Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Education

Primary Advisor

Dr. Jessica Rafidi

Second Advisor

Dr. Thomas Gollery

Third Advisor

Dr. Monica Ilse

Abstract

Philanthropic efforts and community responses to mass school shootings have generated an evolutionary change to the legislation surrounding school safety. An in-depth review of major school-related active-shooter incidents indicated a prioritized need for change across school campuses. Recent laws in the state of Florida created the eminent responsibility of site-based administrative teams in collaboration with the local sheriff’s office, to effectively implement and participate in synergistic crisis planning. While school safety has been at the pinnacle of community leaders’ political platforms for over 20 years, researchers have almost exclusively concentrated on identifying the role of the School Resource Officer (SRO) on a campus and explored perceptions of how safe students feel. This research study was designed to extrapolate the perceptions of the administrative team’s readiness to respond to a campus crisis through the lens of the assigned school safety team. A survey instrument was designed and validated by the researcher, and voluntary respondents completed the survey items using Likert-scale responses. Leaders of school safety teams recruited members to voluntarily complete the survey. Data were collected by survey, and the results of the survey were aggregated into trends. Online surveys allowed for confidentiality; the data were securely kept. Participation in the study was delimited to members of school-level Active Threat Plan (ATP) safety teams as designated by building-level administrators represented in the study. The findings from this research study reflect levels of effective active threat plan implementation. The results and recommendations for change, along with professional development needs, are presented.

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