Superintendents Toolkit 2013

Suggested talking points: School shootings (not in your district)

1. Begin with an expression of sympathy for the victims and their families and empathy for the citizens and your school counterparts. 2. Stress that the safety and welfare of students is the top priority in your school district, and -- while there is no plan that can totally prevent a random act of senseless violence like this -- that your district has a school safety plan in place that has been reviewed by law enforcement authorities and practiced by faculty and staff. 3. There always are lessons learned from each incident and as those emerge your plan will be reviewed to implement those lessons learned as appropriate. 4. Add that if any of our students have questions or are having problems in light of this tragic event, your district will make counselors available to them. If there are follow-up questions regarding the security precautions that you have in place, say that you won’t go into detail on those security features or the school safety plan because that could compromise the security or the plan.