As school leaders, we must prepare for the unthinkable |
On Board Online • November 28, 2022
By Michael Bennett
School shootings have become all too common. There have been 46 school shootings in 2022 that resulted in injuries (131 individuals) or deaths (36), according to Education Week. That is the most since the publication began counting school shootings in 2018.
In your school district, chances that tomorrow will be a normal school day are very high. But a school shooting can happen anywhere. I know; it happened to me.
The morning of Feb. 9, 2004, I was getting ready to teach a social studies class at Columbia High School in the East Greenbush Central School District. At the same time, in a nearby bathroom, a 16-year-old student was loading a shotgun.
When a couple of students entered the bathroom, he was startled and fired two shots. Thankfully, he missed the students.
I heard the sounds, but wasn't sure what to make of them. We were in the middle of a capital project, and I wondered if a beam had fallen off a truck.
I ran into the hallway, where I was joined by Assistant Principal John Sawchuk. John was also puzzled by the booming sounds, and he said later that his assumption was there was an accident in a shop class.
While other aides and teachers had students clear the hallways, John and I moved in the direction of the sounds.
As we rounded a corner, we saw the student with his back toward us. John went ahead and tackled him. But the student had time to turn toward me, and I remember seeing the barrel of the shotgun pointing at my chest as I ran toward him. At the last moment, John made contact and knocked the gun downward.
The student pulled the trigger as he lost his balance. Pellets struck me in the right calf. Fortunately, the injury was not so severe as to require a hospital stay. I was treated and released.
"Many people believed that the assistant principal, John Sawchuk, and the teacher, Michael Bennett, prevented a blood bath," The New York Times reported a few days later.
Sure, it could have been a lot worse. Nevertheless, the event was traumatic for everyone involved. Then-Superintendent Terry Brewer encouraged counseling, which helped. He also prepared John and me on what to expect from the school board, the public and the media. We went back to work.
As I continued my academic career, I struggled to make sense of what happened and what lessons should be learned. I took a variety of administrative positions in three school districts. In each, I saw communities struggling to cope with car accidents, suicides and other events that shatter our sense of safety.
I found support through my membership in the National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP created a working group called the Principal Recovery Network, and I was among the participants at the first meeting in 2019. In attendance were current and former principals from Columbine, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Chardon and Forest Hills. Follow-up meetings included members from Sandy Hook Elementary and Saugus High School, to name a few.
We currently have 21 members in the Principal Recovery Network. The mission of the group is to provide a network of leaders who can assist schools as they face the challenges of coming back after a violent event. In August, we released The Guide to Recovery, a 16-page collection of reflections and advice on keeping schools as safe as possible.
While geared toward school principals, the guide (available at nassp.org/prn ) is also relevant to superintendents, who invariably have a critical role when a shooting or similar event occurs. It notes the wide range of things that school administrators need to think about if faced with a tragic event.
The guide notes the importance of being thoughtful when we develop our building-level safety plans, as well as district-level plans. The guide maps out what to do in the days, weeks, months and even years after the event.
In New York State, we are required to drill and practice in the event of an active shooter situation. Sometimes I'm asked if such rehearsals are triggering for me, but they are not. I consider them no-brainers for every district. We have to prepare for the unthinkable.
What is the role of the school board? Understanding and supporting the district's safety plan is important. Supporting counseling and other ways of addressing the mental health of students is important, as is the important business of asking questions and reading to keep up on the needs of the district. While there is no guarantee, safety increases when there is a school culture in which people look out for each other and students share information. The best result is an incident being prevented because a potentially violent student was noticed, listened to and helped before an event occurred.
If - or when - an incident occurs on your campus, board members need to resist the impulse to get to the location of the shooting and "help out," especially if the board member has a child in the school. Crowd control is another level of complication for first responders and school personnel.
Communications are all important. The board president should expect to be briefed by the superintendent and be prepared to keep the rest of the board informed of any new developments.
Step one is to confront reality. We must replace "Couldn't happen in my school!" with "I have considered the possibility, and I am now better equipped to deal with and work through it if it happens."
Michael Bennett is superintendent of the Greenville Central School District, located about 25 miles southwest of Albany in Greene County. He is a former teacher and administrator at Columbia High School in East Greenbush, N.Y.