So they walk away with tools. Crisis counseling also stresses the import of seemingly perfunctory issues. In Jonesboro, Ark., where two boys gunned down four classmates and a teacher last March, the school was ready to spackle the bullet holes the next day. You don't want to sanitize a site too quickly because it doesn't give the community a chance to process the tragedy. A thorough plan will detail everything from how to notify parents in the event of a bus crash to steps for keeping students safe if an armed felon is roaming the halls.
Some schools also stage full-scale crisis drills.
Tom Doland, chief psychologist for Chesterfield County, Va., Public Schools, thinks drills are invaluable. The county stages elaborate crisis simulations each spring, with ambulances, nontoxic smoke, and students who fake injuries. During one drill, the SWAT team saw that its communications equipment didn't work well through the school's cinder-block walls, and upgraded it. The key, say drill advocates, is to tell everybody what's going on. Otherwise, the practice might indeed cause a real-life crisis.