I found this interview with the bookkeeper who did such a superb job in de-escalating the extremely tense hostage situation at a Dekalb County Georgia elementary school to be an excellent example of how well school employees can perform under dire conditions.   This interview helps to demonstrate how important it is to remember that not all aggressors armed with guns are active shooters.  Had this school employee attempted to attack and disarm this aggressor, a far more deadly incident would likely have occurred.  Though the various approaches to train school employees to attack an active shooter as a last resort would not advocate that she attack the aggressor in this situation, our controlled simulations have revealed that many people who view training videos or complete training programs of this type frequently misapply the concepts and do respond to such scenarios by saying they would attack the aggressor when it is clearly dangerous to do so.

While we do not suggest remaining passive when trapped in an enclosed space with an active shooter, we feel that more comprehensive training approaches are needed to reduce the significant danger that people will misapply the concepts being taught.

School security has been a major topic in Connecticut.  Connecticut school officials have been bombarded with marketing materials, calls by sales people and other contacts by people and organizations trying to sell them safety since the tragedy.  While this has been occurring in all fifty states, education leaders report and frequently lament intensive activities of this type in Connecticut.  During a trip to work with three Connecticut school districts a few weeks ago, several educators and public safety officials expressed anger that a school safety consultant had even rushed to Newtown from another state to do media interviews.  While they understand the need for expert commentary, they felt that giving the appearance that he had been summoned to the scene was both misleading and insensitive.  There have also been a number of instances of reporters approaching the houses of parents who had lost children with microphones concealed in bouquets of flower to ambush parents with surprise interviews, these types of events have generated considerable stress, pain and sensitivity to what one school official referred to as profiteering.  Many people feel they have been victimized all over again.  One administrator told me this week that a school employee who lost a loved one in the incident had decided to retire because of the relentless barrage of media interview requests.

School and public safety officials appreciate and understand that the media can and must report the news.   They also understand and appreciate that there are people and organizations that can help them make their schools safer.  At the same time, many people in the state have expressed that they have grown weary of efforts that they sometimes perceive to be unprofessional, opportunistic and in a few extreme cases, disturbingly predatory.  Though we have not made a single unsolicited phone call nor sent any mail to solicit school security work in Connecticut or any other state in the wake of the Sandy Hook incident, our school safety experts have been very busy providing services to Connecticut schools this year.  While we gladly respond to requests for information and services, we simply do not feel that it is appropriate to solicit work no matter how intense the interest in the subject.    

Responding to requests, our dedicated team of school security experts has had the privilege of keynoting conferences for thousands of people and have conducted numerous school security assessments in Connecticut.  Educators, students, parents, public safety officials, elected officials and members of the public have discussed and debated an array of approaches to try to address the fear generated by the nation’s third most deadly school attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Gun control, arming teachers, metal detectors, security cameras, armed security officers, school resource officers, ballistic laminates, school design, mental health services and many other measures have been discussed at length in an attempt to improve school security in Connecticut. 

When the Connecticut State Police release the much anticipated report outlining the results of their investigation, the airways will again be awash with stories about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Educators and public safety officials will again be assailed with relentless requests from reporters as is to be expected in a country with cherished and often highly critical freedom of the press.  Citizens of Connecticut will speak their mind in sometimes emotional, emphatic and passionate discussions as can and must occur in a country with a right to free speech unprecedented in world history.  But sadly, school superintendents, headmasters and school board members will be inundated with another round of sometimes insensitive sales pitches.   

I have had the privilege to interact with several thousand educators, public safety officials, elected officials, students, parents and concerned citizens in Connecticut to discuss school security this year.   Though many vendors have been respectful, reasonable and utterly professional as they attempt to conduct business in the state, some have not been so thoughtful.  We urge those who offer services and products relating to school safety and security to be respectful in their efforts to make Connecticut schools safer.  

I apologize for not blogging more often, but our summer schedule has been rather hectic.

In August I visited a rural province of Mozambique.  The Zambeze Delta region is as remote a location as I have ever visited.  It was a wonderful and informative experience.  Schools in the area I visited typically have dirt floors, no power and no running water.  A school often consists of a simple thatched roof, a blackboard and hard wooden benches and a crude dirt soccer field. Yet children can and do learn.

In this part of Mozambique, lions, hyenas, crocodiles, cobras, hippos and cape buffalo are unique hazards that claim many young lives.  The mortality rate for young children is so high that parents in the region typically do not name their offspring until their fifth birthday.  Once children reach the age of five, they are more likely to survive malaria and have learned more about spotting the many types of wildlife that often can and do attack people.  Though I was there for only two weeks, I had a couple of close calls including one instance where I sat down for a moment only to be told that a cobra was only five paces away.  My inability to spot the snake could have been a lethal error had someone familiar with local hazards not been there to spot the danger.

The region I visited is one of the last truly wild regions left on the Dark Continent.  Through private efforts, the region I visited has truly amazing populations of wildlife that cannot be seen outside of national parks in places like Kenya where poaches have wiped out most of the countries’ wildlife.  Though the trip had a few tense moments, it was one of the most wonderful trips I have been blessed to experience.  The trip provided a stark contrasts relating to school safety we sometimes see around the globe.  This contrast reminded me just how fortunate American children, parents and school officials can are to live if a place where we see the deaths of young children as an anomaly rather than a routine fact of life.