In this edition of Ask Safe Havens, we outline some of the benefits of conducting school safety, security, climate, culture and emergency preparedness assessments. School safety assessments can be a valuable school improvement tool in addition to a great way to make schools safer.
Normal Accidents – Living with High-Risk Technologies Provides Some Interesting Insights about Preventing Disasters in Complex Organizations
August 25, 2012 by
Normal Accidents – Living with High-Risk Technologies by Charles Perrow provides some helpful insights on how high-tech disasters occur that can be of value to school safety professionals. The book details how failures occur in complex environments such as nuclear power plants, chemical production facilities and other sites where life safety is among the top concerns. The author details how in spite of numerous layers of safety strategies, accidents and near misses still occur with some regularity.
The points made by Charles Perrow offer a number of insights to large school systems and universities which can be prone to somewhat similar safety failures. Though a highly technical book focused on extremely complex systems, it will prove a worthwhile read to those who are heavily involved with school safety such as school safety and security directors, campus police chiefs, school safety expert witnesses, state and federal school safety officials and others who are deeply into the topic of school safety.
Free School Safety Video Podcast Focuses on the Importance of Student Supervision
August 22, 2012 by
Safe Havens has done considerable work in the area of helping school officials evaluate and improve student supervision. Improving student supervision is one of the most impactful things that educators can do to enhance school safety and it is also one of the least expensive approaches. Improvements in student supervision help to reduce the risk of many different types of school safety incidents including bullying, medical emergencies, fights, weapons assaults, sexual assaults and abductions of students.
Safe Havens was the first organization to offer advanced training in ways to improve student supervision to enhance school safety, security and emergency preparedness.
Like the other videos in the Ask Safe Havens series, this concise video can be a helpful staff development tool.
Chris Dorn Presents to School Transportation Personnel in California
August 21, 2012 by
Chris Dorn presented at the CASTO Chapter 18 school transportation workshop in Eureka, California today. Chris performed his live concealed weapons demonstration and covered topics including visual weapons screening, pattern matching and recognition, crisiscommunications and other topics relating to school bus security and emergency preparedness.
Chris has keynoted many state school transportation conferences and has presented multiple times at the National Association of Pupil Transportation and School Transportation News annual conferences.
Student Supervision is Often a Key Issue in School Safety Litigation
August 21, 2012 by
A lawsuit which included allegations that football players were not being properly supervised when high school student Blake Hunt was injured was recently settled for $8 million. The student is now paralyzed from the waist down from an injury that occurred while participating in a football scrimmage in Flushing, New York.
Effective student supervision can be a valuable tool to improve school safety. As improved school safety efforts can reduce the number of safety incidents that take place, it can be a powerful prevention tool for school officials. Improving student supervision is usually inexpensive and in many cases, is very easy to accomplish. Improving student supervision can also help to reduce exposure to civil liability.
Allegations of inadequate student supervision are frequently key issues in school safety lawsuits. Expert witnesses often try to determine whether supervision of students was appropriate or not when they conduct forensic evaluations of cases regardless of whether they have been retained by the defense or the plaintiff’s counsel. This means that proper documentation of efforts to maintain effective student supervision can also be important. As with many other aspects of school safety, efforts to properly document training and daily practices can also help to improve the efficiency of the efforts because it can improve communications.
Taking the time to improve student supervision, as well as to communicate and document the actions taken to do so, can have a positive impact on school safety, climate, and culture while reducing risk exposure.
Free School Safety Video Podcast on the Importance of Mental Simulation in Effective School Crisis Planning
August 20, 2012 by
The Safe Havens International Video crew has produced a free concise video podcast on the proven concept of mental simulation to help school employees practice and prepare for a wide range of school crisis situations. Mental simulation has been utilized by law enforcement, military, emergency medical personnel as well as in the commercial aviation industry as a tool to improve human performance under life and death conditions for decades. Safe Havens began offering training in mental simulation techniques to school personnel 8-10 years ago and released a training and evaluation toolkit – The First 30 Seconds for school based personnel earlier this year. Two months later, we released a companion set designed for school bus drivers and support personnel.
Mental simulation for school safety enhancements is a powerful concept that is based on extensive research that can improve safety and emergency preparedness.