Speaking

During this essential (but not frightening) conversation,  we’ll discuss three strategies you can and should implement at your school today to prevent active shooters and other emergencies, three steps to take to train faculty, staff and others on campus for an emergency, and three steps to take if and when an event occurs on campus.

We’ll share several case studies with opportunities for learning at every turn, as well as a good emergency plan, a bad emergency plan, and a guide to building community confidence in preparing for emergencies. Most importantly, participants will leave with an action plan for their campus based on the nine principles discussed. 

The best resource at any school? The community. No one knows the ins and outs of campus, the trouble spots, and people’s tendencies better than those who make up your school’s family.

Whether it’s communication strategies for times of crisis, learning to establish clear roles and responsibilities in an emergency, or techniques for access control (to provide just a few examples), preemptively instituting the best safety practices will have a serious and immediate impact on school safety. Expect to depart with a to-do list in mind.

Here’s the truth. You have to rebuild your school community to an acceptable level within seven days of a major disaster. Without your school resuming operations, staff, faculty, and parents may all relocate to more stable ground. That’s why it’s so critical that schools have a plan BEFORE disaster strikes.

This presentation will help you build that plan by teaching schools how to forge partnerships with local vendors, integrate technology into business continuity, think through their succession plan if their leadership team was compromised, and more.

One of the most overwhelming school safety issues to deal with is the threat of an armed assailant on campus. This presentation will serve to break down the steps that should be taken to minimize this threat into goals that can be achieved even in the course of a busy school year. This is about identifying students who may be at risk of causing harm to themselves or others and managing additional support for them. We know the signs, so let’s learn how to apply them to our environment and prevent the negative outcomes. Learn the tenets of a successful, holistic threat assessment program and the process through which your school should respond to incoming data.

More generally, participants will be able to identify and implement the organizational changes needed at their school so that if the worst does come to pass, the community is empowered and confident in their response.

In order to lockdown effectively, you must have a few key components in place (no pun intended). With the knowledge that schools were designed for education and intentionally are designed with an open look and feel, we’re constantly approached and asked “How do I get ‘Lockdown Ready’ without sacrificing my openness and unencumbered space?” The answer is neither simple, nor easy, but it’s important. You must get lockdown ready, regardless of the unique challenges or obstacles that your campus faces.

This presentation is designed to guide facilities leaders and other relevant parties in assessing their buildings, their grounds and their readiness. Participants will walk out with an action plan in hand for how to conduct their own safety assessment, then implement some of the solutions to common problems. Additionally, the audience will walk away with a guide to how to manage traditional keys and alarm codes, how to secure the doors on their classrooms and offices, when and how to communicate using an emergency notification system, how to manage the windows in classroom and offices, how and when to implement a threat assessment team and how to conduct effective lockdown drills designed to scaffold the community's learning.