Preparing school leaders for crises

Between 1999 and 2015, critical incidents in schools such as the Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Ump qua Community College, and Northern Arizona University are a reminder of the need for educating and training school leadership to be prepared to manage critical incidents in schools (Schuster, 2009). Genzer, Kerosene, and Schultz (2010), stated that through history, 71 identified critical incidents have contributed to the rise in the level of concern by school leadership to take action. The growing probability of a crisis happening in schools has prompted school leadership to develop a protocol to mitigate critical incidents (Baran & Adelman, 2010). The lack of training and knowledge to respond to crises are indicators of why school leadership, need to acquire an understanding of the dynamics of crisis response operations (Gupta & Boyd, 2008). Post-event assessments have indicated actions during critical incidents shows a lack of understanding of the school leaderships' role in taking the appropriate actions for these critical incidents.