Whether big or small, no district should be without a crisis communications plan. Crises happen all of the time: it could be a fire, weather storms, shootings, or event a high-profile sexual harassment case. Whatever it is, it's highly likely that some kind of crisis is going to hit your district sometime in the next few years. The most challenging part of crisis communication management is reacting - with the right response - quickly. This is because behavior always precedes communication. Non-behavior or inappropriate behavior leads to confusion, not communication. True crises have several critical dimensions in common, any one of which, if handled poorly, can disrupt or perhaps destroy best efforts at managing any remaining opportunities to resolve the situation and recover from it. This session introduced you to two districts who have dealt with weather and shooting related crises. Here is a short re-cap on their presentation. The link for the full presentation is available at the end of this article.

Dealing With Teen Shootings
Annette Eyman, Director of Communications at Papillion-La Vista SD, NE, spoke on the importance of having a written crisis plan in each school, and a district crisis team with annual trainings in preparation. She spoke about a student who attended her district who rent on a shooting rampage in a local mall, leaving eight people dead, five wounded, and taking his own life in the end. While the shooting did not take place at school, the district was bombarded with with local, national, and international media. Annette emphasized that in the event of a crisis, it's very important to contact the students and find out who would be most affected by the crisis. It is VERY important to take care of the internal aspect (our staff, our parents, our students) before the external media. Notify parents and students, then give the media anything that is already public knowledge, such as year book photos and information.

If you are unsure how to deal with the media, Annette recommended contacting other districts who have had experience dealing with a crisis situation or even possibly the NSPRA office to get advice. It is recommended to deal with the media on this level: Local, National, and International. If you are bombarded with media, assist the ones who are "nicest to your secretary" first. When agreeing to interviews, make sure you are in control of who, where, what, and how long. Annette said the most important thing to remember is that YOU should always be in control. She recommends having the Director of Communications and the Superintendents being the spokesperson. This way both of the people can always be updated, and the media is only connecting with people in the district who are fully aware of every aspect of the situation.

Huge Storms on the Horizon!
Rick Harris, Senior Director of Safety, Security, and Enviroment Services at Orange County Public Schools in Florida gave some good information and excellent tips to do during a weather crisis. Always plan with the thought, "Anything can happen at any time." He started by saying that Florida leads the U.S. in lightning related deaths and injuries killing more than all other weather sources combined. He then shared a few crisis stories that happened in their district related to lightning strikes. In all of the instances, parents wanted to get their children and get out. As district and school administrators, this can be a scary thing. It may not be safe to remove them from the environment and the school may be in lock down. At their district, they have begun using a "Parent Crisis Release Form." This states the parents are aware they are taking the child against the recommendation of the district. This is signed at the time of crisis.

The most important thing during a crisis situation is to make sure the students are taken care of. Once this has happened, then involve the community and media. It's very important to have more than one way to get the message out. Email, phone, letters, and media are key. It's important for each school to have an emergency response team and also a district response team. These teams will help to get the crisis under control and are especially trained to know how to handle all of the emergencies.

Note: The recording for this presentation is no longer available. ...Go Back