You can’t put a price tag on keeping schools safe – or can you? The $3 billion school safety industry is on a nonstop trajectory for both number of bills proposed and bills enacted to legislate, and sometimes fund, a staggering array of new mandates and unchecked block grants for school safety. CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE. Customer perceived value (CPV) is the notion that the success of a product or service your business offers hinges on whether customers believe it can satisfy their wants and needs. Most of us can relate to this when purchasing a car. The salesperson will gauge what is important to us and tailor the pitch. If we are looking for a family vehicle, then safety and space are selling points. If it’s a commuter, then it’s fuel economy and ease to maneuver in traffic. WHEN THE PARENT IS THE CUSTOMER. Let’s be honest, school boards are entry-level political positions. Superintendents last 2-3 years in the role, and a teacher with 5 years in the same school is a seasoned veteran. The stats support all of that, but there’s something else going on. School boards and school leadership were entrusted to become informed and then to make the critical decisions about school operations. Today, the CPV model has changed. The parent is the customer and the school leaders and boards are dancing to their tune. When the perceived value is increased student safety, it’s practically unthinkable to assign a price tag to “peace of mind.” This isn’t a callous statement. But, with all the grant money being hurled at schools with minimal guidance and even less accountability, the vendors swoop with amazing presentations to sell schools unproven window dressings. And, it works as we are now convinced that (1) any device might contribute to making a school safer and (2) it’s savage to put a price limit on school safety. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOLS. First, the current model of school safety spending isn’t sustainable. Just as we accept that there isn’t a price cap on school safety, couldn’t the argument be made to spend ten times what we are spending now for more bollards, armored busses, fences, guards – and, you know, the things they use at prisons? Second, school safety conferences have become overrun by fortification vendors. The list of speakers is FBI, CIA, FBI, and whatever. The scholars of the field don’t get to the stage as they know we can’t fortify our way to safety – and that message isn’t congruent with the $50,000 the conference is raking in from device-selling vendors and sponsors. The latest trend is to hand the breakout sessions over to the vendors. Instead of a breakout on learning about conducting focus groups with students, it’s now a presentation about window films to slow an intruder. What? And, once these practices are vetted, the weeds are difficult to remove and the lawn is just green and that’s fine, I suppose. ARE GOVERNMENT SAFETY GRANTS AN ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN THE SOCIAL CONTRACT? The message from the heap of safety bills and plush grant funding is that to “solve” the problem of school safety, administrators, boards, teachers, parents and students must look external to the government. It’s called the transference dynamic and it was used as a political means to justify all kinds of spending to fortify the US from Russia in the early 1980s (read School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America).  To makes schools safer, we need to get the kids involved – and crack the Youth Code of Silence in which 81% of the time someone else, usually a peer, was aware ahead of time of a pending school attack. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse & debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety. Email David: thesafetydoc@gmail.com LOOKING FOR DR. TIMOTHY LUDWIG, PHD? Dr. Perrodin’s “Safety Doc Podcast” negotiates school and community safety. To be informed about industrial safety, please contact Appalachian State University Professor Dr. Timothy Ludwig, PhD, at www.safety-doc.com This is episode 101.

Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: Schools of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America

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In 2011, I co-founded what would become one of the largest school-based positive behavior summits in the Midwest. As my partners and I crafted legal contracts with the conference center, vendors and presenters, we were introduced to the term “Force Majeure” which is very significant in Wisconsin in February. Ever since, I’ve considered force majeure as it relates to school safety – and that inevitably leads into chaos theory. WHAT IS FORCE MAJEURE? Force Majeure is French for “superior force”. Force majeure refers to a clause that is included in contracts to remove liability for natural and unavoidable catastrophes that interrupt the expected course of events and restrict participants from fulfilling obligations. In other words, if solar flare fried our electrical grid, we wouldn’t be on the hook to pay conference presenters their speaking fees as Tuesday’s conference wasn’t going happen as the communication, power and transportation structures largely left people with few options other than to stay in their homes or hoof it to the nearest supply depot. WAS 9/11 FORCE MAJEURE? Yes. New York, for example, hadn’t encountered a terrorist attack via commercial aircraft – ever! And, nobody had experienced all commercial planes grounded across the nation for days. If you couldn’t fly your shipment of XYZ from Boston to LA in 24 hours, as promised, then the force majeure clause would have been activated and you wouldn’t be held at fault for not fulfilling the contract. CAN FEMA DECLARE FORCE MAJEURE? I don’t think so. And, if FEMA has this ability, it hasn’t exercised it. But, it would be helpful for strengthening rescue forces during sentinel events, such as flooding. For example, in 2017, the nonprofit Cajun Navy Relief volunteered boats, trucks, food, manpower and other resources to rescue people from flooded areas. FEMA was largely a passive partner in this process – not overtly assisting Cajun Navy Relief in most instances, but also not a barrier to their interface into the government rescue system. This changed with Hurricane Florence in 2018 as FEMA was significantly less cooperative with nonprofits such as Triton Relief Group. If FEMA declared a state of force majeure, however, that act might clear the way for nonprofit rescue forces to play bigger roles, and in expedited fashion, with large scale rescues. WHAT DOES FORCE MAJEURE MEAN FOR SCHOOL SAFETY? This is a slippery interface. First, a declaration of force majeure might convey to some that the situation if insurmountable and they will simply surrender. On the other hand, force majeure can acknowledge that the state of similarity has officially transitioned into chaos – and actually embracing chaos can help people narrow down and make decisions that might save lives. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse & debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety. Email David: thesafetydoc@gmail.com This is Episode #100.  LOOKING FOR DR. TIMOTHY LUDWIG, PHD? Dr. Perrodin’s “Safety Doc Podcast” negotiates school and community safety. To be informed about industrial safety, please contact Appalachian State University Professor Dr. Timothy Ludwig, PhD, at www.safety-doc.com

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