Page 24 - Campus Security & Life Safety, April 2017

campus community what’s happening, what actions to take, where to go and provides updates as the incident progresses. Schools also have a responsibility to manage concerns and suggest orderly responses to concerned parents and caregivers who often learn of the situation quickly or may encounter alarming media reports.
Communications will vary in method based on a number of factors, such as the size and type of institution, risk assessments from respond- ers, likelihood of media attention and resources such as Public Infor- mation Officers (PIOs) available to larger institutions and responsible administrators at others.
A solid communications plan should be an essential part of your overall preparation. Communications need to address a range of pri- orities including:
1. Ensure rapid and effective incident communications. Confirm that 9-1-1, police and other agency responders are engaged quickly, but also find ways to get the closest responders activated and working.
2. When an evacuation order is issued, communicate with evacua- tion organizers and key staff to take immediate action in an organized fashion according to your plans.
3. Use an Emergency Notification System (ENS) with multiple com- munications methods and other safety platforms to quickly distribute messages that begin orderly evacuation procedures.
4. When initial activation is complete, provide appropriate follow up messaging that tells more about the status of the situation, communi- cates with wider audiences such as parents and media, providing clear guidelines to avoid traffic or other impediments to rapid response.
5. Be prepared for the all clear communications, summarizing find- ings, building clearances and instructions to the full community.
Clear and authoritative language matters. Script templates that cap- ture the best practices around message content for all these phases as an integral component of your response plans.
THREATS IN THE NEWS
One increasingly common positive development is that response plans for incidents like bomb threats provide significant opportunities for schools to build or deepen relationships between school safety and public safety responders. Bomb scares often require local law enforce- ment presence as well as FBI and other investigators.
For example, a typical phone-in bomb scare event at Texarkana Col- lege in Texas was covered in local media coverage: “FBI joins probe into bomb threat at college.” The article notes that Texarkana Police and Fire responders were called in to assist the school’s Department of Public Safety, and the FBI stepped in to assist with the investigation.
In a similar response to an email threat at Assumption College in Worcester Massachusetts, the Massachusetts State Police assisted local law enforcement and the school’s Department of Public Safety in coor- dinating a response.
Incidents run more smoothly when both school safety officials and public safety responders- Police, Fire, EMS, SWAT and 9-1-1 have clear lines of communication. Rave Mobile Safety has found, for example, that one unexpected advantage of the Rave Panic Button used in many schools to call 9-1-1 responders while at the same time notifying those closest to an urgent situation, is that many times Superintendents of Schools or college Presidents create new relationships with emergency responders that did not exist before.
In Milford, Massachusetts, for example, the Chief of Police now meets regularly with the Superintendent of Schools to discuss safety issues and plan safety exercises. 9-1-1 centers at SNOPAC in Snohom- ish County, Washington have forged new relationships with the coun- ty’s school administrators that has streamlined response, and prepared both sides to respond to situations with a better understanding of how to collaborate more effectively.
In the larger view, an awareness of the need for interdisciplinary and inter-agency coordination has grown considerably over the last decade, with very positive results.
WHEN THE RISK TURNS REAL: SOME EXPERIENCES FROM THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBINGS
When the terrorist explosions detonated in downtown Boston on April 15, 2013, the impact on the city and surrounding communities was dramatic, and as we know, the event impacted several educational institutions as well. The University of Massachusetts was particularly impacted, with an incident and lockdown on the UMass Boston cam- pus, later declared to be unrelated, and on another campus, the discov- ery that one of the suspects was a current student. Schools around the regions were closed or put under lockdown. The tragic murder of Sean Collier on duty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three days after the event raised anxiety levels even higher.
A panel of higher education emergency managers from Boston area schools described their responses in a discussion hosted by Rave Mobile Safety and moderated by Dr. Gary Margolis. The discussion provided insight into some of the specific ways that standard emer- gency planning was called into service during the weeklong events. For example, Boston College needed to utilize a plan to provide food services to dormitory students who remained in lockdown for more than a day.
Another critical focus was communications. All panelists men- tioned that the emergence of social media platforms as a key method to provide timely official updates to concerned parents as well as the immediate community provided an unprecedented communications channel. Feedback from parents and the media on the use of these communications tools was highly positive. Parents in particular noted that it was reassuring to get updates on the hard work being done on campuses to keep students safe.
Preparing for a bomb scare does require a comprehensive approach that starts with strong planning to address the specifics of responding to an active threat, managing evacuations and closures, communicat- ing with your community in a clear and collaborative manner. The cost is high.
Despite the high cost in planning for and respond- ing to bomb scares, with an ever-increasing number of reported threats, and the clear escalation of risk from actual terrorist attacks – preparation and response is more critical than ever.
Scott McGrath is the Public Safety Solutions architect at Rave Mobile Safety.
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