Yesterday a 17-year old kid took a gun to school and shot five other kids. Two of those kids have died.

This violent tragedy occurred about thirty minutes away from where I write.

It reinforces the importance of creating a disaster plan and protecting public places from random violence. Between 2004 and 2008 there was an average of 564 people killed at work each year. In 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 521 workplace homicides, accounting for 12% of the total fatal work injuries in the U.S. Unfortunately, workplace and public violence are not isolated events.

Business owners can take steps to secure their workplaces and insure the risk. The typical commercial general liability policy does not cover workplace violence or intentional violent acts. However, there are business insurance products that do provide coverage for such events.

One of the benefits of such business insurance is that the policies typically require the business or property owner to take rudimentary precautions in order to secure coverage. Businesses get the benefit of professional expertise in reducing workplace violence.

And that training and planning cannot be overlooked. One of the only positive things that resulted from this tragedy is the knowledge that pre-planning paid off in saving lives. Chardon school-district Superintendent Joseph Bergant II was quoted today stating, “We’ve had a number of disaster drills in the past. Thank God we put those in place.”