This Week in School and Campus Safety

Good morning,

This Weekly Update by the Illinois School and Campus Safety Program links to updated public health guidance for schools that ISBE shared on their website, provides resources to promote being an upstander, and promotes the upcoming virtual classes on digital threat assessment and advanced digital threat assessment.

Thank you for your interest in school and campus safety. However, if you wish to no longer receive our emails, let me know and I will remove you from our contacts list.

Respectfully,

Laura Black
Program Coordinator
Illinois School and Campus Safety Program
ISBE Shares Updated COVID-19 Guidance

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) have released updated guidance, which fully adopts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools. ISBE shared links to the IDPH & ISBE Joint Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Schools and the COVID-19 School Guidance FAQs.
Help Prevent Bullying in Schools: Promote Being an Upstander

When a group of individuals witness a stressful or life-threatening situation and fail react or offer help to a victim, bystander apathy may have occurred. The theory behind bystander apathy, aka the bystander effect, is that individuals are less likely to step in and help victims when there are other individuals present because of three key reasons: 1. they feel less responsibility since others are there, 2. they fear being judged for stepping in, and 3. they believe since no one else is helping, it must not really be an emergency so they don't need to help either.
 
One way to promote action over bystander apathy is to promote being an upstander. When it comes to bullying, creating a community of upstanders can help improve school climate. Both stompoutbullying.org and bullybust.org have information on being an upstander. Bullybust.org also has information on starting an Upstander Alliance at individual schools.
Last Chance to Register! Digital Threat Assessment on April 8th via Zoom

This is the last chance to register for the Digital Threat Assessment class on April 8th from 9:30 am-4:00 pm via Zoom. Digital Threat Assessment training will enable participants to establish a framework to better assess all threats by constructing and considering the digital baseline of a threat maker by locating, documenting, and evaluating social media data through a threat assessment lens. A significant portion of the day will be spent engaging in hands-on exercises on the most prevalent social media platforms and associated search applications. For more information and to register, click here.
Advanced Digital Threat Assessment on May 3rd
via Zoom

The Illinois School and Campus Safety Program is pleased to announce the class Advanced Digital Threat Assessment will be held on May 3rd from 9:30 am-4:00 pm via Zoom. Building upon the Digital Threat Assessment class by Safer Schools Together, Advanced Digital Threat Assessment advances participants' understanding of finding and curating relevant digital information consistent with real-life digital threat assessment data gathering scenarios. Significant engagement and hands-on practice will take place as participants are assembled into investigative teams and given a true-to-life mock scenario. For more information and to register, click here.
Illinois School and Campus Safety Program www.ilschoolsafety.org