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School Safety is a Global Issue

April 24, 2012 by

I just returned from a seven-day vacation in Mexico.  Most of my time was spent in a remote area with no telephone or Internet access.  A doctor from Indiana had to perform an emergency surgical procedure on a local man’s eye to prevent him from losing it, as the nearest medical care was an hour and a half away.  Though the wound would not have posed a major threat in most regions of the United States, the physician was pretty sure the man would lose the eye if he did not act promptly.  Using a paper clip, a safety pin and a pair of nail clippers, he worked expertly to remove a sliver of a thorn from the man’s eyeball.  I was deeply impressed and also grateful that I have medical jet evacuation insurance due to the number of trips our analysts take to places like Rwanda, the Congo, Honduras, Vietnam and Bolivia.  In some areas, you can quickly die from things that would rarely be life-threatening in the United States.

Though the level of violence in Yucatan Peninsula is far lower than in places like Ciudad Juarez, passing through a checkpoint with four of five police officers or soldiers armed with M-4 rifles, tactical shotguns and Uzi submachine guns is not an unusual occurrence in the region.

These dramatic societal differences also demonstrate school safety challenges that would be rather unique for schools in most parts of the United States.  Contrary to popular belief, there are more than periodic problems with school violence, fires, natural disasters, abductions of students, substance abuse issues, student discipline and other school safety issues in other countries.   In spite of the death penalty for possession of firearms or ammunition, there have been a number of school shootings in the People’s Republic of China over the past decade and more than 20,000 students have died at school in natural disasters in other countries in the past two decades.   

Though we often focus on school safety issues in our own country and our primary issues are sometimes different from those in other regions, there are sometimes more similarities than differences when it comes to the need for school safety strategies and effective emergency preparedness measures in schools anywhere in the world.  I have never visited any country where incidents involving serious injury and death from school crisis situations have not taken place.  School safety truly is a global concern anywhere you venture.

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Instances of Students Being Handcuffed and Arrested for Incidents at School Often Presented Out of Context

April 23, 2012 by

In recent years, there have been media reports (as well as at least one document presented as a research report) that have provided distorted information about how school/law enforcement partnerships operate.  There have been at least two “reports” prepared by civil rights groups that contain inaccurate information that would likely not withstand a proper peer review process and a number of media reports that contain incomplete accounts of situations where law enforcement officers are involved with what are often termed to be normal disciplinary actions.  While some instances do involve relatively minor disciplinary situations, other offenses referred to have actually involved situations including forcible rape, edged weapons assaults and other serious criminal acts.

Today’s educators and their community partners face many challenges in appropriately addressing students and non-students who become disruptive and sometimes even violent.  While there are definitely instances where school employees and law enforcement officers have acted inappropriately and in some instances even in violation of criminal laws in restraining students and implementing disciplinary actions, there have also been a number of instances where inaccurate, inflamed and incomplete information has been provided in the media and in other forums.

Student Arrests in the Media

Three decades in this field has taught me to be careful about passing judgment based on media accounts.  For example, if any of you remember the initial media frenzy after the Centennial Park bombing during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.   Though not initially a suspect, Richard Jewell was implicated by the media as a person of interest in the case.  When the actual bomber, Eric Rudolph, continued to carry out bombings in the area, Jewell was found to be innocent, but his reputation had been ruined in the media by that point.  He was actually a hero and saved countless lives that day by his actions.  While working security at the event, he used good judgment and pattern recognition to detect the explosive device and start moving people away from it almost 10 minutes before the initial bomb threat call came in.  Though two bystanders were killed when the bomb exploded, there would have almost certainly been more killed and injured if it were not for his actions.  I had the good privilege to have him attend several of my presentations after that incident, and he struck me as one of the kindest and most polite people I have ever met.

I have also learned to question “reports” and even peer review journal articles, which on occasion are seriously flawed and provide inaccurate conclusions and assertions.  Though many such documents are extremely accurate and can be helpful to us, it is not hard to find “reports” that show an increase in the U.S. school homicide rate that clearly does not exist or peer review articles that assert falsehoods like the “trench coat mafia” that never existed at Columbine High School.

The current dialogue relating to the appropriate utilization of arrest and restraint by law enforcement officers in schools is a valid and important discussion and there is clearly opportunity for improvements in the field.  At the same time, specific incidents are sometimes inaccurately portrayed as the norm in the field of education and couched in emotional ways.  Taking the time to look beyond the headlines about student arrests with an understanding that this is a complex as well as troubling societal problem can go a long way towards successfully working towards improved approaches.

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Avoiding a Damaging Loss of Trust in the School Safety Arena

April 21, 2012 by

Whether you are a democrat who leans far to the left of your party, a republican who is oriented towards the far right of yours or like most folks, you are somewhere in between, you may be deeply concerned about our country right now. Regardless of political affiliation, you are likely concerned about the economy and other key issues. Like many people, you may now lack faith due to the constant lack of cooperation between our elected officials in Washington. Though spirited debate and even downright verbal altercations between some of our leaders has been a recurring feature of our form of governance, the low levels of confidence and high levels of dissatisfaction expressed by many Americans do seem to be more problematic than is normally the case. These catfights stem from a complicated range of causes among them, an unusually high level of divisiveness among our elected officials. The current intensity of the blame game, finger pointing, name calling, desperate distortions of fact and the occasional outright sickening personal attacks have created a fair amount of dysfunction, anxiety and a serious lack of confidence according to pundits and polling data. Our congress in particular appears to have lost the confidence of many of its constituents. The current infighting and resulting loss of trust of large segments of the American public offers valuable lessons for those in the school safety field. Just as our elected officials and the various organs of government they serve can fall into disfavor and suffer from credibility problems, so to can schools, school systems and local public safety agencies. Though the politics that cause these situations have a different dynamic, they are often political in nature nonetheless. The current lack of confidence in our elected leaders is taking a heavy toll on our economy and is causing serious long-term harm to our country and its citizens. As recent events have demonstrated, the loss of confidence in government leaders is not confined to our nation, but the damage to credibility here at home is readily apparent. As one indicator, take the steady erosion of the respect for the office of the president. It used to bug me a bit to hear journalists from abroad refer to our nation’s leader as “Mr.” instead of “President”. In recent years, our own media has often adopted the practice of using “Mr. Bush” and ‘Mr. Obama” as well. This lack of respect for the office of the president is an indication of an overall lack of respect for elected officials. Authorities on language such as experts in statement analysis emphasize how powerful and important our choice of words can be. I may be rather old fashioned in this regard, but I do feel that it is symptomatic of a culture that has become deeply distrustful not only of elected officials, but of others in positions of authority such as school superintendents, police chiefs and other types of leaders as well. This type of distrust and even dysfunction can also occur in the arena of K-12 education. When a major incident occurs or is mishandled because of a lack of cooperation between school and/or public safety officials in the community, everyone loses. In such cases, not only do victims and their loved ones suffer, but so do the organizations that are perceived as having dropped the ball which are often viewed negatively for long periods of time. If we step back from these situations, it becomes clear that they sometimes occur from some form of office, organizational or community politics. When tragedy reveals such problems, there is plenty of blame to go around whether it surfaces in the media, in school safety litigation or on a personal level to those who experience the event. Taking the time and expending the sometimes-significant effort to build bridges instead of fences between people, departments and organizations can prevent not only a good tar and feathering, but can avert considerable pain and suffering as well.

 

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Columbine 13 Years Later

April 20, 2012 by

On the 13th anniversary of the Columbine school tragedy, the events of that day remain as present as they did back in 1999.  A new documentary by a student who was at Columbine High School on the day of the shooting reminds us that basic preparedness and crisis stress management are critical if we want to be ready for any level of crisis.  Several years ago another student who was at the shooting directed a film called “April Showers” that gives great insight to what the event felt and looked like for a student that was there.

 I recently keynoted the California Association of School Transportation Officials Annual Conference in Sacramento, California.  As with every state and national pupil transportation conference I have presented at, I found the conference to be dominated by highly motivated and dedicated people who care deeply about students.  As is typical of these types of conferences, I was truly touched by the comments of many of the school bus drivers, transportation supervisors and directors I met.  I was invited to attend the conference banquet and am glad I did.  Several of the attendees at my table shared truly touching comments about the need for school bus drivers to focus on not only the safety of the students they transport each day, but for the need of drivers to serve as role models and mentors to them. 

One story that was disturbing to me fits a pattern with similar stories that have been related to me hundreds of times over the years by school bus drivers, food service personnel, custodians and other support personnel.  Though each situation is different, there is a common theme whether I am in California, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Hawaii, Florida or New York – some school employees view other school employees as low status personnel who are not smart enough to take action.

This particular example is a good one to help school administrators understand just how dangerous arrogance among school employees can be.  After the dinner, the supervisor for a large district related a story from when he had served as a school bus driver.  He was driving a large school bus with seating capacity for 96 students on a field trip to Los Angeles from his community.  He related that there were two other buses and that the drivers were concerned that cars in the downtown area where they were going to park could easily hit students.  The drivers clearly instructed all students to not cross between any of the buses and to use a specific crosswalk to cross the street.  When he stopped a group of students who he saw attempting to cross between two buses and made them go to the proper crosswalk, a teacher challenged him on his actions in front of the students.  He told me that when he explained why he had taken this action and how dangerous it was for the students to cross the street between the buses, the teacher told him that he was “only a school bus driver” and that she wanted the students to cross between the school buses.  Fortunately, he instructed the teacher that she did not have the authority to do this and he insisted that the students cross in the appropriate crosswalk and the students complied. 

I know there are two sides to every story.  But if this situation occurred as it was related to me, there is a serious problem.  To have a teacher countermand a safety procedure of another employee who has more experience in the field is inappropriate.   To publicly do so in front of students without a compelling reason is even worse.  To do so in violation of the law is yet more egregious.  But to do so in a manner that is humiliating and arrogant is really pushing the limits of human decency.  Such actions and attitudes are far too prevalent in school schools.  I witnessed this form of arrogance from time to time and it is truly disturbing.  To assume that a school bus driver is a less important person than a school teacher is nothing short of ignorance combined with arrogance.

On March 2, 2012, in Henryville, Indiana School Bus Driver Angel Perry had eleven kids on her bus ahead of a dangerous tornado.  She was looking for a safe place to shelter her children, and made the decision to return to the school.  On the radio, her voice remained calm as she instructed her kids on how to protect themselves, and got a student count.  Upon arriving at the school, she counted all the children off the bus and was the last person off of her bus.  Three minutes later, an EF4 tornado struck the school, sending her bus flying over 200 feet across a highway into a restaurant.  

Far from being “just a bus driver”, Angel Perry’s actions showed her to be a true professional who put the lives of her children ahead of her own.  She is a fine example for any teacher to emulate.  This is a great reminder that we all need to work together and not forget to include everyone in our planning and training efforts.

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Do your practices match your procedures?

April 18, 2012 by

Avoiding Tragedy and Litigation – Do your practices match your procedures?

Failing to follow logical school safety procedures is one way to increase the risk that someone will be hurt in a safety incident. It is also one of the best ways to be successfully litigated. One of the more effective tactics by a plaintiff’s attorney in school safety litigation is to show that a custom policy or practice was not followed that would or could have averted the tragedy. One of the best ways to avoid school safety litigation is to prevent anyone from being harmed by adopting, effectively communicating and consistently following proper safety practices. All three of these components are needed for a safe school.

Understanding that no amount of emotional suffering, litigation, and other common long lasting and difficult outcomes from a child’s preventable death at a school will ever return the lost joy and happiness to family members, as well as other students and staff, should always shape and guide the discussion of life safety issues.

School leaders and staff should all work to create and maintain a culture of safety. This requires not only the creation of effective practices, but efforts to clearly communicate them to staff, students, parents and guardians. This also requires efforts to instill these core values into the day-to-day activities. Taking the time to establish effective written guidelines that can be realistically implemented by staff, students and those who drop off and pick up students each day is an excellent practice. From a functional reliability standpoint as well as from a perspective of civil liability, having written or implied policies that match appropriate practices is important.

Take the time to develop good school safety procedures, policies and practices. Follow up on these efforts to invest the time to develop clear and achievable written guidelines when it is appropriate to do so, and then find the time to make the reality in your school match these written guidelines. The precious young lives you have been entrusted to care for deserve no less attention to detail.

Note: This blog has been posted for Michael Dorn while he is in a rural region of Mexico with no internet or phone service. He may be delayed in responding to e-mails relating to this blog.

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Who Should Make The 911 call?

April 18, 2012 by

 

 

Photo by Rachel Wilson – Safe Havens International Video ©2011

 

Careful thought and appropriate training should address the issue of which campus employees should make calls to 911 when an emergency occurs. There should be no assumptions on the part of school administrators or rank and file employees as to the most effective way to handle 911 calls for life and death assistance. It is not uncommon for school employees to lack formal guidance on when they should call 911 during a life and death emergency situation. The wide variety of school designs and the ways they are operated at different times of the day make it impossible to have an effective standardized national approach to this seemingly simple issue.

Normally, it is best for calls to 911 to be made by school office personnel rather than employees faced with an emergency in other parts of the school. There are several reasons for this:

  • It is often difficult for staff to perform life-saving actions while they are on the phone with 911 dispatch personnel for several minutes or more.

  • If a staff member in a remote part of the building calls 911 directly, the office may not find out that there is an emergency for several minutes. This can cause a significant delay in ordering protective actions such as lockdown for the rest of the school’s occupants. This approach can also cause a delay in school crisis team members responding to the incident scene to provide assistance.

  • School offices are often staffed by multiple personnel who can manage several critical tasks at one time.

At the same time, we recommend that all school staff be specifically trained and empowered to call 911 directly if doing so will reduce the risk to students and/or staff. For example, if a staff member is unable to contact the office or there is no one in that office at the time of day the incident occurs.

Regardless of the specific situations in each school, it can be extremely important that school and area public safety officials have effective discussions on this topic. These discussions should yield workable approaches that can and should be incorporated into staff development efforts. These efforts should be geared to achieving the end result that congruent understanding between the rank and file employees, to line supervisors and middle managers, as well as among department heads and the top leadership in the organization is achieved.

A good litmus test is that if someone posed a series of several life and death scenarios to every employee in the organization, the majority of responses as to whom they would call for emergency assistance should be consistent. If experience indicates that this level of consistency would not surface, this might be a good opportunity for improvement.

Sometimes the simple things in life are among the most important. How the initial call for emergency assistance is made can be a life or death aspect of even fairly routine emergency situations. Taking the time to look at how critical information will flow in the first critical minutes of an emergency may be just as important as the technology available to communicate during crisis situations. Though it is often relatively inexpensive in terms of cost and time to address the issue of who calls 911, the failure to do so can be rather costly.

Note: This blog has been posted for Michael Dorn while he is in a rural region of Mexico with no internet or phone service. He may be delayed in responding to e-mails relating to this blog.

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