A crisis at a school is in the news more often than any of us is comfortable with. There has been a shooting. An administrator has been arrested. A nearby factory has had a toxic spill. Or a serious cheating scandal has erupted. These types of events—and numerous more—could put your school in a crisis that could have long-term consequences.
“Oh, that will never happen at our school,” you assume.
Well, remember the old adage about assumptions. Actually, it’s not a matter of IF a crisis of some kind will happen—it’s a matter of WHEN. When it does, will you be ready?
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, was asked, “Be prepared for what?” He said, “Why, for any old thing.”
Your school needs to have a crisis communication plan in place so that you will be prepared in the unlikely event that a tragedy, a trauma, an emergency, a disaster, or the like happens. With a proactive plan, you can gain control, rather than react to the situation.
“A planned approach to crisis communications limits the number of decisions you must make in crisis mode and gives you the tools you need to get right on top of things—and maintain control,” notes Mount Vernon PR & Communications (MVPR) out of Alexandria, VA, in its “The Crisis Communications Challenge: Are You Prepared?” “The truth of the matter is that the longer you take to respond to crisis, the greater the likelihood that your organization will suffer some kind of damage to its reputation, credibility, and/or value.”
Put together your crisis communications team, the group of individuals who will not only be responsible for communicating about the crisis with groups internally and externally, but will work together to think through potential crisis scenarios. The team should comprise such individuals as the School Head, Business Manager, and Communications Director and/or Admission Director. Who else? Could be your Facilities Manager, your legal counsel, your health professional, guidance counselors, or others.
Your team needs to designate responsibilities. Remember the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan? A smaller crisis erupted when in the moment, Secretary of State Alexander Haig proclaimed to the media, “As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending return of the Vice President and in close touch with him.” (from a biographical profile in Time Magazine, 4/2/84). While Haig was in charge of White House Crisis Management, the media speculated he was referring to succession. In short, a bit of a media frenzy ensued.
First and foremost, decide who will make which decisions. “It may sound strange, but when the time comes, someone has to decide if you actually have a crisis on your hands or not,” says MVPR. And then, determine who will act as spokesperson; how you will handle internal communications; who will brief the media; etc.
Your designated spokesperson then needs some media training. The person who is in the media spotlight needs to have the tools to manage the interviews—and avoid any “media tricks” that could exacerbate the situation.
Develop a key contacts list so that you can notify your team at any minute. Include all of their phone numbers and any other contact information—and keep it all up to date.
Once all this is in place, bring your team together to anticipate the types of crises your school could face. It’s important to avoid thinking “Oh, that can’t happen!” A violent act by a student has happened more times than we care to remember. While you think it highly unlikely, it certainly could happen at your school. And you could face employee crime that will send a shock through your community. Just don't rule anything out.
Unlikely natural or man-made disasters should also be on your list for consideration. Hurricanes, floods, fires, and tornados are things that many schools have suffered through. But also think about your surroundings. Is there a chemical plant or some kind of manufacturing within a few miles of your campus? You may not be able to see it from where you sit, but an accidental release of toxic materials there will have an effect on your campus. Are there train tracks near your property? What type of cargo comes through that a derailment would cause a threat? A major brainstorming session with your team will help you sort things and so you can have a response in hand.
Once your team is in place and you’ve anticipated potential crises, make sure all your information is organized and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Have “at a glance” facts about your school ready for the media, Make sure this is always updated. You don’t want something to happen down the road and hand out five-year-old information. Then develop your key messages—three for each potential circumstance, MVPR recommends. And have an FAQ sheet—figure out the answers to questions that predictably will be asked.
Your plan also needs an internal communications protocol because your faculty and staff need to know first, “in order to dispel rumor and speculation,” says MVPR.
These are just a few of the steps you need to take to develop a solid, workable, and dynamic crisis communications plan. But when you are finished, you need to test the plan, shake out the kinks, and revise it to work better when its needed. But the most important part of planning is that fact that your school will be proactive. “Once a crisis occurs, you’ll have no more than 24 hours—or as few as 30 minutes—to respond in order to gain control of the flow of information,” according to MVPR.
You can download MVPR’s complete article, which includes a section on dealing with the media, here.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Recorded Webinar, Lessons We Can Learn From Penn State
Responding to Crisis in a School, The Mental Health in Schools Program and Policy Analysis at UCLA here.
The 10 Steps of Crisis Communications, Jonathan Bernstein
Disaster Preparedness and Response for Schools, National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
