News and Blog
Your School Safety Questions Answered by Gary
Looking for answers to your school safety-related questions? One week after being hired as a K12 safety director, I discovered I had more questions than answers. Fortunately, I was able to develop a network of people I could call or email for suggestions, advice, or...
Back to School Safety Basics: Secured Shelving
School safety is not just Active Shooters. School personnel needs to be trained in all hazards. Security and Vulnerability Assessments (SVAs) can be used to identify both risks and best practices in a school. Once risks are identified, an abatement plan can be...
Exercises: The Tool for Evaluating Plans, Training and Preparedness
Introducing Guest Blog Author: Gene KomondorAs you know, my goal for this blog is to be a free resource to everyone tasked with keeping others safe. While I typically post school safety-related content, emergency preparedness is a universal topic and so I often reach...
School Safety: A Broken System
Following the recent Parkland verdict, I find myself reflecting on the time shortly after the tragedy itself. I was in DC the week after it happened for Advanced Threat Assessment training. Needless to say, Parkland, as well as all of the subsequent hoaxes that...
Can We Stop Calling the Subsequent Dates of a Tragedy an Anniversary?
Anniversary [ an-uh-vur-suh-ree ] noun: 1. A day that is an exact number of years (to the day) since a given significant event occurred. Often preceded by an ordinal number indicating the number of years. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war. 2....
Happy Haircut
There’s a blank index card on my desk. When I was training at a school a few weeks ago we were talking about layers of school security to prevent the type of school shooting where the killer is a member of the school community and is intentionally...
Using Drills and Exercises to Test Your School’s Emergency Operations Plan Q&A
Below are the remaining questions I received during the August 18 webinar, Using Drills and Exercises to Test Your School's Emergency Operations Plan, hosted by the Campus Safety Webcast Series. The replay of the webinar can be found HERE by logging into your...
Gary’s Guide to School Safety
Below are some of the questions I received during the August 18 webinar, Using Drills and Exercises to Test Your School's Emergency Operations Plan, hosted by the Campus Safety Webcast Series. The replay of the webinar can be found HERE by logging into your existing...
Understanding and Mitigating Youth Vulnerabilities to Extremist Messaging
I was in a meeting last week with the superintendent of a school district, representatives from the local law enforcement agency, the local fire department, and the county EMA director. This was just a normal "we are picking up where we left off in June, let's get...
How to Spot and Prevent a Phishing Attack
Introducing Guest Blog Author: Josh RoganWhen I get an email or phone call from a district asking for assistance on an issue that is outside my area of expertise, I reach out to Subject Matter Experts in my circle for their guidance and insight. If you would like...
Restoring Trust and Confidence
It will be some time before the final report on the actions of law enforcement at Webb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. We do know there was a failure of the command staff, and some officers did not follow their training. While the actions of a few do not...
Your Questions Answered by Gary
Below is the next series of questions my clients and colleagues have submitted to me through past Gary's Guide to School Safety blog posts, via email, and directly to me through LinkedIn. Be sure to submit your safety and preparedness questions below to be featured...
Developing an MOU for the School Setting
According to the US Department of Justice, an MOU can do a variety of things. On a basic level, it can serve the function of a “business agreement” clarifying the financial arrangement between a school district and law enforcement agency—in other words, who is...
Using Your EOP During an Exercise
The Ohio School Safety Center states:Each year between January 1st and December 31st, schools are required to test a section of their emergency management plan [or Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)] by completing a tabletop, functional, or full-scale exercise. In a...
Personal Disaster Kit Update
We are officially in the midst of tornado season here in the Midwest, which means it is time to review the contents of personal disaster kits. Not only is it an EOP requirement for teachers in Ohio to have a disaster kit in their classrooms, I encourage all of my...
The Failure of Imagination
There are many who are saying the tragedy in Uvalde happened because schools in our country are in denial. “There is no way something like that can happen here,” school administrators and staff say. Among my peers, we often say the three mantras of a school are:...
Free Tools for K12 Schools
The end of the school year is coming. Have you reviewed and updated your EOP recently?I am constantly contacted by school districts across the country looking for help in developing their Emergency Operation Plans and for Site Assessments. This is something I've done...
See Something. Say Something. DO Something.
As School Safety Professionals, we are focused on finding and using best-practices from each other to keep our students and staff safe. Sometimes on our hunt for a new safety measure, we overlook a free resource that is right in front of us - Those very people we are...
Cybersecurity Within Schools
Introducing Guest Blog Author: Josh GelmanBeing a School Safety Professional can be daunting at times. Parents and peers look to us for answers and solutions, and sometimes, we just aren't able to provide the information that they seek. When I don't have answers on...
Exercise Safety
It is the policy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Preparedness Directorate to ensure that every effort is made to provide a safe and secure environment during National Preparedness...
