A plan pages from 33 2 w99 cjet by Bradley Wilson

The trick is knowing what to do then doing it immediately and effectively. By Bradley Wilson Editor

“Plan.” For some school publications staffs, it’s a fourletter word. For others, typically more successful staffs, having a plan for contingencies means successfully handling of whatever events are thrown at them. The trick is knowing what to do, then doing it immediately and effectively. Knowing what to do when a crisis occurs maximizes the learning opportunities from what otherwise would just be a tragedy. When a disaster strikes, journalists are torn between needing to deal with emotions of the victims at the same time they are coping with their own emotions. With advance planning, this process can be smoother than when tragedy takes a staff by surprise and no preformulated plan is in effect.

Before 1. Have a written policy for dealing with student deaths to ensure each death will be covered equitably. 2. Complete the general contact list of emergency contacts. Assign a reporter to everyone on the list. 3. Make sure every staff member has a roster complete with home addresses and phone numbers (including cell phones and beepers) of every other staff member. 4. Establish a means of communication should phone lines be out. For example, arrange to use one family as the “dispatch” center for student journalists. 5. Create a system for backing up essential computer information such as pages and art files. Have that information updated and stored off-site at least once per week. Storing it in the school’s

fireproof safe will do you no good if you can’t get back into the school. 6. If the school is evacuated in an organized fashion, designate students to take backup disks and recent negative files with them if practical. At any given time, anyone in the classroom should know who is responsible for making sure everyone in the lab gets out and who should try to take what materials. (Practice this during fire drills and weather alert drills.) 7. Plan a strategy so student photographers – or anyone else – can take every camera out with them if the school is evacuated. Because most photographers will not be in the room at the time of evacuation, this is another reason for photographers to carry their cameras with them at all times. 8. Establish a working relationship with the local television stations and newspapers. If your facilities are unavailable,

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make arrangements to use theirs to continue publishing during and after a crisis. Let them know the student reporters and photographers will be available to work with them as well. 9. Establish a working relationship with neighboring schools. If your facilities are unavailable, make arrangements to use theirs to continue publishing after a crisis. Let them know that a reciprocal arrangement will also be in effect should a disaster strike their school. 10. Establish a working relationship with the emergency agencies that will respond – police, fire and EMS. Which units will be first on the scene? What additional units will respond if the incident exceeds the capabilities of the first-on-scene units? Emergency workers will work better with people they know. continued on page 15

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11. Establish a working relationship with members of the school’s crisis team. Beat reporters should get to know everyone on the team – what their specific responsibilities are and where they’ll be in each type of crisis. 12. Form a Parents of Publications Students organization so families can work together to keep everyone informed about the actions being taken in a crisis. 13. Decide where publications staff members will meet to implement the crisis plan if the school is inaccessible. 14. Establish a staff hierarchy so everyone is clear who is in charge, regardless of who is available. 15. Prepare crisis kits that can be kept in such locations as the adviser’s home or at a nearby student’s house. In the crisis kit, include instructions for uploading images to the Web site or social networking sites, notebooks, pens, a staff roster, crisis policies established by the staff, emergency contact list, generic press passes and a map of the school and the surrounding area. These kits can be kept in fanny packs or grab bags that are easily accessible and mobile. 16. Prepare a list of staff members who have computer equipment at home or portable computers that could be used if nothing else is accessible. 17. Prepare a list of staff members who have cameras at home. Ask each of them to learn how to edit and upload images.

During

FIRST THINGS FIRST Remember, the primary goal in any first-stage emergency is to protect yourself and those around you. You can’t help anyone or cover the story if you’re hurt yourself. And you can’t prevent bad things from happening to others if you don’t live to tell the story. If there’s a fire in the building – get out fast. If there’s a sniper in the hall – step inside a classroom and hide. If there’s SPECIAL EDITION

Where to start It’s unfortunate, but something unimaginable has happened at your school. What now?

STEP 1 a. Regroup. No matter how well you’ve planned ahead to use a “disaster plan” as outlined on these pages, you’ll never be completely ready for what has happened. b. Create your crisis team, led by a crisis editor, to coordinate the coverage. c. Bring everybody involved together, and brainstorm the best ways to move ahead. STEP 2 Decide on the type of coverage. Is the event timely and proximate? If so, consider news coverage. If not, consider feature coverage. STEP 3 Get to work. If you’ve decided to produce a timely edition, be prepared for many long hours. Getting the news out will be hard work. If you’ve planned an in-depth feature package, be prepared for many long hours. Informing students and trying to answer “why” and “how” is hard work. STEP 4 Continue to execute your plan, and keep the printer and your administrators informed of the success. If possible, send a promotional notice to faculty and staff so they can anticipate the special coverage and goals. Also, remember that the total job requires attention after the issue appears. Distribute the issue publicly and mail additional copies with personal notes to selected individuals and appropriate public figures.

bad weather outside – move into a safe place inside. It all sounds logical, but it’s amazing how many journalists are hurt putting themselves in the path of danger. GET HELP After the immediate crisis is over, your first job as a human being is to call for help. Call 911. As calmly as possible tell the emergency dispatcher what you know about what happened and what types of injuries and damage the emergency personnel can expect. If the scene is not yet safe, be sure to relay that to the dispatcher so emergency workers are not put into harm’s way. HELP OTHERS The next thing to do is help others in need of help. Be careful not to make alterations to surroundings because you may want to investigate the conditions later. Remember, your job is primarily to observe rather than to participate. However, emergencies may require your help to clear uninjured students out of the immediate area to a pre-designated gathering area. If necessary, use the first aid skills you learned in school or make people comfortable. If you are trained, do CPR as necessary. As soon as possible, start making observations about what you see, hear, feel and smell. If you arrive on a scene at this stage, begin taking notes on things you want to remember. The more detail the better. And photos of the event are even better.

CRISIS A sudden, generally unanticipated event that profoundly and negatively affects a significant segment of the school population and often involves serious injury or death. The psychological and emotional impact will be moderate to severe. Outside assistance will be needed.

START THE COVERAGE While the school administrators are executing their instructions for crisis management, the school publications staffs should execute their plans. As soon as feasible, gather in a pre-designated spot. School administrators will probably have students gather in the cafeteria, gymnasium or on the football field. Designate a leader (the editor, the adviser or the news editor) for the other staff members to locate to begin assigning tasks. In the event one person isn’t available, make sure everyone is clear regarding who’s next in line. continued on page 16 COMMUNICATION: JOURNALISM EDUCATION TODAY • 15

REACTION TO A CRISIS Typically, individuals go through a sequence of emotional reactions following a crisis. 1. high anxiety 2. denial 3. anger 4. remorse 5. grief 6. reconciliation

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO ASK • What plans have been made for finishing the school day? • When will the school be reopened and what steps need to be taken so the school (or a portion of the school) can be reopened? • If students, faculty or staff members are in hospitals, what is their status? Can they receive visitors? • How do agencies such as the Department of Defense, National Guard, American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Division of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms respond? • Where has the information center been set up? • How and when are parents and family being contacted?

After

CREATE A CRISIS TEAM The school will designate a Crisis Team usually consisting of the head administrator, a counselor and others. Your publications adviser may be on this team as the contact for the professional media. Your publications staff should also designate a crisis team. CHOOSE A CRISIS EDITOR WHO • directs and coordinates all coverage dealing with the crisis. This individual may or may not be the editor of the publication. • has authority to assign duties to all editors, photojournalists and reporters working on the coverage. • establishes deadlines for the staff members. IMMEDIATE DECISIONS 1. What form is the coverage going to take? Are you going to produce a special section or a 30-minute video newscast or a supplement to the yearbook? 2. Who is going to handle this coverage? Everyone should have specific tasks with measurable outcomes and specific deadlines. 3. What information is most relevant

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Types of coverage NEWS To qualify for news coverage, the event you’re covering must be timely and must have happened physically close (proximate) to your school. Otherwise, it’s not news. Therefore, you need to have a publication coming out soon after the event to write a news story. Your news story need not be about the event itself. If the pre-trial hearing for one of the students involved in a crime is next week, that may be your news story. There is no need to re-hash old news, particularly old news that has been covered on television or in other publications. Also consider news stories about various aspects of the event, not simply one general story on the event itself. For example, there may be a news angle about the school board approving funds to rebuild the cafeteria after the tornado or about the governor coming to visit or about metal detectors being installed in the school. News coverage covers both sides of the story and includes the opinions of authorities, not the writer. FEATURE Feature stories can take any of hundreds of angles. For example, you might write a personality profile about the individuals involved in a heroic rescue or you might write a feature story about past floods in the community’s history (with interviews from long-time student residents who remember the last flood) or a feature story about the costs to local farmers (including many parents of students at your school) or perhaps about the student volunteer firefighters who responded to the call when lightning struck the school and

to students? The answer to this question should drive the reporting and coverage of the story. ASSIGN COVERAGE 1. Assign a reporter to everyone on the emergency contact list for this specific crisis. Ideally, general assignments have been made in advance through a beat system so the reporters have already established a rapport with the contact. However, be prepared to adapt to the evolving situation. 2. Depending on the timeliness of the coverage (newspaper special supplement coming out in two days, newspaper coming out in one week, newsmagazine coming out next month, yearbook coming out in three months), have each reporter make contact to find out what has happened and what the various groups are doing about it. Even though you may not have a publication for several weeks, it’s critical to gather information every step of the way. Watch how the story evolves and record that evolution. Change publications if necessary. 3. Gather information. Even if the publication is not coming out in a timely fashion, there are a lot of stories that need to be told: stories of the victims, of their friends, of their families; stories of the alleged criminals; stories of the weather forecasters; stories of the emergency personnel who responded. Find those stories, and deliver the information to the reporter assigned that angle. EVOLVING DECISIONS 1. Work with everyone on the publication’s crisis team to set up a well-defined deadline schedule. Start from the date of publication and work backward. • When do stories have to be written? • When do they have to be edited? • When do photographs have to be processed? • When do pages have to be designed?

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• What is the last moment the finished product can be delivered for printing or transmission? 2. As soon as practical, the school administration will issue an initial statement. You’ll probably learn nothing from this statement, but read it carefully. Determine how the school is responding to the event and how students will be affected. 3. As part of the school’s crisis plan, the administration will issue a public statement. This has probably been well rehearsed. Did the school follow the plan? Why or why not? 4. Teachers may be the first to get the facts for dissemination to others. Have a mechanism for getting this information to the student staff as well. By having established a solid working relationship with the administration, they’ll know you are the voice of the students and can be trusted to get the information out as well. Using an e-mail listserv for the staff may be helpful. 5. Next, the administration will contact the parents and community leaders. That contact, in a prepared form, should include specific factual information about the event; information about how the district is handling the crisis, phone numbers for contacting people within the district and information about community resources. 7. What additional resources do you need and for whom can you serve as a source? For example, if the student newspaper isn’t coming out for three weeks, but you have a good, working relationship with the town newspaper, perhaps students can gain “real world” experience by writing or taking pictures for that publication. 8. Where are you going to work? When? Find some central place to serve as “command and control” headquarters. 9. Make sure the needs of everyone on staff are being met. Do they need to be talking with counselors? Critical incident stress is as

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burned down the library. Feature coverage can take many forms. Ideally, a good feature package will involve a lot of interviews with a myriad of sources and solid research. Feature coverage should make the reader/viewer experience what happened. Include descriptions of the smells, sounds and sights of those who experienced the event. EDITORIAL Ideally, your coverage won’t end with the news and feature stories. As the voice of students, you have a special chance to make a difference with your coverage and commentary. Base your commentary on the solid reporting done in the news and feature stories. Propose solutions so unnecessary problems can be avoided in the future, but don’t attempt to place blame. PHOTOGRAPHY Remember to make your photographers part of the team, and instruct them to start shooting immediately. As the school community reacts, they should be there to capture all the emotion and action. Complete and thorough captions with the names of all recognizable people should accompany every photo submitted for publication. GRAPHICS & SIDEBARS A complete package also consists of well-designed and researched graphics and some short sidebars on topics that don’t warrant thorough coverage. Sidebars might include a list of similar incidents at other schools, a timeline or a list of places to turn for assistance.

much of a problem for reporters as for emergency workers. Make sure they have access to counselors as necessary. Again, ideally arrangements for this will be made in advance of a crisis. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER • What alterations in the curriculum will be necessary? • What arrangements have been made for funerals of deceased students, faculty or staff members? • How have teachers been trained to deal with the aftermath of the consequence? • What types of discussions took place in the classroom following a crisis? • How did the local media respond? Why? • How did the national media respond? Why? • If students, faculty or staff members were killed, have memorial funds been established? What will monies donated to this fund be used for? • If the perpetrator of a crime is not known, what is being done to identify that individual? Is there a hotline for anonymous tips? • Who were the people directly involved and were they long-time, popular members of the school? The better known a student, faculty or staff member is, the harder it will be for the school community to deal with the incident. Also, the more people will be affected. • What happened? Murder and suicide are unexpected and violent, and thus more difficult to deal with than, for example, a death from a serious illness. • Where did the death occur? A death that occurs on school grounds is more difficult to deal with. It is important to find out who witnessed the death and provide them with counseling. Students may also express concerns with personal safety. • What other tragedies have affected this school? The latest death will cause other unresolved issues to surface for both staff and students.

Produced with guidance from the Nettleton Public School District (4201 Race Street; Jonesboro, AR 72401 ), John Sawyer, superintendent and Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute.

continued on page 18

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• Who was the perpetrator? If the person believed to be responsible for the death is also a member of your school community, it adds to the emotion of the story and your sources. • Will a memorial be built? Most school districts do not recommend that permanent memorials be built on the school premises. Most districts recommend that people be allowed to make a monetary donation to a general scholarship fund in lieu of establishing a memorial. • What happened at the first faculty meeting after the crisis? Just as students need time to recover, so do faculty members. The faculty meeting may be the first opportunity the faculty and staff have to meet with their peers. While, undoubtedly, their goal will be to return the school to as normal of an operating state as possible, that may be more difficult for some teachers/staff members than others. Give them a chance to work out these problems and cover how they handle the situation when appropriate. • What has changed since the incident? Have security measures changed? Where will the money come from for recovery?

Exercise

Which would you publish? What follows is a list of story ideas that your crisis team has compiled concerning the floods that have recently devastated your town. As crisis issue editor, it’s your job to make assignments. Rank the stories in order of importance with #1 being the most important. Cross out any stories you would never consider running. Before you start, write down what type of medium you are working on and when it will be distributed. I’m working on ❏ the school newspaper/newsmagazine. ❏ the school yearbook.

❏ the school broadcast news. ❏ the school’s Web site.

Why does it make a difference what type of medium you’re working on?

If today is Saturday, Dec. 18, when is your medium going to be distributed? ____________ ____________________. Why does the time of distribution make a difference?

STORY IDEAS: ��

Water fills a local barbershop owned by parents of high school senior; “a total loss.”

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Drug store only one block from river downtown “smells like a sewer”; water reached three feet inside store at peak.

APPROPRIATE QUESTIONS FOR VICTIMS • Where were you when the event occurred? • What did you see? Hear? • How well do you know the victim(s)? Alleged perpetrators? • Could anything have been done to prevent this incident? • Have there been or do you expect any changes in your life or routine because of the event?

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Elementary school “not likely to reopen” after flood waters reach 6-feet on first floor.

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High school serves as shelter for 1,500 county residents fleeing flood waters.

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More than 10,000 pigs expected to die; pork prices likely to rise; local farmers destroying carcases to avoid disease outbreak.

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Coast Guard rescues 150 citizens, including several students, trapped after dam breaks.

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After three days, National Guard provides first drinking water to residents.

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Running water not likely to be accessible for up to two weeks.

INAPPROPRIATE QUESTIONS • How do you feel? • Do you want to “get even” or seek revenge? • Have you heard any rumors that bother you?

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President declares disaster area, visits high school to encourage people to rebuild.

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Two students still missing; military, local departments still searching.

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School buses under water.

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Homes of more than half of students, faculty and staff uninhabitable.

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More than 100 roads in three counties, including two highways, still impassable.

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Exercise

Emergency contact list The first thing to fail in any form of disaster is communication. As part of your publications staff “disaster plan,” you need to plan ahead for ways to get in touch with critical people to continue your coverage of students’ lives. You can also help members of the local media who will be looking for assistance in covering your school. For this exercise, get the names and phone numbers of the people listed below, but remember to have plans for alternate means of communication should phone lines be down for extended periods of time. Home phone numbers should be considered privileged information and should be used only by school publications staff members in a crisis situation. Superintendent___________________________________________

Local minister____________________________________________