The violent terrorist attack in Paris reminds us just how quickly an attack can occur

Viewing video clips of today’s brutal terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo Magazine office in Paris provides a striking reminder of how brutal and efficient modern terrorist attacks can be.  Watching the video of a heartless execution of a wounded police officer provides some insight into just how violent the attack on the journalists inside the building must have been. While we must use caution when making such comparisons, attacks on any civilian target can help provide insight into how terrorist attacks on schools and school-related targets can be.

We have seen a number of terrible terrorist attacks on schools and school-related targets around the world in recent years. Dr. Shepherd’s visit to schools in Nigeria in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks on schools there was sobering to say the least. Schools are also often impacted by terrorist attacks on other targets. One of our client Christian schools had two parents brutally murdered and two students seriously injured in a terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya. Tragically, both students watched their parents die and only survived by playing dead next to their bodies. A teacher and a dozen students were thankfully able to survive the same deadly attack but the event has naturally left the entire campus community stunned.

There are definite changes in the nature of terrorist attacks in general as well as in incidents of school terrorism in recent years. Our extensive research for Innocent Targets – When Terrorism Comes to School provides a considerable contrast with what we have been seeing in the past few years. For example, the combination of firearms and fire in a number of school terrorism incidents in Africa are of concern to us. This is especially true since many people have become so intensely focused on firearms attacks in American schools. Our analysts have noticed that many schools are less prepared for hazardous materials incidents, radiological incidents, events involving explosives, hostage situations and a number of other types of events relevant to past school and school bus terrorist attacks. We have the same concerns when it comes to far more frequent and likely types of school crisis events such as common medical emergencies.

We also frequently remind people that the two most lethal acts of violence on K12 campuses have involved an attack using fire and an attack utilizing explosives. More victims died in the 1958 Our Lady of Angels Sacred Heart’s School fire than in every K12 active shooter incident in the history of our nation – combined.   We feel it is extremely dangerous to focus the majority of our prevention, preparedness or response efforts to any one type of school crisis event.

While we make no predictions of specific types of terrorist attacks for U.S. K12 schools, a number of our analysts feel the risk of school-related terrorism is higher now than it was a decade ago. We urge school and public safety officials to emphasize the all-hazards approach to school crisis planning to address the potential for school-related terrorism as well as the many other much more likely yet deadly types of school crisis events.

Great Day Filming New School Safety Videos

In a scene from one of several active shooter scenarios, Chris Dorn fires an AK-47 fitted with a blank adapter into a classroom. Our school safety video scenario tapings are typically all-hazards in nature. This session emphasized active shooter, hostage situations and incidents relating to school terrorism. The new school safety video scenarios are among the most powerful we have ever produced. Using new video equipment, our video crew was able to use a variety of new special effects to produce even more compelling school safety training videos. (Photo ©2014 by Safe Havens International Staff Photographer Rachel Wilson).

We had a long but excellent day of filming scenes for a new school emergency preparedness video last Saturday. Our award-winning video crew did a superb job as did our actors. We were able to tape several versions each of more than a dozen school emergency preparedness scenes. The rough footage looks great and the slow motion footage looks amazing. The experience that our crew has gained filming across the nation as well as in Mexico, Bolivia, Holland, Vietnam, South Africa, and other countries really shows in their work. Safe Havens Video won nearly 40 national awards last year and has won a number of awards in previous year.

Our school safety training videos have also been widely featured on 20/20, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox, Al Jezera America, Tokyo Broadcasting, and dozens of other major media organization.  Our school emergency preparedness videos have long been used as model examples by the United States Department of Education and a number of state agencies. We are excited that so many school and public safety officials from many countries now use Safe Havens International school safety training videos.

We have additional tapings planned in Georgia and Oregon for this video series. We will be filming additional school terrorism scenarios during and content for a new companion training videos for these scenarios. Our video crew has worked tirelessly to produce so many school safety training videos and they continually improve the quality as well as the scope of their work. It was truly a joy to work with this outstanding crew and cast on what promises to be our most powerful school safety training videos yet.

The Security 100 Summit in Tucson last week was a truly impressive school safety conference.

Security100Summits K12 event was dynamic, vibrant and extremely useful

I had the chance to participate in a truly amazing international school safety Summit in Tucson this week. The inaugural Security100Summits K12 School Safety event is hosted by Focus Media Events. Hosted at an amazing resort in Tucson, Arizona, the Summit was held in one of the most beautiful conference centers I have ever presented in. Having presented at the Honolulu Country Club and many other wonderful venues, it takes a lot to impress me in this regard.

Focus Media has coordinated a series of these types of security events for higher education, stadium and arenas, hospital and other sectors, and has a stellar reputation for putting on intimate, content rich events with carefully screened attendees and vendors. Unlike the majority of events I present at, the Security100Summits are designed for a focus of guided interactive discussions between attendees rather than traditional presentations. These events create an unprecedented level of interaction and networking between attendees and subject matter experts as well as between vendors and partner sponsoring agencies and organizations.

Safe Havens International was proud to be a sponsoring agency and I was honored to serve as a keynote session speaker along with Michelle Gay from Safe and Sound a Sandy Hook Initiative and Dr. Stephen Sroka. The number of attendees was capped at around forty school safety directors and key school administrators from public, charter, independent, vo-tech and parochial schools across the United States and Canada. Similarly, the number of vendors was restricted.

I have keynoted on school safety and motivational topics at between thirty and a hundred professional conferences each year for more than twenty years now and have never participated in an event that created such intensive and productive interaction between so many participants. I had the opportunity to learn about cutting edge offerings from a wide array of school safety vendors that will enable our analysts to better serve our clients. For example, one vendor provided an exceptional ten minute demonstration of their school safety detection K-9s that was truly amazing. As a former gun detection dog handler, I was truly amazed that dogs are now trained to detect a person carrying a gun or a small explosive device in a crowded pedestrian environment such as a well-attended football game.

About a dozen of our clients attended the event and every one of them told me the event was of great value to them. Several of our clients who have been in the field for many years told me that this was the very best school safety conference they have attended.  I have already been asked to present at the Security100Summits K12 next December and am very excited about the event.

If you have interest in attending as a K-12 executive for the 2015 Security100Summit K-12, please contact Chief Community Builder, Lisa Carroll by email to lcarroll@focusmediaevents.com. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Nicole Bognar by email to nbognar@focusmediaevents.com . You can also visit their website at www.security100summits.com