I delivered a one-hour presentation to summarize our report of findings for the Flemington-Raritan School Board in Flemington, New Jersey last night.  The school security assessments were conducted in September, and the written strategic report of findings and school security assessment site reports for each school in the district were delivered in October.

School security assessments afford us an opportunity to learn from each client and this project was no exception.  The district’s superintendent developed a superb rubric to allow his board to track the district’s progress in implementing the numerous opportunities for improvement identified in the report.  He also assured the board that the district’s leadership team would work to maintain the numerous positive aspects identified in the school security assessment report.  The level of student supervision, connectivity between students and staff, and a close collaboration between the district’s facilities department and building principals were all very impressive.

While on site to deliver the report of findings, I conducted two training sessions for front office staff and building administrators.  It was an absolute pleasure to work with this high-quality, student-centered school district. 

Safe Havens analysts have assisted with more school security assessments than any organization in the world.  The depth of experience gained in helping to perform school security assessments for more than 5,000 K12 schools across the nation, as well as in other countries, has revealed that a far more accurate written report can be produced when the client is afforded an opportunity to fact check a draft version of the document and to help the school security experts who prepare it ensure that the language used to describe opportunities for improvement are clear and understandable to the people who will read it.

Any firm with a solid reputation for integrity can provide an accurate and honest outside evaluation.  While school security experts who have questionable reputations may fear allegations of inappropriate influence by clients, reputable school security experts will not have any trouble handling these types of allegations.  As a case in point, many federal courts allow the hiring attorney to fact check a draft version of a written opinion rendered by a school security expert serving as an expert witness.  As this  approach is considered valid in a federal court of law where an expert witness faces intense scrutiny, we feel it is no less appropriate in a school security assessment where the need for accuracy is equally important and subject to later scrutiny. 

A school security expert with an established reputation for integrity will refuse to change findings that are accurate and properly phrased.  We have done so for a client that directly told us that we would lose several hundred thousand dollar’s worth of work on a future project if we did not eliminate an accurate finding from our report.  We politely informed the client that our integrity was worth far more than the fees for any project and the finding stayed in the report.

We have had many clients express to us that they have been stuck with an inaccurate report of findings because the report did not match what they were told in a brief exit interview by the consulting firm.  Inaccuracies and unclear writing can create significant practical hurdles and legal challenges in future safety-related litigation.  As a client, school officials should exert their right as customers to review and comment on a draft report before a final report is produced. 

I had the great pleasure of presenting on school security assessments for a general session yesterday at the 2013 Minnesota Symposium on Terrorism and Emergency Preparedness (M-STEP) conference.  I was a keynote speaker at the same conference in 2002 and felt honored to be asked to return.  Deputy Fire Chief Todd Seitz of the Brooklyn Park Fire Department wanted me to present the findings of our extensive research from writing our newest book Staying Alive – How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters to the group.  He especially wanted me to share with the audience what we have found during thousands of controlled one-on-one crisis simulations during school security assessments we have performed.  

One simple but powerful concept we covered is what Dr. Gary Klein refers to as a pre-mortem exercise.  While it is valuable to conduct post-mortem activities to learn what went wrong as well as what worked well in a school crisis, finding and correcting opportunities for improvement before an incident occurs is more proactive.  The school security assessment process is an excellent opportunity to do this. 

According to Klein, a pre-mortem activity involves an exercise which simulates that our prevention measures, crisis plans or other critical activities have failed in an incident.  Participants who have a deep understanding of the approaches involved are tasked with clear instructions.  They must accept the concept being tested has indeed failed no matter how confident we are in the approach.  They must also determine what would most likely cause such a failure.  Klein’s work has demonstrated that people who are closely attached to the concepts being tested often have an excellent ability to spot serious planning flaws even when they are emotionally attached to their plans.  We have found this to be true when our analysts use pre-mortem exercises during school security assessments and staff development sessions.

Consider using pre-mortem exercises as part of your school security assessments to more effectively vet plans, procedures and strategies.  Find and correct deadly assumptions now rather than during an event when lives are at risk.