New Report from Insurance Services Office Tells Schools, Parents How to Prevent Violence in Schools

January 1, 2011 / 2 min read

NEW YORK, May 24, 1999 — In response to the most recent school shooting incidents in Littleton, Colo., and Conyers, Ga., Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) is offering free to school officials, parents, and other interested persons its just-published report: School Violence: A Prevention Program.

Developed by ISO's Engineering & Safety Service unit, the report provides an overview of the scope of violence in schools and outlines steps that schools, communities, parents, and kids themselves can take to prevent such violence.

The study, which draws heavily from the Annual Report on School Safety by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, provides information on developing and implementing a comprehensive school-violence prevention plan.

In detail, the study covers what schools, students, parents, business officials, police, juvenile-justice authorities, and other government agencies can do to reduce school violence and lower the threat of school crime. The ISO report also provides examples of successful programs that have been implemented at schools to address specific problems.

Among other things, the report covers the use of school-security professionals in designing and maintaining school security systems, and training for school staffs in all aspects of violence prevention.

The report also reviews crisis-response services, noting that "serious, but rare events, such as shootings, bomb threats, hostage taking and other crises require quick and pre-planned responses."

Major recommendations for schools include:

a crisis response team with clearly defined duties;
an evacuation plan;
a police and parent notification plan;
a media-communications strategy; and
a means for counselors to provide guidance and consolation to students after a traumatic event.

Major recommendations for parents include:

Be available and approachable to your children;
Be clear and consistent in disciplining children;
Model behavior that shows how to solve problems effectively and cope with frustration and anger;
Get involved with school and community organizations and activities;
Keep guns and other weapons out of unsupervised children's reach;
Limit children's exposure to crime and violence, especially on television and the Internet.

The ISO report summarizes model programs recommended by the Department of Education for use by school systems to form a comprehensive school-violence prevention plan. Also provided are additional information resources to aid education officials, community leaders, and parents prevent school violence.

Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) serves property/liability insurers with statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims information and analyses; consulting and technical services; and information about specific locations. ISO's Engineering & Safety Service (E&S) provides information to help insurers reduce losses.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com