Acts of terrorism and violence have become more commonplace over the last few years in U.S. schools. Researchers at West Virginia University developed a survey, sampling schools in three West Virginia counties to determine if these schools have policies, plans, and procedures in place to deal with acts of terrorism/violence. The survey contained twenty-five questions posed to school administration, faculty, and staff as to their knowledge of plans, procedures and responsibilities for preventing and responding to a terrorist/violent event. Eight of the original twenty-five questions were chosen to determine the preparedness of schools in the event of violent or terrorist acts. In the other seventeen questions the researchers were interested in how the various school districts developed and expanded and approved activities that prevent or reduce violence committed by and against youth on school property. Other items aimed on how the district provided the comprehensive services designed to impact a significant number of students and staff and complemented each other and the program services already in place in their respective school(s) and community. The data were then analyzed to determine if faculty, staff, and administration possessed the knowledge and the skills to successfully implement preparedness and response plans. Finally, school safety is everyone's responsibility. Administrators, teachers, staff, parents community members, and students all must commit to meeting the challenge of getting help for youngsters who show signs of being troubled.
Acts of terrorism and violence have become more commonplace over the last several years in United States schools. Ten years ago when Dr. Della-Giustina first put together his text on Planning for School Emergencies, terrorist acts were mentioned but, very little was said regarding planning and preparing for a terrorist act. Now a decade later, terrorism and violence has become an important issue in our schools across the nation.
Researchers at West Virginia University developed a survey to determine if schools have policies, plans, and procedures in place to deal with acts of terrorism/violence. A review of literature relevant to this study at hand was to identify acts of terrorism/violence in schools in the United States In addition to the literature review listed at the end of this article contacts were made with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Based on these contacts many of the questions were derived from them and reviewed prior to developing the survey instrument. However, the search summarized the limited field of information pertaining to this study. The survey contained twenty-five questions posed a sample from three counties in West Virginia. To do this a survey instrument was used in three high schools and three junior/middle schools in West Virginia. This survey to school administration, faculty, and staff was designed to document their knowledge of plans, procedures and responsibilities for preventing with and responding to a terrorist/violent event.
