Lockdowns vs Shelter-In-Place in Schools

Recently, I have been in a few discussions where people have asked about the difference between a Lockdown and a Shelter-In-Place.  In the context of schools, both are options for protecting students, faculty, staff, and visitors during emergencies.  A Shelter-In-Place is used to keep our community members safe from danger outside of the school buildings … Continue reading Lockdowns vs Shelter-In-Place in Schools

School Safety: Culture Over Hardware

Safety and emergency management are important areas for all schools.  There are lots of marketing efforts put into selling hardware and other solutions to education leaders. While door locking mechanisms, bullet-resistant windows, lockdown blinds, and related hard-security items can be helpful the financial, labor, organizational, political, administrative, and community cost needed for this type of … Continue reading School Safety: Culture Over Hardware

Campus Safety Infrastructure: Local Mental Health Resources

Do you consider mental health resources a part of your campus safety infrastructure?  You should.    A lack of mental health supports such as counseling services, psychiatric services, and local hospitals, as well as policies and practices means your institution has inadequate campus safety resources.   Campus safety is more than security officers and fire … Continue reading Campus Safety Infrastructure: Local Mental Health Resources

Elevator Entrapment Protocols and Considerations

Elevator Entrapment Protocols and Considerations What to do when someone is stuck in an elevator?  This question comes up on occasion in campus safety and emergency management conversations.  I asked some colleagues in higher education emergency management via the Disaster Resistant University Listserv about this and got a lot of great responses.   After reviewing … Continue reading Elevator Entrapment Protocols and Considerations

Emergency Notifications, Texting, and the FCC

Special thanks to involvio.com for publishing this on their site as well - http://blog.involvio.com/2018/01/28/untitled/.   Since 1990, federal law has required colleges and universities to have a notification system for emergencies such as natural disasters, active shooters, bomb threats and more.  K-12 schools are also required to develop emergency alerting protocols.  Campuses send out critical information through … Continue reading Emergency Notifications, Texting, and the FCC

International Incidents and Campus Safety: Events Around the World Always Land on Campus

During the past few years while I have been serving as a Dean of Students, and in many of my other positions, I have thought about the impact of international crises on the campus safety of higher educational institutions and boarding schools. Events all over the world always seem to land on campus; There is … Continue reading International Incidents and Campus Safety: Events Around the World Always Land on Campus

Campus Safety Resources for Student Affairs

This article was originally publish on the NASPA Region V Blog.  I have reposted it below:_____Original Post:With Hurricane Sandy and other recent events, there have been a lot of things happening in the past few weeks that relate to campus safety issues and I wanted to share one of the great resources that the Campus … Continue reading Campus Safety Resources for Student Affairs