The importance of communication during a school crisis has not changed in the 21st century. What has changed--and quite dramatically since 1999--is the way people communicate. Social media tools are now used in some form by 100 percent of all four-year universities in the United States as a way to reach students, according to a 2011 University of…

The problem of campus stalking requires uniting several departments to develop a response plan reflective of the comprehensive nature of campus stalking. This article highlights how research on stalking, stalking theories, and related environmental theories support the formation of a cross-functional team to develop a multifaceted response to this…

Emergency training programs aimed to prepare schools for events like Columbine are losing their funding amid budget cuts. "Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools" grants from the federal office of safe and drug-free schools, has evaporated. After paying for hundreds of school districts to prepare for a Columbine-like event, the roughly…

On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho, a livid and mentally ill student, shot to death 32 students and faculty of Virginia Tech, wounded many more people, and then killed himself. This incident has impacted college and university campuses nationwide in efforts to seek mentally disturbed students and help them, to have effective emergency teams, as well…

Principals and other administrators seem to be perpetually overworked. There is always something that still needs to be done at the end of the day, and it is easy for disaster planning and preparedness to keep slipping to the bottom of the list. However, disaster preparation is essential, even when planning for the unknown. At some point in every…

On the morning of September 27, 2006, a 53-year-old drifter with no ties to the community walked into Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, with several firearms, taking a college-prep English class hostage. After a 4-hr stand-off, one 16-year-old student--along with the drifter--was killed in subsequent police action. This case study…

An analysis of eleven state task force reports prompted by the tragic nature of the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 revealed that all shared a primary theme: no "single best way" to protect American college and university campuses yet exists. These documents, individually and collectively, make it clear that contemporary complex learning…

In the spring of 1999, 12 students and a teacher were killed by two gun-toting teenage boys at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, making school safety and security an overnight priority in communities across the nation. Many schools are starting to borrow security methods and technology from the business world such as video intercoms,…

This study surveyed New Mexico high school principals on their current state of preparedness for serious school violence. The researcher surveyed 119 public high schools, receiving a 65% return rate from a 25-question survey. Specifically, this study analyzed the relationships of three predictor variables: prevention, response, and building of…

In the best of times, emergency managers of athletic event venues struggle with the responsibilities of venue security. The possibility of terrorist threats exacerbates the situation, especially when security threats can involve a critical mass of spectators at an event. Emergency managers at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)…

In a study conducted among more than 980 American four-year and two-year colleges and universities, including institutions such as the University of Michigan, MIT, UCLA and Columbia, security staff and other administrators identified the five leading goals for their security systems: (1) Preventing unauthorized people from entering their…

In response to the February 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump established the Federal Commission on School Safety to review safety practices and make meaningful and actionable recommendations of best practices to keep students safe. The Commission conducted field visits,…

As a result of House Bill 1215, introduced and passed during the 2011 North Dakota legislative session, every school building in North Dakota must conduct a lockdown drill. While no timeframe, tracking or penalty was identified in the state law, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (DPI) advocates annual drills, at a minimum, which…

Social Media is the use of social networking sites, messaging sites, texting, and other web-based or mobile technologies to support social interaction. Facebook is by far the most widely used social networking site. Twitter is by far the most widely used messaging site. The goals of this presentation are: (1) To provide an understanding of the…

A freak blizzard, a mentally ill and armed student, a record-breaking flood. No matter how idyllic a campus may feel, no matter how cocooned the ivory tower, disaster can strike. If a campus is unprepared, it comes like a sucker punch, potentially turning a crisis into a tragedy of unimagined proportions--and causing reverberations that will be…