The Crisis Response to a School-Based Hostage Event: A Case Study

Abstract

During the past two decades there has been increased public, professional, and legislative interest in school crisis prevention and intervention. It is recommended that comprehensive crisis teams be established at the school, district, and community levels. A case study was conducted in which interviews were utilized to facilitate an increased understanding of the experiences of state crisis team members responding to a school-based crisis event and how crisis teams attempted a coordinated response. Data analysis revealed several themes related to the importance of knowing the school system, having prior crisis-related training, the need for role flexibility, expectations related to the response, personal impact of the response, and the need for self-care. School mental health professionals and crisis response teams can consider these themes and ways to address concerns related to these themes to improve crisis response efforts.

A framework for guiding transformative growth after school shootings.

“…Many factors make it difficult to research crisis-response strategies that address psychosocial needs following a school shooting. They include (a) the relative rarity of these traumatic events (Paradice, 2017), (b) difficulties devoting resources to evaluation in the midst of crisis (Crepeau-Hobson et al, 2012; Crepeau-Hobson & Summers, 2011), and (c) some victims’ reticence to participate in research (Kiilakoski et al, 2014, Siebert et al, 2018). Consequently, insights into existing response strategies are drawn from a limited body of empirical research, as well as from guides written for professionals responding to school-based emergencies.…”

“…This involves reunifying children with their families and preexisting social supports; providing accurate and timely information about the crisis event; creating safe spaces for people to interact informally; addressing people’s basic physical needs; assessing and triaging psychological needs; and providing information about traumatic stress and coping strategies. Responses to shootings at a college in Finland, two high schools in the U.S., and a college in the U.S. also prioritized these needs in the recoil and postimpact phases (Crepeau-Hobson et al, 2012; Crepeau-Hobson & Summers, 2011; Siebert et al, 2018; Turunen et al, 2014).…”

“…These protocols typically focus on post-trauma identification of psychological difficulties, rather than on preparedness or long-term community responses (Séguin et al, 2013). As the school routine resumes, individuals with ongoing needs are encouraged to pursue evidence-based psychotherapies, in spite of the high probability that there will not be enough licensed clinicians available to treat them (Crepeau-Hobson & Summers, 2011). This may leave survivors, schools, and communities without the ongoing support they need to come to terms with circumstances that may have shattered their prior assumptions of safety.…”

School Counselors’ Response to School Shootings: Framework of Recommendations

“…School counselors are expected to meet and assist crisis survivors; therefore, they must be trained to help those suffering from psychological trauma (Mears, 2012). School counselors who are trained to assess psychological risk would benefit not only the crisis team and other mental health workers, but also crisis survivors (Crepeau-Hobson et al, 2012;Crepeau-Hobson & Summers, 2011). Effective triage assessment models for crisis interventions that school counselors could follow include those advocated by Myer et al (1992), Myer (2001), and Brock et al (2016).…”

Transfer of PREPaRE school crisis training: Moderating effects of trainee characteristics

“…To prepare school personnel for their roles in school crises, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) developed the PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum (Brock et al, 2009(Brock et al, , 2016. There is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of crisis prevention and response practices (Adamson & Peacock, 2007;Crepeau-Hobson & Summers, 2011), and understanding the contextual factors that facilitate PREPaRE training participants' application of knowledge and skills to their work in schools (i.e., training transfer) is important to support implementation practices.…”