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We see the never-ending reporting about school shootings. They occur in places we may have visited. We may even have friends and relatives whose lives have been impacted by this violence that seems endemic in our society. But that could never happen in our children's school, or could it?

Safety is at the top of the list of concerns for parents and students. Harassment, bullying, and COVID are all still concerns, but shootings have unnerved people in every age group and walk of life. It seems as though no public place is safe anymore.

Preparing for emergencies is an ongoing process—even if a school (public or nonpublic) is at a high state of readiness for an emergency, there will still be a need for continued security, safety, and emergency management. Source: (Readiness & Emergency Management for Schools)

Prevention

Preventing incidents from happening requires action from you and your children's school. You are partners in keeping young people safe.

The Parent's Obligation

• Understand the measures your school has put in place to prevent incidents from occurring.
• Discuss these measures regularly with your children.
• Teach your children to be situationally aware.
• Keep your lines of communication open and relaxed, so your children will tell you about anything and everything.
• Keep your phone charged with the school's emergency alert application configured to notify you anytime.
• Monitor your local weather conditions as emergencies can include severe storms, tornadoes, and flash floods.
• Teach your children how to call 911 for help.
• Teach your children how

IT Director answering her phone: "Hello, Yvonne here. How can I help you?"

Finance Assistant: "Yvonne! My computer's got something wrong with it. Everything's frozen and I can't access QuickBooks. And there's a message on my screen saying it's been hacked. What do I do?"

This scenario is a lot more common than you think. Ransomware attacks strike large organizations and small ones. While you wouldn't think private schools would be vulnerable to such attacks, they are just as exposed as a Fortune 500 company. Although I have earned IT certifications over the years, you and I are going to listen to what the experts in the IT security field have to say about ransomware, and, most importantly, how to protect your school from these unwelcome attacks.

What is ransomware?

The United States Government's defines ransomware as follows: "Ransomware is a form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption."

This video explains ransomware.

"It couldn't happen in my school."

Why should your private school be concerned about ransomware? After all, your school is such a small organization. Why would anybody attack our school? Another security expert tells you why.

explains why hackers do what they do: "Some common reasons for hacking include basic

has a list of shootings which have occurred in our schools dating back to the 1840s. Sadly, most of the shootings in the past several decades since the mass shooting at Columbine High School have taken place in public schools. That led me to ask why private schools seem to have been spared these senseless killings.

Before we look at some of the reasons why shootings occur, let's find out what percentage of shootings occur in private vs. public schools. In Corey A. Deangelis notes the following research:

"Hyewon Kim—a Intern—compiled information on school shootings in the United States from 2000 to 2018 using the Tribune-Review database. The database is limited to legitimate school shootings; that is, shootings that occurred on or near a K-12 school campus while classes were in session or when students were present. The list also excluded suicide-only incidents."

"Hyewon found 134 school shootings from 2000 to 2018. Only eight of these occurred in private schools while 122 occurred in public schools. The type of school could not be definitively classified for 4 of the shootings. As shown in the figure below, about 94 percent of the shootings that could be classified occurred in public schools while only about 6 percent occurred in private schools."

This TEDTalk discusses how school shootings can be prevented.

A long summer break has been a fixture of the schedule in most private schools seemingly forever. Three months or more offers plenty of time for a wide range of activities for every age group. Here are some of the options available.

Sports camps

Many private schools rent out their facilities to outside organizations which run sports camps. The last time I checked, there seemed to me to be a camp available for almost any sport you could imagine. And they were offered at various age levels too.

Tech summer sessions

Ages ago we called these computer camps. Nowadays they are called tech camps. They will teach your daughter robotics, code, game development, design and much more. and camps are just two of the commercial companies offering tech courses on college campuses here in the United States and abroad.

This video offers a peak at an IDTech summer tech camp.

Your local community college probably has tech camps too. in my area has fifteen tech camp options including such popular offerings as drones, video game design and more. Our sister site, has a powerful search tool which will help you find a community college near you.

Day and overnight camps for children with special needs

Your child attends a school for children with special needs. What will

Years ago, I ran a small private school with 110 students in grades 9-11. I know how many demands consume a busy administrator's attention and time. I also know firsthand how difficult it is to get the owner of a private school to spend money on even the most critical items. With that in mind, I offer the following talking points for the small private school owner and her board of trustees.

How exposed is your school?

When I asked the question, which is the title of this article, I had in mind your exposure on three fronts:

• Legal
• IT Infrastructure
• Public relations

IT Infrastructure

I will not scare you off with a lot of tech-speak regarding your IT infrastructure. But I highly recommend hiring an IT expert to review your school's IT infrastructure and make recommendations. By recommending this approach, I am a practical business person. Let's say your IT backend crashes, and you lose all your student and business data. And you have no resumption of a business plan or data backups in place. You will have a tough time making an insurance claim and getting your school back up and running.

An impartial IT consultant will confirm that your technology infrastructure has kept up with the times. Sadly, many organizations are still running , for which support ended in 2014. Those Windows XP computers are easy targets for hackers.

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