The Role of Leadership in Surviving a School Shooting

Abstract

At a small rural middle school in the southern United States, two students murdered a teacher, four students, and injured 10 during a shooting spree. This case represents the lived experiences of a school principal, counselor, and community that survived the deadly rampage. The case highlights the challenges that school leaders may face such as making quick decisions, managing volunteers, and assisting faculty, staff, students, and parents in returning to a level of normalcy. Although the experience is based on a real event, all identifying information (i.e., location, names) has been masked with pseudonyms. The case encourages discussion and reflection among school leaders in responding to youth violence on school campuses.

Calming the Storm: Natural Disasters, Crisis Management, and School Leadership

“…My clear messaging was important and allowed us to retain our sense of community and continue to support one another. These messages also proved vital to other leadership challenges I faced, such as managing philanthropy and volunteers (see Brown, 2018; Mutch, 2015). Likewise, aligned to research on cross-sector partnerships (e.g., Pavlakis, 2018; Miller et al, 2015), I found that identifying those individuals that knew the families well—both in and outside of the school—was crucial to assessing families’ needs and connecting them to vital resources.…”

“…Mr. Potter’s time was dominated by creating the floor plan and traffic pattern, coordinating the reopening of Walnut Hill, and using deliberate messages when speaking with media, staff, and families. Using skills that are essential to educational leadership during a crisis (Brown, 2018; Pepper et al, 2010; Smith & Riley, 2012), Mr. Potter had to make decisive decisions based on incomplete information and apply his previous educational leadership experience and knowledge of his school community to guide his path. Aligned to the research (Mutch, 2015; Smith & Riley, 2012), he also had to remain flexible and effectively communicate messages that were optimistic and encouraged tenacity in the face of adversity.…”

“…He also had to communicate these priorities and decisions to a variety of stakeholders (Fletcher & Nicholas, 2016; Mutch, 2015) in ways that addressed concerns, promoted trust with families and the community (Bryk & Schneider, 2003), and gave the district the time it needed to plan. Finally, Mr. Potter had to use his past educational leadership experience and knowledge of his staff, students, and families to determine how to best meet their needs (Mutch, 2015; Smith & Riley, 2012) when he was confronted with offers for donations and school–community collaborations (Brown, 2018; Fletcher & Nicholas, 2016; Mutch, 2015; NCHE, 2015).…”

School Counselors’ Response to School Shootings: Framework of Recommendations

“…Additional examples in the literature included but were not limited to individuals who had experienced or witnessed school counselors' roles in surviving a school shooting (Fein, 2001;Brown, 2015;Brown, 2017;Kennedy-Paine, 2018;Poland, 2018), as well as school counselors' self-reports. For example, Austin (2003) served as a school counselor assisting the recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting rampage.…”

“…Example of a Decision-Making Tree for a Person Experiencing a Violent Crisis (Brown, 2017) Furthermore, school counselors who have family members attending the same school or district will need to discuss a safety plan with their family members in case the school counselor finds him-or herself in conflict as a result of needing to help students while being concerned about said family members. Ideas for this safety plan might include specifying who to contact in advance, friends or adults with whom it is safe to go home, and so forth.…”