Central High School Case Study

Historically schools have been seen as a safe place for students to learn both academically and socially. An environment designed to prepare children to one day enter the world with the skills necessary to participate in their community. Since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, the safety of American schools has become increasingly compromised due to violence and inspired much public discourse on school safety. Parents and the greater community have an expectation that children will be safe at school and that school districts and agencies will work together to prevent and respond adequately to school violence. Schools that are proactive and intentionally foster organizational trust within their leadership teams could have better outcomes especially during times of crisis.

Knowing where you fit within your organization, along with the level of professional trust that has been built is critical in fostering a climate of trust throughout the entire organization. In the case of Central High these trust based relational roles were not built or clearly defined and therefore not effectively used throughout the district in their time of crisis.

By applying the basic components of organization trust (Mishra, 1996; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 1998, 2000) from the superintendent on down to the school based leader, the incident could have had a different conclusion. This case study will provide an outline of the crisis at Central High, and how the response to this incident could be improved by using a research based organizational trust framework. Other sections will include reflections related to best practice, realistic recommendations and an action plan for continuous trust building and safety