The February 2015 issue of School Safety Monthly zeroes in on a long-standing problem: the continued temptation among school safety stakeholders to ‘fight the last war’ by focusing their preparedness efforts and dedicating their budgets to countering one or two high-profile recent threats, rather than adopting a broader all-hazards approach that includes less likely but often higher-impact threats. This argument has been made before by thoughtful school safety practitioners around the country, but in a twist that highlights how fundamentally the security world has changed in recent months, the magazine focuses its attention this time mainly on the risk from terrorism. “The recent ‘lone wolf’ attacks in Canada, France and Denmark as well as the rise in popularity of beheadings,” the magazine notes, “brings a new level of importance to the all-hazards approach, even when it comes to the narrow risk category of terrorism.” As long-time practitioners of the all-hazards approach, we at Haystax agree with the magazine’s conclusion that: “Despite many advances in planning and awareness over recent years, many schools still lack adequate preparedness because of too much focus on specific types of incidents.” We made sure to design our cloud-based software tools so they can be used to prepare for and manage any conceivable man-made accidental or intentional threat, as well as the full array of natural hazards — any or all of which could strike a school with no notice. School Safety Monthly is published by Safe Havens International, a highly respected campus safety non-profit organization that has been a thought leader and information resource in campus safety issues for over a decade. To see all recent issues of the magazine, go to: https://safehavensinternational.org/resources/newsletter/
Terrorism Risk and Schools: Time to Take Note (Part II)
