PREVENTING HARM TO STAKEHOLDERS

RICK J. KAUFMAN, APR

School leaders are thrust into action when incidents of school violence garner intense public scrutiny and media coverage. They must be prepared to offer parents assurances their child’s school is safe, and that measures are in place to respond to similar events.

School emergencies evoke thoughts of high-profile incidents - Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde. While mass casualty incidents involving schools are rare, they lead to breaking news banners on local and national media.

School shootings are horrific and heartbreaking, but they remain statistically rare. Schools are more likely to experience threat hoaxes, untimely accidental deaths or other non-lethal incidents. Collectively, these incidents are broad in severity and impact on students, staff, families and the community. Each incident creates disruption or chaos and triggers emotional and psychological responses with correspondingly short- and longterm consequences.

If the priority in a crisis is public safety, then the objective of crisis communication should be to prevent harm to stakeholders. In the throes of a crisis is not the time to let students, families and staff know what to do and how to react.

Communication is the foundation of any crisis planning, implementation, management and recovery effort.

School leaders should be prepared to offer parents assurances their child’s school is safe, and that measures are in place to respond to any incident or emergency. Communication with parents and caregivers is critical to developing an understanding of what happens in school when an incident occurs: What is a lockdown? Where will students go if they need to evacuate? How do I know my child is safe?

When schools build rapport and understanding with parents and caregivers, they build credibility and enhance their reputation. Families have a special connection to their schools and district, keenly interested in how any incident will impact them.

It doesn’t necessarily have to rise to the level of an emergency before the “what happened” and “where” is communicated – and more importantly how the school is responding to and managing the incident.

Not communicating by keeping families in the dark is a recipe for disaster when a crisis strikes. Keeping information from parents and key partners out of fear of “looking bad” or being sued is not a strategy. It is an exercise in organizational failure.

It stands to reason, then, that we must always be first with communication, when possible, and credible … always. Achieving this requires a robust strategy and plan that focuses on traditional communication practices and social media.

The key is balance, knowing that school and community partners receive information from a variety of sources. No school system is best served by relying on any one communication channel. Emergency preparedness plans must account for multiple communication approaches and vehicles. The more schools engage in the use of traditional and social media from the onset of a crisis, the better positioned they are to anticipate, communicate and regain trust in order to help manage and recover from a crisis.

Crises often create an information void. The absence of communication or undue delays has consequences. Stakeholders are motivated to reduce uncertainty, which leads to increased information seeking. That information may come from ill-informed, misinformed, or persons with less than-desirable motivations.

Additionally, residents expect schools to adhere to the accountability principle by providing a thorough explanation of events, responses and assurances the causes do not contribute to a repeat. Like many public organizations, school districts have a greater obligation to provide information, and demonstrate the greatest transparency. Any other strategy risks long-term impacts and may delay the recovery or return to normalcy in the wake of a tragic incident.

As strong of a conviction as there is for timely communication, managing any crisis successfully is less about saying the right things and more about doing the right things. People remember how a crisis was handled longer than the details of the incident.

Truth is, schools and campuses are better prepared to prevent school violence and respond to school emergencies. Here’s the reality. Bad stuff happens. There is no guarantee that schools will be violencefree. And, while there are no easy solutions, there are intelligent alternatives to reduce the risks to life and property.

The one constant must be a commitment to improve and strengthen all aspects of crisis prevention, preparedness, response and recovery plans.

Rick is the executive director of community relations and emergency management for Bloomington (MN) Public Schools. He is a nationally respected author, consultant and trainer on crisis management and communication. He served as the Crisis Response Team lead for the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, and continues to work with school districts across the country to manage and recover from school violence incidents, including Broward County Public Schools and Uvalde Public Schools.