Plan for Crises, Educators Told

Elementary schools should have updated emergency plans to protect students from snipers, terrorists, anthrax and any other threat, a security consultant told educators at a conference in Anaheim on Sunday.

“You can’t wait until it’s in the news to prepare for a crisis,” said Kenneth S. Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services of Cleveland. “If you have a good, meaningful crisis plan, it will apply to any emergency.”

At some schools, he said, administrators hurriedly drafted plans after two students killed 13 people and themselves at Colorado’s Columbine High in 1999 and haven’t looked at them since. At others, technology has been emphasized more than staff training.

“You can have a million dollars of security equipment, but if you don’t have the human awareness of how to deal with a bomb, or campus visitor procedures, it’s useless,” Trump told a workshop at the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals convention.

School officials often avoid confronting campus visitors for fear of offending them, but they should greet the visitors and determine their purpose, he said. A principal from Minneapolis said each visitor to her school is photographed.

During the workshop at the Anaheim Convention Center, Trump urged principals not to let the possibility of worrying parents and children stop them from practicing their plans.

Some school officials are in denial about the need for security, Trump said. “They’re hesitant to talk about their concerns,” he said. “But they don’t understand that communication and preparation reduce fear rather than create it.”

Common sense sometimes goes by the wayside in crisis plans, Trump said, citing one school that directed teachers to surround bombs found on campus with mattresses.

Giving too much information to outsiders, such as including floor plans on school Web sites, also can be dangerous, he said.

On the other hand, law enforcement can’t have enough information about schools, Trump said. Some principals recommended giving police blueprints of school buildings and allowing law enforcement officers to train on campus on weekends so they become familiar with the layout.

Deborah Johnson-Graham, principal of a Denver elementary school, learned from the workshop to designate alternate command centers in case something happens to her front office. Also, she plans to tell the students why they’re having crisis drills.

“Too often I think they can’t handle the reality,” she said, “but they need to understand that we’re preparing to make them safe.”