Moscow Teen Kills Two in Rare Russian School Shooting – continued from page 7
serious grounds" to suspect the attack was due to a personal conflict. Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov suggested Russia had embraced U.S. culture with deadly effect. "Moscow school shooting: American movies and domestic serials, full of violence, are producing results - now it is like the USA here," he tweeted. "Is this what we wanted?"
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Study Finds Major Gaps in School Safety and Security The Idaho State Department of Education study involved assessments done on approximately 10% of its schools. What was discovered in the assessment is disturbing and most likely applies to K-12 schools across the country. Areas of particular concern include access control, visitor management, key control, communications, emergency operations plans, backup power, teacher and staff training, as well as student and/or parent involvement in safety planning, among many other things.
The Idaho State Department is to be commended for its officials embarking on such thorough safety and security assessments of its school buildings and praised for having the dedication to transparency to make the findings public. Campuses cannot be protected until vulnerabilities are identified. Studies like the ones shed light on strengths and weaknesses are the first step.
The Idaho assessments showed that the average amount of time an assessor was inside each school before being contacted and asked to report to the office was just under 10 minutes. In 19 of the 74 schools that were visited, the assessment team member was not contacted at all. Additionally, only 29 of the 74 schools had classroom doors that can be locked from the inside with hardware meeting fire code.
In 62 schools, communications were sufficient for daily operations; however, in most cases a power outage would render the systems non-operational.
The assessment also found that only five schools include parents and/or students in safety planning and/or policy development, and only 11 schools have key staff trained in NIMS/ICS procedures.
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Moms, Mayors Offer Misguided Message on Guns: Column
A new report on school shootings released by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, two advocacy groups striving to
move Congress toward action on gun control. According to the report there have been as many as 44 shootings, including 28 deaths, in schools and colleges nationwide since the devastating massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The intended message: Our nation's schools continue to be personal battle zones for gun-toting teens and we need to act fast before more young lives are needlessly and senselessly sacrificed.What I find so disturbing about the report is not just the tallies of homicides, suicides and other shootings in schools, but the complete lack of any context for interpreting these figures. The numbers assembled not out-of-line with historical patterns, and, in fact, are lower than two decades ago when gang violence was especially problematic at school settings. And, consider that there are more than 50 million school children in America, making the risk of fatality well below one in two million.
For most kids, school is a place of great safety and it is disturbing to suggest that school shootings are a problem on the rise and in need of immediate resolution. Promoting quick and easy responses that don't work and may make matters worse, instead of advocating more difficult approaches that will indeed improve the climate at schools of all levels.
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CRISIS MANAGEMENT Intuition and Analytical Skills Matter Most in a Crisis
People who prefer to combine quick, intuitive decisions with analysis, make the best decisions in a crisis situation, a new study shows. Many organisations depend every day on the ability of their leaders and staff to make good decisions in crisis situations. Any type of organisation may be faced with various kinds of crises and must prepare to handle them in the best possible way. In a real crisis there will be strong time pressure and great uncertainty, and much will be at stake. In his PhD project at BI Norwegian Business School, researcher Bjørn T. Bakken has looked at what is needed to make good decisions in crisis situations. He has been particularly keen to look at the outcome of different styles of decision-making. Bakken distinguishes between two main styles of decision- making: intuitive and analytical. Intuitive decision style: The ability to make quick decisions when time is short, based on previous experience. Analytical decision style: Making decisions in a thorough, systematic manner, reviewing all details and complying with formal guidelines. ―Those who normally prefer
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