Leadership Matters - May 2013

McLean story ——————————————————

Lessons Learned

Community. Two students are in custody. We are working with Normal Police Department and more details of this very troubling incident will be available later today. There has been no threat to any other school. Normal Community students are relocating to Eastview, but all other schools are experiencing a normal school day. We will share details as they become available.” The message – the first of six sent that day -- was transmitted using School Reach, the district’s automated phone call system, as well as email and Twitter and also was posted on the district’s website. The quick dissemination of information

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the dynamics of dealing with parents, students and the media that day might have been completely different,” Niehaus said. Despite some pushback, active shooter evacuation drills involving students had been conducted in the McLean County district. “Some of our schools did not want to do drills that included students. I think it is a major mistake not to include kids in the drills,” Niehaus said. When Normal Community High School went into lockdown mode, some students were caught between classes and locked out of their classrooms.

Because they knew the drill, the students self-evacuated to the pre-designated site. Niehaus said he thinks students knowing how to react to a crisis situation outweighs the possibility that potential student perpetrators might learn something strategic from the exercises.

“ The days of holding everything until you have a nice package of information are gone. With all of the social media and a 24- hour news cycle, the news is out there instantly . ” - - Dayna Brown, District 5 Communications Director

later was praised by the Bloomington Pantagraph, which wrote: Communications technology has altered the landscape when it comes to episodes like the one at Normal Community High School. School officials used it promptly to communicate what happened and what was being done to ensure student safety. They really had no choice because students were spreading what they knew to parents and others, using their own digital devices. That’s the way it is today, a game-changer. Many (probably thousands) of people knew almost immediately after the shots were fired in a classroom that something was amiss. Worry mushroomed, sketchy information — not all of it accurate — spread and the demand for more information sharpened. Thankfully, school officials were up to the task, using mass emails and phone calls to push information to parents and the media as soon as they had basic facts nailed down. There were some glitches, but by-and-large, it worked well. Then they

District administrators were gathering for their weekly cabinet meeting on that Friday morning and were able to be immediately dispatched to Normal Community High, where the police command center was being established, and to Eastview Church, the evacuation and reunification site. Niehaus and Communications Director Dayna Brown set up a communications center at the district office. Getting information to parents was an urgent priority. “The days of holding everything until you have a nice package of information are gone,” said Brown, a former reporter and editor with the Peoria Journal Star. “With all of the social media and a 24-hour news cycle, the news is out there instantly.” The first message from the school district was sent to parents at 8:30 a.m. and said: “This is to inform you of lockdown situation this morning at Normal Community High School. I want to start by saying that all students are safe, as that is always our number one priority. Early this morning a student fired shots into the ceiling at Normal

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