Upcoming Webinar – Campus Aggression Prevention System (CAPS) Live Demonstration
Posted In Campus Safety, Emergency Management, Risk Management, School Safety, Workplace Violence on May 11th, 2011 Tags: Active Shooter, behavioral intervention team, Campus Aggression Prevention System, Campus Safety, student safety, threat assessment
Recently, a prominent University President shared that his biggest nightmare was waking up to hear there was an active-shooting on his campus. This, he said, is what kept him up late at night! We believe this is a nightmare shared by many school administrators, and can’t imagine what could possibly be worse.
Do you have a reliable method of “preventing” multiple threats of violence on your campus? Crisis (Emergency) Management is reacting to an incident that already took place, not preventing incidents from happening. Aberrant behavior, misconduct and mental illness do not provide reliable precursors to identify the next school shooter. Only when you can foresee the precursors to “emerging aggression” can you, with any reliability, get out in front of and prevent a school shooting, or any act of assaultive or violent behavior. For the first time, we will show you how your campus can reliably prevent aggressive, assaultive, and/or violent behavior. Imagine being able to empirically declare your institution safer before the next school year begins.
Lessons learned continue to demonstrate campuses must find better ways to deal with at-risk individuals, aggression, bullying, mental health challenges, violence, suicides and murders because the tragedies we continue to see are real…and almost all are PREVENTABLE.
Awareity and the Center for Aggression Management have partnered to bring you the CAPS (Campus Aggression Prevention System). Join John Byrnes from the Center for Aggression Management and Rick Shaw and Katie Johnson of Awareity as they demonstrate live how your campus can improve safety and security on campus and provide your students, parents, faculty and staff with peace of mind.
Live webinar: Campus Aggression Prevention System (CAPS) Demonstration
When: May 19, 2011, 12:00 PM EST
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When: May 24, 2011, 4:00 PM EST
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You will learn how to:
- Apply the Campus Aggression Prevention System in an effective and defensible manner
- Receive anonymous/confidential reports from students, faculty, staff, parents, etc.
- Identify behaviors, red flags and warning signs and take preventative actions
- Train your prevention/safety teams and faculty to measure aggression in at-risk individuals
- Determine the overall presumption of risk and what actions can be taken to maximize results
- Connect the dots to ensure at-risk individuals do not fall through the cracks
- Improve collaboration between counselors, administrators, law enforcement, teams, etc.
- Track and document all actions taken for legal due diligence and ongoing risk metrics
- Prevent lawsuits and maintain ongoing compliance with OCR, federal and state requirements
- Significantly reduce administrative, personnel costs and ongoing awareness and training costs
- Make your campus empirically safer and enhance student achievement/learning climate
This webinar has limited seating and will fill up quickly, so register early to ensure your seat.
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The ERC on Whistleblowing Workplace Misconduct
Posted In Government, Human Resources, Incident Reporting, Workplace Violence on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: employee misconduct, Ethics Resource Center, Incident Reporting, infosec island
The Ethics Resource Center’s (ERC) recent survey revealed that 40% of employees observing misconduct do not step forward to report it out of fear of retaliation, mistrust or feel their reports will be ignored.
Lessons Learned: Organizations must develop secure, anonymous and/or confidential reporting solutions to empower all employees (and third-parties) to report suspicious incidents, violence, fraud, misconduct, ethical violations, etc. And once an incident has been reported, all appropriate personnel (ethics, legal, management, compliance, safety, law enforcement, etc) should be immediately and automatically notified to ensure a timely response and ensure red flags do not fall through the cracks.
Based on other surveys and reports, the percentage of people reporting incidents is even lower and when tips are not reported, it is nearly impossible for organizations to proactively prevent or intervene.
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California Hospital Cited for Workplace Violence Violations
Posted In Health Care, Validations, Workplace Violence on April 19th, 2011 Tags: California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Incident Reporting
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health recently fined the Children’s Hospital in Oakland for allegedly failing to protect workers from violence in the emergency department. The hospital was penalized for “having an ineffective training program, incomplete and inadequate procedures to deal with safety concerns, and an incomplete and untimely hazard correction for workplace violence exposures in the emergency department.”
Lessons Learned: The first lesson learned is obvious…organizations must have a comprehensive workplace violence program in place and ensure that all staff has been adequately trained on how to prevent and respond to incidents of violence, identify red flags and report all threats, risks, suspicious incidents, etc. to the appropriate personnel. Organizations must also ensure they are responding to all incident reports in a timely manner and that all actions and updates are documented for compliance, improving internal controls and legal due diligence.
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Preventing the Next School Tragedy
Posted In Campus Safety, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Workplace Violence on April 13th, 2011 Tags: brazilian gunman, bullying, bullying prevention, School Safety, school shooter, school violence, southern union community college
Brazilian gunman fatally shot 11 children and wounded 18 others at a Rio de Janeiro public school…
One person dead and three others hurt in a shooting at Southern Union Community College…
Student Planned to Shoot “As Many as He Could”…
If you followed the headlines last week, we saw multiple tragedies at schools and colleges around the globe. However, one high school in Missouri was able to prevent what could have been a potentially devastating attack.
An 18 year old student was arrested with conspiring to shoot other students at his school. There were multiple warning signs identified and fortunately two brave students came forward with information prior to his attack.
The student revealed several red flags during his planning phase:
- Tried to recruit students to help him execute shooting
- Internet research on how to make guns and other weapons
- Note on computer with statement, “I hate everything and everyone, I wanted everyone to die.”
A second student was arrested the next day after posting a Facebook message, claiming “he wasn’t going to kill anybody because he’d told police about his plan and couldn’t pull it off now.”
It is critical for schools to look for new and innovative methods for identifying red flags and warning signs so they can prevent incidents like the tragedies above. If those students had not come forward, the attacker’s plan may have been executed.
The Department of Education and Secret Service School Safety report revealed that at least one other person had some type of knowledge of the attacker’s plan in 81% of school shooting incidents.
However, one of the most concerning things is that students are not reporting suspicious comments, acts of violence, bullying, harassment, etc. out of fear of peer abuse or retaliation, they don’t feel their reports will be kept anonymous or they don’t trust the administration to act on their reports.
It is critical for schools to implement safe, anonymous and non-retaliatory reporting procedures, policies, plans, and training for students and faculty to identity warning signs of violence. At the recent White House Conference on Bullying, experts agreed listening to students is critical and it is important to develop simple and effective incident reporting processes.
How are your schools working to improve prevention, encourage students to come forward with information, protect communities and save lives?
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Lessons Learned: Tips Can Definitely Save Lives…
Posted In Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, Risk Management, School Safety, Workplace Violence on November 30th, 2010 Tags: Christmas Day Bomber, Incident Reporting, Lessons Learned, package bombs, School Safety, TIPS, Yemen
Tips prevent a lot of bad things from happening within organizations, but tips alone are not the answer based on recent lessons learned. The Christmas Day Bomber attack was prevented and lives saved thanks to tips, but also thanks to the FBI’s proactive efforts in confidentially sharing information with other key players, such as law enforcement and local government.
An anonymous tip from Saudi Arabian intelligence helped to locate package bombs that were sent from Yemen. No doubt these package bombs could have caused a lot of damage and loss of lives, had specialized prevention teams not taken proactive actions to locate and confiscate the packages before they arrived at their destinations.
Tips play a critical role in global security, as well as our communities. But just having the tips is not going to prevent unwanted incidents from happening. People – specialized teams with situational awareness, accountability, secure information sharing tools and the ability to connect the dots – are clearly the most effective way to proactively prevent unwanted incidents in schools, communities, private organizations, governments and where ever else bullies and terrorists may target.
While I am very thankful that the Christmas Day Bomber and the package bombs were prevented, every day I see or hear about stories involving bullying or terrorism or ethics or safety where red flags existed, but organizations did not take appropriate actions.
I hope organizational leaders realize it is their responsibility and obligation to take proactive steps in understanding how their organization receives tips, how their teams share information, how teams respond to tips and if their traditional tips system (see previous blog) is empowering their security and prevention teams to proactively prevent incidents.
Feel free to share these lessons learned, because they help organizations and their leaders understand the need to replace status quo solutions sooner than later to meet safety obligations and escalating risks.
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Is Your Incident Reporting System Putting Your Organization At Risk?
Posted In Emergency Management, Human Resources, Incident Reporting, Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, School Safety, Workplace Violence on November 11th, 2010 Tags: bullying, Cyberbullying, deliberate indifference, incident reporting system, Red Flags, threat assessment
How is your incident reporting system working for you?
Or perhaps the question should be – Is your incident reporting system working against you?
Lessons learned continue to show that organizations find themselves in ‘reaction mode’ more than they are in ‘prevention mode’. How can this be when most every organization claims to have an incident reporting system in place?
Are traditional incident reporting systems obsolete?
Multiple surveys reveal that 90% of bystanders who witness a bullying incident DO NOT report the incident. So why aren’t bystanders not reporting incidents?
Perhaps bystanders are not reporting because of one or more of the following reasons:
- Scared to get involved
- Not sure how to report incidents
- Not comfortable with incident reporting options such as paper, in person, phone or text
- Lack of anonymity when reporting incidents
- Bystander does not trust the incident reporting system will work
- Bystander does not trust the organization will take action
- And many others…
Victims are also reluctant to use traditional incident reporting systems. Victims want to be heard, but many victims do not trust traditional incident reporting systems due to:
- They tried using the traditional incident reporting system and nothing happened
- No anonymous option to report incidents
- Not knowing who was on the other end of the incident reporting system
- Afraid their information would not be kept confidential
- And many others…
Like bullying and cyber bullying, workplace violence incidents seem to be increasing too. Mounting stress related to economic challenges, job layoffs and mortgage foreclosures continue to affect millions of individuals and families. And some individuals have taken out their frustration on their bosses, their co-workers or their family members where they work….and many of the incidents could have been prevented based on red flags that were discovered after the incident.
Suicides and bullycides seem to be increasing too. According to statistics from support organizations, 5,000 teenagers commit suicide a year and perhaps as many as 500,000 or more teenagers contemplate suicide or attempt suicide each year. What if these 5,000 teenagers had a trusted incident reporting option they could have reached out to for help?
So is your traditional incident reporting system really working for you if bystanders are not reporting incidents and victims are not reaching out for help?
Red Flags and Prevention
Without red flags, it is nearly impossible for security teams and threat assessment and intervention teams to prevent incidents from happening. Yet after almost every bullycide or workplace violence incident, people come forward and say they were aware of multiple suspicious incidents and red flags, but did not report the suspicious incidents because they did not know how to or did not understand what suspicious activities should be reported. In some cases, people DID report the incidents and unfortunately the organization did not connect the dots.
Legal Defensibility
In our highly regulated and litigious society, victims and their families are taking organizations to court when they fail to respond as mandated. Many lawsuits brought against organizations cite “deliberate indifference” or the conscious or reckless disregard of the consequences of one’s acts or omissions.
Deliberate indifference is often the result of:
- Lack of Awareness – meaning people did not know what to do in different situations even though previous incidents, legal obligations and regulatory mandates exist
- Lack of Follow Through – meaning people knew about the issues, but did not take immediate actions to end the issue and did not take appropriate actions to eliminate the hostile environment and prevent future incidents
- Failed efforts based on the situation, state mandates or organizational obligations
Experts seem to be in agreement that reacting to incidents is much more expensive (and embarrassing) than preventing the incidents from happening, but prevention requires a more comprehensive suite of incident reporting tools to ensure:
- Anonymous or non-anonymous incident reporting tools
- Threat Assessment and Security Team collaboration tools
- Secure and confidential information sharing tools
- Situational awareness tools for all appropriate individuals and team members
- Accessibility options for anytime access to suite of tools
- Documentation / Reporting tools of entire process for compliance and legal defensibility
- And adaptability options as needs and situations continue to change
Is your traditional incident reporting system helping you or working against you?
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Bullies and Their Bystanders
Posted In School Safety, Workplace Violence on October 26th, 2010 Tags: bullying, bullying program cyberbullying, Bystanders, Incident Reporting, School Safety
New data released this week revealed:
17 percent of American students report being bullied 2-3 times a month or more within a school semester.
Over 9% of girls and 14% of boys just watch their fellow classmates get bullied.
Over 30% of girls and 22% of boys think they ought to help the bullied students, but don’t do anything about it.
80% of bullying is witnessed; but only 10% of witnesses/bystanders report incidents.
Why are bystanders not reporting incidents?
There are many reasons and some of the most common include:
- Some feel threatened or intimidated when reporting a bully or suspicious incident.
- Some do not trust the school policy or bullying program will be followed.
- Some do not feel their confidentiality will be protected if they come forward.
- Some do not know how to recognize or where to report incidents.
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” — Albert Einstein
But, we have to be careful not to rush to judgment and blame the bystanders. If 90% of the bystanders are not reporting, maybe the problem is the way incident reporting is being offered?
Perhaps the lack of incident reporting starts with school leaders? Are school leaders ensuring that all faculty, school administrators, school security officers, school resource officers, counselors, parents, and students understand and trust their entity’s incident reporting? Are school leaders ensuring individual understand their roles and responsibilities for preventing, responding, reacting and reporting bullying related incidents?
Lessons learned reveal it is critical for school administrators to encourage victims and bystanders to report bullying. Lessons learned also reveal that school leaders have an obligation and responsibility to provide easy, accessible and anonymous ways for victims, bystanders, parents and third-parties to report incidents occurring at school and off of school grounds too.
Trust is critical to achieving better results. School leaders must quickly and consistently respond to all incident reports to ensure all individuals that the school is serious about bullying and is not ignoring victims or bystanders. Anti-bullying and incident reporting efforts should not be a bunch of posters, memos, e-mails or a program brochure disseminated in a binder or student handbook.
Are you doing what you need to do to empower victims and bystanders in your school?
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Two Men with Assault Rifles….How is your Situational Awareness?
Posted In Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, School Safety, Workplace Violence on September 28th, 2010 Tags: san jose international airport, Security, Situational Awareness
Did you see the story from the San Jose International Airport this past weekend?
Just before 3pm on Saturday, an SUV pulled up to the arrival curb outside Terminal A at Mineta San Jose International Airport. Two men dressed in black got out of the SUV and approached the information desk to inquire about flight 1205 from Dallas. Both men carried assault rifles that were strapped across their chests and they had handguns in their holsters.
One of the volunteers politely asked if they were one of those people on planes that look for terrorists…one of the men simply answered no.
The volunteers commented that they did not know if it was proper for people to walk into an airport with assault rifles and just stand there to wait for a passenger.
The volunteers were unsure what to do and commented after the incident that they had received no training on how to handle heavily armed visitors.
A parking control officer at the airport asked his supervisor what he should do and according to one of the volunteers the supervisor said: “Next time that happens, have one of them sit in the care while the other once comes in” because the airport prohibits unattended cars at the curb, especially under the current orange alert level.
Does your organization have volunteers? Does your organization have parking control officers or security guards?
Do you provide ongoing situational awareness training for all individuals?
What if this happened at your organization? How would your employees or volunteers react? Does your organization provide ongoing situational awareness training?
General training is usually a one-off event that is inadequate and ineffective in helping individuals deal with new and changing situations, new and changing regulations, new and changing risks and new and changing procedures.
Lessons learned like this are great for ongoing situational awareness training…are you using them?
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If I Knew Then What I Know Now…
Posted In Business Continuity, Emergency Management, Incident Reporting, Pandemic Flu, Risk Management, School Safety, Workplace Violence on September 15th, 2010 Tags: 9-11, columbine, Compliance, Incident Reporting, Katrina, preparedness, Red Flags, Security, Virginia Tech
Most everyone has heard or muttered these words at some time or another:
If I Knew Then What I Know Now…
The saying is most often used when we look back at our life and we realize that if I knew then (when I was younger) what I know now (with more experience and wisdom), I may have made some different decisions.
The saying also came to mind recently as we were reminded of the 9 year anniversary of September 11th and the 5 year anniversary of Katrina and numerous other incidents that have provided experience and wisdom that we could have used before these events took place.
As I was reflecting on these and numerous other events I started thinking about how so many of the incidents and unwanted results could have been prevented from ever happening had certain people known what others knew….and perhaps how this saying should be updated to:
If I knew now what you know now.
We now know that there were multiple people who noticed red flags or knew about 9-11 before the attack. We now know that multiple people at Virginia Tech and Columbine noticed red flags or knew about these attacks before the attacks we launched. In numerous other incidents, we now know other people besides the aggressor(s) knew about red flags, suspicious actions and misguided plans before the tragic incidents actually occurred.
Unfortunately these other people who noticed red flags or knew about what was coming did not provide their information to people who could have intervened and prevented the incidents and could have saved millions of dollars and saved the lives of many.
How are you getting people to report red flags or suspicious behavior or ethics violations or safety improvements?
Lessons learned clearly show that lack of awareness and not connecting the dots will lead to gaps and disconnects that lead to expensive, embarrassing and tragic incidents.
So if you are responsible or accountable for security, safety, preparedness, compliance, legal due diligence, finances, customers, patients, etc….do you know now what others know now??
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Whistleblower Line vs. Hero Line
Posted In Incident Reporting, Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Workplace Violence on September 8th, 2010 Tags: bullying, Ethics, joint commission, Security, whistleblower, Workplace Violence
What is your first thought when you hear the word WHISTLEBLOWER?
Whistleblower definitions commonly say a whistleblower is any person that reveals wrongdoing or malpractices taking place within an organization. And in many cases a whistleblower may face retaliation or other negative ramifications and by law may require special protection.
What is your first thought when you hear the word HERO?
Hero definitions run from mythical and legendary figures to a person that is admired for their achievements or noble qualities to a central figure in an event, period or movement.
When is the last time you heard an organization promote their Hero Line? What if organizations promoted their Hero Line in targeting Workplace Violence or Bullying or Cyber Bullying or Ethics?
I recently came across a Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert focused on preventing violence in the health care setting and I thought the Hero Line would be a great fit.
Some of the causal factors identified in the Sentinel Event Alert point out the importance of making sure policies and procedures are IMPLEMENTED (not just disseminated) and the need for ongoing education and competence assessment processes ensuring people understand what to do in different situations.
The Sentinel Event Alert cited multiple prevention strategies and said:
“…- security is a people action and requires staff taking responsibility, asking questions and reporting any and all threats or suspicious events.”
Sounds like something a HERO would do….what do you think?
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