Crisis management: Handling prescription drug

incidents in schools Phase 3

Crisis management phases

Crisis management is a six-phase process:

Phase 1: Prepare before a prescription drug incident occurs in your school.

Phase 2: Take immediate action when a prescription drug incident occurs.

Phase 3: Communicate with school community members after a prescription drug incident.

Phase 4: Follow up after a prescription drug incident.

Phase 5: Implement disciplinary actions for student(s) involved in a prescription drug incident.

Phase 6: Support and monitor student(s) involved in a prescription drug incident.

The following presentation describes the action steps you should complete in Phase 3. If you would like to review a different phase, please click on the appropriate link above.

Phase 3: Communicate with school community members after the prescription drug incident

In Phase 3, take steps to ensure clear communication with school community members, including parents, staff, and students, and manage the information presented by the media to the community after a prescription drug incident.

There are two action steps you should complete:

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students.

Action step 3.2: Manage media involvement.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Parents, staff, and students may have many questions and concerns regarding prescription drug incidents at school.

Clear communication about a prescription drug incident in your school can help:

• Alleviate fears

• Dispel rumors

•Minimize disruptions to students’ education

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with parents

• Contact parents of student(s) involved in the prescription drug incident.

• Consider informing parents of student(s) not directly involved but who may have observed the incident.

• Send an information letter to all parents after the incident. In your letter:‒ Acknowledge that a prescription drug incident occurred at school but do not include any

specific information that may violate the privacy of student(s) involved in the incident.

‒ Provide general information about the problem of prescription drug abuse in schools and what your school is doing to prevent the problem.

‒ Provide recommendations about preventing prescription drug abuse at home. You may want to include a list of resources such as the SecuRx website, national drug abuse prevention organization websites, and local drug abuse prevention organizations.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with parents

When communicating with parents of students involved in an incident:• Do review the facts.• Do listen to their concerns.• Do emphasize steps that parents can take to ensure their child’s education

is not disrupted.• Do NOT increase their anxiety or make them feel guilty.

When communicating with parents of all students at school:• Do send out a letter stating a prescription drug incident occurred at school.• Do recommend parents discuss prescription drug abuse with their child.• Do NOT share personal information about student(s) involved in an

incident.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with staff

• At the end of the day of the incident, brief relevant staff members, including the crisis response team and staff who will support and monitor student(s) involved in the incident.

‒ Provide a written statement with information that relevant staff can share with other school professionals and students if asked about the incident.

‒ Remind staff to keep specific details about the incident confidential.

• At the beginning of the day after the incident, conduct an all-staff meeting.‒ Give a brief summary of incident but do not provide specific details that could

compromise the privacy of the student(s) involved.

‒ Provide general information about the problem of prescription drug abuse in schools and what your school is doing to prevent the problem.

‒ Provide a written statement with information that staff can share with students if asked about the incident.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with staff

When communicating with staff:

• Do brief relevant staff about basic facts of an incident.

• Do give homeroom teachers information about prescription drug abuse prevention to share with students.

• Do NOT share personal information about student(s) involved or specific details about an incident.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with students

Provide information to students about prescription drug incidents in school and prescription drug abuse prevention.

• Prepare a written statement that homeroom teachers can distribute to students. In the statement:

–Briefly describe the incident without providing specific details that could compromise the privacy of student(s) involved in the incident.

–Provide general information about the problem of prescription drug abuse in schools and what your school is doing to prevent the problem.

–Provide a list of resources that students can access to learn about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

• If warranted, conduct a student assembly to warn about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

–For student resources, see POP-D, a science-based curriculum about prescription drug abuse at www.drugpreventiontoolkits.com.

Action step 3.1: Communicate with parents, staff, and students

Communicate with students

When communicating with students not involved in an incident:

• Do give out information about prescription drug abuse prevention.

• Do NOT respond to rumors.

• Do NOT answer questions related to specific details about an incident.

Action step 3.2: Manage media involvement

Local media may become involved depending on the type and severity of the incident. School administrators are the link between the media and district personnel who must focus on managing the incident. Therefore, they should be prepared to collect and provide appropriate information to the media.

Here are some tips for managing media inquiries:

•Work closely with your school district, which may have specific policies and procedures for communicating with the media.

• Remember that giving a statement to the media will help control what information is reported about the incident.

• Plan and coordinate the use of the school district’s website and other communication channels to share and update information.

• Remind reporters and crew that because they are minors, students interviewed and photographed must have permission slips signed by a parent.

•Obtain the services of a public relations consultant if you feel you are in over your head.

Action step 3.2: Manage media involvement

Written statement to the media

• In general, statements for printed media should be no more than two paragraphs long.

• The aim of media statements in a crisis is to defuse the situation – not make it worse.

Words and phrases to use Words and phrases to avoid

• take responsibility• committed to openness• very rare• isolated• taking immediate action• taking appropriate measures• working closely with• we understand• we appreciate• we know• we recognize• we are committed to X and will not tolerate Y

• fault• blame• frequent mistakes• another error• we are holding an investigation• we will look into it• these things happen• everyone faces these issues

Action step 3.2: Manage media involvement

Communicate with the media

DO

• Provide short and concise written statements to the media.

• Avoid phone or face-to-face interviews, which are difficult to manage and subject to editing.

• Consider the option of making no comment.

• Confirm statements to the media with the principal or appropriate school district representative.

DO NOT

•Use more than one person as the media contact.

• Comment on broader issues not directly relevant to situation.

• Provide specific information that may compromise the privacy of student(s) involved in the incident.

• Discuss issues off the record.

Go to Phase 4 to learn about the action steps you should complete to gather and document information related to the incident, assess the educational and emotional needs of student(s) involved, and refer students to programs and services to address the underlying problems that led to the incident.

This project has been funded with federal funds from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN271201200032C.