Year: 2015

Principals’ Top 7 Goals for the New School Year

Suzanne Sibole School Climate, School Safety Strategies , , , ,

Principals' top goals for the new school year

It’s nearly the end of July, with the start of another school year just a few weeks away. Along with the excitement of the new school year, administrators are very busy making preparations.

Here are principals’ top 7 goals for the new school year, as outlined in education journals:

  1. Motivating teachers
  2. Improving morale among staff
  3. Building a team atmosphere
  4. Creating excitement for learning
  5. Increasing parent involvement
  6. Creating a positive school climate
  7. Ensuring that the school is a safe place to learn

If you’re thinking about improving any aspect of your school’s safety, I would love to talk with you.

Here’s why

I’ve worked successfully with schools nationwide to help them to significantly improve their safety plans and I’ve provided students, staff and parents with highly effective safety awareness training. I’ve also established and trained violence threat assessment teams, with outstanding results.

I limit the number of schools I work with so I can provide individualized and highly targeted services to meet each district’s specific needs.

Because of this, there’s a limit to the number of schools I can work with. The reason I am writing to you, is that I have just 3 places 2 places available, starting in September. If you’ve been thinking about proactively improving safety in your school, I’m here to help you.

To find out more or secure 1 of the 2 remaining places, get in touch using the contact form here or call me at 505-313-1092. I’m happy to answer any questions you have. To avoid disappointment, get in touch as soon as possible.

 

How to Prevent School Violence

Suzanne Sibole School Climate, School Safety Strategies , , ,

These days, we are all focused on how to prevent school violence. First, it’s important to note that there are multiple types of school violence. This post focuses on preventing targeted school violence.

The motivation for a targeted school attack is related to many factors and often makes no sense to observers. With this type of violence, we are looking at a multitude of factors including marginalization from peer groups (or perception of marginalization), societal scripts for violence, fascination and experience with violence and weaponry, possible personality disorders and/or mental illness, recent or long-held grievances coupled with a lack of alternatives to solve them, a default to coping through violence, recent humiliation, and a number of other aspects.

Individuals responsible for school violence have been studied extensively. Most share a number of the characteristics noted above. Any approach to prevention and intervention must include a process for identifying troubled and troubling individuals and sharing information with others who have knowledge of the person.

Taking away the weapons helps, but it is not a cure. Mental health treatment can help avert a crisis, but mental illness is not the sole cause of violence and the majority of mentally ill persons are not violent. Sometimes individuals with a grievance are determined to exact revenge and will intentionally resist therapeutic efforts.

Many variables determine whether a rigid and hateful view of something in the world will be turned into action. Easy access to weapons, lack of mental health treatment options for many, violent video games, television and other media, loss of funding for prevention programs and overly strained social service systems all contribute to the problem.

You can be a part of the solution by applying these simple strategies:

  • Build relationships with staff and students
  • Identify troubled individuals and provide appropriate resources and monitoring for those who need them
  • Teach your students and staff to report concerns about someone’s words or behavior
  • Connect with students one by one and let them know that you take their concerns seriously and will follow up with appropriate action

Once they trust you to do that, word will spread and the student network will open up to you. This is vital. In 80% of prior school attacks someone knew about the plan before the attack. Be the person students want to tell, and you’ll be able to keep your school much safer.

Tools to Help Students Tell

Suzanne Sibole School Violence Prevention , , , ,

Tools to help students tell

My last post was about teaching students to break the code of silence around concerning behavior and threats of violence. Today’s post provides some concrete tools to help students tell an adult when they have a concern about someone’s words or behavior.

Tools to help students tell

The Brady Campaign has a long history of unique efforts to end gun violence. This is no exception. Their SPEAK UP campaign is the first national anonymous reporting line for youth. It is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with trained counselors who take detailed reports and follow up with calls/faxes to designated local authorities. The site is full of information designed to captivate youth. Fortunately for us, it also provides a treasure trove of downloadable materials for educators.

The PBS program The Path to Violence is an enlightening look at what we can do each day to build a healthy and trusting school climate that encourages students to come forward with concerns. It is worth every second of the 54 minutes it will take for you to watch it.

Implementing these simple ideas will increase the likelihood that your students will talk to an adult when something concerns them. This will give you a window of time to intervene and change the outcome, keeping everyone much safer.

Do you have a school safety challenge that needs a solution? Schools around the nation are getting the help they need with a 1-to-1 consulting session. Click here for details.

One of the world’s best known business development experts recently said some amazing things about Youth Risk Prevention Specialists. You can read them here.

Teaching students to break the code of silence

Suzanne Sibole School Safety Strategies , ,

Teaching students to break the code of silence

How do we going about teaching students to break the code of silence? Can we increase the likelihood that our students will speak up when they have concerns about someone’s behavior or have seen/heard something threatening?

There’s good news about teaching students to break the code of silence

It starts with building a climate of trust between the students and the adults working in the school. When kids feel supported and heard, they are more likely to report concerns to an adult who can then act on them.

Consider this: sometimes, we inadvertently train students that it is not safe or effective to tell an adult when something is wrong or when they are concerned about someone’s behavior. With good intentions and the desire to help our students become self-sufficient and capable of navigating relationships, we instruct them to work it out on their own. Perhaps, we remind them to practice the skills they’ve learned through a prevention curriculum like Steps to Respect or Second Step. Or, we believe their conflict is minor and that they will be best served by learning to ignore it.

Unfortunately, when we don’t listen and act on concerns, students learn not to tell us, and more importantly, not to trust us. When we later struggle to motivate students to break the code of silence in middle or high school, we may find it difficult to undo the learning that took place years earlier when referring to their concerns as tattling or pushing kids to work things out on their own.

The most effective way to combat this is to train your staff to listen and follow through on all student concerns, starting with pre-K and continuing through high school. This doesn’t always necessitate action; sometimes just listening and brainstorming solutions with a child are all that’s needed.

A 2008 bystander study commissioned by the U. S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education (Pollack, W. S., Modzeleski, W. & Rooney, G.), revealed additional reasons students did not report concerns. If you missed that post, you can read it here.

This post first appeared here, on LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Summer is a great time to…

Suzanne Sibole School Safety Strategies

Summer is a great time to...

Summer break is one of the best times for school administrators to review and update district crisis and safety plans. With fewer hours devoted to direct contact with students and teachers, it’s a perfect time to gather your administrative team to update contact information for staff and emergency responders and review policies and protocols for consistency and feasibility.

  • Perhaps you’ve realized that one of your response protocols requires staff members to do something you’ve discovered would not be feasible in all circumstances, and it makes sense to provide alternative procedures
  • Maybe you haven’t addressed a specific hazard that needs to be added to your specific safety plan
  • It might be time to conduct another thorough site vulnerability assessment and attend to less-than-safe elements affecting physical security
  • Maybe you’ve been waiting for the time to research all of the newer safety products and apps on the market
  • Perhaps it’s been a few years since you’ve taken a good look at your safety plan and programming

If you’re not sure where to start, read this for guidance on covering all of the key areas that will significantly improve your school or district level of safety.

If you still need help tackling a specific challenge or want a review of your current plan, consider a brief 1-to-1 consultation to help you move forward with confidence.

This post first appeared here, on LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Have an amazing summer!

Liability Quotient (LQ) Revisited

Suzanne Sibole Liability, School Safety Strategies , ,

LQ Liability Quotient

I’ve written previously about something I like to call your LQ or Liability Quotient. When I speak of your LQ, I’m referring to the level of risk assumed by your school or district regarding liability for injury, death or trauma to those in your care in the event of an emergency.

Several lawsuits against schools have recently been either filed by, or settled in favor of, those alleging policy omission, insufficient preparation or failure to act in accordance with safety policy when a threat to the school exists, or the unthinkable occurs.

When creating or updating a school safety plan, it’s vital to include all of the essential components of attending to prevention, school climate, threat assessment, physical security, drills, emergency response, and recovery measures. When we fail to cover all of these areas using currently established best practices, we not only expose those in our care to greater hazards, we leave ourselves open to the collateral damage of liability, lawsuits, insurance payouts with subsequent rises in insurance rates, and a tarnished reputation.

To help you evaluate your safety plan, I’ve written a report on The Essential Components of School Safety and you can access it simply by clicking on the link.

If you still have questions or concerns, consider booking a 1-to-1 consultation by either phone or Skype to discuss your concerns and develop a plan so you can keep everyone safe and minimize your liability risk.

Violence Threat Assessment Tools: Which are the best?

Suzanne Sibole School Safety Strategies, Violence Threat Assessment , ,

Violence threat assessment tools

I would love to be able to tell you that there is one definitive violence threat assessment tool that will give you all the answers. Unfortunately, it simply isn’t true. Threat assessment tools, grids and checklists are a method of organizing your information. A good tool will help guide your inquiry and investigation so you’ll know what’s important. Some tools will help you discern what is most important by assigning weight to each question or variable. But, your threat assessment team will still need to do the work.

Violence threat assessment tools and teams

Your team needs to be made up of individuals with a clear goal and the training, practice and belief system to achieve it. It should include staff members in various roles because each of them will bring something different to the table in terms of training, experience and knowledge of the person of concern.

Together, your team will walk through the threat assessment tools they’ve selected and determine what is currently known about the subject, information that still needs to be gathered, which team members are best suited to gather specific information, preliminary conclusions and an immediate plan. It is critical to agree on a time to meet back together to review additional information gathered. At that point, a more thorough assessment will take place and a careful, well-thought-out plan will be developed and implemented. It’s important for you to remember that threat assessment is not a one-time thing. It is constantly evolving and changing as new information is gathered and discounted. Your team will need to continue to monitor and review the situation, making adjustments as needed.

The practice of violence threat assessment is itself one of the best tools we have to identify and help individuals who are struggling. Your assessment may not reveal a serious or imminent threat of danger, and that would be an ideal outcome. But, you may find someone who needs your help. Helping that person with his/her struggles, mental health issues or grievances will improve his/her life immensely and keep all of you much safer.

How Much Do You Know About Newer Synthetic Drugs?

Suzanne Sibole Alcohol & Drugs , , , , ,

synthetic drugs

How much do you really know about synthetic drugs? There are the synthetic cannabinoids, which go by names like Spice, K2, Genie, Bliss, Potpourri, Black Mamba, Herbal Incense and a host of others. This synthetic “marijuana” was responsible for 300 visits to the Emergency Room in Alabama and Mississippi in April. Also in April, 6 separate incidents in Virginia resulted in the hospitalization of 7 people including 1 death, after ingesting Spice. Side effects include paranoia, hallucinations, agitation, elevated heart rate and blood pressure and panic attacks. The onset is 3-5 minutes and the “high” lasts from 1-8 hours. This drug is typically sold in small, silvery plastic bags of leaves and is intended to be smoked.

Another class of synthetic drugs is referred to as “bath salts” or synthetic cathinones. U.S. emergency room records showed that bath salts were responsible for 23,000 visits in 2011. Users can experience a deadly increase in body temperature, delusions, violence and psychosis.

And now, there’s a new one: Flakka.  Flakka is a synthetic cathinone, said to be much more potent than its predecessors. It is sometimes marketed as “Molly” a less potent form of the drug. As a result, and as is the case with most synthetics, users don’t know what they’re getting. It is also referred to as “gravel” and is white or pink in color with a foul odor.

Some of the older synthetic drugs have been around since the 1980’s including MDMA, more commonly known as “Ecstasy”.  These drugs are still around and are sometimes combined with the newer drugs, heightening the danger. Because there are so many deaths resulting from the use of these substances, there is a blog dedicated to memorials to those who have lost their lives.

For more information on the effects of these drugs, visit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Let’s work together to educate parents and students about the deadly consequences of using a substance that is often marketed as safe and/or legal, before there is even one more death.

Spring = High Rates of Violence

Suzanne Sibole School Violence Prevention , , ,

B & W Flower

Earlier in the week, I wrote about the increase in suicides during spring months. We also need to be increasingly mindful of indicators of potential violence at this time of year.

Spring = Higher Rates of Violence

In my research, I found a total of 96 confirmed injuries or deaths by shooting or stabbing in secondary and post-secondary schools during the months of April and May in the U.S. Of course, we want to be vigilant at all times, but even more so during this time of year. Whether the factors responsible for these high springtime rates parallel those involved in increased spring rates of suicide is unclear. Further research may help to clarify what role, if any, is played by springtime weather, social, and biological factors in these high rates.

Below is a list of April and May dates that have been host to the tragedy of a school shooting (it may not be exhaustive). Some of the incidents have included suicide of the perpetrator. Because individuals who are contemplating an act of targeted violence often identify with, and wish to emulate, previous attackers, these dates may be significant to a given individual. It is a time to be particularly vigilant, especially with persons of concern.

April 2, 1867, 1921, 2012
April 5, 1975
April 6, 1904, 1918
April 7, 1977, 1982
April 9, 1891, 1952, 2014
April 10, 1996
April 11, 2014
April 12, 1919, 1982, 1887, 1994, 2013
April 13, 2015
April 15, 1908, 1993
April 16, 1974, 1987, 1999, 2007, 2013
April 17, 1981, 1956, 1984
April 18, 1918, 2013
April 20, 1984, 1961, 1999
April 21, 2014
April 23, 1991
April 24, 1890, 1998, 2003
April 25, 1950
April 26, 1978, 2009
April 27, 1936, 1966
April 29, 1920
April 30, 1866
May 1, 1920, 1992 (2), 1958
May 4, 1956, 1970, 2014
May 5, 2014
May 6, 1930, 1940
May 7, 1935, 2004
May 8 2014
May 9, 2003
May 13, 1969
May 14, 1992 (2), 2013, 2014
May 15, 1920, 1954, 1970
May 16, 1986
May 17, 1889, 1984, 2001
May 18, 1906, 1927, 1979, 2009 (2)
May 19, 1998, 1936
May 20, 1988, 1999
May 21, 1998
May 22, 1930, 1968
May 23, 1940, 2011, 2014
May 24, 1878, 1879, 1979, 1993, 1998,
May 26, 1994, 2000, 2012
May 28,1931

In addition, both the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Boston Marathon Bombing occurred during the spring, on April 19, 1995 and April 15, 2013, respectively.

I would not suggest that you disseminate this information to students or parents but I do recommend reminding all staff and parents that this is a time of year to increase vigilance regarding signs of both suicide and violence.

Spring = Higher Suicide Rates

Suzanne Sibole Suicide Prevention ,

Spring suicide rates

It may be counterintuitive, but the numbers show that the rates of suicide are higher in the spring than during other times of year. It is estimated that 700 suicides occur each week in the United States. During the spring months, this number increases by roughly 15%, to 800 suicides per week.

Conventional wisdom would have us believe that rates are higher during the dreary months of winter and around the winter holidays. In fact, records from as far back as the 1800s show a peak in suicide rates during the spring months. One study conducted in 1995 followed rates in both the northern and southern hemisphere and found that rates were highest during each hemisphere’s spring months.

While there are a number of theories, none has been proven as the definitive explanation. Most focus on biological factors such as increased energy or inflammation that occurs in the body during spring. One theory postulates that increases in pollen also trigger anxiety producing chemicals in the body. Others seek social explanations such as the increased social activity that typically occurs after a winter of isolation.

Bottom line: Spring = higher suicide rates

Regardless of the cause, this is a time for increased vigilance and a reminder to staff, parents, and students about the increased risk of suicides in the spring and early summer months. Parents should be especially watchful during the transition from school to summer. You may want to post an article on  your district website and include an article in your next parent and staff newsletters to make sure everyone pays close attention to signs of depression and suicide during a time when many of us erroneously believe the risk is lower.

For additional suicide prevention resources, please feel free to contact me here.