Since beginning this blog, I’ve been closely following Jonathan Bernstein’s Internet Newsletter, Crisis Manager, available on his site, Bernstein Crisis Management Inc. This site has been a wonderful source of information for me, as Bernstein focuses much of his crisis management advice on community crises—the very topic of my blog. A recent newsletter article titled, Crisis Manager University, by Mark Towhey, addresses school crises plans as related to the always tragic school shootings and intrusions.

In the article, Mark discusses the difficulty of school crisis planning’s ultimately two-faced effect. One face: planning helps students and faculty become familiar and, thus, comfortable with emergency response plans such as evacuations, lock-downs and fire drills. Second face—the unavoidable, negative side-effect of preparation: planning allows intruders and criminals a formula for your response, a crafted action that they will learn how to react to in their advantage.

The key to keeping lock-down plans and other crisis-response drills effective then, is flexibility. Flexibility is what allows these plans manipulation for each new circumstance. In studying crisis situations, what seems to go most wrong is the lack of adaptability from managers, staff and students. While the students, of course, rely on instruction and guidance in emergency situations at schools, the managers and faculty must quickly adapt seemingly dry-cut response plans into more malleable guidelines for their emergency at hand. Yes, schools should continue with emergency drills like lock-downs and evacuations, Mark says, but drilling should emphasize adaptability. Innovative ways to keep your students safe and hidden from intruders should be an emphasis and new approach added to crisis workshops and training sessions. Flexibility allows the leap to be made from trial to reality—the difference between a sheet of glass or metal stronghold between your classroom and what Mark describes as the “copper jacketed bullet.”