Question: “When community members attempt to develop school site safety plans there seems to be a barrier to identifying crises and critical vulnerabilities that occur. School safety plan training exercises do not link earthquake, fire and evacuation drills together even though that is the actual regional crises scenario. Also schools do not practice hostage avoidance, active shooters with explosives linked to student evacuation under semi-automatic weapons fire even though this sequence recurs. Is it normal to avoid topics individuals do not wish to deal with; ignore topics individuals fear and would rather not think about? What techniques might be effective to focus parents and teachers on unpleasant topics and identify children traumatic vulnerabilities in sub/urban school safety planning?”

Response: Every school does some form of crisis planning and the mechanism for doing so often is a crisis planning team. Crisis planning provides the context for focusing stakeholders on the range of unpleasant topics that may arise.

In facilitating crisis planning (whether at the school, district, community), the first step usually involves addressing high frequency problems. Developing well designed plans for ensuring a safe school environment, reducing bullying, etc. set the stage for moving on to less likely events.

In all instances, it helps to draw on plans and lessons learned from other districts (e.g., related to bomb and hostage threats, etc). Such plans demonstrate the scope of concern that other districts think is important and within the purview of crisis planning. Sometimes it helps to have a small workgroup (1-3 people) draft plans for the more unusual situations and bring their draft back to the larger planning team.

For some examples and resources, see the Center’s Quick Find online clearinghouse topic: “Crisis Prevention and Response” http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/p2107_01.htm

We received information from the National Association of School Psychologists about the PREPaRE crisis curriculum. It is described as a “comprehensive nationally available curriculum developed by, and for, school-based mental health professional...ideal for school committed to improving and strengthening their school crisis prevention, preparedness, emergency response, and recovery capacities. For information about the curriculum and related training see http://www.nasponline.org/prepare/index.aspx

Submit a request or comment now.

UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools
Dept. of Psychology, P.O.Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
tel: (310)825-3634
email: Linda Taylor ~ web: https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu