Some interesting findings on school safety, security and emergency management

A few tips, and the slowly evolving paradigm of educator training

By Victor H. Ferry, Ph.D.

Security Consultant

It has been over ten years since the Columbine tragedy and several other rather high profile school terrorism incidents. As a school safety, security and emergency management consultant since retiring in 1997 after 35 years in public education, 28.5 of these as a school principal, and 24 of these within the shadow of three active nuclear power plants, I find it a bit disturbing that much remains to be done in these separate and distinct fields. The paradigm for educator training has changed in some regions, but there is a great disparity among regions and what is required as pre certification to take charge of our nation's young.

Consistency in knowledge about various safety aspects of school operations goes well beyond basic common sense and schools typically take reasonably good care of children entrusted to them, however there are incidents that give us all pause and cause us to ask why a tragedy happened. It would be easy to cite specifics regarding dramatic weapons in school cases, but my preference is to focus on anticipation, preparation and remediation issues.

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American School Safety Announces Issuance of U.S. Patent for Crisis Response Kit (CRK)

Crisis Response Kit and Method of Emergency Preparation addresses critical issues of school security, emergency planning and crisis response

Canton, CT — February 23, 2010 — AmericanSchoolSafety.com, LLC, a leader in the development and delivery of school safety products and services, today announced the issuance of U.S. Patent # 7,628,275 for its Crisis Response Kit® (CRK), the first and only kit of its kind designed for use by schools, higher education, institutions, businesses, hospitals, day and elder care facilities in emergency and crisis situations.

The CRK provides specific guidelines in planning for, training and practicing adopted protocols and procedures to address site based emergencies. Providing a simplified yet broad-based application that can be used at any building or facility to effectively plan, prepare, and respond to emergencies, the CRK is easily adaptable for workplace installation, and compliments OSHA, NFPA and Department of Homeland Security standards.

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