School Safety: Are you ready to rumble?

So, who's ready to rumble? In our other thread on the issue of School Safety: to plan or not to plan, Science Chic said, "Let's get this done". I agree. It's time.

After all the links to resources provided, after all the articles discussing the issues related to emergency management programs in schools, after all the input and suggestions received, the most basic of questions now must be asked, "Is there anyone out there right here, right now who might be interested in taking on the challenge of designing, developing, implementing, and then helping in the maintenance of an emergency management program for a particular school??

That, folks, is the bottom line here. And that is where we must start.

I've been posting virtually the same things on school safety on all the other CommunityBound sites, and have gotten some response, but not as much as here. With that in mind, I think I'll post one more time on those sites and let folks there know that this thread will be the one they can reference and contribute to from now on in order to try to help keep things organized and moving forward.

Here we go!

First step: establish a kind of "steering committee". This can consist of a few key stakeholders willing, ready, and able to devote the time and effort necessary to see this process through to implementation. Consider keeping this group pretty small to start. Later on, a design team can be established that will help facilitate the process throughout.

Please note, I did not say "completion". These kinds of programs are never complete. Let's get that straight up front. This is a process - NOT a product. A process is ongoing. It must be recognized and accepted as such right from the get go. If it isn't, it's doomed to failure right from the start.

Second step: choose a steering committee chairperson. This person will have the responsibility of helping to ensure things stay on track. You don't need a consultant. Repeat - you DO NOT need a consultant to do this. Consultants cost money. That's something we don't have - money. This process must be done with little to no cost monetarily as is humanly possible. For any unexpected monetary costs that may crop up, it's going to fall on everyone to seek help in the form of donations from whatever sources might be available. Plus, finding experienced consultants willing and able to do what we're proposing will more than likely be a crap shoot anyway.

Third step: get together and discuss steps that can be taken. In my former life, we called this meeting an "Internal Scoping Meeting". Some of the things that can be discussed are as follows.

■ Conduct a “Situation Analysis”
✔ Complete a “Needs Assessment” - does your school “need” an Emergency Management Program (e.g.: laws, mandates, etc.)?
✔ If so, attempt to identify what specifically “needs” to be included in your school’s Emergency Management Program.

■ Attempt to define a capability to help your school design, develop, and implement an Emergency Management Program for your school
✔ Identify personnel resources (e.g.: people who could, or should, be on your team)
✔ Determine personnel resources’ experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities
✔ Establish functional areas and assign tasks
✔ Determine adequate preparation time required of personnel resources for design, development, and implementation of your school’s Emergency Management Program
✔ Identify availability of physical facilities to be used for conduct of meetings and activities
✔ Consider, and attempt to address, expected attitudes of school administrators, emergency managers, elected officials, law enforcement, and other potential players toward participating in your group’s activities

■ Attempt to define the “Scope” of your Group’s Emergency Management Program design, development, and implementation process
✔ Identify the geographic area to be included in your Group’s activities (e.g.: entire school district or just one school at a time)
✔ Identify and locate appropriate reference documents to be used to help design, develop, and implement your school’s Emergency Management Program

■ Develop an evaluation strategy
✔ How will the evaluation be accomplished?
✔ Identify potential members of an Evaluation Team
✔ Identify functional/operational areas of your school’s Emergency Management Program that will need to be evaluated

■ Develop a Statement of Purpose and Specific Objectives for the design, development, and implementation of your school’s Emergency Management Program
✔ Develop a Statement of Purpose for your group
✔ Develop specific objectives for your group
✔ Discuss how your group might work with other key stakeholder groups in the design, development, and implementation of your school’s Emergency Management Program (e.g.: school districts, emergency managers, law enforcement, media, etc.)

■ Address potential costs and liabilities
✔ Discuss potential costs
✔ Discuss potential liabilities

This is a very basic "baseline" of activities that can be used to help guide the process to get started. It's by no means cast in stone. Stuff can be added and/or deleted as necessary. It should be considered as nothing more than a sort of "building block" on which to start the process. Once again, I must also emphasize that this is not rocket science. Nor is it re-inventing any wheels. The information and resources to help in this process are already out there. We've gone to great lengths to provide links and information to some of them on our website. Take advantage of them. That's what they're there for. And, best of all, they're all free of charge.

Following completion of the checklist above, an "External Scoping Meeting" can be conducted. More later on this. Let's get the internal scoping meeting out of the way first.

To be perfectly blunt and honest up front, this process to implementation will NOT happen overnight. In my professional experience it can actually take one or more years to get a viable, mandate compliant, NIMS and ICS compliant, full spectrum emergency management program up and going. My point - if you aren't ready, willing, and able to see it through to implementation and take pride in something you've helped to create not only for yourself and your own kids, but for those who follow, please don't bother getting involved or joining the group. Again, in my professional experience, people can be divided pretty much into three distinct groups: 1. those who make things happen, 2. those who watch things happen, and, 3. those who wonder what happened. We're looking for those who will make things happen.

My final contribution in this post is to state categorically the members of the steering committee, including the chairperson, should be key stakeholders from within the community. They can include a community leader. Or, perhaps someone active in the PTA. Or, a couple of concerned parents. Maybe even an age appropriate student. Heck, they can even include a teacher if one is interested. The more diverse, the better. Later on, after preliminary activities listed above are completed, other members of the emergency management community including, but not limited to, emergency managers, law enforcement, emergency medical, volunteer organizations in the community, etc., can and should be invited to participate. They will be the necessary subject matter experts your group will need to help guide the process.

I will always be available as a "subject matter expert" in the field of helping to guide the process, if necessary. Please understand, I'm a behind the scenes kind of person. I'll be more than happy to contribute what little I might have to offer, but I ain't in it for any accolades or recognition. That's for the people who actually take the initiative and do the work. The proof of their efforts will be in the pudding of putting together a "pilot" program, a "model" for others to follow.

Good luck and, as Science Chic said, "let's get this done!!!!!!!!!!"
TEACH PEACE!

This story was aired last night (thanks to Cinnamongirl on EvergreenBound for providing the link).
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/despite-shootings-colorado-schools-not-on-same-page-with-safety-plans

I commend John Michael and Ellen Keyes for their ongoing efforts in advocating for safe schools and the standardization of their Standard Response Protocols. What they are advocating is a serious step in the right direction. It's up to all of us to get on board with them in their efforts.

That being said, this news story is also interesting from several perspectives:

1. The story puts forth there are no standards in-place (but there are),
2. It talks about one district that, while indicating it would be nice to have standard protocols, also feels their existing protocols are fine and meet their needs (resistance to change),
3. It's obvious the larger districts have more funding, manpower, and expertise to help ensure safety requirements are met (each district has unique planning issues and characteristics),
4. There is a "perception" resources and expertise in some areas, particularly rural, are severely limited (resources and expertise are there - they just haven't been fully explored and/or developed yet).

Contrary to the article, there is, in fact, a very comprehensive standard in place called SB 08-181, a law passed in 2008 requiring emergency management programs in all schools in CO based on the National Response Framework (NRF), including the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS): http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2010/02/08/153215/SB08181signed.pdf

This law is where our focus must reside, in my opinion. It is a fine example (a tinge of sarcasm here - at least our government here in CO recognized and accepted more needs to be done in the area of emergency management programs for schools) of another well intended action taken by our government with unintended potential consequences. While the law, for the most part, is well written with input from a wide range of emergency management subject matter experts, and is based on current guidelines and processes in emergency management program design, development, implementation, and maintenance, the simple fact of the matter is it has some holes in it, too - holes that need to be filled, again in my opinion.

First, it is an unfunded mandate that requires school districts to comply. The problem? Based on the law, it appears they must do so on their own (not true, but not explained very well at all). These districts are then placed in a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" Catch-22 scenario. If they do try to comply, on the surface it appears compliance would negatively impact their already tight personnel and budget constraints, not to mention whether they're actually doing it "right" (there are some pretty serious compliance requirements in this law that, if not met, present these districts with even more of a "Catch-22" than they realize).

If they don't at least try to comply...... Well, I'm not even going to go into the possible liability issues on that one.

An obvious solution to this problem would be for the state to step up and provide adequate funding - a "solution", however, fraught with its own potential problems and liabilities.

And, second, by passing a "mandate" for compliance, government unwittingly increased what I call "the pucker factor" in school districts having no clue where to begin. This "pucker factor" can actually wind up, more than anything else, being the biggest deterrent to doing anything at all. Recognizing, as one administrator did in this piece, there is a risk/hazard but choosing to ignore it in the hope it "won't happen here" is both dangerous and negligent, in my opinion. Try to imagine, if you will, how that "pucker factor" will exponentially increase when things actually do go south and the district isn't ready to take appropriate actions to respond.

I guess a few logical questions I would also ask of the reporter who did this story are along the lines of why wasn't SB 08-181 included as a part of the discussion? Are people even aware of its existence? Has anyone even read it? Are districts choosing to ignore its requirements?

Those questions, at least to me, are at the crux of the issue of safer schools. The mandate is clearly already in place here in CO. If we choose to ignore it, we do so at our own risk, both in terms of non-compliance (liability potential when things do go south and it can be proven there is a mandate that hasn't been adequately addressed) and abdication of our responsibility (moral and ethical obligation) to our kids to provide the safest learning environment we possibly can for them.

The truth of the matter is every single district has the resources. They just aren't aware they exist. Every single district has the expertise. Right now, it must, for the most part, be classified as "potential" expertise because it hasn't yet been fully developed.

This news story serves to reinforce the need for what we are trying to do with The PEACE Challenge.

Anyone up here aware of a program called Watch D.O.G.S.? Here's a link to their national site:

http://www.fathers.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=60

Haven't posted on this thread in awhile. Am sharing this link now in the hope anyone interested in getting something like what we are advocating going can use this material to help get started. You can also visit our website and get additional information there, as well.

http://www.ncpc.org/cms-upload/ncpc/File/BSSToolkit_Complete.pdf

We are in the beginning stages of kicking off a "pilot" project locally of our own if anyone might be interested. If you are interested, please go to our website and use the "contact us" function. We're trying to identify who might have what expertise to offer in this endeavor (strictly volunteer). So, a brief explanation of how you might be able to contribute would be helpful if you choose to participate.

Thanks for your consideration. We can get this done.

Haven't posted in this thread for awhile - sorry bout that.

Found this link and am providing it here to show there are people out there talking about what we are trying to do - even though they don't know it nor did we know about their efforts.

PTA - get them involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msByP5LZsjg&list=PLQ5seUGdPQBWveLnBoV2wRxsOf18pXuVi&index=1

It's been a long time since I've posted in this thread. What better time, though, than now, as the school year winds down, to ask school officials in your area whether or not the schools they administrate over are in compliance with Colorado Senate Bill 08-181:

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2010/02/08/153215/SB08181signed.pdf

If they aren't, this law was passed in Colorado way back in 2008. What's the hold-up?

As a constituent perhaps with children in a particular school, you have every right to not only ask this question, but you also have the right to an answer from school administrators one way or the other, up or down. In fact, you arguably have an obligation to do ask them this question. The requirements of this law are pretty explicit and straightforward.

If your child's school has not yet complied, this would be a perfect opportunity for a group to form similar to what we advocate on our website:

http://www.thepeacechallenge.org/

This is just one way you can help those schools come into compliance. Please choose to get and stay involved in efforts like these. Thanks.

Here's another piece of legislation that was signed into law in 2011 that directly impacts schools in this state: http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2011a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/85763B644B0DC1F68725780800800F8A?open&file=173_enr.pdf

Both laws are unfunded mandates. That means it's up to the schools and local communities to find ways to implement them for compliance. Just another one of those "unintended consequences" of doing the right thing types of legislation. Unless community does, in fact, get involved in helping schools meet these mandates, the schools themselves risk some pretty heavy duty legal issues if something happens and it can be proven they were not in compliance.

Parents and community members really do need to start asking questions and getting answers. If the answers they get aren't satisfactory, it is then incumbent on the community to help.