Learning from KC Chiefs Parade: Free virtual exercise for shootings at school events
Join two emergency management experts in working through the key planning, response, and recovery actions needed to be ready for shots fired on campus.
An emergency management exercise is a simulated scenario designed to test and evaluate the preparedness, response, and coordination of individuals, organizations, and communities in dealing with various types of emergencies or disasters.
Just days after the Chief’s Super Bowl victory, 23 people were shot in downtown Kansas City during a parade for the team. Much like a school shooting, half of the victims were under 16. Also like a school shooting, it happened at a sports event—the most common time period for a shooting on campus during the past 5 years.
When shots were fired and thousands of people started running away, the 800 police officers working at the event raced to find an “active shooter”. As the dust settled, police realized that a dispute between teens had escalated into a shooting.
School officials and teachers are well aware of this scenario because the most common situation for a shooting at a school is a dispute that escalates. When shots are fired during a fight in the hallway or in the stands during a football game, most plans and training assume there is a deliberate attack targeting as many students as possible. The police dispatch brings every available officer racing to the campus as the school goes on lockdown.
News of the shooting travels fast so parents gather outside while police methodically search each room of the building. Hours later, students are finally allowed to leave. When it’s a fight that escalates, the shooter is usually a teenage student who fled before police arrived. None of the students who locked down were ever in any danger.
Understanding how to effectively prepare, respond, and recover from these scenarios requires deliberate planning, training, and trauma-informed exercises for a wide array of circumstances. As we noted above, the ‘active shooter’ plan does not always apply and school districts need more than just a hammer in their toolbox.
Free Virtual Exercise for School Officials!
To learn more about what to do before, during, and after a shooting on campus, Michael Prasad and I, will be hosting a free virtual “tabletop” exercise. We will discuss a scenario that you’ve probably never worked through all the steps of before.
An emergency management tabletop exercise is a facilitated discussion-based activity where key stakeholders gather to discuss and role-play responses to simulated emergency scenarios in a collaborative and interactive setting.
This session is a preview of a formal tabletop exercise (TTX) that can be 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours—either virtually or in-person—with content that is tailored to the location, size, community, and unique features of any school or school district in the country.
Hosts
David Riedman (me). Creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and emergency manager who responded to Hurricane Katrina, wrote the first federal earthquake and hurricane response plans, managed the team that calculated the terrorism risk scores for every major city in the country, tested new tech for the Department of Homeland Security, and created the courses for the National Emergency Management Academy.
Michael Prasad is a Certified Emergency Manager® , and a senior research analyst at Barton Dunant – Emergency Management Training and Consulting. He is also the chair of the Children and Disaster Caucus at the International Association of Emergency Managers-USA. Mr. Prasad has held emergency management director level positions at the State of New Jersey and the American Red Cross, supporting emergency action planning, including coordinated responses and recovery by office staff and schools for active assailant attacks. He researches and writes professionally on emergency management policies and procedures from a pracademic perspective, advises non-governmental organizations on their continuity of operations planning, and has built, conducted, and evaluated multiple exercise series on an all-hazards / all-threats basis. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Ohio University and a Master of Arts degree in emergency and disaster management from American Public University. Michael’s views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of any of these organizations.
When
Friday March 22, 2024 at 1pm eastern time
How to Register
Email k12ssdb@gmail.com using your school email address. Include the subject line “Register for Free Virtual Exercise” with your name, school district, title, and email in the body.
Share and RSVP on LinkedIn (be sure to email me too).
If you are a member of the media and wanted to cover this event, please email me too.
Takeaways
Everyone who attends will receive a copy of the exercise scenario and free templates for creating emergency plans.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.
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