HARD LESSONS Dealing with School Violence...Langman’s point was that knowledge is power, and the same lesson was delivered by another symposium presenter, Michele Gay, the parent

67

On the Road with Cassandra

Ingham

NYSIR Board of Governors Announces

New Positions

You may wish it was… but it isn’t.

While, statistically speaking, classrooms

generally remain safe places for

students and staff to teach and learn,

violence in school settings –

especially gun violence – seems

to be claiming more than its

fair share of headlines.

Even the experts

agree. “It does look

like we’re seeing more

of these (school shootings)

in the last 30 years,”

acknowledges Peter

Langman, author of Why Kids Kill and

an internationally recognized specialist

in the psychology of youngsters with

homicide on their minds.

That’s why more than 100 public school

educators from around New York convened

in Tarrytown recently to attend Pathway

to the Pillars: Plotting Your District’s

Course in School Violence

Prevention, NYSIR’s second

annual statewide

symposium. The day-

long conference consisted

of six in-depth segments:

Why Kids Kill: Inside the

Minds of School Shooters;

HARD LESSONS

Dealing with School Violence

It’s not milk and cookies anymore.

PAGE 2

NYSIR NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019

Managing the Tide of Gang Violence;

Trauma Interventions: From Prevention to

Therapy; Rethinking School Safety: A Parent’s

Perspective; Managing the Unfathomable;

and Raising the Pillars, guidance and

recommendations on school security from

NYSIR risk management professionals.

Setting the stage with a somber reminder

that “It’s not OK to continue to say, ‘This

won’t happen in my district,’” incoming

NYSIR President Eric Stark opened the

conclave by introducing Langman, principal

with Langman Psychological Associates,

LLC, who explained to rapt attendees how

he had gotten into his line of work. He

had been asked, he said, to assess the state

of mind of a student admitted to a local

hospital following the 1999 slaying of 12

students and one teacher at Columbine

High School in Littleton, CO.

The question: Was the student a potential

school shooter? Langman’s answer:

“There is no profile,” he contended. “But

there are patterns.”

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Downplaying simplistic stereotypes often

ascribed to them (white teenage males

who play video games, loners, bullied),

Langman advised that different shooters

commit different attacks for different

reasons. There are psychopathic shooters

(“I am the law,” wrote one Columbine

killer. “If you don’t like it, you die.”);

psychotic shooters who suffer from

hallucinations, delusions and profound

alienation; and traumatized shooters

with histories of family problems

and physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

But here’s the unsatisfying truth, Langman

told educators. Most people in those

categories never kill anyone. A school

DEALING WITH SCHOOL VIOLENCE... CONTINUED

PETER LANGMAN, PH.D, AUTHOR OF WHY KIDS KILL: INSIDE THE MINDS OF SCHOOL SHOOTERS

MICHELE GAY, CO-FOUNDER, SAFE AND SOUND SCHOOLS

JOHN PEPPARD, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND MANAGER, NYSIR PROGRAM, WRIGHT RISK, SPEAKS WITH PRESENTER PETER LANGMAN

shooter often is someone you’d never suspect.

And while the events that trigger violence

often fall under the same headings –

academic failures, discipline

problems, romantic

setbacks, conflicts with

peers and loss of career

potential – there is “no

one cause,” according to

Langman. “No simple

explanation. No soundbite.”

There may, however, be a

common sign that educa-

tors can look for. Potential

school shooters, he noted,

often communicate what

they intend to do, in many

different ways. Which is

why conducting threat

assessments is so important.

Read between the lines in

student writing, comments

and oral reports, he advised. Look for

direct, indirect and implied threats, as well

as manifestations of attack-related

behavior such as hit lists, school

diagrams, plans, questions about

obtaining weapons and rehearsals.

Other forms of what Langman called

‘leakage’ include bragging, warning

people to stay away, recruitment of

peers to help, admiration of other

shooters and online posting of words

and pictures.

If it’s warranted, he told educators,

initiate a formal threat assessment,

and don’t limit inquiries to potential

perpetrators. Talk to friends and families, and

then follow up. Streamline district policies

and make sure education professionals

conducting the assessment are trained. Just

as important, educate students about the very

real need to report what they’re seeing and

hearing. Teach them about warning signs

and the difference between snitching and

saving lives, and make it easy for them to

tell what they know anonymously.

THE MORE YOU KNOW…

Langman’s point was that knowledge is

power, and the same lesson was delivered

by another symposium presenter, Michele

Gay, the parent of a young Sandy Hook

Elementary School shooting victim and

co-founder and executive director of an

organization called Safe and Sound Schools.

“I want you to be empowered by the facts,”

she told attendees.

Providing what she

called “the perspective

of a mom and a

survivor,” Gay said

that after a period

of healing she took

a closer look at the

school’s emergency

shutdown procedures

and uncovered weak-

ness after weakness.

While the original plan

involved written procedures and rote drills,

she contended, in large part it was built

on the assumption that there would never

be a need for any of it. In truth, she said,

the plan might more honestly have been

called “Not here.”

A nearby firehouse that had been desig-

nated as a gathering place, for example,

was too small, and was underprepared to


PAGE 3


CORRINE MORTON, CEO, SYNTAX

After a period of healing Michele Gay took a closer look at the school’s emergency shutdown procedures and uncovered weakness after weakness.

PAGE 4


handle first responders and family members.

Visitor check-in procedures at the school

were ineffective and unfortified. The

gunman, she said,

just shot out a

window and by-

passed the entrance.

“We had practiced

for this,” she

emphasized, “but

the lockdown

procedure

wasn’t working.”

Other examples:

Neither teachers

nor the custodian

could quickly and

efficiently secure

classroom doors.

Why? Because they

all had key locks.

Try finding a key

and correctly inserting it into a handle

lock when kids are screaming and bullets

are flying. And there was more.

Drills had been conducted without

police and firefighters, Gay advised. “We

failed to sit down at the table with them.”

“It works beautifully,” she said with

undisguised irony, “until you actually

have a crisis.”

The upshot, she said, is that education

professionals, students, parents and

first responders have to be flexible

and prepared to handle anything. “You

can have that conversation now.

It’s about rethinking school safety.”

GANGSTERS

For many schools, presenter Carlos Sanchez

reminded, improving school safety also

involves grappling with gang activity.

A director of school security at Suffolk

County’s Brentwood UFSD, Sanchez said

that while several gangs populate the area –

Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, Trinitarios − the

predominant group is MS-13, a drug money-

making machine often associated with

Latino immigrants. Beginning

in 2014, he explained,

unaccompanied children

came in droves from the

southern border. “Guess where

all those children are going?”

he asked, quickly answering

his own question. Schools.

Why do they join gangs?

“They have a new mother,”

he explained. “It’s called

MS-13.” Students can quickly

excel within the group and

control an entire local cartel.

The gang is extremely well-

organized, he said, and uses

social media and girls to recruit young men.

Sanchez said the best way to identify gang

members is to review school attendance


ELISSA BROWN, PH.D, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHILD HELP PARTNERSHIP

CARLOS SANCHEZ, DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL SECURITY, BRENTWOOD USFD

The upshot, she said, is that education professionals, students, parents and first responders have to be flexible and prepared to handle anything.


PAGE 5


records. Check to see if they’re actually

in class, he suggested. Immigrations and

Custom Enforcement will deport them if

they’re not.

Organized after-school activities like

soccer also will help give potential

recruits alternative groups to join,

he advised, and ESL teachers

(English as a Second Language)

can play an exceedingly important

role in controlling gang activity.

Immigrant students, he said, will

tell them everything.

HANDLING THE TRAUMA

Also telling? The damage that

school violence can do to

developing psyches. Elissa Brown,

executive director of Child HELP

Partnership, described how post-traumatic

stress may manifest itself in children of all

ages. Young children, for example, can suffer

from fear of being separated from their

parents. Other symptoms may include

regression (acting younger than they are),

clinging, tantrums and sleep disturbance.

Kids from 6-11, she added, can exhibit

regressive behaviors, anger and aggression,

an inability to concentrate and depression.

For teenagers, the trauma of school

violence can trigger depression, guilt, with-

drawal, mood swings, panic, poor grades,

sleep problems and even substance abuse.

“You’d be amazed,” she said, “at the level

of self-blame.”

In all instances she emphasized the

importance of preventive intervention in

educational settings. Teach problem-solving

skills, she advised attendees. Promote

positive activities, manage physical and

emotional reactions, promote helpful

thinking and rebuild social connections.

But Brown had a special message, as well,

for her educator audience: If you’ve had the

horrific luck of experiencing school violence

on a personal level, protect against your own

secondary traumatic stress. “The adults in

a school,” she relayed emphatically, “have to

be taken care of as much as the children.”

WHAT TO SAY... AND HOW TO SAY IT

As the symposium drew to a close, Corinne

Morton, CEO of Syntax, a marketing com-

munications consultancy for school districts

and other public agencies,

made clear that protocols

to communicate internally

and externally need to be

established ahead of time.

For one thing, districts

should designate a school

spokesperson to interact

with media. For another,

procedures need to be in

place to communicate with

parents – possibly a hotline

with automated response

capabilities. The longer

parents wait to hear something official, she

advised, “the more they fill things in with

their own stories.”

If the worst occurs and the public needs

to be addressed, try to remain calm

and prepare your message. Stay on point,

but listen and empathize, as well. And

don’t be judgmental with parents or the Continued on page 8.

Students can quickly excel

within a gang and control an entire

local cartel. It’s extremely

well-organized and uses

social media and girls to recruit

young men. If you’ve had the horrific luck of experiencing school violence on a personal level, protect against your own secondary traumatic stress.

PAGE 6


doesn’t need

a map to find her way around the Empire

State. With 30 years of New York public

school and BOCES insurance and risk

management experience, she’s hitting the

road again – this time for NYSIR.

Having grown up in Rochester,

she’s a native New Yorker… right

down to the schools she attended.

Ingham earned a bachelor’s

degree in communications from

Syracuse University and a masters

in economic crime management

from Utica College, stopping along

the way to pick up her designation

as a certified school risk manager

and become a faculty member

with the National Alliance for

Insurance Education and Research.

Her first job was in risk management

and safety at Oneida Herkimer Madison

BOCES, where she focused heavily on

safety and compliance with mandates.

From there, Ingham says, it was a natural

transition to move to Utica National

Insurance Group and work with schools

in the areas of risk management and

legal liability. She would spend the next

26 years becoming an expert in the field

before deciding it was time for a change.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT VOCABULARY

Asked how she’d describe working for

NYSIR, Ingham quickly landed on three

words: leadership, innovation and

commitment. Citing those characteristics,

she says she believes NYSIR delivers a

program to subscribers that is unmatched.

The reciprocal is New York State’s only

not-for-profit property and casualty

insurance company, she pointed out, and

is owned by the schools it insures. Unlike

other insurance agencies, NYSIR’s board

of governors is comprised of leaders from

its own subscriber districts and BOCES,

who help decide how the reciprocal is run.

That distinction, explains Ingham, allows

the people who know schools best to

make important decisions together. “The

voice of the customer,” she reminds,

“comes from the board of governors.”

By innovating, she notes, NYSIR constantly

provides its subscribers with the most

current information on risk management

issues and topics. She singles out the

benefits of NYSIR’s online

university (NYOU) and

how it allows subscribers

to access important

professional development

courses remotely at their

own pace. NYSIR actively

seeks out important issues

and topics to build into

the university program,

says Ingham, which

means course libraries are

ever-increasing. She also

emphasizes the benefits

of regional risk seminars

conducted throughout the

year that allow subscribers

to network with one another and take

advantage of important safety initiatives.

Since joining NYSIR, Ingham has been

traveling across the state and talking with Continued on page 8.

On the Road AgainCassandra Ingham, the reciprocal’s newBusiness Development Specialist,

CASSANDRA [email protected]

“By innovating, NYSIR constantly provides its subscribers with the most current information on risk management issues and topics.


PAGE 7

Members of the

NYSIR Board of Governors and the

reciprocal’s management company met

in August to officially introduce the

organization’s new president, officers

and committee members, and to set course

for the 2019-2020 school year.

The annual reorganization

meeting gave the board a

chance to formally welcome

Eric Stark, Assistant Super-

intendent for Business

at Carmel Central School

District and a longtime

member of the board, who

replaces Dr. Stephen

Lunden as president. Stark

previously served as first

vice president of the board.

Deborah Heppes, Assistant Superintendent

for Finance at Orange-Ulster

BOCES, now serves in that

role, and Timothy Whipple,

Assistant Superintendent for

Business at Pleasantville Union

Free School District (UFSD),

becomes NYSIR’s second

vice president. Janet Bryan,

Assistant Superintendent for

Operations at Longwood UFSD,

will serve as board secretary.

As president, Stark will also

chair the board’s Executive

Committee. Dr. Jennifer

Avery from Otsego Northern

Catskills BOCES will continue to serve as

chair of the Operations Committee;

Anne Marie Marrone Caliendo from

Half Hollow Hills CSD will head

the board’s Planning and Development

Committee, and

Dr. Wayne Loper

from Valley Stream

Central High

School will continue as chair of the

Finance Committee.

During the meeting, committee

members assembled to review and

approve committee charges, and

the full board renewed two contracts –

one with the New York State Public

High School Athletic Association

(NYSPHAA) for “Heads Up” sports head

injury prevention training, and

another with

Mower PR Agency

for subscriber

communication

and public

relations support.

Board members

also completed

an “in-service”

day that included

presentations dealing

with topics that

ranged from financial

results to investment

program details

and NYSIR’s A.M. Best

rating. The board also

discussed this summer’s hot topic –

the impact of updated New

York State laws, including the

Child Victims Act.

Let’s Reorganize, Shall We?It’s that time again.

ERIC STARK Board members completed an “in-service” day that included presentations dealing with topics that ranged from financial results to investment program details and NYSIR’s A.M. Best rating.

The annual reorganization meeting gave

the board a chance

to formally welcome Eric

Stark, who replaces

Dr. Stephen Lunden

as president.

board of governorsNEW YORK SCHOOLS INSURANCE RECIPROCAL AUGUST, 2019


PAGE 8

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WWW.NYSIR.ORG | NYSIR IS ON TWITTER: HTTP://TWITTER.COM/#!/NYSIRINSURANCE

subscribers, who tell her that, among

other things, the reciprocal’s commit-

ment is its biggest advantage.

Accessibility, she says, is one chief

reason subscribers tell her they’re

happy. “Schools need that kind of

extra-special attention,” she says. “They

sometimes can’t wait for a day or

two for somebody to get back to them.

Especially if there’s a construction

project going on. They need to have

questions answered about transferring

risk and certificates of insurance.”

With representatives throughout the

state, NYSIR is always available

for a call, Ingham says. Or better yet,

NYSIR professionals can go directly

to a subscriber district to help answer

any question they may have.

ON THE ROAD AND BACK HOME AGAIN

Ingham says traveling across the state,

representing NYSIR and hearing positive

feedback along the way has been very

rewarding so far. It also makes her appreciate

‘downtime’ when she returns to her home

in central New York. An avid cook, she enjoys

spending time grilling up a new recipe and

enjoying the tranquility on her back deck.

Extend a friendly hello if you see her in

your district, and she might even share a

recipe or two with you.

community. “Once you lose them,” Morton

emphasized, “it’s extremely difficult to get

them back.”

And remember, she cautioned: Everything

you say will be shared with everybody.

Closing out the conference, NYSIR Director

of Risk Management Brett Carruthers and

Manager of Risk Services Michael Drance

drew on the reciprocal’s insightful Safer

Schools, a widely disseminated NYSIR white-

paper focused on helping districts and

BOCES prepare for and deal with armed

intruders. The booklet brings together

comprehensive articles by NYSIR risk

management professionals that cover school

violence warning signs; school access

controls and visitor management systems;

how to conduct building security checkups

and realistic onsite drills; the role of

security guards and guidelines for creating

a culture of safety.

Following up on detailed recommendations

offered in Safer Schools, Carruthers and

Drance outlined six pillars of school

security for educators to consider: the

designation of broad-spectrum teams

focused on violence prevention; mental

health and student threat assessment

programs; law enforcement support;

access controls; visitor management; and

the importance of realistic drills.

ON THE ROAD... CONTINUED


Documents

HARD LESSONS Dealing with School Violence...Langman’s point was that knowledge is power, and the same lesson was delivered by another symposium presenter, Michele Gay, the parent