A non-profit campus safety organization
I found Know What You Don’t Know – How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen to be an excellent book. Written by Dr. Michael A. Roberto, I bought the book after I finished a superb course of Dr. Roberto’s through the Learning Company.
I highly recommend Dr. Roberto’s book to anyone who wants to learn more about this topic.
I would love to work on a Ph.D. Some truly outstanding teachers and college professors have succeeded in shaping me into what they referred to as a lifetime learner. I loved college and would really love to study again. Unfortunately, it would be beyond what I can handle right now to travel more than half of the year, write books, blogs, video scripts and white papers while working on a doctorate, even with a distance learning program.
Fortunately, I ran across and ad in an airline magazine for the Teaching Company. This innovative and extremely well-run company records the lectures of highly regarded university professors and sells them in audio and DVD format with companion guidebooks. I have bought a couple of dozen courses from them and typically finish one or two each month. Though I read an average of two books per week, there are benefits from listening to an outstanding faculty member deliver a semester’s worth of lectures that exceed what even a well-written book can usually deliver. Being a diagnosed Dyslexic, the courses are also extremely easy for me to listen to and I feel that I retain a good bit of what I learn from them.
Listening to courses on history, political science, economics, psychology and other topics has helped me immensely as a keynote presenter, as an author and as someone who loves to learn new things. Each professor offers a unique perspective and tons of great information.
I highly recommend these high content and professionally developed courses for those who love to learn.
Glacier Bay in Alaska is one of Earth's Most Beautiful Sights Photo by Michael Dorn Safe Havens International
Like most of our clients, Safe Havens Analysts tend to lead very busy lives. It is fairly typical for an SHI analyst to spend between 100 and 250 days a year on the road with long work hours and work weeks. There have been times that some of our personnel have had to work 11-16 hour days for weeks at a time without a single day off. Two of our analysts have pursued graduate degrees while working long hours as well. At the same time, our personnel try to get into the habit of taking vacations when we find ourselves in areas we have not had the chance to spend leisure time. This helps us to unwind and refresh. Regardless of what you do to serve children and youth, taking some quality time for family and friends is important.
Life is too short and the world is too beautiful to spend it all working. Try to make the time to relax so you can serve others well while taking care of yourself and those you love.
For about five years now, Safe Havens Video has been producing 2-5 minute video podcasts to help boost attendance at conferences keynoted by our analysts in the United States and Canada.
We have had excellent feedback from our clients who have repeatedly indicated that by posting the videos on their website and then e-mailing links to people who may want to attend, they have increased conference attendance. This has been particularly true for conferences in Tabor, Canada, Quebec City, Canada and for conferences held for law enforcement and educational associations in the U.S.
Video podcasts help people get a better idea of the caliber of the keynote presenter as well as a better feel for what they will get from breakout sessions and other conference activities.
We have provided a link to few samples to help readers see how this can be done for their conferences. This approach can work well for almost any type of professional conference regardless of topic as long as there is a way to draw people to the website to view the videos.
One parent is very upset after her son was told by school officials that he could not wear rosary beads to school because local police had advised school officials that many youth gang members were wearing the beads as a symbol of gang affiliation. Reportedly, 15-year-old Jake Balthazor was told that he could not wear the beads by a school administrator at Coon Rapids High School. The school district passed a policy to address the issue after receiving a memorandum on the practice from the Coon Rapids Police Department.
There have been numerous instances of violence at schools that were sparked when a student who is in a gang has become upset because a rival gang member displayed visible gang symbols at school. These situations can quickly escalate into weapons violence.
These types of situations are very challenging. School officials are often advised by legal counsel to take a similar approach because allowing any group of students to wear religious symbols can make it impossible for them to prohibit jewelry connected with youth gangs, satanic cults, hate groups or other organizations that might be upsetting to students, staff and parents. While these situations are often depicted in the media and by civil rights groups as centered on a Jewish child who has been banned from wearing the star of David (which is also commonly worn by gang members) or as in this case, a child who was wearing rosary beads and a crucifix, the reality seen in today’s schools can include a student with a swastika, a Klu Klux Clan symbol or other symbol that is disturbing to the average person.
These situations demonstrate the level of difficulty often faced by today’s school officials.
School and university officials have struggled for decades to find viable solutions to parents and family members who disrupt graduation ceremonies by yelling, screaming, blowing air horns and otherwise making noise that causes the names of many graduates to be drowned out. These unruly actions diminish the hard-earned recognition for other graduates and often add to the length of graduation ceremonies further inconveniencing others.
Many have been quick to criticize school and public safety officials who have tried to bring respect and dignity back to our graduation ceremonies through assertive measures. I can understand the frustration of our community leaders who have been bold enough to take a stand on behalf of the majority of those who know how to attend a graduation ceremony without ruining it for others. While I have seen some reports of tactics that I do find to be troubling, I am not so sure that some arrests for boisterous spectators is automatically incorrect. As with any such situations, we need access to accurate information to properly evaluate these situations.
Having worked more than a dozen K-12 and university graduation ceremonies over the years, I can attest that there are many people who will show up drunk, use drugs, curse and otherwise violate the law. There are even more people who will scream and yell like fools drowning out the names of one or more other graduates no matter how politely and repeatedly they are asked to conduct themselves with civility. The specific behaviors vary widely and some of these folks may simply be overly rude and insensitive without breaking the law while others may clearly be in violation of state and local code sections. I think we need to consider just how difficult these people are to work with while we scrutinize the actions of school and public safety officials.
Unfortunately, some students can be disruptive and disrespectful as well. I can recall my fellow students and I being embarrassed when a group of graduates from the law school got drunk during our undergraduate commencement ceremony and dropped wine bottles on the floor while we were receiving our degrees. Their drunken cursing and yelling during our graduation was particularly rude since this was a Baptist university. The university quickly modified procedures to try to head off this ridiculous behavior.
When I became a school district police chief, I was relieved to see that this type of conduct was not tolerated at our graduation ceremonies. In fact, any student who showed up intoxicated was arrested for possession of alcohol underage and not allowed to walk. Our public school graduations were generally very respectful and orderly with the exception of attendees who yelled and screamed when the names of their family members were announced. We discussed the idea of issuing citations for violators but felt that we would draw the kind of wrath that is being directed at school officials who have tried that approach this year. We did speak with individuals when they disrupted the event but this is of limited impact once people realize that there would be no real consequences for those self-centered individuals who fail to respect the needs of others. I must say, we sadly never did find a satisfactory solution to the problem of guests who lacked what we call “home training” in the South.
While many are focusing on how extreme the efforts of some school and public safety officials appear to be, one must witness this type of disrespectful and unruly behavior to appreciate just how terribly rude and disruptive these violators can be. We should not be too fast to pass judgment based on what are sometimes incomplete media accounts of these types of situations. It is important to remember that our court system offers ample opportunity for citizens to fight wanton abuse of legal authority within our legal system.