A suburban elementary school experiences an emergency evacuation. This evacuation event reveals trust and safety concerns. Some parents, staff members, and children express safety concerns, and a key school staff member questions the judgment of another staff member during the emergency event, exacerbating existing tensions between the two. The principal must move the school community forward, while re-establishing trust and addressing safety concerns. Frameworks for repairing trust and trust in schools are considered.
AdamsC. M.ForsythP. B.MitchellR. M. (2009). The formation of parent-school trust: A multilevel analysis. Educational Administration Quarterly, 45(1), 4–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X08327550
2.
BachmannR.GillespieN.PriemR. (2015). Repairing trust in organizations and institutions: Toward a conceptual framework. Organization Studies, 36(9), 1123–1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840615599334
3.
BrooksM. C.SungtongE. (2015). The challenge of multicultural education during insurgency: The case of southernmost Thailand. In Jean-MarieG.SiderS.DesirC. (Eds.), Comparative international perspectives on education and social change in developing countries and indigenous peoples in developed countries (pp. 189–200). Information Age.
4.
BrooksM. C.SungtongE. (2016). “We still have bombings”: School principals and insurgent violence in Southern Thailand. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 19(5), 505–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2015.1059489
5.
DirksK. T.LewickiR. J.ZaheerA. (2009). Repairing relationships within and between organizations: Building a conceptual foundation. Academy of Management Review, 34(1), 68–84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27759986
6.
FisherM. H.CrawordB. (2020). “From school of crisis to distinguished”: Using Maslow’s Hierarchy in a rural underperforming school. Rural Educator, 41(1), 8–19.
7.
HagmanG. (2017). Helping Newtown: Reopening a school in the aftermath of tragedy. Clinical Social Work Journal, 45(2), 168–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-014-0498-x
8.
HoyW. K.TarterC. J. (2004). Organizational justice in schools: No justice without trust. International Journal of Education Management, 18(4/5), 250–259. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540410538831
MaslowA. (1970). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). Longman.
11.
SantiagoR. T.GarbaczS. A.BeattieT.MooreC. L. (2016). Parent-teacher relationships in elementary schools: An examination of parent-teacher trust. Psychology in the Schools, 53(10), 1003–1017. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21971
12.
SchildkrautJ.NickersonA. B. (2020). Ready to respond: Effects of lockdown drills and training on school emergency preparedness. Victims & Offenders, 15(5), 619–638. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2020.1749199
Tschannen-MoranM.HoyW. (1998). Trust in schools: A conceptual and empirical analysis. Journal of Educational Administration, 36, 334–352. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239810211518
