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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Success

Another great interview!   This time Rick speaks with Scott Schumacher, Principal of St. Peters Lutheran School in Columbus, Indiana.  Scott is a true leader who is dedicated to building trust and forming strong relationships with his students and staff in order to keep his school safe. Below is a quick excerpt from the interview.  To listen to the full conversation and learn some valuable insights from Scott click here!   Why did your school see a need for an anonymous incident reporting system? Over the years, we know that our school like every school has had some instances where students have bullied others.  We areRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  Rick recently sat down with Homer Public School’s Secondary Principal Randy Pirner to learn more about their school safety efforts and use of TIPS.  As a small rural school in Nebraska, we are definitely impressed with Homer’s leadership and their innovative efforts to keep their students safe! Below is a quick excerpt from the interview.  Click here to listen to the rest of Principal Pirner’s Lessons Learned!   Why did your school see the need for a proactive prevention program like TIPS? Principal Pirner: We found that we had an issue with bullying; not a significant number, but we had a total disconnect fromRead More →

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

  The evil that showed up at the front door of Sandy Hook Elementary School was horrible, morally unbelievable and extremely scary. Most everyone is wondering how this could happen? How could this 20 year old kid be so full of evil that he would murder young innocent children, innocent adults and his own mother? We are hearing and seeing a lot of reactions – emotional reactions mostly – to this evil and horrible incident. Emotional reactions are clearly justified as we are all human, especially when young innocent children are murdered and threatened. We are hearing emotional reactions focused at guns. We are hearingRead More →

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

  Bullying.  Cyberbullying.  Harassment.  Violence.  Weapons. Truancy.  Student Achievement.  While most school leaders want to focus their attention on the last item mentioned in that list, student achievement, school districts are finding themselves overwhelmed with school safety issues and constantly working to investigate and respond to situations, leaving fewer and fewer resources to improve learning and achievement. So, what can be done to improve student safety and prevention efforts, and in turn, provide students with an environment they feel secure in to excel and expand their learning objectives? In many situations, gaps exist between school administrators and policy, and what is actually happening on buses,Read 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, School Safety

  Last week, Secretary Arne Duncan from the Department of Education, along with several other agencies, sponsored the second annual national summit on bullying. Multiple federal government representatives reminded the attendees that bullying remains a priority and that is good…Unfortunately we have heard similar messages at multiple White House Summits and multiple conferences. So based on the advice of Benjamin Franklin who said: Well done is always better than well said. Beginning this week, now is the time to take the next step from “well said” to “well done”.   To help with this transformation, I will identify examples of “well saids” along with potential waysRead More →

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

  Tips prevent a lot of bad things from happening within organizations, but tips alone are not the answer based on recent lessons learned.  The Christmas Day Bomber attack was prevented and lives saved thanks to tips, but also thanks to the FBI’s proactive efforts in confidentially sharing information with other key players, such as law enforcement and local government. An anonymous tip from Saudi Arabian intelligence helped to locate package bombs that were sent from Yemen.  No doubt these package bombs could have caused a lot of damage and loss of lives, had specialized prevention teams not taken proactive actions to locate and confiscate theRead More →

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

  I met some really outstanding people this month while presenting at the NASRO national conference and I deeply appreciate how school resource officers (SROs) and school security officers (SSOs) are striving to make a difference with students and with schools. Before and after my presentations I had some interesting conversations with several SROs from schools all across the U.S.    One of the SROs I spoke brought up an ongoing challenge with cameras.  He would like to replace outdated analog cameras that do not give him the clarity he needs to recognize and identify people.  He also wants to add more cameras for better coverageRead More →