School safety
It has been more than 22 years since the horrific student on student shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado startled our nation and served as the impetuous for two decades of senseless killings of innocent students, teachers, and faculty at the hands of mentally disturbed, active shooters.
By now, every school district and its elementary, middle, and high schools should possess, train, and exercise a crisis response plan. Having a workable crisis response plan embraced by staff, faculty, students, parents and guardians, and known to and exercised with local first responders, has become the standard for due care and diligence among our nations schools.
JPR & Associates has been assisting educators with crisis response planning by providing them with the “80% solution.” This is a “one size fits all” school crisis response plan and all hazards guide to crisis leadership and management, which with slight modifications to accommodate corporate cultures and local requirements, will rapidly assist in moving schools closer to acceptable standards of school safety due care and diligence.
Of concern is that many schools today – especially many private schools - still do not possess and exercise a viable crisis response plan. In these years of COVID-19, with so many additional uncertainties and expenses, many schools simply cannot afford professional assistance required to create workable school crisis response plans.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, JPR is making the following offer to public and private school administrators. Contract with JPR for one, three hour, online “School Crisis Management and Active Shooter Prevention” seminar, presented by our Founder and Principal Consultant, Joe Ruffini, and JPR will give you full rights to use and modify as needed its “80% Solution:” a 115-page School Crisis Management Plan and a 49-page All Hazards Guide to Crisis Leadership and Management at absolutely no cost.
JPR provides school safety and active shooter awareness and prevention training and education for staff, faculty, and students. We design each session to the specific goals and objectives of the school, college or university client who hires us. These sessions have been designed and presented to small groups of senior leaders (such as a school district superintendent and all principals), staffs and faculty members from a specific school, assemblies of students, and school-sponsored evening sessions for concerned parents and guardians.
School safety presentations cover such aspects as crisis response planning, how to achieve “Team buy-in” from all staff, faculty, students, parents and guardians, and physical security. We discuss the importance of student safety awareness and participation, as students have many more eyes and ears than do their staffs and faculties. JPR stresses the importance of good communication, coordination, and school “walk throughs” with local law enforcement, fire departments, and emergency medical responders. The immeasurable value associated with tabletop exercises is emphasized, along with guidance as to how to plan and conduct a successful tabletop. JPR presents examples of live, “full blown” school crisis/community emergency response exercises that it has helped to plan, execute, and evaluate.
Active shooter awareness and education explains how, by and large, active shooters cannot be profiled. JPR presents active shooter case studies and lessons learned. Our sessions cover physical security as a teacher and student responsibility, medical supplies that should be on hand in each classroom, and asymmetric evacuation drills. Most importantly, we stress the criticality of instilling “If you hear something, say something” into each student, as generally, at least one student other than the shooter knows of the impending shooter event.
JPR co-sponsored two National School Safety Conferences in Denver and Washington, DC. Our company presents at many school safety/active shooter seminars, conferences, and training events. Here is a sampling of our extensive presentation experience:
Southeast Law Enforcement Training Seminar (SELETS) Annual Conference, TN
Colorado Association of School Resource Officers Annual Conference, Denver, CO
New England Association of School Superintendents Annual Conference, Samoset, ME
Bureau of Indian Affairs School, Safety/Crisis Management Conference, Dallas, TX
National School Safety Conference, Denver, CO
National Homeland Defense Foundation Annual Convention, Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado DARE Officers Annual Conference, Denver, CO
Colorado Association of Police Chiefs Annual Conference, Ft. Collins, CO
Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, Riverside, CA
Fort Morgan School District, Fort Morgan, CO
Pueblo School District 70, Pueblo, CO.
La Veta Public School District, La Veta, CO
· Green River School District. City of Green River, WY
San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office, San Bernardino, CA
Sheriff’s Department, Orange County, CA
Wichita School District, Wichita, KS
Virginia Department of Homeland Security, Hampton, VA
Virginia Department of Homeland Security, Mechanicsville, VA.
Fremont RE-1 School District, Canon City, CO
Hobbs Consolidated School District, Hobbs, NM