The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-1-2015 Teachers' Perceptions of Their Ability to Respond to Active Shooter Incidents Carole Frances Rider University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, Education Law Commons, and the Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Rider, Carole Frances, "Teachers' Perceptions of Their Ability to Respond to Active Shooter Incidents" (2015). Dissertations. 62. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/62 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ABILITY TO RESPOND TO AN ACTIVE SHOOTER INCIDENT by Carole Frances Rider Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 ABSTRACT TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ABILITY TO RESPOND TO AN ACTIVE SHOOTER INCIDENT by Carole Frances Rider May 2015 The purpose of this research study was to determine Mississippi high school teachers’ perceptions regarding their preparedness for an active shooter incident. The study included an extensive literature review that included background and policy context, theoretical foundations, pertinent research and professional perspectives and a worldwide timeline of school shootings. The study also included data collection and analysis, results, conclusions, recommendations for policymakers and educational leaders, and recommendations for further research. The study was conducted to determine if there was a relationship between school planning procedures, participation in practice and drill activity, and administrator preparedness for an active shooter incident and teachers’ perceptions of their own ability to respond effectively to an active shooter incident. The participants for this study were 418 high school teachers in Mississippi. The largest proportion of participants had 20 or more years of experience, and the majority of participants were from the southern region of the state. Eighty-five percent of the participants revealed that their school employs a full-time school resource officer (SRO), yet 43.5% of those participants reported that their SRO did not provide any active shooter preparedness training. The study also revealed that some Mississippi schools are in violation of state law by not participating in active shooter drills. Thirty-six percent of the participants reported ii they did not engage in active shooter incident training. The sub-scale data revealed that participants agreed that their schools have plans in place to respond to an active shooter incident. Participants also agreed that their administrators were prepared to respond to an active shooter incident. However, participants were uncertain if their schools practice and drills were effective for active shooter incidents, and only slightly agreed that they, as teachers, were prepared to respond to an active shooter incident. In addition, the study revealed a strong relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their schools planning procedures, their participation in planning and drill activities, their perceptions of their administrators’ ability to respond to an active shooter incident and their perceptions of their own ability to respond effectively to an active shooter incident. iii COPYRIGHT BY CAROLE FRANCES RIDER 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ABILITY TO RESPOND TO AN ACTIVE SHOOTER INCIDENT by Carole Frances Rider A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: __________________________________________ Dr. Michael Ward, Committee Chair Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and School Counseling __________________________________________ Dr. Leslie Locke, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and School Counseling __________________________________________ Dr. James Johnson, Committee Member Director, Center for Research Support _________________________________________ Dr. David Lee, Committee Member Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and School Counseling _________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School May 2015 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Ray and Peg Rider. Thank you for instilling in me the importance of education. This dissertation is also dedicated to the victims of school shootings worldwide. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My sincere thanks and appreciation to Kenneth W. Douglas for the countless hours he spent editing this work. Without his assistance, this work would have been more difficult to accomplish. To my committee members, without their expertise and guidance this work would not have been completed. I would like to extend my deepest thanks to Dr. Mike Ward, chair of the committee, for his guidance, support and patience throughout this process. His expertise and professionalism have been an inspiration to me. I would like to thank Dr. Leslie Locke for her support through the literature review process and dissertation boot camps. Her enthusiasm and expertise made the journey much easier. To Dr. J. T. Johnson, thank you for lending your expertise in statistics to this project. You made the numbers come to life! Thank you for taking the time to explain what all the data meant and helping me realize how important it is. To Dr. David Lee, thank you for your willingness to serve on my committee. I appreciated your positive comments and encouragement. Special thanks to Robert L. Smith for his insight and expertise in school safety. You are the real deal and I appreciate all of your comments, suggestions, and support throughout this process. To my cousins Lyn and Troy Sorensen, thanks for the encouragement and support in finishing this project. To my friends, I extend my gratitude for constant support and encouragement throughout this process: Tracie Rose, Stephanie McCormick, Ray Burr, Jena Mullins, Patsy Boler, Dr. Grady Fleming, Rona Wells, Bobette Jones, Kelvin Doss, Mike Harrast, Bernie Lewis, and Craig and Karen Kodanko. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 Statement of the Problem Research Questions and Hypotheses Delimitations Assumptions Definition of Terms Justification Summary II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................................................................17 Introduction Background and Policy Context Theoretical Foundations Pertinent Research and Professional Perspectives Timelines of U.S. and International School Shootings Summary III. METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................94 Research Questions Research Design Participants Instrumentation Data Collection Procedure Analysis of Data Summary IV. RESULTS ......................................................................................................108 Background Items Descriptive Statistics for Hypothesis Variable Subscales Hypotheses Results vi Open-Ended Constructed Response Item Ancillary Findings Summary V. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS .....................................................................136 Summary of Procedures Major Findings Discussion Limitations Recommendations for Policymakers and Practitioners Recommendations for Future Research Summary APPENDIXES .................................................................................................................157 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................174 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Pilot Study - Cronbach’s alpha for Planning, Practice/Drills, Teacher Preparedness and Principal Preparedness as Viewed by Teacher Subscales ................................................................................................................98 2. Final Study - Cronbach’s alpha for Planning, Practice/Drills, Teacher Preparedness and Principal Preparedness as Viewed by Teacher Subscales ..............................................................................................................101 3. Frequencies and Percentages of Number of Years Teaching and Region Where Teaching ................................................................................103 4. Frequencies and Percentages of School Identification ........................................105 5. Frequencies and Percentages of Active Shooter Incident Drill Practice,