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School Rape while Classes in Session

May 27, 2014 by

School Rape

A 15-year old female student at Parkside High School in Salisbury, MD was raped in the hallway of the school, while classes were in session around her.  The suspect is a 17-year old male student who made sexual advances to her.  She repeatedly said no, then the boy raped her.  She reported the incident to school administrators.

Parkside High School has almost 1,200 students in several wings.

The suspect is facing eight charges, including first- and second-degree rape, and first- and second-degree assault and kidnapping. A conviction of first-degree rape, could have him facing a life sentence in prison.

The first thing this story does is remind us that in schools, teachers need to have rigorous methods for maintaining accountability for all their students.  It is when students are left alone that incidents like this happen.

The second thing this story does is establish that the presence of video cameras is not necessarily a deterrent to violent crimes like this.  Video cameras are passive recorders.  They can allow us to see what happened afterward, but their presence doesn’t stop a person intent on doing harm to someone else.

Cameras cannot replace human judgment, nor can they replace human decision-making.

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Student Handcuffed in School

May 25, 2014 by

Student Handcuffed

At an elementary school in Canada, a nine-year old student started acting wildly out-of-control.  In fact, the principal told the parents by phone that he was “acting out and holding people hostage”.  The boy had gotten a hold of hockey sticks, and was in the hallways swinging them at his fellow students and staff.  He then walked outside, whereupon the school went into lockdown, and the police were called.

The police found the boy at the front entrance kicking and hitting the door, and the student was handcuffed to prevent him from injuring himself. According to the boy’s mother, he has mental issues and is on medication.  She says the school had just put a plan into place to help her son, including bringing in a youth worker who specializes in physically combative children.

Handcuffs

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School Robbery and Assault

May 23, 2014 by

School Robbery and Assault

Four suspects assaulted and robbed students in two schools, Citrus Grove Middle School and Miami Senior High School.  At both schools, the suspects attacked and beat up students, then took their cell phones.  The police tracked the four down by the make of the car they were using, which was stolen.  When they pulled the car over, they arrested the driver, while the others ran.  The rest were found hiding in a house, and were then arrested.

The assaults occurred both in a school hallway and on an outdoor basketball court.  Schools are gathering places for students both before and after school.  Schools can work with local law enforcement to beef up patrols around schools during these critical times.

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Elementary School Involved in Another of China’s Edged Weapon Attacks

May 22, 2014 by

Macheng City, China

First and second grade students at an elementary school were the targets of another one of the edged weapon attacks that happen from time to time in China.  Eight were injured, none were killed.

An arrest was made, but at this time there is no information on a motive for the attack. China has had a long string of edged weapon attacks on schools by people armed with knives, scissors and other objects. In the U.S. the focus is all too often on gun attacks, which while horrific, are less common than edged weapon attacks. Here is a video from the “Ask Safe Havens” series where we discussed this issue.

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School Violence – Great Strategies but no Simple Answers

May 20, 2014 by

Research shows that murals and artwork are powerful tools to help prevent school violence.

Strategies exist to address school violence but there are no simple answers.

As a non-profit school safety center, a primary goal for Safe Havens International is to provide a wealth of low-cost and no-cost school safety resources.  Many of these free resources can help to prevent school violence.  As part of our non-profit mission, Safe Havens International recently released a series of web-deliverable no-cost training videos based on the research for our groundbreaking new book Staying Alive – How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters.  The book was released in bookstores this week and has received superb reviews from subject matter experts and practitioners from across the United States and as far away as Kenya. 

No-cost school safety training video

One of the powerful high-definition videos produced by our award-winning school safety video crew is titled Staying Alive – Warning Signs of Violence and Student Threat Assessment.  This excellent video provides strategies that are backed by research and evaluation and is an excellent resource for school officials who want to provide high impact yet non-alarmist information for staff in just a few minutes.  Like the other videos in this series, Staying Alive – Warning Signs of Violence and Student Threat Assessment is an excellent staff development resource for a regularly scheduled staff meeting. 

School Violence Expert Dr. Dewey Cornell

Safe Havens is grateful that one of the nation’s most respected student threat assessment experts, Dr. Dewey Cornell, agreed to meet with our video crew for a taping session.  Dr. Cornell has conducted extensive research on school homicide rates and has earned an excellent reputation in the field through his meticulous focus on peer review research.  Dr. Cornell provides an excellent, factual overview to help us better understand school violence and what we can do about it.

 

Calm and factual school safety assessment

While alarmist information relating to school violence has become pervasive and incredibly destructive, this video helps to provide information on proven prevention concepts while also affording a balanced and rational assessment that can help educators and other advocates for children develop effective priorities for utilization of often precious and limited resources of time, energy and funding.    Please take the time to view this excellent video and help us in our mission to provide free school violence information by sharing this video with anyone who may find it to be helpful in their work.

Filed Under: Safe Havens Blog

How to Select a School Safety Consultant or Expert Witness

May 20, 2014 by

HOW TO SELECT A SCHOOL SAFETY CONSULTANT OR EXPERT WITNESS

 | Michael Dorn

There are currently hundreds of school safety consultants in the United States.  Many of them are highly qualified and honest experts who can provide assistance that is worth far more than the fees they charge.  Unfortunately, there are also some school security and safety consultants who lack proper credentials, experience, or other qualifications to perform the types of work they are often hired to do.

Here are just a few situations involving issues with school safety consultants that I am personally familiar with:

  • I served as an expert witness on a school homicide case.  The school district settled the case after withdrawing one of their school safety expert witnesses.  The plaintiff’s attorney was preparing to challenge his qualifications to serve as an expert witness by way of a deposition when the defense counsel suddenly announced that the witness was being withdrawn from the case. This consultant has appeared as an “expert” on national news programs but has few tangible and verifiable credentials on his expert witness resume.
  • In another case where I served as an expert witness, a school safety consulting firm settled a school safety lawsuit for $1.5 million after a school district settled 26 lawsuits relating to a single school safety incident.  The suit centered on the qualifications of the firm to perform school emergency preparedness consulting and training services.   The firm that was being sued provided no evidence of any formal work experience or training for any of their consultants in the field of emergency management.

Fortunately, there are numerous reputable and qualified safety and security experts available.  A little investigation can often help to sort the good from the bad:

  • Ask for and check at least six references that have hired the expert or firm.
  • Make sure their background matches your needs.  For example, absent specific training or work experience, a former law enforcement officer (even from state and federal agencies) may have no relevant formal training in emergency management to qualify them to develop proper school crisis plans.  In the same vein, a psychologist might not make a good school security expert absent some specific experience in the field.
  • Beware of experts with vague credentials.  For example, one frequent sign of a non-qualified expert is one who doesn’t list specific former employers or universities by name but instead gives generalities and grandiose statements about past positions and affiliations.
  • Remember that cost frequently has little bearing on quality.  Some of the least qualified experts charge the highest rates while some of the most reputable people in the field have much more reasonable rates.
  • When viewing the credentials of a consultant, consider whether members of a jury would consider them to be qualified to perform the type of work you would retain them for.
  • Ask the consultant in writing if they have ever had a client request to terminate a contract and if so why.  While there are instances where contracts are terminated for reasons beyond the ability of consultants to control, a pattern of this type of outcome can indicate trouble.
  • Ask the consultant in writing if they or their firm have ever filed a civil action against a client, filed an open records request or any written appeals on bids.  While there are legitimate reasons for consultants to take these types of actions, a pattern of these behaviors could indicate that a difficult working relationship may be more likely.

Learning during a civil action that the school safety consultant you have hired has been fired for serious misconduct or having a reporter point out that they have been arrested for a serious crime can be rather awkward.  Taking the time to conduct due diligence when evaluating school safety experts can save a money, time and perhaps even lives.

Related resource: “Evaluating an Expert Witness for School Safety Cases” by Michael S. Dorn and Sue Ann Hartig.  Download this research article and others in our resource section.

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