The increase in reported incidents of school violence over the last decade has placed concerns of future acts at the forefront of everyone’s minds: school administrators, school staff, emergency services, parents, and even students. According to the Educators School Safety Network analysis of the 2023-24 school year, critical incidents that cause a response by emergency services continue to rise year over year. A total of 536 violent incidents were reported during the 2023-24 school year, representing an increase of 49% from 2022-2023, nearly doubling from the previous year.
Understanding this, it is important that communities coordinate to have a cohesive plan of action in response to acts of school violence.
Prioritizing Preparedness for Active Shooter Events
Critical incidents in schools occur in many forms, but the rise in human-perpetrated violence is a chief concern, primarily active shooter events. Though incidents of gun violence in schools are thankfully on the decline, they still represent a significant number of events in America’s schools.
536 violent incidents were reported during the 2023-24 school year, representing an increase of 49% from the previous school year.
– Educators School Safety Network
From a critical incident perspective, active shooter events rank amongst the most chaotic events a community can experience, so prioritizing readiness for these incidents can ensure stakeholders are prepared for anything; all the planning and skills developed will fall into place when needed.
The Importance of Emergency Response Coordination
Emergency response coordination is an important conversation that schools and community emergency services have. What are the capabilities of local law enforcement and fire agencies to effectively respond? Have we identified the secondary law enforcement agencies and mutual aid fire departments? Does the response from the community align with the school’s protocols? These are valid questions that must be asked and answered to ensure all stakeholders are prepared to launch a unified response.
Coordinating emergency response protocols involves evaluating the school’s response capabilities and existing processes to determine whether or not the people expected to implement those processes have the knowledge and training to do so. With regards to an active shooter event, a typical classroom teacher has the understanding and ability to implement a classroom lockdown by locking and barricading the door to prevent entry. However, the likelihood is high that students will rapidly evacuate the school building on their own. Taking that into consideration, educating staff and students alike on the location of designated Rally Points is needed.
With the use of Rally Points, there is a need for true collaboration with schools and emergency services. A significant number of patrol cars, fire trucks, and ambulances at the school does little to minimize the chaos. Law enforcement must be assigned to those Rally Points and local fire departments and EMS services need to know their locations should someone require medical attention. By pre-assigning locations and responsibilities, all stakeholders can respond in a manner that accomplishes multiple objectives in that very important initial operational period.
Primary Initial Responsibilities
From the school perspective, documented processes for both action and communication inside the building for an active shooter event are already in place. Schools should evaluate that content to ensure that administrators or school staff are not overtasked during that initial contact. Building administrators must understand the complexities of the event after the threat has been neutralized and the importance of being part of the Incident Command process. It is critical for building administrators to be trained in Incident Command and have advanced knowledge of the Command Post location.
Law enforcement must ensure that officers have the skills to direct action towards the threat and then evolve to the tasks needed after the threat has been stopped. Active shooter training that goes beyond neutralizing the threat will enhance this process. Supervisors and command officers need to be prepared to initiate Command and Control upon arrival at the scene.
Establishing a Command Post is a logical task to be completed by fire personnel. Most fire departments are well-versed in Incident Command, which can expedite all other tasks that need to be completed. Identifying a primary and secondary Command Post is a good idea; building in that redundancy is optimal, understanding that the best thought-out plan isn’t going to go perfectly. With a Command Post up and operational, all those stakeholders that are an important part of Unified Command will be where they need to be to increase survivability of those injured in the building.
With a true Unified Command process in place, each discipline (i.e., school, fire, law enforcement, and EMS) will have tasks that need to be accomplished. Creating a task list for each one is recommended. That task list may include schools getting buses to the Rally Points to transport students to the Reunification Center; law enforcement coordinating the clearing of the building for any additional threats; and fire managing patient care and coordinating landing zones for medical helicopters.
Emergency Response Coordination with StrataSite®
A lot of preplanning and organization goes into a school incident action plan, much of which we haven’t touched upon here. The StrataSite® IAP platform is a comprehensive resource to complete your school’s plan as a collaborative effort amongst all stakeholders within your community. Creating a single plan of action as a community can ensure everyone is on the same page to minimize the chaos when faced with the unthinkable on school grounds.
Request a quote for the StrataSite IAP platform for your school now.
