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Rick and Jason received great feedback from their ASIS pre-conference program that was part of the “Developing a School Security and Safety Plan for the Next Five Years,” sponsored by the ASIS International School Safety and Security Council. Experts discussed topics including risk assessments, active shooter programs, emergency planning, access control, and how technology can be leveraged to create safer school environments. Their presentation focused on how school professionals and communities can work together to “connect the dots”, looking for indicators that can be utilized to proactively prevent a future tragedy. Rick Shaw, CEO and founder of Awareity, used the investigative report from Sandy HookRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Risk Management, School Safety

  Frogs, Excuses and Budgets   Most everyone has heard of the Boiling Frog Syndrome…. When a frog is dropped in boiling water it will jump out…but when a frog is placed in cold water that is gradually heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be ‘cooked to death’. The same is true for Schools and Colleges (and other organizations too) failing to recognize the impact of a gradual rise in risks, threats, incidents, headlines, settlements and tragedies. As student safety incidents and tragedies become more common in the headlines, several common excuses from School Officials and College Officials indicate many may notRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Emergency Management, School Safety

    The title of a recent article caught my attention – “Last Line of Defense” http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/19/universitys-new-whiteboards-double-bulletproof-shields   The article talks about how a higher education institution has spent $60,000 on whiteboards that can be utilized by teachers as bulletproof shields. The president of the institution said: “We are not really doing this in response to a specific event; I see it more as an opportunity to be prepared and to be proactive in our approach to safety on campus,” Bell said. “We think that it’s worthwhile.” This comment highlights a very serious and very dangerous awareness gap with many school and college administrators.  REACTINGRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, Risk Management, School Safety

  Did you see the recent report from the Center for American Progress?  The report estimates that the Virginia Tech tragedy cost the university and taxpayers $ 48.2 million.  And this cost does not include the “costs” associated with the loss of lives and lives that were changed forever. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I hope all school and university administrators are paying close attention to this wisdom and this new report. According to the report, the university was responsible for most of the costs – $ 38.77 million – and the state of Virginia paid around $ 8.87Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Emergency Management, School Safety

  While tragic incidents like Columbine and Virginia Tech have created an increased awareness of campus safety and security, most college students reveal they still feel fairly safe on campus.  A recent study by three Southern Illinois University scholars has revealed most students are not particularly worried about encountering an active shooter on campus. The survey of more than 5000 students discusses attitudes towards on-campus crime, perceptions of risk and safety, personal experiences and understanding of campus safety measures. What was perhaps most interesting  about the report was the recommendations by the students to reinforce public safety training and communicate emergency procedures with students, facultyRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Emergency Management

  Just recently, I had the honor of presenting at the EduComm 2010 conference in Las Vegas. The title of my presentation was ‘Connecting the Dots to Improve Campus Safety’ and was selected as a featured presentation. Presenting at conferences is definitely one of my favorite things to do. I get to share ideas, successes and lessons learned with other people who are coming from many different locations and I have the unique opportunity to ask questions and learn what challenges other people face. During my presentation I asked the following questions:   How many of your organizations have a Crisis Management Plan? (Everyone raisedRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, Legal, School Safety, Workplace Violence

Could stabbing have been prevented? A recent article discussing the brutal stabbing of a UCLA student in chemistry lab has raised difficult questions asking why disturbed students are allowed to remain at school despite red flags and obvious warning signs.  Since Virginia Tech, campuses across the Nation have been working to identify troubled students and potential warning signs of mental illness, violence or other problems.  However, identifying red flags and connecting the dots across multiple people (students, faculty, dorm advisors, mental health, law enforcement, etc.) can be extremely difficult and seemingly very complex.  Students and faculty members said that the UCLA attacker had exhibited erraticRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, Information Privacy, Information Security, School Safety

Keeping You Out of the Headlines and out of this blog… Please take a moment to consider how these Lessons Learned could be implemented by managers within your organization to avoid expensive and embarrassing situations… Secret Service Information Revealed in P2P Data Leak On July 29th, it was revealed that files including information about a Secret Service safe house for the President’s family, details regarding the Pentagon’s network infrastructure, and specific details about every nuclear facility in the US were found on the LimWire file-sharing network.  As a result, a bill has been introduced that would ban P2P sharing on all government computers and networks. Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

I am attending the 2009 Virginia School and Campus Safety Training Forum in Virginia and the speakers have been very informative providing the attendees with a whole lot of “what you should dos”…also called recommendations. The “what you should dos” and recommendations are targeting serious challenges and obligations: Legal Gotchas Regulatory Updates Gang and Drug Abuse Search Guidelines Violence and Crime Prevention Bullying Establishing Relationships with School and Community Threat Assessment Team Recommendations And many other important topics…   In talking with several of the attendees, I have been asking which step is the most difficult: Performing Assessments Planning and Development of Programs Implementing PlansRead More →