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Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Developing Good Crisis Plans

This paper was originally published in September, 1997. The author, Mary Margaret Kerr, Ed.D. is the Director of Outreach Services at the STAR-Center, University of Pittsburgh. She is also the former Director of Pupil Services for the Pittsburgh City Schools. Dr. Kerr has provided over 500 crisis consultations in Pennsylvania and in other states, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the TWA 800 and Flight 427 crashes.

The author gratefully recognizes the unfailing efforts of David A. Brent, MD, Director, and STAR-Center staff who have provided support to youth, families and youth-serving agencies since 1986.
Funding for STAR-Center and its outreach services is provided by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Developing Good Crisis Plans

Crises like the ones illustrated throughout this publication are increasingly common in our public schools, despite our best prevention efforts. This paper offers guidelines for what to do when a crisis happens in your district. We'll begin with the elements of a solid crisis plan, then move to actions your crisis team can take as you return the school to its normal routines.

Where to begin. . .
A good crisis plan takes its lead from clear and supportive district policies. These policies, in turn, must mesh with local and state laws, ordinances, and procedures. For example, you would not want your district's policy on weapons to contradict the procedures of your local law enforcement agencies.
Where to begin? Check federal, state, and local mandates (laws, standards, codes, regulations). Because the regulations are binding on a school district, it's a good idea to start with them. Here are some steps to follow:

First, examine federal, state, and local policies and procedures.
You may find these in:

  • agency directives and memoranda

  • bulletinsfrom central office

  • community agencies' files (police, protective services, emergency management agency, courts, mental health

  • agencies, hospitals and health care agencies).

  • individual school building guidebooks

Second, be sure you have a policy and procedures for each of these potential crisis situations

  • facilities problems (electrical outage, heating, plumbing)

  • "unrest," protests, strikes

  • natural disasters or events (weather)

  • transportation delays, problems, and accidents

  • individual child accidents (indoors and outside)

  • medical problems affecting many (head lice, meningitis)

  • individual medical crises (including alcohol and other drugs)

  • individual mental health crises (depression, suicidality, trauma)

  • intentional acts against persons (abuse; assault; rape; assaults with chemical, syringe, mace; bomb threats; sexual harassment; bullying)

  • hostage situations

  • kidnapping or missing person

  • intentional acts against property (theft, vandalism, graffiti)

  • eventsoutside school that affect the school community (students/staff witnessing a crime or accident, airline crash)

Third, collaborate on policies.
"Swap" policies and procedures with other youth-serving agencies in your community. Request policies from comparable institutions. If you do not have a solid relationship with the other schools, law enforcement, and youth-serving agencies in your community, this policy-and-procedure discussion may be a good place to begin an ongoing dialogue.

Fourth, form an interagency advisory group that meets on a regular basis.
This group should include all government agencies in your municipality and county that serve students and their families (i.e., Children and Youth Services, Community Mental Health/Mental Retardation/ Drug and Alcohol programs, police, fire, and emergency agencies, juvenile justice and probation offices, the local and/or county Health Department) as well as community leaders and businesses (e.g., NAACP, religious leaders, mayor, telephone company). These local partners are essential for the success of your crisis prevention and response efforts.

The interagency council should review policies and procedures at least annually. Check the link between policies and procedures. Are they current? Are they complete? Have they worked? Do procedures match the policies? Do they follow the most recent legal mandates?

Don't be alarmed if your policies and procedures fall short! Few districts have had the opportunity to prepare for all potential events. Here are some ideas for deciding what are the most likely crisis situations in your district.

  • Review last year's data.

  • Ask outside agencies for their assessment of priorities.

  • Consider your "public(s)." What is important to them? For example, the local merchants may be upset about truant students loitering in town, while parents of young children may be concerned about the threat of kidnapping or a bus accident. Parents of teens may be anxious to prevent alcohol and other drug use. The juvenile court staff may want to address serious habitual offenders who transfer into your district.

  • Set a schedule for developing policies and procedures.

In summary, districts often fall prey to the problem of "Nothing in writing." Check for policy without procedures, and procedures without supporting policy. Other problems include:

  • Confusing prevention, intervention, postvention steps and timetables. For example, your response to a playground accident will need to be immediate and straightforward. The curriculum for preventing accidents is another issue altogether. Another example would be the response to a faculty death. While your crisis response is urgent, the thoughtful planning of a memorial can take months.

  • Exclusive focus on a single time period (e.g., preventive steps, postvention). Some districts make the mistake of assigning all their resources to prevention, while overlooking how they will respond to an emergency. Still others focus on crisis responding and postvention (the actions we take after a crisis has occurred), but do not have a prevention strategy to keep crises from happening in the first place.

  • Reliance on one essential person. We often take for granted that the school nurse will respond to any medical crisis, that the custodian will always be available to handle plumbing and electrical problems, and that the administrator will always be on site to direct the staff. Yet these "essential persons" may not be on site, especially if the crisis happens away from school (e.g., a field trip or game in another town).

  • "Wishful thinking" about how other agencies will respond. Will the police, for example, come to your building for a disciplinary crisis? Can your mental health agency really send a clinician to your building if a student is suicidal? Will CYS really remove a student from his parents' home if you call them? These are examples of "wishful thinking." It's better to establish realistic expectations before the crisis.

  • Failure to have alternative communications procedures. How would your staff stay informed if a power outage occurs or an intruder interrupts normal communications? Do you know your community's ham radio operators? Who among your district staff carries a pager or cellular telephone?

What's in a good crisis plan?
A comprehensive crisis plan includes six elements:

  1. Prevention guidelines
  2. Early intervention
  3. Crisis intervention (what to do if prevention fails)
  4. Postvention or ongoing management
  5. Debriefing and evaluation
  6. Improving the plans

Prevention guidelines tell us how to prevent a problem. For example, crisis plans are only one part of a comprehensive school safety promotion plan (which should also include students' interpersonal skills development, staff training, school safety policies and procedures, etc. For more information on school safety and violence prevention, contact the Center for Safe Schools at 717-763-1661). Identifying school visitors when they first enter a building is another example of routine crisis prevention.

Early Intervention guidelines should tell people how to know if a problem is about to happen and what to do about it. For example, in the event of a telephoned bomb threat, does the school secretary know to record specific information about the threat and identifying information about the caller? Do students know what to do if there is a fire alarm?

Crisis Intervention guidelines tell us how to get help, specific steps to take and those to avoid. Here is a simple reminder for Crisis Intervention: Be C-A-L-M.

Be stands for

Before you act, especially if you are leaving your classroom or office. . .

  • Be sure you have the facts. For example, you will need to know where the incident is, where the students are, if anyone requires medical attention, who has been notified. Be sure to verify the source of your information, so you do not pursue a rumor!

  • Be sure you ask for help. Always let others know where and why you are responding, so that you will have back-up support if needed.

C stands for

  • Call out procedures. These are the steps you take to reach essential crisis responders, such as school staff, law enforcement, emergency management agencies, social services, and health providers. Some person(s) in the district should carry a pager so that you can immediately convene the crisis response team in the event of an emergency.

  • Collaboration with other agencies, including social service agencies, law enforcement, juvenile court and probation staff, transportation providers, and local print and electronic media representatives.

  • Coordination of staff, including "jobs" each staff member will fulfill in a crisis.

  • Communication procedures to keep crisis responders and your "publics" abreast of new developments. Without these, people will rely on the inevitable rumors.One example of coordination is for each member of a crisis team to carry with them a "crisis kit," containing forms, maps, crisis handbook, telephone and fax numbers, first aid kit, etc.

A stands for

  • Anticipate what could happen in the next hour, 24 hours, 72 hours. It is said that the art form of crisis responding is the ability to anticipate what else could happen!

  • Activate the crisis intervention plan.

  • Adjust your plan accordingly. No two crises are identical, so every plan will need to be adjusted to fit the immediate situation.

L stands for

  • Look for signs of things getting worse or better, new crises, restoration of routines. This information allows you to adjust your plans.

  • Listen to your "audiences." You may need to reach out to community sources to find out what's really happening.

M stands for

  • Maintain the crisis team's mental and physical health. For example, crisis team members should carry water, personal hygiene items, and medications in their crisis kits. Crisis responders should take turns, to avoid burn-out and fatigue.

  • Manage the overall crisis, including the next day, week. One person should be designated to coordinate the effort,to follow-up with those affected, and to assess the crisis plan and response.

Postvention guidelines tell us how to support staff, students, and families in the hours, days, and weeks following a tragedy. The STAR-Center can provide you with a Postvention Standards Manual that explains specifically how to carry out a postvention following a suicide, sudden death, or other tragedy.

Debriefing and Evaluation procedures remind us to examine the crisis and the crisis responses. All responders should meet to review the team's response and their personal reactions. This provides an opportunity for "Critical Incident Stress Debriefing," or CISD. CISD has proven helpful in reducing long-term maladaptive reactions to high stress events.

Improving the Plan refers to the process whereby we take a look at how we responded and make plans to improve our efforts. This ensures that we learn from our experiences, mistakes, and successes.

How would you respond to these crises?

  • A member of the high school football team collapses and dies during a practice. The police and reporters arrive immediately.
  • A nine year old boy playing near a stairwell falls three stories inside his elementary school. Classmates witness it. The child, seriously injured, is taken to the hospital by paramedics. It is 2:10 p.m. and the principal calls you for help.
  • An elementary school bus on the way home stops at an intersection, where students looking out the bus see a male pedestrian step off a public bus only to be shot repeatedly by another adult on the street. You receive a call from the police minutes afterwards.

Comments from Educators and Parents

  • "A lawsuit was filed before we realized that our discipline policy was not in keeping with the latest regulations."
    A board member
  • "We thought we had a crisis plan, until we had to use it. That's when we realized that all we had was a bunch of policies no one had ever used."
    A school social worker
  • "You should have seen the look on the face of the telephone company rep when he realized that their telephone tapping procedure didn't work on our school phones. Thank goodness the bomb threat was only a threat."
    A superintendent
  • "We had lots of plans for crises after they happened. But we were clueless about prevention approaches."
    A principal
  • "No one ever taught us in graduate school how to deal with a murder or a suicide. The only training I ever had was in the military."
    A teacher
  • "I never dreamed it could happen here."
    Parent of a kidnapped child
  • "The procedure may look good but not work after all. We learned the hard way...all this time we had the wrong phone number in our procedure for a mental health crisis."
    A principal

Where to turn for help
We've already mentioned the Center for Safe Schools, a statewide resource that you can use. In addition, the STAR-Center, a state-funded prevention, intervention, postvention, and training center, can help to improve your postvention, debriefing, and crisis response skills.

For more information, call 412-624-0725 or write to us at STAR-Center, 3811 O'Hara Street, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. We can also put you in touch with other Pennsylvania school districts who have exemplary crisis teams.

The Center for Safe Schools is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Safe Schools. The Center provides training and technical assistance on issues related to school safety and violence prevention to educators and other youth serving professionals. The Center also maintains a lending library with a variety of resources. To find out more, visit the Center for Safe Schools Home Page.