Bookings: Contact Brian
Brian@kirklandproductions.com
866-769-9037
Professional Development & Workshops
Safe and Sound Schools® offers a wide range of hands-on workshops to meet the unique needs of your community’s professional development goals. Browse our catalog of workshops below. To view our catalog by speaker, click here. In addition, we can tailor content to fit your event. To coordinate an event, please contact Brian of Kirkland Productions.
Active Safety in Schools and Beyond
Presenter: Jin Kim
Time: 75 – 90 minutes
This presentation will provide school administrators, faculty, and staff, a comprehensive awareness of active shooter incidents and targeted violence in schools and focuses on providing best practices and guidance for providing a safe and secure educational environment. Realistic and tangible solutions in mitigating the effects of acute and dynamic violence in a school will be discussed and offered.
Active Shooter Training for Dispatch
Time: 16-hour, 2-day course
Team Training Associates’ Daniel Jewiss, who was the Lead Investigator for the Sandy Hook School Shooting, developed this 2-day course to enlighten Dispatchers on the Lessons Learned from recent Active Shooter events and the critical roles that Dispatch played in them, most notably the 2012 Sandy Hook School Shooting. In addition, weapons other than guns are being effectively used, which is why the term Active Aggressor has also been adopted and will be discussed and used synonymously with Active Shooter throughout this training.
Day #1 of this 2-day course consists of an in-depth analysis of the response procedures and timelines taken to report, dispatch and respond to the Sandy Hook School Shooting and other recent Active Shooter/Aggressor events. It is designed to teach Dispatchers the benefit of Scriptwriting, a critical skill necessary for Shaving Seconds to Save Lives© during an Active Shooter/Aggressor event. It includes a workshop portion that challenges Dispatchers to utilize the Lessons Learned from those recent Active Shooter/Aggressor events, along with their own training and experience, to develop Active Shooter/Aggressor Dispatch Scripts for their own scenarios.
Day #2 will build on the foundational teaching points established on Day #1. Dispatchers will perform scenario-based training repetitions, monitored, coached and evaluated using a progressive “Crawl-Walk-Run” blended-learning performance development model. In addition, Dispatchers will be made familiar with the first priorities of 1st Responders on the scene of an Active Shooter/Aggressor event. This will assist Dispatchers to provide more effective support to stop the threat and save lives. Dispatchers will be reminded to use this course information in conjunction with their existing training and department policies. Lastly, Dispatchers are presented with some of the personnel wellness challenges they may encounter in the wake of an Active Shooter/Aggressor event.
Addressing Mental Health Needs in the Schools
Presenter: Melissa Reeves, Ph.D., NCSP
This workshop discusses the impact of mental health on academic achievement and social-emotional functioning. Participants will learn the developmental indicators of mental health challenges and identify the barriers that schools face in addressing mental health needs. Strategies to implement proactive and universal approaches to addressing mental health needs and interventions to promote skill building will be discussed. In addition, how schools can provide intensive supports and utilize community services to supplement school-based services and programs will be reviewed.
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
Presenter: Dr. Amanda Nickerson
Dr. Nickerson presents the myriad issues and presentations of bullying in today’s schools and explores their impact upon students’ learning and sense of safety in school today. She shares practical solutions, interventions, and strategies, and resources for identifying and combating these challenges to promote a safe school climate.
Calm/Assertive Procedures for the Classroom
Presenter: Scott Ervin
Time: 18 Hours of total instruction includes a 1 hour introduction
Relationship Building Procedures
- ESPN Greeting
- Team Creation
- Nickname creation and ceremony
- Afternoon Meeting/ Celebrations
- ESPN Goodbye
Control Sharing Procedures
- Student-led Morning Meeting
- Student-led transitions
- Student-led prompts
- Student-led choices
- Student-led workshop choices
- Student-led Afternoon Meeting
Calm/Assertive Procedures for a Calm and Quiet Classroom
- How to Create a Truly Silent “Silent, Sustained Reading” Environment
- How to Create a Calm, Pleasant Workshop Environment
- How to Get Students to Work Hard Without Asking Them To
Calm/Assertive Behavioral Intervention Plan
- Want/Control Analysis: Create a plan to get the desired behaviors from any student in any situation.
Cognitive Behavioral Strategies for Children and Adolescents: Evidence-Based Interventions for the School Setting
Presenter: Dr. Melissa Reeves
Time: 3-3.5 hours
This workshop will provide participants with specific cognitive-behavioral intervention strategies to utilize with children and adolescents in a school setting. Specific topics to be covered include anxiety, school refusal, depression, ADHD, aggression, traumatic stress, bullying. Specific workshop objectives include an overview of the components underlying cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), how to utilize and teach cognitive-behavioral strategies in a school setting, and the integration and generalization of skills to the educational setting and academic instruction. Specific examples of techniques and activities will be shared.
Participants will learn:
- The components, basic tenets, and goals of CBT
- Understand the research-base and efficacy underlying specific components to CBT
- How to utilize and teach cognitive-behavioral strategies in a school setting
- Specific types of activities that can be conducted with students
- How to integrate and generalize skills to the educational setting and academic instruction
Community Engagement 2.0: A Whole Community Approach to Educating Children
Presenter: Dr. CJ Huff
Time: 3-hour workshop or 1-hour keynote
Dr. Huff will share an inspirational message of hope and provide proven strategies to engage your school community’s “time, talent and treasure” to:
- Create integrated systems of community support to meet any child’s needs within 24 hours
- Grow circles of influence to build community leadership and resource capacity
- Give kids a chance to give back to their community in an intentional effort to grow a generation of children who clearly understand the ideal of service above self.
Our noble purpose as educators is not about test scores and should not be impacted by the politics of our time. Our noble purpose begins with good people coming together, finding common ground in our children, and working together to create new opportunities for children today that didn’t exist yesterday.
Audience: All
*This presentation can also be a 1-hour keynote
Comprehensive School Suicide Prevention
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Brock
Time: 3 or 6 hours
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for our nation’s teenagers, and rates suicide deaths and suicidal ideation and behavior are increasing. After providing a review of suicide statistics, this session review school suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.
Conducting Safe Meetings
Presenter: John Baker
What steps can we take to better prepare and conduct meetings so that people have the greatest opportunity to make wise and productive choices? Special attention is paid to designing a meeting space that supports positive and safe meetings, while strategies to deescalate and redirect aggressive behavior are covered. Understanding tipping points and signs of potential hostility are also reviewed. This live, interactive session covers both small meetings with parents and personnel all the way up to large community meetings involving a controversial board decision. Summarizing the discussion and tailored to each host, a custom Power Point is prepared and left with the school.
Ideal Audience includes:administrators, human resources, business managers, school boards, teachers and specialist involved in parental/guardian meetings.
Cultivating a Healthy Workplace Environment
Presenter: Scarlett Lewis
Time: 1-3 hours depending on needs
Based on the science and research behind successful “Social and Emotional Learning” programs, Scarlett provides adults in the corporate world the same tools that support and promote healthy interaction, cultivate happiness and enable employees to have healthy perspective without being distracted by negativity. The program provides the support and tools for heightened self-awareness and understanding the opportunity to take personal responsibility for one’s actions and reactions to peers, supervisors, and others in the workplace.
Customized Training
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – Full Day
We offer the services of both a Board-Certified Protection Professional (CPP) thru ASIS, the international gold standard of safety and security professionals as well as a Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) Specialist. With over 30 years of practical experience in the public safety industry we can design a training to fit most of your safety and security needs. Contact our office to discuss how we can help you identify resources or provide customized training for your school.
Ideal Audience includes: administrators, human resources, business managers, school boards, teachers and specialist involved in parental/guardian meetings.
Developmentally Appropriate Safety Education
Presenter: Michele Gay
Time: 1-2 hours
Michele addresses one of the most pressing and timely concerns school communities face today: developing and delivering safety curricula and training with respect to the unique needs of students and staff of all ages, abilities, and educational levels. Using Safe and Sound’s models for teaching and training, Michele empowers staff to determine objectives and activities for developmentally appropriate and psychologically safe education and training in the K-12 school setting.
Emergency Preparedness Tabletop Exercise
Presenter: Paul Timm, PSP
Time: 1-hour keynote to half-day workshop depending on requests
During any emergency, it is important to be able to draw from all available resources. The special skills, training and capabilities of staff will play a vital role in coping with the effects of any disaster, and they will be of paramount importance during and after a major event. Participants in this train-the-trainer session will be placed in tabletop teams and be assigned specific roles (e.g. spokesperson, scribe, stakeholder). Once the rules are explained and the emergency scenario is introduced, participants will have facilitated and timed discussions with Q&A time among their teams. Each team will then share specific responses as the scenario unfolds. Lessons learned from K-12 incidents and other resources will be shared.
Engaging the Community: Tools and Ideas for Safer Schools
Presenter: Michele Gay or Alissa Parker
Time: 1-2 hours depending on requests
Michele or Alissa offer a presentation and discussion of the Safe and Sound model and toolkits according to the needs of the attendees. Sessions can be tailored to specific and various school safety stakeholders or delivered to a mixed group, shared in a seminar format, hands-on workshop, or breakout style. As active members of the school safety community, Alissa and Michele are prepared to share expert resources and discuss many of the programs and interventions available to communities striving to improve school safety.
Faculty Meeting Introduction: Pre-K – 12th Grade
Presenter: Carin Winter
Time: 30 minutes
During this brief 30-90 minute orientation to mindfulness teachers and school staff will be provided with information about the science and research behind mindful education, as well as the practical applications in the classroom. Teachers and staff will also have a chance to practice and experience the benefits of mindfulness.
How to Effectively Monitor and Bully-Proof Students
Presenter: Scott Ervin
Time: 2 hours
Effective and thoughtful monitoring and teaching of students from power positions is an essential skill in creating safe, calm schools where teachers can teach and students can learn. Let me show your school or district how to use proper monitoring techniques in both classrooms and common areas so that both educators and students can spend their days in a healthy, safe, pro-social environment. In addition, I can teach your staff or district how to create consequences for bullying that will extinguish this negative behavior and help create a safe space in which students can learn.
No matter how safe we make schools through proper monitoring and the use of logical consequences, there will be times when we are not able to monitor students: on the bus, at home, or online. When we show students effective skills for dealing with bullies, we give them a tool that they can use to empower themselves for the rest of their lives.
How to Interact with Parents: No Matter How Difficult They Are
Presenter: Scott Ervin
Time: 1.5 hours
Even the most skilled teacher, principal, or superintendent can be made miserable by a persistently difficult parent. Let me train your staff or district to work with parents in a calm, and assertive way so that you can hold students and parents accountable in order to do your very difficult job with optimal effectiveness.
Interactive Table Top Drills
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – 3 hours
This is a wonderful opportunity to engage your administrators and first responders (if you choose to include them) in a table-top exercise based on practical threats that face your school. Many districts bring teams from each building who operate independently as they work the scenario and learn from the collective debriefs offered by each building’s team as they discuss their unique strategies. Through establishing a scenario and interjecting variables throughout the drill the team will be challenged to identify their response and resources available to meet the challenge of the scenario. A thorough debriefing leaves the team with both successful responses that are now proven and a deeper understanding of future improvements that need to be made.
Ideal Audience includes: administrators, human resources, business managers, first responders.
Keys to Providing a Safe Learning Environment
Presenter: Paul Timm, PSP
Time: 1-hour keynote to half-day workshop depending on requests
An effective school security program depends on more than just the state-mandated crisis management plan. How can you make sure your school is effectively addressing areas of vulnerability? This presentation will provide you with the tools you need to proactively and holistically approach school safety and security. Special focus will be placed on Collaboration, Awareness and Student Involvement. From train-the-trainer style quizzes to photographic vulnerability identification, attendees will benefit from an interactive environment. Attendees will learn how to address common security issues, implement site-specific strategies and access helpful resources
Mental Health Matters
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Brock
Time: 3 or 6 hours
When it comes to ensuring student success mental health matters. From this session participants will learn about the challenges mental illness presented to our nation’s school children. Strategies designed to promote mental wellness are reviewed.
Mindful Education Training
Presenter: Carin Winter
Time: 18-hours (3 days)
A weekend training starting Friday evening and ending Sunday afternoon is offered for educators and others seeking to bring mindfulness practices to youth. Educators are taught 12 lessons to bring to their classrooms. The training also includes session focused on self-care and relaxation practices designed to reduce stress and improve physical and emotional well-being. By the end of the weekend, educators feel refreshed and are ready to teach Mission Be’s 12-Week Mindfulness Program for children in K-5.
The training is open to the community and there is a per person attendance fee.
Non-Suicidal Self Injury: Critical Issues
Presenter: Scott Poland, Ed.D.
School personnel and community agencies are increasingly faced with referrals of students who are engaging in self-injury most commonly referred to as NSSI (Non-Suicidal Self Injury). Self-injury by students, with cutting being the most common, often catches school personnel, parents and community personnel by surprise. This training will provide practical guidelines for detecting this behavior, intervening to support the student and family, assessing suicidal risk of the student, the school’s role in intervention, and understanding the relationship between self-injury and suicide. Other important factors that will be covered are major theories of self-injury, the self-injurer today, self-injury versus self-mutilation, legal issues and recommendations.
PA Approved Safety and Security Assessments
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – 3 hours
As an approved vendor for Act 44-2018 safety and security assessments we can conduct an on-site review of your buildings that will satisfy the criteria established by this Act. This one-day assessment will serve as a valuable tool to identify & prioritize your safety & security needs at the building & district level for both public & non-public schools.
Ideal Audience includes: administrators.
Parent Mindful Education Workshops: K-6th Grade
Presenter: Carin Winter
Time: 90-120 minutes
This workshop provides parents with an overview of the research and buzz behind mindfulness, and how simple strategies can improve their child’s happiness, grades, relationships, and health at home and at school. This workshop can be customized based on the needs of the school and parent community.
Parents for Safer Schools: Tools and Resources to Become a Safety Leader
Presenter: Alissa Parker
Time: 90 minutes
Alissa offers a presentation and hands-on workshop centered around the Parents for Safer Schools program, developed by Safe and Sound Schools, to engage and educate parents and caregivers about their role in school safety. Alissa shares her experiences from the tragedy at Sandy Hook and how the death of her daughter, Emilie, inspired her to become a parent safety advocate. As an active member of the national school safety community, Alissa shares expert resources, programs and initiatives from Safe and Sound School communities and ideas and solutions that will inspire parents to develop their own local safety initiatives and find their voices as Parents for Safer Schools.
PREPaRE Workshop #1: Prevention and Preparedness: Comprehensive School Safety Planning (2nd Edition)
Presenters: Dr. Melissa Reeves, Dr. Amanda Nickerson, Dr. Stephen Brock
Time: 8-Hour Full-Day Workshop
In this newly updated workshop, participants will learn how to establish and sustain comprehensive school safety and crisis prevention and preparedness efforts. With updated research and strategies, this workshop makes a clearer connection between ongoing school safety and crisis preparedness. It also emphasizes the unique needs and functions of school teams and the steps involved in developing these teams, including a model that integrates school personnel and community provider roles. The PREPaRE model builds on existing personnel, resources and programs, and can be adapted to individual school needs and size. Finally, the workshop explores how to prepare for school crises by developing, exercising, and evaluating safety and crisis plans.
Audience: This workshop is an excellent course for mental health and educational professionals working at all grade levels in your district that help establish a safe school climate and respond to crises.
PREPaRE Workshop #2: Crisis Intervention and Recovery: The Roles of School-Based Mental Health Professionals (2nd Edition)
Presenters: Dr. Melissa Reeves, Amanda Nickerson, Dr. Stephen Brock
Time: Two Full-Day Workshops of Eight Hours Each
This 2-day workshop provides school-based mental health professionals and other school crisis intervention team members with the knowledge necessary to meet the mental health needs of students and staff following a school-associated crisis event. With updated research and crisis intervention strategies, this workshop teaches participants how to prevent and prepare for psychological trauma, reaffirm both the physical health of members of the school community and students’ perceptions that they are safe and secure, evaluate the degree of psychological trauma, respond to the psychological needs of members of the school community, and examine the effectiveness of school crisis intervention and recovery efforts.
Audience: This workshop is an excellent course for all mental health professionals in your district who provide mental health crisis intervention services.
Preventing and Preparing for the Active Shooter
Presenter: Paul Timm, PSP
Time: 1-2 hours
Shots fired! The specter of an active shooter incident is one of the top issues that cause administrators to lose sleep. Years ago, schools adopted lockdown procedures designed to delay the shooter’s access to students and staff until law enforcement officers could affect the situation. The objective of locking down the facility and securing people in classrooms was to mitigate losses and delay the movement of the shooter. In response to more recent active shooter incidents several response alternatives to lockdown have gained momentum. Methods, such as “Run, Hide, Fight,” attempt to empower administrators, teachers, and even students to make quick decisions. Which active shooter response method is most effective? What is the right way to decide? How do issues, such as student age and liability concerns, factor into the decision making process? These and other questions will be explored and addressed in an interactive environment.
Preventing School Shooting
Presenter: Peter Langman
Time: Half-day or Full-day
The presentation will first identify and refute common misconceptions about school shooters, with an emphasis on moving beyond the stereotypes and highlighting the diversity of perpetrators. It also explains the variations among school shootings, including random, targeted, and mixed attacks. We will then explore three psychological types of shooters—psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized—using case examples to illustrate the types, and highlighting patterns of failures and rejections that contribute to the shooters’ rage and motivations for violence. The second half of the presentation distinguishes threat assessment as a proactive preventive strategy from emergency response procedures, which are reactive. This section highlights the wide range of warning signs of potential violence, including threats, attack-related behavior, and leakage. It also discusses the barriers that both students and adults may experience that keep them from reporting the warning signs they encounter.
Priorities: Determining the Safety and Security Initiatives to Tackle First
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 3 hours to all-day
This practical session reviews a school’s vulnerability studies, assessments, budget and current programming to help them prioritize which projects to tackle and in what logical order based on solid industry fundamentals. Alongside addressing the practical concerns, this program is designed to meet the emotional needs of a school community as they grapple with creating an environment which needs to “feel safe.” John combines his 32 years of safety and security experience, CPP and CPTED certifications, and his undergraduate & graduate work in trauma psychology to help schools determine meaningful prioritization of their safety and security efforts.
Audience: Administrators; Safety and Security Working Groups
Professional Development: Teachers Pre-K – 12th Grade
Presenter: Carin Winter
This workshop can be designed for one to three days school or district-wide. The course provides an overview of the value of mindfulness, how it can be used in an educational system and a series of lessons for the classroom. Tools and practices are provided for teachers, which can be applied and implemented within the classroom throughout the year.
Promoting Social-Emotional Strengths Through Assessment and Intervention
Presenter: Amanda Nickerson, Ph.D., NCSP
As part of a balanced, comprehensive understanding of children’s mental health, it is important to not only examine the problems that interfere with functioning, but also to assess and build upon social-emotional strengths. Social-emotional skills create a sense of accomplishment, contribute to satisfying relationships, enhance the ability to cope with stress, and promote social and academic development. Dr. Nickerson presents advantages of focusing on social-emotional strengths, an overview of strength-based assessment measures, and approaches to developing these strengths at the individual, small group, and school-wide levels.
Psychological Safety: How Can We Help? - The M-PHAT Approach
Presenter: Melissa Reeves, Ph.D., NCSP
The M-PHAT approach involves a Multi-Phase, Multi-Hazards, Multi-Agency, and a Multi-Tiered approach to establishing a comprehensive plan for a safe schools environment that aligns with current response to intervention and positive behavior supports initiatives. This session focuses on development of school and district safety and crisis teams and plans; understanding the different components to a comprehensive school safety plan vs. a crisis plan; conducting psychological and physical safety assessments, and establishing a data collection system to enable data-driven decisions.
Promoting Social-Emotional Strengths Through Assessment and Intervention
Presenter: Dr. Amanda Nickerson
Time: 3 hours
As part of a balanced, comprehensive understanding of children’s mental health, it is important to not only examine the problems that interfere with functioning, but also to assess and build upon social-emotional strengths. Social-emotional skills create a sense of accomplishment, contribute to satisfying relationships, enhance the ability to cope with stress, and promote social and academic development. Dr. Nickerson presents advantages of focusing on social-emotional strengths, an overview of strength-based assessment measures, and approaches to developing these strengths at the individual, small group, and school-wide levels.
Raising Awareness: Moving from a Mayberry Mentality to a "See Something, Say Something" Culture
Presenter: Paul Timm, PSP
Time: 1-2 hours (keynote or workshop)
The “it can’t happen here” mindset is both incorrect and potentially debilitating from a loss prevention and emergency preparedness standpoint. How can schools effectively change the culture without scaring teachers and staff into submission? This highly interactive and practical presentation will equip attendees with a variety of ways to heighten safety awareness. Attendees will also benefit from the latest reporting methods. From engaging photo identification and video exercises to positive reinforcement and appropriate student involvement, don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to lead individuals to personally invest in making the learning environment safer!
Recovering from a Crisis at School: Lessons Learned From the Front Lines to Help Students and Schools in the Aftermath of Tragedy
Presenter: Scott Poland, Ed.D.
The incidence of accidental, homicidal and suicidal deaths of students requires that schools and communities be prepared to respond to these tragic events and manage emotionality. Many schools are faced with the death of a student or a staff member. This training will help school personnel, and community agencies:
- develop and enhance their ability to respond to critical incidents
- provide students and staff with the assistance and support needed
- understand and respond to the complicated issue of memorialization and what is appropriate at school
Responding to Violent Intruders
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – 3 hours / 6 hour train-the-trainer workshop
Everyone is concerned about school violence, but we can’t live in a state of paranoia and fear. We must train our students and staff in a non-traumatic way so that they can grasp the basic skills needed to avoid and respond to violence wherever it occurs. Beyond applying to schools, this is a life with practical applications for all situations. We cannot solely focus on active killers. Rather we must shift our thinking to anyone who becomes violent, and we all need to respond to that threat. Practical, real life scenarios involving a violent student, parent or visitor—whether they have a firearm or not—are used in addition to speaking about mass-killers. The goal is to empower individuals and small groups to respond to these events by exercising the run, hide, and fight concepts; the leading practice in our schools today. This can be taught as a train-the-trainer program in a six-hour course or as a 90 minute – 3 hour presentation depending on your needs. People will leave with practical tools to apply that empower them to get to a safe place until first responders arrive.
Ideal Audience includes: customizable for any audience of students and school staff.
Reunification for the School Community
Presenters: Michele Gay and Dr. Melissa Reeves
Time: Half-day or Full-day
Michele and Melissa share personal and professional experiences in school-based reunification, examine best practices and current reunification models, and conduct scenario-based, table-top exercises to prepare participants for successful reunification planning and preparation.
School-Based Crisis Prevention and Intervention (Dr. Melissa Reeves)
Presenter: Melissa Reeves, Ph.D., NCSP
This advanced level workshop will assist you in enhancing the crisis procedures already in place in your school district. Specifically, learn cutting-edge tips on conducting crisis exercises and drills in the school setting. In addition, strategies for using social media, dealing with the press, and planning memorials will be offered. The legal ramifications of crisis response and the spiritual dimensions in the aftermath of a crisis also will be highlighted.
School-Based Crisis Prevention and Intervention (Dr. Stephen Brock)
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Brock
Time: 3 or 6 hours
This advanced-level workshop is designed to enhance the crisis procedures already in place in your school district. Specifically, this session addresses conducting crisis exercises and drills, strategies for using social media, dealing with the press, and planning memorials. The legal ramifications of crisis response and the spiritual dimensions in the aftermath of a crisis are also explored.
School Crisis and Liability
Presenter: Dr. Scott Poland
Practitioners in the schools–including administrators, support personnel, and teachers–face a myriad of complex issues when a crisis occurs, exposing them to potential criticism and legal liability. This training reviews cases where school personnel have been sued over issues such as failure to obtain parental consent before telling students the truth about a crisis situation, and analyzes legal action against school personnel for failure to notify parents when students were known to engage in self-injury or suicidal behavior. Participants will review key issues, court decisions, best practice suicide postvention, and discuss legal consequences of inadequate threat assessment in schools.
School Safety Before and After School Hours
Presenter: Paul Timm, PSP
Time: 1-2 hours
Providing a safe learning environment during the school day is challenging enough. How can safety and security be improved before and after class time? Join us as we address the difficulties that schools face in early-morning programs and after-school events. Learn how to effectively implement security measures and strengthen emergency preparedness. Benefit from helpful resources.
School Safety Best Practices: Insights from a National Crisis Responder
Presenter: Scott Poland, Ed.D.
Dr. Scott Poland has provided assistance in the aftermath of 16 school shootings. This training will emphasize lessons learned from these tragedies, such as warning signs of serious mental illness and suicidal behavior, the relationship between suicide and school shootings, and what is known about school shooters and typology. Dr. Poland will also examine issues related to crisis drills and evacuation procedures and recommendations that include run-fight hide. Specific guidelines for conducting crisis drills that are not scary to students but do practice moving students to safe and protected places will be outlined.
Social and Emotional Learning
Presenter: Scarlett Lewis
Time: 1 – 3 hours depending on needs
Scarlett addresses a need that has been lacking in the educational experience: social and emotional learning. She discusses her own SEL project, The Choose Love Enrichment Program, which provides tools that teach children that they have the power to choose a loving thought over an angry one. Using the latest neuroscience, the program addresses new ways to effectively teach emotional intelligence in a logical sequence focusing on awareness and mindfulness. The overlying message woven throughout the program is “Although we can’t always choose what happens to us, we can always choose how to respond in every situation.”
Tragedy at Sandy Hook: A Law Enforcement Perspective and Lessons Learned
Time: Up to 8-hour training
On December 14th, 2012 twenty 1st graders and six staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT were tragically killed during an Active Shooter event. Since then, the number of Active Shooter events continues to rise and the number of victims also gets higher and higher as the shooters learn from each event. Although tactical training for 1st Responders has also increased and numerous states now require annual practice of school emergency response plans, there often remains a significant gap of time before law enforcement arrives and the threat is located and stopped. Therefore, it is critical that these valuable seconds be minimized, so we must figure out how to Shave Seconds to Save Lives!©
In addition to those critical life saving measures, there are numerous other invaluable Lessons Learned, both short term and long term, from the Sandy Hook School Shooting. It is imperative that law enforcement squeezes every ounce of experience out of this tragic event in an effort to continuously improve our response concerning managing the scene, managing our people, conducting the investigation and supporting the victims and their families. For this reason, Team Training Associates’ Dan Jewiss, who was the Lead Investigator for the Sandy Hook School Shooting, travels the country to share his personal law enforcement perspective and Lessons Learned. Due to the vast number of Lessons Learned, Dan tailors much of his presentation to the make-up of the audience.
*This program is also available as a 90-minute keynote
The DSM-5: Implications for School Psychologists
Presenter: Dr. Melissa Reeves
Time: 3-3.5 hours
The Nine Essential Skills for the Love and Logic Classroom®
Presenter: Scott Ervin
Time: 18 hours of workshops, includes a 2 hour introduction
The Nine Essential Skills for the Love and Logic Classroom® is comprehensive way of being calm and assertive with even the most difficult kids. It is nine skills, that, when used cumulatively, can allow any educator to be able to create a calm, strict, safe, loving environment where adults can teach and students can learn. Skills include:
- Neutralizing Argument
- Delaying Consequences
- Utilizing Empathy
- Utilizing the Recovery Process
- Building Positive Student-Teacher Relationships
- Utilizing Enforceable Statements
- Utilizing Choices to Prevent Power Struggles
- Quick and Easy Preventive Classroom Interventions
- Guiding Students to Own and Solve Their Own Problems
The Power of Situational Awareness
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – 3 hours
No safety & security training, procedure or equipment is effective if you don’t realize there is a problem. This 90-minute presentation—which can be expanded and customized to meet your needs—discusses the importance of this foundational tool and how to begin the process of converting your school culture from a “virtual awareness” to a “real time awareness” with practical tips to share with staff and students.
Ideal Audience includes: customizable for any audience of students and school staff.
Threat Adaptation Strategies and Know-How: A Safety Training Program for All Educators
Presenter: Jin Kim
A celebrated fact about people is our uniqueness. We all developed a foundation that make us who we are. These qualities also include core programming that is difficult to override. Our capacity to tolerate risk and overcome physical challenges, like acute violence, is equally unique. We all varying in skills, abilities, and capacities, to counter and mitigate these challenges.
The Threat Adaptation Strategies & Know-how Process, known as T.A.S.K., was founded and created by FBI Special Agent (ret) Jin Kim, a widely regarded and recognized Subject Matter Expert and Material Practitioner in Active Shooter and Workplace Violence mitigation.
T.A.S.K. was specifically developed to align institutional response protocols and realistic individual reactions for targeted violence in educational institutions. Unlike “one size fits all” methodologies, T.A.S.K. embraces the unique capacities of Educators and provides guidance in developing resiliency and a practical ‘T.A.S.K. Loop’ custom to them. T.A.S.K. strategically integrates:
- Education & Facts
- Eliminating Anxieties
- Evolving Empowerment
- Enterprise Synergy
Content includes:
- Define individual awareness & empowerment goals
- Provide facts from FBI Reports
- Present Behavioral Indicators and substantive data
- Explain “Individual Impact” and how people respond
- The difference between Trained vs. Untrained postures
- The significance of how time affects outcomes
- Present the foundation and origins of TASK
- Offer the initial individual steps
- Guide the development of individual and customized “Task Loop”
- Explain what W.I.N. is and how it integrates
- Offer various and simple individual mitigation techniques
- Dispel common myths
- Explain how public response will affect an incident
- Video presented for training visual validation
- A final scenario offered for individual analysis
Threat Assessment in Schools
Presenter: Scott Poland, Ed.D.
This workshop will provide step by step guidelines to help school personnel improve their skills in classifying threats and taking appropriate investigative actions to reduce the likelihood of violence. Dr. Poland will present lessons learned from a number of national incidents of school violence where he served following crisis, such as Red Lake, Minnesota and Littleton, Colorado. Key roles for various school personnel that comprise the school threat assessment team and the importance of working collaboratively with local authorities will be stressed. Participants will learn practical strategies and tips that they can implement in their school system to manage threats of violence.
Threat and Suicide Risk Assessment: Developing a Proactive and Consistent Approach to Evaluating Risk
Presenter: Melissa Reeves, Ph.D., NCSP
This workshop will focus on the process and procedures needed to establish a consistent school/district-wide approach to threat and suicide risk assessment utilizing a multidisciplinary team. Critical factors discussed will include: current statistics and legal cases, early identification of warning signs, primary prevention strategies to “break the code of silence”; an overview of risk assessment models and tools; assessment procedures; and strategies for interventions, postventions, and working with difficult parents. Case study examples and forms will be shared to illustrate the process.
Twenty Years After Columbine
Presenter: Susan Payne
Time: 2.5-3 hours + Q&A
Having served for 20 years with the Colorado Department of Public Safety and Attorney General’s Office following the tragedy at Columbine and founding the nationally recognized Safe2Tell anonymous reporting system, Susan Payne shares a unique perspective on the history and future of school safety. Based on her professional experience and the Federal Commission on School Safety’s recent final report, Susan charts a roadmap for school safety improvement based on lessons learned, best practices in the field and across the country to protect and educate students in today’s world.
Ideal audience is key stakeholders in school safety and prevention, school staff, law enforcement, crisis response teams and emergency managers, parents and community partners.
Understanding and Supporting Transgender and Diverse Students in School
Presenter: Dr. Todd Savage
Standard: 3-4 hour workshop (up to an 8-hour workshop)
Minimum: 1 ½ hour session
The purpose of this session is to provide the participant with increased awareness and knowledge about gender diversity and schools; family matters about raising a transgender child and navigating the education system in this regard will also be presented. Finally, specific strategies participants can employ to support transgender and gender diverse students will be highlighted. Learning will be supported through direct instruction, large- and small-group work, and resources that can be employed to facilitate these processes.
Session Objectives:
- To enhance participants’ awareness of gender identity and gender diversity matters in schools from multiple perspectives;
- To introduce tools participants can use not only to assess a system’s readiness to accommodate transgender and gender diverse students but to determine the support and transition needs of individual gender diverse youth;
To highlight strategies participants can employ to support transgender and gender diverse students and to improve school climates as they pertain to gender diversity.
Can be co-presented with Leslie Lagerstrom, the mother of a transgender son and fellow speaker.
Using Art to Find Peace
Presenter: Steffanie Lorig
Through this hands-on workshop, Steffanie shares creative tools and ideas for helping both individuals and groups of students feel emotionally safe as they work to understand and process events beyond their control. As attendees learn artistic techniques to help students, they will also experience and practice self-care to alleviate stress and anxiety that they are feeling as well. This experiential presentation will build competence and confidence in these techniques so that practitioners can bring them back to their schools and communities.
Using Cognitive Behavioral Strategies With Children and Teens Who are Anxious or Depressed
Presenter: Dr. Melissa Reeves
Time: 1-3 hours
This session will highlight a variety of cognitive–behavioral strategies that can be used successfully in school settings with students who exhibit symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. Key components underlying CBT will be reviewed. In addition, participants will learn to use and teach CBT strategies and will explore ways to integrate these skills in an educational setting. Case study examples will be featured, and specific examples of practical techniques and activities will be shared.
What does NIMS and Unified Command Mean to Me?
Presenter: John Baker
Time: 90 minutes – 3 hours
This presentation takes the often-overwhelming structure of National Incident Management Systems and Unified Command and boils it down to easy-to-understand terms for school officials. Both systems are a valuable tool that help our first responders do their job with excellence every day, but without consistent exposure it quickly can become overwhelming. This course answers the simple questions such as “what will police, fire and ambulance personnel want from me when they respond to a call at our school?” This course is customizable depending on your needs. Many districts bring administrators and crisis team members together for this session as they discuss how they will operate at the building level.
Ideal Audience includes: administrators, human resources, business managers, school boards.
You Received an Anonymous Tip! Now What?
Presenter: Susan Payne
Time: 1.5 to 3 hours + Q&A
How do we strengthen relationships within our school buildings and foster a culture of reporting within our student population and school community? Susan Payne, national school safety expert and founder of Safe2Tell shares critical lessons learned from building and operating the first successful statewide anonymous reporting tool for students in the United States. She provides a best practice framework for intelligence gathering, information sharing, and protected methods of student reporting (e.g. tip-lines). She shares strategies of implementation through partnerships and collaboration, and teaches effective strategies for violence prevention and intervention in order to reduce liability and above all things, protect students.
Ideal audience is school multi-discipline team members including administrators, counselors, social workers, school nurses, crisis team members, school resource officers, juvenile detectives, and prosecutors.
Youth Suicide: Contemporary issues in prevention/intervention and postvention for schools
Presenter: Dr. Scott Poland
The incidence of youth suicide requires today’s schools to increase suicide prevention efforts and prepare to respond if a suicide occurs. This presentation will help administrators and school support personnel increase their understanding of the incidence and most common factors in youth suicide. Participants will learn effective strategies to prevent youth suicide and lessons from the aftermath of numerous suicides. This program will examine protective factors and primary prevention programs to prevent youth suicide, myths about suicide, intervention and postvention practices for suicide prevention, comprehensive suicide assessment, parent notification, collaboration with community services, self injury and suicide, bullying and suicide, “the contagion effect,” and a number of legal cases following a youth suicide.
