Sometimes communication isn’t about what has happened: Instead, it’s about what didn’t happen.
We all have emergency response plans in place, and we’re all good at activating them (right?). Most organizations conduct near-perfect responses, thanks to excellent planning, training and practicing. But the best of responses are often insufficient to assuage stakeholder concerns.
Consider the incident at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas, as reported by the Associated Press:
Parents besiege Texas high school after false shooting call
“SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Alarmed parents converged on a Texas high school Tuesday after a classroom shooting report that ultimately proved to be false.
The siege at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio began about 1 p.m. Tuesday after police received a call of a possible shooting in progress at the school, according to a police statement. The school was placed on lockdown as police entered and began clearing the campus but found no evidence of an active threat or shooting.
“Our department and San Antonio Police Department established there was no shooting, but then we had to do a methodical search room by room with our strike teams,” said Chief Johnny Reyes of the San Antonio Independent School District police. “We went to the place where they said the shooting had occurred and we were able to quickly establish that no shooting had happened.”
Dr. Jaime Aquino, Superintendent of SAISD said it well in a letter to parents following the incident:
“Yesterday’s incident highlights that the district and city are prepared for a unified approach when a crisis occurs. The call prompted an immediate lockdown and a large and confident police presence – 29 district officers and 58 from SAPD. Officers conducted a room by room search of the entire campus and found no evidence of a weapon or a threat. All students and staff were safe, and we are extremely grateful for this outcome.”
A perfect response, well coordinated and conducted:
- A demonstrated high level of preparation and coordination of both District and the San Antonio Police Department.
- Effective response procedures that ensured safety of students, staff and responders
- The fortunate discovery that no shooting had occurred, and that there were no student injuries or risks
What could be better? Congratulations all around!
What was going on with the parents?
Back to the Associated Press story:
- “But frightened students already had made alarming telephone calls to their parents,
- (Parents received messaging from their children before they did from the school.)
- …who descended en masse on the school where 29 school district officers and 58 city police officers were on hand.
- (Parents descended into an already crowded response location, increasing danger and the possibility of escalation)
- One man shoved his fist through a window in an effort to gain entry to the school, lacerating his arm. Police applied a tourniquet to that arm.
- (Parents weren’t waiting for an all-clear, and panic overwhelmed reason)
- Others were handcuffed and detained after physically struggling with officers, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.”
- (Responders were diverted from protecting students to arrest parents)
How did this happen?
External Events happened. Parents panicked due to what they knew from what they’d heard.
Again, from the Associated Press article:
“The scare was the latest in a wave of such incidents since the May 24 mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers. A similar panic occurred at Heights High School in Houston on Sept. 13 after the school received a threat. Threats last week also prompted school shutdowns at districts near Austin and Houston and in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma.”
This incident’s big question for communicators
Can you say enough to parents so they stay away from their children’s school instead of flooding the response?
- Can you provide a robust, rapid and open information flow that helps parents make the right decision and wait until they’re notified that the school and students are safe?
- If you realize that communication efforts actually won’t stop them, let your response planners know this reality, and plan how to safely accommodate panicked parents; parent gathering area, dedicated parking in a safe location, place communication staff on-location to direct and assure parents, etc…
Superintendent Aquino said it right:
“San Antonio district Superintendent Jaime Aquino said the district needed to find better ways to communicate with parents in real time. “I’m assuming that if we had not had Uvalde, perhaps we would not have the reaction of the parents. So we just have to understand that,” he said.”
‘So we just have to understand that’ means that SAISD and other school districts need to be ready for the reality of parent reactions.
What does a communicator do with someone else’s incident?
- Be thankful that your organization has been spared the trauma of an incident!
- Reach out to your fellow communication professionals who have been impacted. Offer your help, offer your sympathy, express condolences. Do this more than once – people in the middle of a crisis usually don’t have bandwidth to really hear what you’re saying, nor to recognize or accept your offer to help. But they will in time, and professional-to-professional support and debriefing will expand the learning process for all.
- Analyze your own plans to see if your communication plans and processes are robust enough to meet your particular stakeholders’ information needs. Remember that reaching out to stakeholders isn’t just for ‘our’ good, it’s for their good as well.
- Learn from each incident. Review incidents related to your operations to see if your plans would work, or if you need plan changes or additions.
Every incident brings new challenges and new lessons to learn. What do we ‘just have to understand’ from incidents related to our operations? What do we have to learn from each incident?
In this incident, we’re reminded that one purpose of stakeholder communication is to promote understanding, that leads to trust, that leads to compliance with response restrictions or safety messages. We’re also reminded to be sure our organization’s response planners are aware of a possible tide of people (parents, volunteers, protesters, residents, etc.) that could impact the safety and effectiveness of our response.
From every incident we observe, our goal should be to devise the combination of communication and response solutions that ensure both an effective response and effective communication.
Be thankful, reach out, analyze, learn.