DEPUTY head and former naval reserve officer David Kibble has written what could become the definitive guide to help schools avert a repeat of the Dunblane tragedy.
His "training manual" - based on the disaster plan he developed for Huntington School - aims to help schools cope with a whole range of tragedies, from a Dunblane-style massacre to injuries while children are on school outings.
It even includes advice on how to deal with the aftermath of tragedies such as the car smash in which four Harrogate sixth-formers were killed last year.
Mr Kibble admits no-one can prevent a crazed gunman like Thomas Hamilton bursting into a school if he is really determined - but says steps can be taken which will reduce the risk.
His new book, just published by David Fulton Publishers, includes suggestions for schools to;
*stage "wargames" in which teachers and school managers actually "live through" a major incident;
*have a special alarm, separate from the fire alarm, to alert staff and students in case of an incident, without them all rushing out to the playground where they could be vulnerable;
* have checklists for teachers indicating what they should do in case of an emergency on a school trip.
Mr Kibble, a former commander of HMS Ceres, the naval reserve training unit in Leeds, said he was deluged with enquiries from schools in Britain and abroad after a national headteachers' newsletter carried details of his Huntington School disaster plan.
He said he decided to publish his book so that schools eager to improve security did not have to keep "reinventing the wheel."
Mr Kibble said: "You can never prevent a Thomas Hamilton coming into a school and doing what he wants to do, but there are procedures we can take to reduce the possibility.
"For example, you can encourage visitors to come to reception rather than just wandering around, and you can make sure all staff wear name badges so that strangers can be spotted fairly quickly.
"Also, if there is an emergency schools tend to ring the fire bell and all the kids go out onto the playground.
"That's the last thing you want if there is someone with a gun. Now at Huntington we have a five bell routine, which means stay where you are until you hear another five bells."
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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