The fact that high school athletic events haven’t often been the targets of violent attacks doesn’t mean schools should forgo precautions.
The National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) is trying to make sure schools are prepared if such an attack were to occur by expanding its initiative to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA).
The result of this initiative is the National Risk Management Training Course and Assessment for Interscholastic Athletics and After-School Activities.
“We hope this course will incentivize schools to create a plan for crisis and incident prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, risk, assessment, organizational teamwork, training and exercise,” said Elliot Hopkins, NFHS director of sports and educational services. “The course would also assist schools for natural disaster responses as well as active shooter, domestic terrorism.”
The course focuses on developing prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery at high school athletic events and after-school activities.
“We began working with the high school programs due to identified safety and security needs for after-school programs,” said NCS4 Director Lou Marciani.
The goal is to standardize safety and security management practices at athletic events and after-school activities. The program also looks to make training and Sport Event Security Aware (SESA) Recognition available to school districts nationwide.
Participants in the training will include superintendents, principals, athletic administrators and law enforcement officers. After the three pilot programs that the NCS4 is hosting, Marciani hopes a nationwide campaign will be announced allowing the course to be available to school districts that request the training. The first pilot course occurs March 18 in Mississippi; the other pilots will be held in Connecticut and Indiana later this year.
The course covers six topics – The Risk is Real, Organizational Teamwork, Risk Assessment, Planning, Training and Experience, Implementation – as well a a capstone experience.
The objectives of each are:
- The Risk is Real – participants will be able to explain the catastrophic impact of a tragedy at school sports or after-hours activities.
- Organizational Teamwork – participants will identify the key stakeholders who must be involved in the management and communication involved in the response to an incident at after-school events.
- Risk Assessment – participants will identify and assess threats, vulnerabilities and consequences for school sports or after-hours activities.
- Planning – participants will develop a continuous planning process to prevent incidents and prepare for, respond to, and recover from those associated with school events.
- Training and Exercise – participants will be able to develop and implement a comprehensive training and exercise program to reduce risk associated with after-hours activities and events.
- Implementation – participants will identify a series of steps to develop, implement and sustain a safety and security program for school sports and after-hours activities.
Following the completion of the course, schools can be involved in a SESA assessment. The goal of SESA, according to Marciani, is to provide an assessment that recognizes organizations that provide a safe facility environment based on best practices and lessons learned.
“The core of SESA is a set of scalable standards for assessing risks; identifying vulnerabilities; developing appropriate plans, policies and procedures; and providing training and exercise to facility staff,” Marciani said.
The result of SESA is a continual four-year cycle to review and enhance safety, security and incident management programs at participating sports facilities.
[box title=”Writer’s Note” style=”soft”]Writer’s Note: This article was originally published in the March 2014 edition of “High School Today.”[/box]