What is a Crisis?
Crises range in scope and intensity from incidents
that directly or ndirectly affect a single student
to ones that impact the entire community. Crises
an happen before, during, or after school and
on or off school campuses. The definition of a
crisis varies with the unique needs, resources,
and assets of a school and community. Staff
and students may be severely affected by an
incident in another city or state. The events
of Columbine and September 11 left the entire
nation feeling vulnerable.
The underpinnings for this Guide can be found
in the definition for crisis: “An unstable or crucial
time or state of affairs in which a decisive
change is impending, especially one with the
distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome
(Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary,
1987).” Additionally, Webster notes that “crisis”
comes from the Greek word meaning “decision”
(Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, 1987).
In essence, a crisis is a situation where schools
could be faced with inadequate information, not
enough time, and insufficient resources, but in
which leaders must make one or many crucial
decisions.
All districts and schools need a crisis team. One
of the key functions of this team is to identify
the types of crises that may occur in the district
and schools and define what events would activate
the plan. The team may consider many factors
such as the school’s ability to handle a situation
with internal resources and its experience in
responding to past events.
Plans need to address a range of events and hazards caused both by both nature and by people, such as:
- Natural disasters (earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flood)
- Severe weather
- Fires
- Chemical or hazardous material spills
- Bus crashes
- School shootings
- Bomb threats
- Medical emergencies
- Student or staff deaths (suicide, homicide, unintentional, or natural)
- Acts of terror or war
- Outbreaks of disease or infections