January 31st, 2020 
!!!!!!!DISCUSSION POST!!!!
Filling Up Your Tool Kit
Competencies Addressed in This Discussion
Competency 1: Assess the phenomenon of school violence.
Competency 2: Explore offender-related communications relative to school violence pre-event, during the event, and post-event.
Competency 3: Characterize contagion of violence.
Competency 4: Explain the use of threat assessment in pre- through post-secondary education.
Competency 5: Communicate effectively in writing.
Introduction: Filling Up Your Tool Kit
In the fields of criminal justice and emergency management training you will almost constantly hear the phrase, “use this to fill up your tool kit,” by those conducting your training.
The theory behind the creation of a personal or professional tool kit is that you should keep a personal or professional knowledge or research database, library, or tool kit of the nationally approved and globally accepted practices relative to responding to a critical incident and mass casualty events no matter the cause stored in a safe location.
You may not have need of this information for years but, if and when the emergency occurs, all you will have to do is open your tool kit and proceed accordingly. We never know what the future holds for us or what we may be called upon to respond to, or what unexpected and active critical incident we may find ourselves in the middle of, but with a full tool kit, you can be the difference between control and effective response or chaos.
It is worth repeating the quote attributed to Edmund Burke (17291797), “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Do not find yourself on the side of forgotten history. Choose instead to remember all of those seated in schools doing their school work until shots rang out; those seated in a theater ready to watch a movie when shots rang out; those shopping in a mall when shots rang out; those traveling and reporting to work when the planes struck the south and north towers of the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon. Remember and reflect on those who made the conscious choice to take action and force the aircraft they were aboard downward at 500 mph in to the ground in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
To be clear, we are not looking for you to be heroes, we are not asking that you place yourself or others in mortal danger, we are simply assisting you in filling up your tool kit so that if and when the time comes you can effectively, ethically, and professionally respond to your communities’ needs if and when the time presents itself.
Review the resources listed below, other resources you have seen in this course, and resources you found through your own research:
In “Prior Knowledge of Potential School-Based Violence: Information Students Learn May Prevent a Targeted Attack,” review:
The 10 key findings of the USSS NTAC’s SSI on pages 34.
The final two findings that may be most useful in detecting and preventing future attacks on page 4.
In “Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans,” review:
“The Planning Process,” pages 523.
“Plan Content,” pages 2328.
“A Closer Look,” pages 3767. Review the sub-topics 14.
Figure 2: Traditional EOP Format, page 18.
Instructions
In your main post:
Describe the sources of the data used by the USSS NTAC and FEMA in the two resources above, relative to recognizing and preventing targeted attacks.
Assess the accuracy of the data in those two resources, relative to recognizing and preventing targeted attacks.
Explain how the information you have learned in this unit can be used to mitigate threats to schools in your community.
Create a short description for each of three resources (other than two listed above) you would include in your tool kit. Be sure to include a link to each resource so that your peers can also review your choices.
Discussion Objectives
The competencies addressed in this discussion are supported by discussion objectives, as follows:
Competency 1: Assess the phenomenon of school violence.
Describe the sources the data used by the USSS NTAC and FEMA in the two resources referenced in the discussion, relative to recognizing and preventing targeted attacks.
Create a short description for each of three resources you would include in your tool kit.
Competency 2: Explore offender-related communications relative to school violence pre-event, during the event, and post-event.
Assess the accuracy of the data in those two resources relative to recognizing and preventing targeted attacks.
Explain how the information you have learned in this unit can be used to mitigate threats to schools in your community.
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