Crisis Management 1 Kyle Gahagan

Crisis Management Kyle Gahagan Liberty University

Crisis Management 2 Kyle Gahagan Introduction Crisis management has changed a lot over the last few years. It has evolved from the simple plans of how to evacuate students in case of fires, inclement weather such as hurricanes and at times the unfortunate death of a student (Brickman, 2004) Even though these are still situations that schools must deal with on a regular basis , the increase in school violence and other situations that may occur as well as the increase in threats from with inside and outside of the schools environment has changed the way we must look at the crisis management plan (Knox, 2005). Crisis management planning is still a newer concept and is continually evolving. These changes stem from events that have devastated some of our schools and universities within the last 30 years or so. Crisis management was not really thought of prior to many of these events and certainly not at the school level. Events such as the Tylenol tampering, and the Exxon oils brought crisis management into perspective in the business world because these organizations demonstrated they were not prepared to respond (Gainey, 2010). Because of this crisis management began to be researched and implemented in many organizations, including the school environment. The school shooting in the 1990s and the events of September 11th made us that much more aware of our need for a crisis management plan and how we needed to look at these plans. Today, almost every school is required by law to have a crisis management plan in place in preparation for such events. There is a general framework for these plans among schools. Most plans require the creation of a crisis team. This team is responsible for establishing each persons role and responsibilities, implementing procedures and practices, drills on what to do

Crisis Management 3 Kyle Gahagan during these events, and effective communications with all of the stakeholders. These plans must include detailed information on how to coordinate with the local resources such as the fire department and police department, as well as with the media. An effective crisis management plan must also include information on follow up to insure that the safety of those involved was looked after as well as to make changes to the plan if needs require. This paper will look into the crisis management plans of two school districts in North Carolina as well as look at resources provided to help with crisis management planning. Resource Review The recent needs and implementations of crisis management plans in schools have led to a more readily available amount of resources dedicated to development and implementation of school crisis management plans. Crisis planning and preparedness can help address the traumatic effects and provide shortterm treatment for those affected (Knox, 2005). The authors Knox and Roberts looked at the crisis management plans of the 1970s and conducted their own research into these plans. These studies showed that in the 1970s students of crisis event received no follow up interventions and that five years later these students started to show some signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Again the 1980s events brought forth the need for literature and preparedness for crisis events. The events of the 1990s also brought more awareness for the need of this literature and the need for these crisis plans in the schools. Schools started developing plans implementing training and programs to deal with crisis situations A three level approach to crisis plans was developed by Knox and Roberts. The three levels include: Primary prevention, this involves drug awareness, gun safety and conflict resolution; secondary intervention, which involves follow up to insure the safety of the students

Crisis Management 4 Kyle Gahagan and incident management; and tertiary intervention, this includes long term follow up and assistance to all that may be in need of it. They also suggested a three level of hierarchy of the crisis management teams. The first being regional resource teams which combine district level teams coordinating with local resources such as law enforcement and health professionals. The district level teams coordinate efforts at the district level and prepare for the districts response to incidents; the school level teams are responsible for the direct prevention or implementation of these plans. One common theme in recent literature is the development of a crisis team. This is especially important at the school level. Within this team should be a crisis assessment team their primary purpose is to asses wither or not a situation is considered a crisis or may ultimately lead to a crisis situation. This team has to set standards and prerequisites as to what is considered a crisis situation. They need to set up levels of treat and determine what falls within those levels and what protocols are set in place for each level, imminent threats such as guns and bomb threats being the most serious and working there why down to potential threats. The U.S Department of Education as well as the department of Homeland security has set protocols for threat assessment. One of the benefits of a threat assessment team is the ability of the stakeholders to gain access to the information on the protocols for threat assessment as well as have information on the potential crisis situation. The fear of overanalyzing a situation or addressing a situation too late is something many administrators have to deal with. By having protocols in place and an assessment team to confer with help alleviate some of the problems previously faced in these instances. The times of try and fail methodology are no longer an option (Gainey,2009). The vast amount of crisis management plans available for the administration to research and adjust

Crisis Management 5 Kyle Gahagan accordingly make the lack of preparation unacceptable. According to Gainey to be crisis ready organizations must have an open communications policy with their stake holders and other organizations and readily share their findings and plans in order to insure all are informed and prepared. By sharing information organizations can more readily prepare themselves for unanticipated events. Many organizations focus on a small amount of crisis situations and do not prepare for situations they may not ever anticipate happening. This is when these organizations have trouble adapting to events that were not anticipated. It is wise to research and develop plans that can encompass larger amounts of situations as well as research other organizations plans and adopt plans for situations that you currently do not have included in your current plan. Richtig and Hormak (2003) studied past crisis situation and developed a plan that included twelve lessons that were gleaned from these experiences. The implementation of one ore unpublished telephone numbers and phone lines to help in situations where the phone lines coming into the office are tied up due to large call volumes during these crises situations was one of these lessons learned. Traffic patterns and routes to insure smooth traffic flow during these crisis situations is a priority that organizations must develop. Other recommendations were facilities for student relocation such as retail locations or local churches, emergency tool boxes place throughout the campus, post incident counseling and proper communications with the media. According to Richtig and Hormak the three main areas schools struggle in are crisis planning, communications, and media management. Their suggestion is that any crisis management plan addresses these three areas in order for them to be effective. Many disasters can be avoided according to Padgett (2006) through the creation of a strong, deliberate crisis plan and knowing how to implement it effectively (p.27) Often times schools or organizations have set plans for crisis situation but they are often not followed during

Crisis Management 6 Kyle Gahagan the crisis situation because they organization has not properly practiced these plans and made sure all active members are aware of the plans requirements and there part in implementing the plan. The organization must post the plan in a public location so that all parties are aware of their part in the implementation of the plan. It is also suggested that this plan be translated into the commonly spoken languages of those employed and attending the organization. Practicing the plan however is a critical step that must be done on a regular basis to insure that if the plan were ever to be implemented it could be done in a smooth deliberate manner. The manifestation of crises happens in many different ways and it is the responsibility of the administration to understand this and manage these situations. According to Gainey (2009) for a crisis situation to be effective there must be adequate communications with all parties that may be involved internally and externally as well as the ability to implement the actions during these situations. This involves a lot of training, resources and time. It is suggested that districts hire a full time public relations coordinator to help in crisis situations. Even though it is ultimately the responsibility of the administration to handle the crisis situation the help of a public relations coordinator can help relieve some of the responsibilities of the administrator so they can focus their attentions in other areas during these situations. It is important that positive relations be had with the media and the public during these crisis situations and someone specially trained in working with these parties can be a real asset in making sure that these situations are handled properly. Over the years many important changes have had to be made in the ideas of crisis management. Because of acts such as Columbine, the Virginia tech shooting and the attacks of September 11th , crisis plans have had to become an integral part of our school systems. Many laws have been established mandating the development of crisis management plans. These plans

Crisis Management 7 Kyle Gahagan mandate that school systems have plans for four phases: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery (Brickman, 2004). These requirements also mandate not only a district level plan but also a plan that is specific to each site within the district. The prevention and mitigation area involves the communications with and involvement of local law enforcement, medical personnel and other local services. The next area preparedness involves the development of district and site specific plans. These must be available to all authorities such as fire, police and emergency medical personnel. This also includes the development of the management and assessment teams and the implementation of drills and preparation supplies. The response phase includes the implementation of the set plans, the evacuation of the students to their pre assigned locations, the setup of a command center, the setup of evacuation routes, communications of pertinent information to all parties, and the discussions for alternative strategies. The final phase, the recovery phase is just as important as all of the others but is often not taken as seriously. This phase involves the follow up on the situation, rebuilding of the school, the steps taken to help those affected by the crises gain the help they may need to recover from the crisis and the community outreach. Johnston County Schools Johnston County received a REMS grant from the Department of Education, in 2007, in order for the county to develop a Crisis management plan. Since this time the district has implemented a plan using the DOEs format. This includes the designation of an administrator who is to be the primary REMS contact. There is one of these contacts at each of the counties 43 schools. Yearly the REMS contact is to update the sites individual crisis management plan as directed by the REMS program. The district master plan is also updated on a yearly basis.

Crisis Management 8 Kyle Gahagan Reading through the plan for Johnston County, http://www.johnston.k12.nc.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=10 5981, a number of critical problems arose which include areas where the plan may not be suitable for the area or areas where information may have been overlooked. The first problem was the ability to gain access to the district or school level plans. Plans for the district and school levels should be posted online for easy accesses (Padgett, 2006) The Johnston county website has links to information about the REMS program, the requirements for management plans according to REMS, and the REMS assistance website but the districts management plan is not available. After researching it was found that this plan is password protected and the information is only available to parties that have this password. The plan once accessed is 136 pages long. The plan is designed around the DOEs four phased format that was discussed earlier which includes mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The information provided by the county is vague and general. There are no specifics as to what is required at any level during any phase of the crisis plan. Each phase appears to be a cookie cutter format that was written in order to have a plan in place but not specific enough that the plan could be effective. The criteria for each phase are intact and the guidelines are followed but just seem too vague. Many of the suggested ideas such as the creation of crisis boxes, the development of evacuation routes, emergency contacts the relocation of students are all addressed but only in general terms not in specific terms or how they are to be carried out just that they need to be there. The district plan directs the schools to create a response team and a recovery team and to designate positions within the teams and the task they are responsible for. Alert levels , communication strategies, transportation, and reunification techniques are also discussed within the district wide plan. The district plan has a list of

Crisis Management 9 Kyle Gahagan community partners as well as contact information for local emergency personnel and health professionals. Within the plan are areas where the district can provide specific information that pertains to that section of the plan. In these locations the district has yet to fill in the specific information as it pertains. The areas where the local contact information is to be placed has some of the information requested but other areas are incomplete or lack the necessary contact information. In some instance the contact information that is provided is from different areas where it appears that the information was cut and pasted to fill in the locations that were mandated. There appears to be information for local authorities in Tennessee, Mississippi, and other locations within North Carolina. There are areas where the plan stops and then repeats itself from previous pages. It appears that the plan was cut and pasted from several other plans to create a lager plan. There are areas where the plan simply stops in the middle of a paragraph and starts with another section that is often repeating another section. Because of this it appears that this plan is useless and simply thrown together in order to meet the criteria of having a plan. Despite all of this the plan for the district does follow the criteria for a crisis plan as set up by REMS guidelines. The frequency of drills and types of drill is discussed within the plan, wither or not the district knows what they are and how often they are to be implemented is another story. The common terminology that is set up by the National Incident Management system is provided. This terminology is designed to help facilitate communications and response between local and government agencies. Even though he Johnston County plan is lacking in many areas it does in fact meet the criteria for the REMS qualification and does provide an outline as to what should be done in an emergency situation. Even though this plan does meet the requirements it is sourly lacking in any specific information and if needed it would leave those that follow it in a situation as to where they could

Crisis Management 10 Kyle Gahagan not properly implement the plan to a satisfactory level. Looking through the school level plans it appears that they are more specific and have a better grasp on what is required of a crisis plan. These plans appear to be more complete and more up to date than the district level plan. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Unlike the Johnston county schools plan the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) plan is easily accessible on the internet at http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/page/download.php?fileinfo=Q0hDQ1NfRW1lcmdlbmN 5X3BsYW5zLmRvYzo6Oi93d3cxMC9zY2hvb2xzL25jL2NoYXBlbC9pbWFnZXMvZG9jbWd yLzc2OTBmaWxlNDI1MDQuZG9j&sectiondetailid=55282 This plan is not compliant to REMS or a NIMS standard an there for does not follow the same format or guidelines set up by these organizations. It does not follow the four phase format that we see in the Johnston county management plan and that has been recommended by the DOE. Instead the crisis plan is broken down into eighteen separate crisis plans that detail the responses for each crisis situation. Each situation is listed within the plan in alphabetical order. The situations listed are: abduction, assault, bomb threats, civil disturbances, death of a student, and death of a parent/family member, environmental hazards, fire, foodborne illness outbreak, natural gas leak, lockdowns, suicide attempts, and weather issues. This plan is detailed oriented and each of these criteria has a checklist to follow and the personnel responsible for each section of the crisis situation. This plan is general enough that it can easily be tailored to any school or district but in this case the information that is provided is accurate and complete. For each section the contact information is provided and for the local personnel that should be contacted.

Crisis Management 11 Kyle Gahagan Even though this plan more complete it is not nearly as detail oriented as a plan that is to meet REMS and NIMS standards. The CHCCS plan does have several areas that are not present with in the plan. It does not have areas to discuss preparedness it does not have the mandated terrorist activity responses and it does not appear to have media relations or communications criteria which we have learned is a primary section of a proper emergency response plan. This plan seems to focus simply on the given crisis situation but even though it is a district level plans seems to focus more on the school level that district level. Also even though the plan covers a multitude of different crisis it lacks the ability to be transferred to any crisis that may not be listed on the master plan. This is a drastic difference from the Johnston county plan where it was so general that the plan was difficult to be implemented in most situations. Despite its shortcomings this plan seems to better fit the requirements of and effective crisis plan and if any of the listed situations were to occur the district or school level personnel would have an effective plan to follow. Conclusion From past event we have come to learn how important it is to have an effective well written crisis management plan that can be easily and effectively executed. Wither the plan follows a national organizations template or is simply a district/school level plan the plan must be detailed enough to provide the administration and those involved with enough information to execute the plan but general enough that the plan can be altered to meet events that may not have been foreseen. All information that is provided must be up to date and accurate and include all contact information that would be needed for a crisis situation as well as follow up. The ultimate purpose of a crisis plan is to prepare the administration and stake holder for any crisis situation that may arise prior, during and after the crisis situation. We have looked at two different crisis plans from

Crisis Management 12 Kyle Gahagan within the state of North Carolina. Each having its own format and each have its own strengths and weaknesses. It is important for administrators to carefully research different plans and adopt the ideas that best fit the district and school.

Crisis Management 13 Kyle Gahagan References References Brickman, H.K., Jones, S.E., & Groom, S.E. (2004). Evolving school-crisis management since 9/11. The Education Digest, 69(9), 29-35. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. (n.d.). Emergency Operations Plan. Retrieved from http://www2.chccs.k12.nc.us/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid= 55282&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-217236 Gainey, B.S. (2009). Crisis managements new role in educational settings. The Clearing House, 82(6), 267-274. Gainey, B.S. (2010). Crisis management in public school districts. Organization Development Journal, 28(1), 89-94. Johnston County Schools. (n.d.) Emergency Management Plan. Retrieved from http://johnston.k12.nc.us/rems/emp Knox, K.S., & Roberts, A.R. (2005). Crisis intervention and crisis team models in schools. Children & Schools, 27(2), 93-100. Padgett, R. (2006). Keeping cool in a crisis. The Education Digest, 71(9), 27-28. Richtig, R., & Hornak, N.J. (2003). 12 lessons from school crises. The Education Digest, 68(5), 20-24. U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center. Retrieved from http://rems.ed.gov/ U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2008). National Incident Management System. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/NIMS_core.pdf