School Safety

If you would like to help the families of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, click here or here​. To read President Obama's proclamation honoring the victims, click here​.

Disasters come in many forms and can occur anywhere, knowing how to react and respond in a time of crisis can go a long way to keeping you and your community out of harm's way.​ This page has a host of resources for parents, guardians, administrators, educators and facilities managers. Share these links with your neighbors, friends and community leaders to reduce your school's vulnerability to an emergency.

School Violence Preparedness

​Heightened School Security Procedures During Threats

In consideration of possible incidents, schools should give serious consideration to additional heightened security procedures during times of terrorist threats including:

• Train teachers and support staff, evaluate and refine security plans, and test/exercise school crisis plans.
• Encourage school personnel to maintain a "heightened awareness" for suspicious activity and to report.
• Provide special attention to perimeter security and access control issues.  Have clearly defined perimeters for schools through the use of fences, gates, environmental design, signage, and other professional security measures.
• Use designated parking areas especially for visitors and register staff and student vehicles.                                   
• Provide supervision and monitoring of parking lots and outside areas as appropriate.
• Train custodial, maintenance, and grounds personnel on identifying and handling suspicious packages and items found on campus.
• Establish routine inspections of the building and grounds by trained facility personnel.  Secure roof hatches and eliminate structural items that facilitate easy access to school roofs.
• Make sure that classroom windows are secured at the end of the school day.  Utilize security technology and devices for monitoring and controlling exterior facilities as defined by professional security assessments.
• Review staffing and supervision plans.  Stress the importance of adult supervision before, during, and after school, both inside school buildings and on campus, and in common areas such as hallways, stairwells, restrooms, cafeterias, bus areas, and other high-traffic areas.
• Encourage staff to maintain a heightened awareness during recess, physical education classes, drop-off and dismissal, and other outside activities.   ​
            CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Helping Children After a Traumatic Event​
• Examine staffing levels and procedures for security personnel, school resource officers and other police personnel, and associated protection personnel.
• Maintain a proactive effort of visitor access and control.  Reduce the number of doors accessible from the outside to one designated entrance.
• Stress the importance of staff greeting and challenging strangers, and reporting suspicious individuals.
• Verify the identity of service personnel and vendors visiting the school, including those seeking access to utilities, alarm systems, communications systems, maintenance areas, and related locations.
• Assess school health and medical preparedness.  Evaluate school nurse staffing levels.  Make sure that schools maintain an adequate number and level of emergency kits and medical supplies. 

• CLICK HERE TO WATCH: Surviving an Active Shooter on Campus - UC Santa Cruz Police Department​
• Conduct a status check of emergency communications mechanisms.  Be sure that two-way radio units and cell phones are functioning, and have back-up batteries charged.
• Make sure that the public address system is fully functioning.
• Review procedures for emergency communications with parents, notify parents in advance how school officials will communicate with them in an emergency (media, district web site, etc.), discuss importance of parents not flocking to the school if directed during an active crisis, review family reunification procedures and communicate other relevant information to ease parent concerns.
• Review procedures for mobilizing mental health services for students and staff in the event of a crisis.  Plan in advance how adults will communicate with children in a time of crisis.
• Evaluate and enforce employee screening procedures. Review guidelines for subcontractors and identify all individuals working on school property.
• Develop, review, refine, and test crisis preparedness guidelines.  Be sure to have guidelines for both natural disasters and acts of violence.
  

These and many more tips and information can be found by clicking any of the "Helpful Resources" listed above.

Prepare For and Survive an Active Shooter Emergency

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Have Suggestions?

California News

• ​Governor Brown Issues Statement on Connecticut School Shooting
• Statement from California's Top Homeland Security Advisor & State Superintendent on Public Instruction​

Resources for Parents and Kids

• Healing After the Sandy Hook Tragedy
• 5 Tips for Talking to Kids About Scary News​
• ​Kid Power - Talking to Kids About Gun Violence
• American Psychological Association – Helping Your Children Manage Distress in the Aftermath of a Shooting
• American Academy of Pediatrics – Resources to Help Parents, Children and Others Cope in the Aftermath of School Shootings
• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry – Children and Grief
• Massachusetts General Hospital for Children – Talking To Children About A Shooting
• Child Mind Institute – Caring For Kids After A School Shooting
• National Child Abuse Hotline
• SafeStart Center

Resources for Schools

• Active Shooter Safety
• School Terrorism Preparedness
• Emergency Planning for Schools
• Action Guide for Emergency Management at Institutions of Higher Education
• Project School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV)
• Active Shooter Protocols for Schools

Government Resources

• ​US Department of Education
• California Department of Education
• CA County Offices of Education

Additional Resources

• ​​Secret Service School Safe Initiative
• FBI Resources on School Violence
• Homeland Security - Active Shooter Tips
• Active Shooter Response Info - CA Hospital Association
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration