Read Our School Safety Services Blog

3 min read

The Power of Words: Crafting Effective Crisis Communications

Picture this: a parent receives a text notification that their child's school is on lockdown. With no further communication, their mind begins to spiral with unanswered questions and worst-case scenarios. Is my child safe? What's happening inside?...

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7 min read

Uvalde Takeaways

On May 24, 2022, a horrific event unfolded at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shattering the lives of families and communities forever. An...

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3 min read

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: a Response to the Alaska Airlines Video

During Alaska Airlines Flight 1282's departure from Portland, Oregon on January 5th, a plane door's plug unexpectedly disconnected as the aircraft...

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3 min read

Lessons From the Field: Improving ICS Implementation in Schools

Unlocking Diversity in Emergency Response Plans In my work as a school safety consultant, I typically review five or more school emergency response...

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2 min read

Protecting Your Students and Devices During Winter Break

Protecting Your Students and Devices during Winter Break Over the past decade, but especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology in...

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3 min read

Metal Detectors in Schools

Metal Detectors in Schools – Rumors, Claims and Myths

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2 min read

Your School Received an Online Threat. Now What? Five Steps to Keep Your School Community Safe

Every school’s first priority is keeping staff and students safe. But in a world where safety threats are becoming more frequent, schools must...

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1 min read

Ensuring a Spooktacular Yet Safe Halloween in Schools: Top 7 Health and Safety Considerations

When planning Halloween celebrations in schools, it's vital to prioritize health and safety to ensure a fun and risk-free event for all students and...

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2 min read

Best Practices for Earthquake Safety in Schools - At-A-Glance

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), there were more than 1600 earthquakes of a 5.0 or higher magnitude in 2019, resulting in...

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1 min read

Safety Committees and Advanced Planning Toolkit

As we eagerly approach the upcoming school year, Joffe Academy is proud to introduce our new Safety Committees and Advanced Planning Toolkit. This...

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3 min read

Mass violence: from a parent’s perspective

Recently, on a cloudless 85-degree day, my husband and I were with a group of friends and their kids sitting around a friend’s pool in our home city...

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1 min read

Reflections on Discussing Disasters Post-Maui

Analysis of the tragic wildfires that impacted Maui last week is already part of the national conversation. In the aftermath of a disaster, it is not...

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Classroom

1 min read

4 simple ways to make your campus safer this back to school season

Did you know that many of the general best practices for a strong start to the school year support BOTH a strong, joyful school culture AND safety...

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2 min read

Keeping School Safety A Priority During Leadership Transitions

Over the years, we’ve watched many schools navigate leadership transitions. From Heads of School and Principals to APs and Deans, changing leaders...

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2 min read

4 School Safety Priorities for the Spring and Early Summer

This time of year is never short on to do’s for school leaders and administrators! Whether you’re trying to triage your current list of projects, or...

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2 min read

School safety is complex. Our solutions should be, too.

The shooting at The Covenant School in Tennessee on Monday, March 27 was our nation’s deadliest K-12 school shooting in nearly a year. As happens...

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3 min read

5 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your School Safety Program

It’s springtime, which means the new school year is just around the corner. As you’re jumping into planning for the 2023-24 year, it’s a great time...

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2022 IN REVIEW

Infographic: 2022 in Review

2022 was an exciting year of growth for the Joffe team, enabling us to help keep communities safe across the nation. Take a look at just a few of...

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3 min read

What this Year May Bring: Five Things We Expect in 2023

2022 is officially a wrap! As we look ahead to the 2023 calendar year, lessons and trends from the past 12 months can shed light on what may be in...

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2 min read

4 Steps Schools Can Take Now to Become More Resilient During Emergencies

Making sure students are both physically and emotionally safe on the best of days can be a full time job for teachers and school leaders. It can...

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1 min read

The Tripledemic: How to prepare and prevent infection in 2023

The term “tripledemic” recently became part of our vocabulary. Why? Because the winter of 2023 is anticipated to bring a triple threat to public...

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Dr. Jasmin Whitfield, Director of School Health Services

3 min read

The state of school health: A conversation with Dr. Jasmin Whitfield

Dr. Jasmin Whitfield joined the Joffe team in July as our Director of School Health Services. Her 20 years of experience in health has prepared her...

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Joffe team aides in the St. Louis school shooting response

2 min read

What we learned in St. Louis: Supporting another local campus through the CVPA high school shooting

Our team was recently on the ground in St. Louis, MO when a former student opened fire at a local high school — Central Visual and Performing Arts...

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Joffe school security staff

4 min read

How to Evaluate Your School’s Security Provider

If your school has hired a contract company to provide campus security services, you likely asked yourself an important question when making your...

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2 min read

Putting the pieces together: How “connection assessments” support students and strengthen safety

In the school safety world, we often talk about “risk assessments” and “threat assessments” as important tools to keep communities safe. To be sure,...

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4 min read

Monkeypox: What to Know and How to Mitigate your Community’s Risk

Over the past few weeks, the monkeypox virus has been spreading quickly, prompting a recent wave of public health emergency declarations at the...

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Back-to-school safety

2 min read

Laying the Groundwork for a Safe Back-to-School Season

It’s August, which means back-to-school season has officially begun. Whether you’ve already welcomed students back onto campus, or you’re knee-deep...

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Joffe Emergency Services Advisory Board

5 min read

Meet Our Board of Advisors

The Joffe Team is proud and delighted to introduce our Board of Advisors. Composed of distinguished professionals spanning the education, health, law...

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4 min read

Top Reasons Students Visit the School Health Office

School nursing isn’t what it used to be. Routine activities like lice screenings and keeping health records updated are still very necessary, yet the...

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2 min read

School Cybersecurity - Short and Long Term Steps to Protect your Community

In recent years, cyberattacks have been getting both more frequent and more sophisticated. From Aug. 14 to Sept. 12, 2021, educational organizations...

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2 min read

What to know about CDC’s new mask guidance

Last Friday, CDC issued new mask guidance that revises the criteria by which communities - including schools - should consider wearing masks. The...

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Ukraine - Russia Conflict

2 min read

Supporting students and staff with processing recent world events

The recent news of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine is shaking many of our communities. Students and staff alike are likely grappling with a mix of...

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2 min read

Four Years Later: Reflections on the Tragedy in Parkland, Florida

The world has changed quite a bit since February 14, 2018, when Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida endured a senseless and...

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School children communicate

3 min read

An Endemic State of Covid-19: What Will it Mean for Schools?

Next month will mark the two-year anniversary of the WHO’s declaration of Covid-19 as a global pandemic. Two years in, we’re beginning to see...

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6 min read

5 things we expect to see in 2022, and how to prepare for them

Wondering what the new year might bring? Here’s our best (educated) guess about what schools will face in 2022. It’s paired with our best advice for...

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3 min read

What will it take to come back stronger and safer in 2022?

The calendar year is coming to a close, but we are far from the end of the road when it comes to student behavior challenges. While the winter break...

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Social Media Safety - A Challenge For K-12 Schools Nationwide

1 min read

Update on the TikTok School Challenge List

Since it began trending in mid-September 2021, the “TikTok Schools Challenge” has put educators and school staff on alert. The challenges provide...

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School Safety After Return From Covid-19

1 min read

Back to Basics - Essentials of School Safety in the 2021-22 School Year

A few months into the year, we’re battling an uptick in fights and weapons that’s causing a wave of fear and anxiety across campuses. At the same...

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1 min read

Emergency Notification Systems (ENS)

Emergency notification systems have been in widespread use since the early 1950s when CONELRAD was developed and put into place. This nationwide...

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Epi-Pens for Schools

2 min read

At A Glance: Epi-Pens & Allergic Reactions

What are Allergic Reactions? As defined by the Mayo Clinic, an allergy is “when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance...or a food that...

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School CPR Training

2 min read

CPR Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We sat down with our director of Get CPR Done, Felicia Gonsalez, to talk about the impact that the pandemic has had on CPR training.

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2 min read

At-A-Glance: CPR Training

CPR is one of the most basic and essential first aid and emergency response skills to know. According to Felicia Gonsalez, our director for Get CPR...

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School Fire Drills

3 min read

At-A-Glance: Fire

The next topic of our At-A-Glance series is the next most direct and simple emergency to handle: a fire on campus.

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School Lockdown Drills

6 min read

Emergency Preparedness: Lockdowns At-A-Glance

Lockdowns are scenarios in which campus is called to stop all movement on and off of campus because of a direct or nearby threat to staff and/or...

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3 min read

Strategies To Handle Socializing For Children During the Pandemic

One of the challenges that parents have shared about the continued pandemic is the issue of how to maintain proper relationships and socialization...

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5 min read

Leadership Under Fire

Through the experience of supporting schools throughout the U.S. and now the world, Joffe has learned a thing or two about emergency management and...

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2 min read

Impact of COVID 19 on Schools' Emergency Prep - Interview with Hope Kaye

We sat down this week with our Director of Emergency Management, Hope Kaye. Hope has been involved in emergency services for five years, having...

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Covid-19 Marathon

5 min read

We’re Still Running A Marathon: The Vaccine Is A Mile Marker

My last marathon was March 8, right before Covid-19 shifted our day to day lives in ways many never anticipated. Because it was my last “normal” day,...

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School Pandemic Support Strategies

2 min read

Lessons Learned From A Health Coordinator During the COVID 19 Pandemic

We sat down with Emily, the Health Coordinator for an Independent School in the Bay Area in California, to talk about how the pandemic has affected...

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Getting Prepared

2 min read

Effectively Boarding Up Windows Can Enhance School Safety

During times of particular challenge within our greater community, we've experienced civil unrest. During those times, it can be helpful to have...

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Keeping safe at Thanksgiving!

4 min read

Kitchen Safety During the Holidays

Kitchen Safety During the Holidays

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2 min read

Voting In Person: How to Do So Safely During the COVID 19 Pandemic

The 2020 American presidential election is set to take place on November 3, but early voting has already begun in most states. Given the current...

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Crisis Management In Schools: Principles!

4 min read

Crisis Resilience Arises From Principles, Not Tactics

A note from the co-authors: This blog arises from partnership between Joffe Emergency Services and Experiential Consulting, LLC. It’s a pleasure to...

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2 min read

Halloween: Trick-or-Treating Safety During COVID 19

Having reached a point in the year where many large holidays are quickly looming on the horizon, questions have begun to arise about the best...

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4 min read

Elections: Preparing For The Unpredictable

In any given election year, October is a busy one. Election and candidate information dominate the news cycle. We are bombarded by positive and...

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Shakeout, 2020!

1 min read

Are You Ready To Shakeout?

With 330 million people living and working in the United States, a major earthquake could cause unprecedented devastation. What we do now, before a...

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Schools Responding To Covid-19

1 min read

Where Do We Look For Information On Covid-19?

What Is This About? We're often asked about where we get the latest Covid-19 Information. Below, we're sharing with y'all a quick summary of some of...

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3 min read

Joffe's Perspective on the Lockdown Drill Report

Every decision a school makes centers on this equation - is this what’s best for the community? Of course, it’s a complex world and these decisions...

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2 min read

After A Wildfire: Hillside Erosion Mitigation

If you’ve engaged with any Joffe resources, articles, or blog posts in the last year, there’s a good chance you read something about wildfires. We...

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asha

2 min read

Expert Recommendations on School Healthcare

The American School Health Association (ASHA) is an international organization that has spent almost a century assisting schools in their mission to...

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2 min read

AED Maintenance for Schools

Automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, are one of the most essential tools that school communities have to keep their people safe. As a brief...

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Fotolia_89637238_Subscription_Monthly_M

2 min read

How Schools Should Handle Personally Identifiable Information

Privacy has always been a challenge and concern for schools, even before every single individual on campus began carrying powerful technology in...

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The-Role-of-Visitor-Management-System-in-Schools-Banner-

4 min read

Elevating School Emergency Procedures with Visitor Management Systems

From our perspective, the most important goal or element in effective school safety protocols is knowing exactly who is on campus at any given time....

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the-current-google-calendar-site

3 min read

What the Google Calendar Outage Can Teach Us About Business Continuity

At least for me, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as checking off items on my to-do list. The size or relative importance of the task isn’t the...

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School Safety Statistics

2 min read

It Might Not Feel Like It, But...

It is absolutely normal to be concerned about things that are statistically unlikely to happen. Anyone watching me white-knuckle the armrest during...

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Therapy Dogs Infographic (1)-page-001

2 min read

Recovery is A Ruff Process: Therapy Dogs and the Aftermath of Emergency on Campus

We’ve written before about how recovering from emergencies can be a long, complicated process. The hard work of rebuilding a campus and/or a...

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original-2558314-1

2 min read

Managing School Insurance Claims: What You Need To Know

Leading your school community through its recovery from an emergency or crisis is a long, long process. One of the challenges is navigating through...

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safetydrills_graphic300

2 min read

Keeping Students Engaged During Emergency Preparedness Drills

Emergency drills have become a controversial or at least widely discussed topic in school safety for a myriad of reasons. If done purposelessly or...

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broughal-middle-school-exterior-e580f0a9bdffc383

2 min read

School in the City: Thinking About Safety for Urban Environments

I feel lucky to have grown up where I grew up. My high school, Charles D. Owen High (Go Warhorses!) is nestled in the Swannanoa Valley, surrounded by...

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schoolsafety-jpg-1

1 min read

Chris Joffe's Perspective on Reports Regarding Active Shooter Drills at Meadowlawn Elementary School In Indiana

As an expert in the field of school emergency preparedness, I must share the shame, disappointment, and frustration I felt after hearing how teachers...

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3-6-12-tabletop-meeting

2 min read

Tabletop Drills, Crisis Management, and School Safety Plans

Hey. We're proud of you. Take a moment to appreciate the hard work you've done on the path to emergency preparation and school safety. (If you know...

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NIHTWYEJPYI6NB26FQN75FB3MY

2 min read

Prioritizing School Safety: Talking about Lockdown Drills

Lockdown drills are a necessary part of any good school safety plan. Knowing what to do in an emergency (and having practiced it enough to be able to...

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121110878-56a13da35f9b58b7d0bd5628

2 min read

Dealing With Boredom in an Emergency

In our field of school safety and emergency preparedness, we often deal with people who are feeling high levels of stress, anxiety, and fear. While...

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CassTechHighSchool-1000x594

2 min read

School Safety Best Practices (According to Michigan)

If this is the only school safety blog you belong to, (and hey, more power to you if it isn't!) you may have missed the state of Michigan's School...

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la-1535747771-d1oqz1udad-snap-image

2 min read

Recovery is a Long Game: PTSD Following Disasters

We aren't breaking any news when we note that the recovery process following a disaster is a long and complex process. Schools and communities will...

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dt.common.streams.StreamServer

5 min read

How to Safely Clean Up after a Fire

When your home, school, office, or other space is impacted by a fire, the desire to rebuild is strong. The first step of restoration, cleaning up,...

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HSDSchoolSafety

2 min read

Listening, Not Profiting

Over the past few years, a positive consensus seems to have developed. The core of that consensus is that we must find ways to protect our schools...

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riskassessment

2 min read

Risk Management, Prioritization, and Poetry (?)

Just as you expect from your community safety blog post, today starts with a poem from the American author Mary Oliver (Hey, it's Friday, right?). We...

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window of life

1 min read

The Window of Life and its Relation to School Safety

One of the major ways Joffe Emergency Services supports our school partners throughout the country is by providing CPR and First Aid training and...

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concussion

1 min read

Correctly Caring for Campus Concussions

Perhaps the title of this blog post sacrificed some clarity for the sake of alliteration, so here's what it's about. One of the more common injuries...

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bystander effect

1 min read

When (and How) To Help In An Emergency

We often talk about safety preparation at Joffe, and for good reason. Preparation allows for people to make confident, correct decisions in a...

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emergency kit

2 min read

How To Build a Great Emergency Kit

Your school's supply shed is filled with all of the emergency supplies needed to keep campus functioning for up to 72 hours following a disaster or...

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threatassessment

2 min read

Thinking About Threat Assessment

One of the most important elements to the Joffe approach to school safety is our belief that necessary safety improvements are more likely to stick...

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skooldropoff

2 min read

How To Establish Safe Traffic Procedures At Your School

As the school year picks back up at its typical leisurely pace (a joke!), we’re welcoming smiling faces back to campus, both familiar and brand-new....

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walking backward

2 min read

Backwards Planning and School Safety

I stumbled upon a great article recently that got me thinking about school safety. Now, that may have been because I’m always thinking about school...

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dangerous toys

1 min read

Summer Safety Tips: Dangerous Toys

Our summer safety series rolls on, this time touching on the bane of many a parent’s foot on a dark night - toys. The organization World Against Toys...

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squint

3 min read

Summer Safety Tips: How to Keep Your Kids Safe at the Beach and Pools

Our summer safety tips roll on with a (verbal) trip to one of the best ways to beat the heat-the water! We know that the summer is one of the more...

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stressed car

2 min read

Summer Safety Tips: On the Road Again

Driving an automobile, like many of the tasks we do daily and unthinkingly while overlooking the complexity, is performed through numerous smaller...

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school

2 min read

Keeping Schools Safe Doesn't Have to Be Hard(ened)

A recent article in the National Business Officers Association’s (NBOA) NetAssets magazine (an excellent resource for independent schools around the...

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IMG_0009 (1)

3 min read

Learning Through Storytelling: After The School Shooting In Parkland, FL

To be completely honest with you, the reader, I was anxious when I was tasked with writing this post. The goal was to share my thoughts on a story...

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never+again

2 min read

The National School Walkout

As students across the nation prepare to walk out of schools on March 14, we stand ready to receive their message. Regardless of your school’s...

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lockblock

2 min read

Options for Lockdown Door Devices from Your School Safety Consultants

There are many devices on the market that can increase security in a lockdown situation. Finding the right solution for your campus will take...

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hi-missile-alert

2 min read

Hawaii's False Alarm: What Schools Can Learn

If you live in Hawaii, last weekend you experienced quite a scare… Maybe if you live anywhere. As many of you know there was a false alarm sent out...

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incident commander

2 min read

Who's Your Incident Commander?

Woah, that’s a new term. Let’s start at the beginning: The Incident Command System is a program developed to manage emergencies and most importantly,...

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2 min read

Emergency Preparedness and the New Year

The last month of the year has so many meanings for different communities. In business, it is often a time to set goals and financials for the coming...

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shutterstock_177914555

3 min read

“How will your team be prepared when ‘the big one’ hits?”

That’s a question we get a lot about our emergency line. First, some context: Being a responsible partner in safety, means having a process in place...

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after-school-chalkboard

2 min read

“They Live Their Lives in the PM”

I was sitting in a meeting the other day and the subject turned to everyone’s worst nightmare – an emergency after school. A client – who shall...

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bprepared

2 min read

Emergency Preparedness in the Home

As September comes to an end, it wraps up with National Preparedness Month. This is a national campaign dealing with an actual disaster. Visit their...

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shutterstock_166663388

1 min read

What do you think is the most dangerous thing Americans do each day?

Based on national statistics, approximately 30,000 people will die in vehicular accidents this year, with many of those accidents involving teenage...

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shutterstock_358977299+(1)

3 min read

Keeping Risk Management in Mind When Planning an Event

When planning for an event, nobody wants to think about the bad things that can happen. Not even us! Imagine this. You’re hosting your company’s...

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EpiPen10

1 min read

EpiPen4Schools

Mylan, the maker of EpiPens, made headlines in August 2016 for the increased pricing of the most popular medication delivery device sold to treat...

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honey+and+bee

1 min read

A Swarm of Bees

Someone forwarded me this email, titled “Lockdown Averted”. You may be thinking that’s crazy. Maybe you’re even thinking, “why am I still reading...

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RegentHouseSchoolOutsideWide3000

2 min read

School Security

Last month I was visiting my parents in Texas. My mother asked me if I could pick up my nephew from school and of course I was happy to oblige. I...

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