Nominated for a Freddie Award, the “What if…School Safety and the New Normal” training video brings light to the possibility of terrorism in schools. It explores the issues surrounding crisis in the school setting and stresses the importance of preparedness through partnership and planning.
In January 2004, the National School Safety Center and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services convened a working group to address the issues and roles of schools in homeland security readiness. Represented at this meeting were 48 practitioners and experts from the fields of educational leadership, school safety and security, law enforcement, community policing, law, homeland security, public policy, health and medicine, military, school transportation, mental health, and social marketing. Most participants at the focus group meeting were keenly aware of the challenge of preparing schools for the unthinkable and the seriousness of asking the question, What if ...?
The video depicts the positive benefits of planning, collaborating and working together so that schools can be prepared and ready for any kind of crisis. The video explores these advantages by posing a series of “What if” questions to law enforcement and school partnerships:
What if we get together?
What if we learn from experience?
What if we talk it over?
What if we face the reality?
What if we create a plan?
What if we find partners early?
What if we assign responsibility?
What if we consider consequences?
Also included on the DVD is the “Santana Story”, a school psychologist’s testimony of Santana High School’s March 5, 2001 shooting.
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