During our school security assessments, we often run a variety of school crisis simulations in a one-on-one fashion.  Over the past decade we have noticed a variety of patterns of concern.  Most consistently observed with administrators and front office staff who have made announcements in concert with drills in the past, this is a type of stress reaction that can easily occur under field conditions because of the manner in which drills are conducted. 

When a school administrator has made announcements for drills multiple times, which include references to the announcement being part of a drill, it is easy for this to occur.  A simple strategy to reduce the chances that this will occur is to have a second person come on the intercom once the instruction to implement the protocol has been announced and state that the event is only a drill.  For example, one staff member might announce “All students and staff, implement severe weather sheltering procedures now, I repeat, all students and staff, implement severe weather sheltering procedures now” followed by a separate announcement made by a different staff member stating “all students and staff, this is a drill, I repeat, all students and staff, this is a drill.”  This simple approach can help reduce the chances that staff will announce that a drill is being conducted during a real emergency.  This can be important because staff may become panicked if they are told an event is a drill when they learn that they are experiencing an actual event.

I had a “Thought Leader” session at the Texas School Administrators Winter Conference in Austin the week before last.  I was impressed, however, with the caliber of people who attended the session.

I was particularly glad to see Chief Alan Bragg from the Cypress-Fairbanks Police Department in attendance.  Chief Bragg had brought me in to present about 15 years ago when he was the Chief of Police in another school district.  As with his current assignment, Chief Bragg was brought in to build a new school district police department from the ground up.  Chief Bragg is particularly skilled at blending excellent security technologies with great human practices.

It was great to have the opportunity to shake the hand of a dedicated advocate for the children who has built not just one, but two stellar school district police departments from the ground up.

Safe Havens International has been selected to perform comprehensive school security assessments for the Washington D.C. Public School System after through a competitive bid process. Our diverse team of experienced school safety experts will conduct a comprehensive school safety, security, climate, culture and emergency preparedness for the District through the U.S. General Services Administration.  Safe Havens has been selected for five school security assessment projects in the past week and our more than thirty analysts have been working tirelessly to keep the more than fifty school security assessment projects we have been working on time and within budget while consistently exceeding client expectations.  We feel blessed to have been able to attract so many talented subject matter experts to perform robust school security assessments for two of the nation’s top ten largest school districts, the Maine Department of Education, many of the nation’s finest independent schools as well as several schools in Nigeria and Kenya this year.  While conducting school security assessments for clients with more than 1,000 schools in one year has been a real challenge, the hard work and dedication of the world’s largest school safety center has made such a formidable task possible.

Our staff feels truly honored to be selected to perform the security assessments to protect staff and students in our nation’s capital.   We feel truly blessed to have so many tireless advocates for the children on our team.