“When I have information about what’s happening, if I’m at the north end of a building and the active-shooter event is occurring at the south end of a building in the gym, why would I lock the door and sit there, and wait for him to find me? Why would we not remove ourselves from this situation?” asks Klinger.
You can find the rest of the article here.
“The thing is, we're running a school, not a prison,” said Amy Klinger, assistant professor of educational administration at Ohio's Ashland University. “We strive for safety that makes sense, security that isn't oppressive. The odds of an active shooter incident are low, so it's just as important that we plan for and prepare and train for things other than the worst-case scenario.”
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/4562271-74/safety-parents-district#ixzz2hFXWOhoM
Dr Amy Klinger and Amanda Klinger, Esq. are proud to work with the Ontario College of Teachers to help launch their new Professional Advisory "Safety in Learning Environments: A Shared Responsibility."
They've been asked to share research and findings to contribute to the conversation about lockdown enhancements and what Ontario schools can do to keep students safe.
While Canada has not experienced school violence of the same magnitude as the United States, the leadership in Ontario is to be commended for their proactive, not reactive stance.
It is imperative that educators, law enforcements and other stakeholders think critically about all prevention and response practices that increase student safety, even the actions taken to prepare for less frequent events.
“But if you look at past events — Columbine, Virginia Tech — events in the U.S. and internationally, a lot of the times they happen so quick that law enforcement can’t get there in time,” she said, adding that “when schools do something more proactive, a significant number of lives are saved.”
Check out the rest of the article here.
"I need you to be able to evacuate in a way that takes you away from the danger," said Amy Klinger, even "if that means an exterior exit, going out a first-floor window."
The Klingers say teachers should consider moving students, or making barricades out of furniture.
School policy in Ontario says teachers should keep children inside the classroom — but the Klingers argue teachers should have more options
Read the rest of the article by clicking here.
In most incidents, there are cases where people barricade themselves or evacuate anyway during a lockdown situation, said Klinger.
“We’re trying to say let’s get training into people’s hands” so that they can do it in the safest way possible, she said.
Klinger and her mother Amy (who is with the same organization) are to speak to teachers, school board representatives and emergency officials at Notre Dame Catholic High School on Thursday during a symposium held by the Ontario College of Teachers.
Read the rest of the article here.
“We don’t just come and talk for four hours. We see what a school needs,” Amanda Klinger said. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to safety. How you respond to an incident at a mall is totally different to how you would respond to a school incident. A teacher has 30 children in her care.”
Check out the rest of the article here.
"I am not coming here today to go, 'Boy, I hope you guys are OK.' I am coming here today to go, 'You can make yourself be OK,'" Klinger said. "We need to have options beyond just keeping [shooters] out. We need to have response options of what we should be doing if they come in, and I think that is one of the things you saw quite clearly in Sandy Hook."
Read the rest of the article here.
"Schools have a lot of things pulling at them. They have limited resources, they have limited time, they have test scores, they have all these different accountability measures. But safety issues have to rise to the top as we saw yesterday. Test scores didn't matter yesterday. What mattered yesterday was safety."
Check out the rest of the story here.
...attorney-turned-advocate Amanda Klinger, a nationally-recognized expert on cyber bullying and school safety, instructed teachers on how to look for warning signs for troubled individuals, what can lead to a school shooting and how to think critically during that scenario. She also pointed out things that could have been done differently during several highly-publicized incidents of school violence and how teachers, were they more informed of what was happening in the building, could have saved lives.
Check out the rest of the story here.
"We are trying to provide people with a range of options, tools and training to make better decisions that could save kids' lives," Amanda Klinger, said.
Check out the rest of the article here.
Though school shooters have little in common other than they are male teenagers, they do exhibit behaviors before their attacks - threats on social media, planning the attack, giving away personal items, enlisting accomplices - if only family, friends, educators and police officers could work together.
"These kids are begging us to stop them," she said. "We're just not connecting the dots."
This can deter not only assaults, but also other forms of violence including teen suicide. "A student who kills himself is just as tragic," Klinger said.
One of the most important topics, according to Klinger, was what lockdown policies a school has in place. A common mistake is to have only one level of lockdown, which can result in total panic and uncertainty can set in among faculty and students.
Check out the rest of the article here.
“Students really need to pause and think about the long-term effects on their reputation, their quality of life and their future,” Amy Klinger said. “Not everything you think has to go online. In this ‘post everything’ world, you have a right to be private.”
Check out the full story here.
