Campus Officials Partnered with Police

The next few days would exemplify cooperation between school leaders and law enforcement. Interviews were conducted and search warrants were executed on persons relevant to the case. A short time later, the student and his 22-year-old friend were arrested.

The student, still at a mental health facility, was charged with making terroristic threats and false public alarm. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years’ probation, a $3,000 fine and ordered to have no future contact with his alleged accomplice. 

The older accomplice was initially charged with three crimes: terroristic threats, false public alarm and hindering apprehension. However, his role remains a mystery to researchers due to an inability to interview him. He was indicted by a grand jury but had all charges dismissed. It has not been determined as to whether the non-student was a conspirator or the prosecution simply lacked the evidence necessary for a guilty verdict.

13 Best Practices for Preventing Attacks

Best practices for preventing a campus rampage are rooted in effective decision making, proactive leadership, data-sharing, school safety, and relationships between schools and law enforcement. It should also be noted that school leaders should not feed into false assumptions or beliefs.  There is no profile of a school rampage plotter, and checklists used to predict potential threats are inappropriate.

1. Develop clear formal and informal policies, and communicate them to students. School board policies guide schools. Campuses should have policies in place that expressly address threats of all kinds and the associated consequences. The policies should be disseminated to staff and students alike.  Students must know whom to contact if they are privy to a threat. In our high school plot, the campus had formal and informal policies that made students aware of when it was appropriate to seek the help of an adult. In particular, this school has an annual meeting with incoming freshmen, and the principal provided concrete examples about when it is appropriate to seek adult help.
2. Foster a positive school climate. In the mid-Atlantic high school’s case, a positive school climate existed. This school was small in size, which allowed for quick, consistent communication between adults. Students were supported by caring adults whom they could trust – trust to listen, trust to take action and trust to keep them safe. During and after this event, there was not a single negative comment made towards the school district in the media.
3. Provide appropriate oversight of students. In the case described in this article, the student was on school personnel’s radar. Hence, when
   the threat was made, it was deemed credible. Teenagers are often masters of disguise, and when planning an attack, going unnoticed can lead to a successful attack. However, in this situation, stringent observation helped school personnel identify that the student was deteriorating and potentially capable of the reported threat.
4. Provide multiple ways to report violence, threats and/or concerns. For instance, dedicated phone lines, an email address, or a box in the office for student notes can be implemented. Confidential reports should be permissible. Students who are scared may feel more comfortable making an anonymous report.
5. Adopt security measures, technology and personnel. Schools are not prisons. They require flexibility to accomplish their educational missions. While security measures alone will not prevent an attack, they can act as a deterrent to internal and external threats.  Appropriate educational security measures may include central entry points with a system to screen visitors, identification badges for staff and visitors, locked external doors that can be opened from the inside during emergencies, a digital camera network and school resource officers.
6. Share information between buildings and grade levels. The notion of a clean slate when moving from one grade to another with respect to a student’s disciplinary history does not enhance school safety.
7. Ensure that school personnel know their students. Formal and informal interactions with students may help them feel more comfortable with the adults in a school. Teaming, small learning communities, incentive events and informal dialogue sessions between staff and students are ways to improve interaction between adults and children.
8. Plan and prepare for the unexpected. Share emergency plans with all necessary stakeholders, and drill continuously throughout the school year with a variety of different scenarios. Active shooter situations, lockdowns, weather events and fire drills are examples of emergencies that should be addressed. Avoid complacency and promote independent thinking by adding unexpected elements to a drill. Whenever feasible, drill with fire, ambulance and law enforcement personnel present.
9. Work with first responders. Emergency personnel must be familiar with building layouts, points of entry and exit, and how their radio systems work in each building. During the Columbine school shooting, emergency responders were handicapped when they learned that their radios did not work well. The building’s construction blocked radio signals and hampered the response.
10. Have a crisis plan. In the event of an actual attack or a threat, school leaders will be responsible for assessing risk, cooperating with emergency personnel, accounting for staff and students, sharing information with parents, and addressing the media. Schools should develop a comprehensive crisis plan. Also, adopting the FBI’s Four-Pronged Assessment Model can help schools and law enforcement evaluate an incoming threat and can assist them in determining if the threat is credible.
11. Have a plan to manage the press. The media will be ruthless in their attempt to secure information during and after an incident. A course in public relations should be required for all administrators. In the mid-Atlantic high school’s case, the media were overwhelming. School leaders were unprepared to deal with the volume of media requests. Campus officials had to inform the public, but at the same time, address embellishments made by the press. A meeting for parents was held at the school. Updates about the investigation and enhanced security measures were described.
12. Provide counseling. School rampages may cause mental and emotional problems, including post-traumatic stress syndrome, survivors’ guilt, thoughts of suicide and substance abuse. The teams should be well versed with child, adolescent and adult mental health needs. In the case described in this article, counseling for staff and students was made available. Years after the plotted attack was averted, some staff were still emotionally impacted.
13. Take accurate notes during an incident. Self-assessment is a critical skill required during emergencies. One way to enhance self-assessment is to keep notes during a crisis. A historian should record specific events and decisions, people’s roles and mistakes made. Institutional memory loss can be prevented by making a building secretary a historian.

School rampages can be prevented. Effective planning and constant preparation are needed to make staff and students aware of ways to report threats, react to incoming threats and independently act to ensure survival during an actual assault.

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Dr. Nicholas Morell is the dean of students at a public high school in northeastern Pennsylvania and a school safety researcher. References for this article as well as Morell’s original research paper can be found at http://gradworks.umi.com/35/60/3560131.html.

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