Moving Beyond Duck, Cover and Hold On: Emergency Preparedness Guidebook for School Volunteers, Parents and PTAs

Widely publicized accounts of tragedy striking school campuses have raised the level of concern among parents, teachers and students alike. The unsettling events of Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School, Colorado’s Columbine High School and Virginia Tech have forced schools nationwide to shed their innocence, dispel their complacency about crisis response, pause, and take stock.

The crucial lesson drawn from those headlines is that schools must maintain a high level of preparedness for man-made emergencies as well as natural disasters. Moving Beyond Duck, Cover and Hold On highlights ways that parents can work with school administrators to boost emergency response capabilities. The school-related scenarios in each chapter describe actual emergencies and introduce useful tips and strategies for parent-led support.

There is no ironclad preparedness for disasters in the contemporary world and no sure way to neutralize vulnerability, but Moving Beyond Duck, Cover and Hold On offers an answer to parents who want to support school resilience when tragedy strikes the campus.