Think fast

April 20, 1999 was one of the darkest days in the history of American education.

On that day two teenage gunmen shot nearly three dozen people at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo., killing 12 students, one teacher, and, finally, themselves.

While no good can ever come from the horror of Columbine, some lessons did emerge on a range of issues including aberrant student behavior, the nature of high school sub-cultures, and, ultimately, the ways in which officials can best handle disasters.

On March 23 two internationally recognized public relations counselors, including the spokesman for Columbine High School on the day of the shootings, held a Master Class for Rowan PR students about keeping calm during a disaster and the importance of providing accurate, timely information, especially during a crisis.

Addressing some three-dozen students, Rick Kaufman, the former spokesman for the Jefferson County, Colo., school district, and Rich Bagin, executive director of the National School Public Relations Association, said crisis is inevitable - but handling it one way or another is not.
"Knowing what to do in a crisis can be the difference between chaos and calm and life and death," Kaufman said.

The experts told students that crisis planning is critical, even if they don't pull the plan off the shelf during an emergency, because the writing of it will help them think clear when its needed most.

In fact, Kaufman said, during the early hours of Columbine the last thing he was about to do was seek out some pre-written plan.

Rich Bagin, executive director of the National School Public Relations Association

"You can't plan for what happened there," he said. "You have to adapt, and we did... In fact, I wasn't (even thinking like) a PR guy the first couple of hours. You just try to prioritize in the moment."

He said in such a situation safety must always comes first and school officials, from the superintendant down, have to defer to the police.

But Kaufman said when the immediate crisis ended - school evacuated and secured - he shifted back to PR mode to handle the onslaught of media on his district.

One of the first calls he made when the initial crisis abetted was to Bagin, who not only took the call but arranged for a team of professionals to fly out  to help.

Bagin, whose brother, the late Donald Bagin founded Rowan's award-winning PR program, said crisis can take many forms - from bomb threats to burglaries, tax hikes to layoffs.

He told the students they probably wouldn't ever encounter a Columbine-like crisis but, if they're in school PR, there will be others, big and small. And in those times they will need all of their skills sharp and ready to go - from writing releases to speaking to the media.

"You need good judgment," Bagin said of a PR person's greatest asset. "You need to know what to do and go with your gut."

Master Classes have become a tradition at Rowan in which faculty recruit nationally known experts to speak directly to students. In October, mezzo soprano Barbara Dever, long-time star of the New York Metropolitan Opera, addressed voice majors in Boyd Recital Hall. Legendary newsman Dan Rather held a Master Class in 2008 when he was on campus to moderate the historic Hollybush Symposium on Nuclear Nonproliferation.

Moderating the PR Master Class, Professor Ed Moore advised students that seemingly small problems can blow up big. He noted that even smart, well-meaning school officials can make newsworthy mistakes, such as one district that recently considered a ban on strapless prom gowns.

Rick Kaufman, former spokesman for the Jefferson County, Colo., school district

"You can only imagine the headline for that one," Moore said.

Dr. Suzanne Fitzgerald, chair of Rowan's department of Public Relations and Advertising, said there are some 220 undergraduate PR majors and about 40 in the graduate program.

"All of our professors are practitioners," she said. "This Master Class is one more way of bringing the lessons home for our students."

Graduate student Katie Hood, 22, of Galloway Township, said she seeks a career in school PR so the class spoke directly to her.

"It got me thinking about solutions," she said. "When there's a problem we want to be asking the community to help us decide what's important to them."