Leadership Matters - May 2013

Lessons Learned

‘Shots have been fired!’ McLean County school administrators share their crisis response lessons Cover Photo by David Proeber courtesy of The Pantagraph Matt Chapman, a teacher at Normal Community High School, evacuates students to Eastview Christian Church after gunfire at the high school Friday, September 7, 2012. Shots rang out in a classroom after a single student shot into a ceiling. No one was injured.

had been practiced. Nonetheless, that call set off a chain of events on September 7, 2012, that had McLean County school administrators in a crisis response mode for several hours. The experience yielded some valuable lessons learned. Dr. Gary Niehaus, superintendent of the central Illinois district that includes more than 13,600 students in two high schools, four junior highs and 16 elementary schools, acknowledges that preparedness and luck both played a role in the successful evacuation, communication and reunification processes that day. “The good news, of course, is that no one was injured. We know that if there had been an injury (Continued on page 5)

By Michael Chamness IASA Director of Communications

The first call came shortly after 8 a.m. with words dreaded by school administrators everywhere: “Shots have been fired!” The call came from an electrician at Normal Community High School to the director of operations for McLean County Unit School District 5. A student had fired shots into the ceiling of a classroom where he was holding classmates hostage. The incident ended quickly when the shooter placed the gun down and a teacher grabbed the gun and then tackled the student. No school district could have been better prepared in terms of having an emergency plan that

4