriate safe schools plan should include emergency response procedures for threats common to all schools and for location- specific threats.
6.5.1 Bomb threats – school administrators must make judgment calls upon receipt of a bomb threat, and judge the level of response appropriate because overreaction to a bomb threat may trigger more threats and disruptions whereas failure to take precautionary measures may lead to injury or death.
6.5.2 Community violence – rivalries between communities may be common but can result in threats or escalate to violence and therefore, affect schools.
6.5.3 Domestic conflict -- school employee and student domestic disputes can extend to campuses.
6.5.4 Shootings – most occur on or around a school campus end quickly with the shooter fleeing and/or being apprehended.
6.5.5 Terrorist threats – schools should maintain communication with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
6.5.6 Suspicious packages – specific indicators are listed for clarity.
6.5.7 Natural disasters -- schools are often used as evacuation sites for the local community in times of natural disaster.
6.5.8 Child abuse -- allegations may occur at school as a result of physical confrontations with or sexual advances toward students by a school district employee or volunteer.
6.5.9 Suicide – is the result of a long-term, gradual process of decline in the person’s ability to cope with life experiences and the emotions.
6.5.10 Chemical/biological attack – should a chemical/biological attack or release be suspected at a school, contact police and emergency services immediately.
6.6 Scenario-based procedures – sample scenarios are discussed for clarity.
6.6.1 Bogus bomb threat phoned in to media – five simples steps for response are provided.
6.6.2 Bomb found in locker – eleven steps are discussed, including a recommendation that staff does not touch, move, inspect or disturb alleged bomb.
6.6.3 Child abuse – eight steps of response are provided, including notifying Child Protective Services.
6.6.4 Community shooting between rival groups attending same school – a five step process of response is recommended, including arranging for key players to stay home from school until tensions can be worked out.
6.6.5 Domestic threat – five recommendations are provided, including securing individuals threatened.
6.6.6 Food poisoning/drinking water contamination – sixteen steps for action are provided, including notifying emergency services.
6.6.7 Chemical/biological release – a thirteen step response plan is provided, including observing notification essentials and making reports to appropriate fire, police and medical authorities.
6.6.8 Crowd control procedures during a chemical/biological release -- is imperative to prevent further contamination.
6.6.9 Personal (self) decontamination -- evacuate the area, preferably in/across the direction of a breeze, and wait for additional medical assistance.
6.6.10 Gross decontamination procedures – place victims outside, in a breeze if possible, and have victims remove outer clothing.
6.6.11 Gas leak – seventeen appropriate responses are listed, including notifying the fire department.
6.6.12 Gunman in courtyard – six steps for response are provided, including activate crisis response team.
6.6.13 Hostage situation in classroom – sixteen appropriate steps are provided, including notifying police and initiating lockdown procedures.
6.6.14 Media hype of anniversaries or actual national tragedies – nine steps for response are provided, including maintaining awareness of anniversary dates of tragedies and releasing positive news to the media.
6.6.15 Natural disaster – six steps for response are provided, including assessing the threat and/or damaged areas.
6.6.16 Shooting at curb in front of school – sixteen steps for action are listed, including activation of lockdown procedures.
6.6.17 Suicide – response steps are broken down to three parts: response to a threatened suicide, the actual attempt and the act committed.
6.6.18 Suspicious letter – seven steps for response are provided, including isolation of the letter and contents.

7.0 CHAPTER 7: PREPARING FOR AND MANAGING STRESS

7.1 Introduction -- violent events at or near a school can traumatize students and staff.
7.2 Immediate post-crisis response – fourteen practical steps are listed, including assisting the injured and establishing a school incident command post site.
7.3 Five phases of crisis and disaster recovery – the five phases are listed, including initial impact, heroic period and the honeymoon period.
7.4 Impact of targeted violence in schools –traumatic stress – as the result of a violent crisis on campus, students and staff are often afraid to return to school.
7.5 School site crisis intervention team (CIT) members/roles – CIT team members at the school site are listed as well as their responsibilities.
7.6 Qualities and characteristics of CIT members -- common personal qualities and characteristics are detailed.
7.6.1 Crisis counseling skills – specific skills are provided, including the ability to actively listen with strong tolerance for difficult and repeated experiences of trauma and loss.
7.6.2 Individual attributes – attributes are listed, including a sense of responsibility extending beyond routine duties to assist and support the special needs of traumatized students, teachers and parents.
7.6.3 Team member attributes – attributes are listed, including an ability to work as interdependent team members with a sense of loyalty and cohesion, yet with realistic awareness of strengths and weaknesses.
7.7 Crisis intervention teams (CITs) – every school should establish a CIT of student support staff assigned to the campus, selected teacher representatives, the school resource officer (SRO), office manager, custodian, cafeteria manager and other staff if necessary.
7.7.1 Legal considerations in the use of non-school personnel -- protections, rights and privileges covering state employees or contractors of a school district do not cover the employees of community-based organizations providing services to that district.
7.7.2 Community based CITs – most effective CIT response involves adults who know and trust each other and who have had the opportunity to work together cooperatively in non-crisis situations.
7.7.3 District level CITs -- experienced and skilled student support staff who can respond to a designated number of schools within a geographic area.
7.8 Mental health/public health interventions – CITs are designed to provide mental health interventions within a public health context.
7.9 Effects of trauma – may elicit a range of involuntary reactions among students and adults, typically a sense of fear and distrust of fellow students and the environment may lead to physical, cognitive and emotional changes that prevent students from re-engaging in the life of the school and the process of learning.
7.10 Key concepts in crisis intervention – specific concepts are explained, including doing no harm, listening to victims.
7.11 Intervention protocols – are detailed for clarity.
7.11.1 Group intervention with teachers/high school students -- a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) mental health staff developed the Sanford Model of Initial Trauma Intervention in Schools (ITIS) in 1994 for school staff and it has been used widely and successfully by thousands of school employees.
7.11.2 Application of the model in an actual crisis event -- the Sanford Model must be followed faithfully to gain full benefit.
7.11.3 Self-care for CIT members – the Sanford Model -- CIT members must have a sense of belonging and trust that comes with being part of the team.
7.12 Individual interview for students -- Dr. Robert Pynoos, Director of Trauma Psychiatry at UCLA, has developed the provided interview protocol for use after traumatic events.
7.13 Development and use of disaster-related curriculum -- develop new curricula to provide educational opportunities for students.
7.13.1 Los Angeles riots -- the Constitutional Rights Foundation commissioned a curriculum written by attorney Marshall Croddy.
7.13.2 Oklahoma City bombing -- Mr. Croddy and the Constitutional Rights Foundation also produced a series of lessons on terrorism in the United States in the aftermath of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
7.13.3 Northridge earthquake -- the Los Angeles Unified School District used curricula developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), entitled “Disaster Dudes,” to help students recover.
7.13.4 World Trade Center/Pentagon terrorist attacks -- the United Federation of Teachers in New York City organized a resource guide for teachers after the terrorist attack and collapse of the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001.
7.13.5 Mental health guides for teachers and parents – in order to assist with recovery, teachers should be provided with resource and information guides about the social, emotional and behavioral effects of trauma on students.
7.14 Memorial and anniversary events – steps are provided to help address questions about memorials and anniversary events.
7.15 Media -- dealing effectively with the media is crucial.

8.0 CHAPTER 8: CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

8.1 Introduction -- communication plays a key role in facilitating response and recovery efforts.
8.2 What is a school crisis? -- a sudden, unexpected or unanticipated critical event causing psychological and emotional distress among students and staff during school hours.
8.3 Communications planning – an effective safe schools plan includes a communications system for before, during and after a crisis.
8.3.1 Identifying a communications team -- the core of the communications team is formed by the Principal, a back-up school administrator and a district public information officer.
8.3.2 Updating and disseminating a media policy -- a media policy is designed to allow the school to disseminate information to the public while protecting students and staff and helping to reestablish school safety and security after a critical incident.
8.3.3 Developing contact checklists – can help identify who the school should be informed and what they need to know about a critical incident that has occurred on or near a school campus.
8.3.4 Designating a crisis center -- an incident command post is usually established in advance of a crisis event.
8.3.5 Designating a media staging area – establish ahead of time the most appropriate place for media personnel to congregate before, during or after school after a crisis event.
8.4 Communications training -- specialized training on how to deal with the media is available through organizations such as The American School Board Association and the Associations of Elementary and Secondary Administrators.
8.5 Communications response guidelines -- the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published communication guidelines for officials.
8.6 Guidelines for media communications after a crisis -- the community will want facts in order to assess the current status of school safety as well as any possible future danger.
8.7 Communications with key constituents -- other key stakeholders are district administrators and members of the school family.

9.0 CHAPTER 9: TRAINING, EDUCATION, EXERCISES, AND EVALUATION

9.1 Introduction -- an important aspect of emergency preparedness is the testing of school emergency operations plans as well as training and education.
9.2 Training and education – there are many training options available to help prepare school staff for crisis situations.
9.2.1 Key points for training efforts -- desired outcomes for the training are detailed, including accuracy and the use of realistic conditions as examples.
9.2.2 Competency of instructors -- competency of instructors providing emergency preparedness training is an area of concern.
9.3 Exercise types – practice is vital in order to develop the confidence necessary to handle an actual incident.
9.3.1 Orientation seminar – allows participants an opportunity to understand what each agency will be responsible for during a crisis.
9.3.2 Drills -- fire, severe weather sheltering and earthquake drills should be performed on a regular basis depending on the particular hazards affecting their regions.
9.3.3 Tabletop exercises -- an excellent method of bringing representatives from different organizations together to simulate an emergency or disaster.
9.3.4 Functional exercise -- the most realistic and challenging form of exercise for schools short of a full-scale exercise.
9.3.5 Full-scale exercise -- is fully simulated and generally conducted at a school or in a school bus or facility commonly used by a school.
9.4 Exercise planning -- planning for a coordinated series of exercises is much easier than trying to plan separately the same number of independent exercises.
9.5 Steps to planning – planning steps are reviewed.
9.5.1 Identify what external agencies and organizations will be involved – bringing representatives from external agencies together lays the groundwork for future exercises.
9.5.2 Determine what is to be tested – determine the functions, concepts and equipment to be tested and communicate this to participants.
9.5.3 Establish specific objectives -- each agency/organization involved with should determine at least one specific objective.
9.5.4 Create a planning team -- develop a planning team to break the planning process into components handled by different team members.
9.5.5 Select evaluation methods -- internal versus external evaluators to evaluate the results of an exercise.
9.5.6 Establish a timeline -- establish a realistic timeline to ensure that there is adequate time to prepare.
9.5.7 Identify the resources that will be required -- identify the people, equipment, exercise location and supplies needed.
9.5.8 Develop scenarios -- develop the scenario to meet the stated objectives.
9.5.9 Conduct planning meetings -- conduct planning meetings as you move through the planning process.
9.6 Developing scenarios – steps for scenario development are discussed.
9.6.1 Match scenarios to testing needs – when authoring the scenario, consider what is to be tested to ensure the test scenario will meet the needs of participating agencies/organizations.
9.6.2 Match scenarios to specific objectives -- pay careful attention to the stated objectives for each organization.
9.6.3 Match scenarios to available resources -- consider the readily available resources of each participating agency.
9.6.4 Make sure the scenarios are realistic – an unrealistic scenario may cause participants to lose interest and fail to take the exercise seriously.
9.6.5 Determine the appropriate difficulty level of scenarios – do no design “no-win” situations.
9.6.6 Keep the scenario focused -- an exercise can get out of control once it starts because planners have not focused the exercise scenario.
9.7 Exercise evaluation – without evaluation, an exercise loses much of its potential benefit.
9.8 Hot wash, debriefing and After Action Review (AAR) -- conduct a critique immediately following an exercise.
9.9 Evaluation of the emergency operations response or exercise -- it is helpful to meet and discuss whether any changes to the school crisis response plan are needed.
9.10 Safety training for staff and students – specific training objectives are listed, including conducting scenarios on a regular basis to test the effectiveness and efficiency of safety plans and procedures.
9.11 Exercise evaluation checklist – exercise evaluation forms are simple and effective for enhancing the quality of the evaluation process.

10.0 CHAPTER 10: APPENDIX

10.1 Case Studies – nine case studies are provided to demonstrate the severity and variety of incidents that can affect a school.
10.1.1 Columbine High School – key details about the event are discussed.
10.1.2 Lake Worth Middle School -- key details about the event are provided as well as the profiles of perpetrators.
10.1.3 Thurston High School -- key details about the shooting are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrators.
10.1.4 Margaret Leary Elementary School -- key details about the crisis event are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrators.
10.1.5 Dunblane Primary School -- key details about the crisis event are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrator.
10.1.6 Ikeda Elementary School -- key details about the stabbings are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrator.
10.1.7 Santana High School -- key details about the crisis event are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrator.
10.1.8 Granite Hills High School -- key details about the crisis event are discussed as well as the profiles of perpetrator.
10.1.9 World Trade Center attacks -- key details about the crisis event and how schools were effected are discussed.
10.2 Sample Letters -- concise and prompt communication will provide useful information that can calm unnecessary fears and reassure children and adults.
10.2.1 Sample 1: terrorist attacks – letter to schools – an example is provided for clarity.
10.2.2 Sample 2: terrorist attacks – letter to parents -- an example is provided for clarity.
10.2.3 Sample 3: school lockdown – example text is provided for clarity.
10.2.4 Sample 4: student fatality – accident in front of school -- example provided for clarity.
10.2.5 Sample 5: trauma information pamphlet for teachers – an example is provided.
10.2.6 Sample 6: trauma information pamphlet for parents – an example of appropriate text is provided.
10.3 Safety/security audit -- a comprehensive crisis intervention plan that addresses how to respond appropriately to incidents that could precipitate a crisis, there-establishment of safety and security and how to provide appropriate psychological intervention services to minimize emotional damage to those affected.
10.3.1 Need for psychological intervention following a crisis -- intervention and subsequent actions following a crisis are discussed.
10.3.2 Organizing for crisis intervention at local schools – a safe schools plan should include a detailed description of the process established to help students, staff, parents and the community deal with emotional and psychological reactions caused by a crisis.
10.3.3 Assessing and managing threats -- threats must be taken seriously and investigated to determine whether they pose a real danger.
10.3.4 Assessing and managing threats – an evaluation of the conditions, risk factors and warning signs, including circumstances or events that may have caused the threat to be made.
10.4 Glossary – a glossary of terms and definitions are provided for clarity.