The following is a post that I
wrote over a year ago, hoping that I would only have to publish it once. This is now the third time I have
shared it. Hopefully, this time
will be the last.
Over the upcoming days, weeks and months there will be
considerable hand wringing, finger pointing and second guessing when it comes
to analyzing the tragedy of last week. There is little positive to come from
this. An irrational actor, with a mission and no exit strategy, attacked
the school. A perfect storm of unmitigated evil.
In my education leadership career, I do have some unique
experience and expertise in school security. Here are some things that I
recommend you should do to review your campus security procedures and
practices, today. This checklist is quick, practical, reasonable and
actionable.
1. Keep your exterior doors and windows secured at all
times. This may mean that locks need to be replaced and keys
need to be inventoried and redistributed. This should have been done
before, do it now. Stop the practice of people propping doors open when
they go outside. Remind staff and students constantly the seriousness of
exterior door safety. Be diligent in modeling and monitoring this practice and
dealing with those that forget and break protocol.
2. Review and practice alert, evacuation, and
shelter-in-place procedures, regularly (and not just on the
last day of the month). Immediately stop the practice of warning staff when
there is going to be a drill. It defeats the purpose of the drill and
creates the learned behavior of “checking to see if it is a real emergency.”
Also, there should be drills conducted on days when campus leadership is not
available. Emergencies can occur at any time. Practice accordingly.
3. Keep your head on a swivel.
Stay alert. When it comes to their surroundings, most adults operate in a
fog throughout the day. This is where you can actually use students to help
with security. They are much more alert than we give them credit for.
Teach them to monitor our shared surroundings (visitor badges, unlocked doors,
open windows, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, etc.) and quietly report to
their teacher. Make it a game.
4. When something seems off, listen to your gut.
If you gut is wrong, all you did was take an extra precaution. If your
gut is right, you prevented or reduced the severity of a difficult situation.
5. Plan for the worst. Pray for the best.
We should not turn our campuses into armed camps and we cannot live in fear.
But we should be prudent and take reasonable precautions.
This is a sad time to be an educator. But this is
also a proud time. Without a moments hesitation our peers paid the
ultimate price to protect our children. We will not forget that. And in the
face of fear and uncertainty, the rest of us manned our posts yesterday because
the job is important and it is what we do. We Are Teachers.
Think. Work. Achieve.
Your turn...
- Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com! http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
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