Episodes
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Insider Truth About Student Discipline Abeyance Agreements
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
STUDENT will give his best effort in all of his subjects every day. That subjective condition-statement was extracted from a school district's boilerplate one-page abeyance agreement. It's codified by the district's school board policy. With suspensions racing to extinction, this is in the new embodiment of student discipline and it’s not just a second chance to follow the rules. WHAT IS AN ABEYANCE AGREEMENT (AA). In public schools, an AA sets forth the conditions under which the school agrees to not impose discipline (detention/suspension/expulsion). AA is a practice wrangled from the legal system (not from education policy) where it’s often associated with a plea deal. AAs are also referred to as pre-expulsion agreements or a first offenders program. PURPOSE OF AN AA. School leaders champion AA’s as a tool of discretion that offers a second chance for students who have violated the code of student conduct. However, implicit functions of the AA include: (a) having a conclusive action to an investigation; (b) avoiding creation of a reportable data as AAs are not reported to local, state Department of Public Instruction, or federal agencies; (c) avoid convening the IEP team if the child has a disability (to discuss services and placement); and (d) shield the school board from an abrasive student expulsion. WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF AN AA? A Google search will surface countless AA templates - some as short as a page. AAs include, (a) period of time that the AA is in effect - often a semester; (b) attendance requirements; (c) requirement that the student follow the school rules; (d) statement that the student will give his/her “best effort” in school; and (e) signatures by student, parent and school administrator. Many include the following clause, “By executing this agreement the undersigned acknowledges that they voluntarily and without any undue influence agree to waive their right to appeal.” ...That last sentence. Yep, an AA is a slight-of-hand maneuver that separates students from their right of due process. IS AN AA REPORTED TO THE STATE OR FED? There is no requirement that an AA be reported to a school board, state department of instruction or federal department of education. In fact, most AAs are expunged from school databases after they expire unlike school suspensions and expulsions which must be reported to state and federal government. FIVE INCENTIVES TO ENTER INTO AN AA. Reasons that drive AAs: (1) keeps the district’s actions “off the books.” (2) has FERPA (privacy) shield; (3) if a student has a disability, or might have a disability that hasn’t been diagnosed, an IEP team would be convened to hold a manifestation determination and consider services and placement. AA might preclude convening the IEP; (4) simple and quick; (5) parents go along with them most of the time because an AA leverages the positionality (perceived power) of the school. The school often includes its lawyer to craft the AA or be present at the meeting with parents. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION: WHY PARENTS ALWAYS AGREE TO AN AA. A parent might be intimidated by the school (as it is a powerful government institution) or overwhelmed by school authorities with advanced degrees and initials after their names. In these instances, parents perceive the AA as a “gift” from the school and sign it to bring the matter to a close and clean their child’s record. Other times, parents believe they pressured the school into making a deal due to their status in the community or making it known that they could unleash a “complaint campaign” or bring advocates to meetings. Regardless of the parents’ perception of why they are being offered the AA, the school gets what it wants - the signed AA. SIX SHORTCOMINGS OF AAs. (1) no oversight, efficacy research or reporting requirement; (2) less incentive for exhaustive investigation; (3) low threshold to fulfill the AA / no learning objectives; (4) privacy law keeps them secret; (5) denies due process to students [with disabilities]; (6) destroys a student record that might reveal a skill deficit, pattern of behavior or even bring light upon a systemic practice of institutional bias. 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. 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 112.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
Interview with Max Eden | Education Policy Expert and Coauthor of Why Meadow Died
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
In this episode of The Safety Doc Podcast, I talk with the co-author of Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created The Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students. He discusses student discipline reform, student disability policies, abeyance agreements, and pressures on institutions to ‘look as though they have no problems,’ and more in light of recent school shootings. ABOUT MAX EDEN. Max Eden is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Before joining MI, he was program manager of the education policy studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. Eden’s research interests include early education, school choice, and federal education policy. He was coeditor, with Frederick M. Hess, of The Every Student Succeeds Act: What It Means for Schools, Systems, and States (2017). Eden’s work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, such as the Journal of School Choice, Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, National Review, Claremont Review of Books, and The Weekly Standard. He holds a B.A. in history from Yale University. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF STUDENT SAFETY? 43 states have laws for school safety plans, but there is minimal accountability. Schools submit logs to denote that drills were conducted and nobody at the state-level offers feedback. It’s the difference between completing a requirement and learning from an activity. DISCIPLINE POLICY. Mr. Eden has written extensively about the complexities of inconsistent applications of discipline policy. He discusses what gets reported and considerations of the perceived interplay of personal and institutional biases in discipline and consequences. Dr. Perrodin iterates the absence of inter-rater reliability between states and notes the examples of North Carolina having more than 100 possible reporting codes for school discipline infraction - including affray which is defined as an instance of fighting in a public place that disturbs the peace. Administrative discretion versus zero-tolerance policies were also scrutinized in this episode. Policies are applied differently for students identified with disabilities due to certain legal protections. BUYING ACCESS. David sought Max’s response to the article Superintendents Association Recommends School Security Companies — for a Fee. Safety Experts Call It ‘Buying Access’ and Decry Lack of Transparency (by Mark Keierleber of the74million.org; October 21, 2019). Are national and state school organizations selling out to vendors? In Keierleber’s article, he writes, “[The] company and others like it pay $18,000 a year for the right to call themselves “School Solutions” partners with AASA, The School Superintendents Association — an arrangement that has raised ethical questions among some security experts. THE SILENT SHAME OF ABEYANCE AGREEMENTS. Schools have a tool, often per the guidance of their attorney, to deliver a lesser form of discipline that isn’t reportable to any local, state or federal entity. What is an abeyance agreement and how is it undermining student safety? PRESSURES TO PORTRAY A GLOWING SCHOOL IMAGE. In the modern age of open enrollment and government shaming for reporting “authentic” discipline figures, schools are actively managing their public image. School-shopping parents, local realtors, businesses and powerful local interests want “good” schools and not “honest” schools. Dr. Perrodin shares his own account of this as a school administrator and how perception was valued over reality. 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. 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 111.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
Wednesday Oct 16, 2019
In 2013, A 7-year-old Maryland kid chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun at school and wound up with two days suspension. The pastry in question was not named, but it's gotta be a Pop-Tart, right? This dubious outcome, and others like it, are often the result of what is known as Zero-tolerance school safety policy. . WHAT ARE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES? Zero-tolerance policies were written into school handbooks in the 1990s, created originally to be a deterrent for bringing weapons into schools. Many students under strict zero-tolerance policies are punished without a second thought. School administrators are not afforded discretion to use professional judgment to match a consequence to a violation of the code of student conduct. This type of disciplinary procedure has been proven in research to have an overall negative effect on students, and a disproportionately negative effect on minorities. ABOUT RESEARCHER ANN MARIECOTMAN. Ann Marie Cotman is a doctoral student researching school policing at Texas State University. An educator since 1995 and a mother since 1998, Ann Marie fully respects and underscores that schools' first and most important obligation is to creating and maintaining a safe learning environment. As a researcher she is determined to make sure that safety driven policies truly support the safety of ALL students and are not unexamined practices that instead produce poor and inequitable outcomes. When not reading, writing, and researching, Ann Marie loves to play analog games with her three children and create art. She also gets to know the coolest kids in Austin Texas through her summer camp program and private tutoring! FOUR WAYS ZERO-TOLERANCE DISCIPLINE POLICIES UNDERMINE SCHOOL SAFETY: (1) prioritizes compliance over self-management/critical thinking; (2) undermines students' development of and confidence in their own decision making; (3) hides race (and gender, and other) inequities under the fig leaf of equal treatment; (4) discourages and interrupts the relationship building that is critical to creating a culture in which all community members want to come forward with concerns. ZERO-TOLERANCE PRETENDS TO REMOVE SUBJECTIVE DECISION MAKING THIS A PROBLEM FOR TWO REASONS: (1) Why would we want to remove the human element from addressing discipline problems? (2) We know both in design and application that it does NOT create an objective decision process. BETTER OPTIONS. Ann shifts the discussion to looking at the safety priorities of the school. Is it worth the time and investment to maintain polarizing Zero-tolerance policies at the detriment of cultivating relationships with students and families? And, for policies to be effective across the hundreds of thousands of school buildings in America, they need to be melded to each school setting. That involves affording the principal discretion to interpret and apply policies to best fit the setting. It’s not capitulating – it’s sensemaking. Ann also shared an example of a school that invited four students to serve on its safety committee and simple, potent positive changes that resulted from a group of educators and students working to solve the problem of chronic vaping by youth. 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. 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 110.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America.
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Tragic Truth About Bahamas Hurricane Devastation with Katie Pechon and German Parodi
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
As Bahamian officials continue to sort through the widespread destruction left by Hurricane Dorian, confusion and uncertainty has been rampant during much of the initial recovery process. Guests Katie Pechon, German Parodi and Shaylin Sluzalis bring awareness and urgency to the untold stories of the Bahamas and the oft-overlooked impact disasters have on persons with disabilities. WHAT ARE THE BAHAMAS? The Bahamas extends 760 miles from the coast of Florida on the north-west almost to Haiti on the south-east. The nation consists of 700 islands, of which 30 are inhabited. The total population is 400,000 with 230,000 residing on the island of Nassau. HURRICANE DORIAN’S IMPACT ON THE BAHAMAS. On September 1, 2019, the eye of Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the Abaco Islands with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, making it the strongest hurricane on record to affect the northwestern Bahamas. The hurricane moved very slowly - just over a one mile-per-hour. As it was stagnant, the debris-laced winds and waves pulverized the islands in the 2 days it took Dorian to move toward the US coast. EVACUATION. German explained that the Bahamas, being a national of islands, didn’t have the infrastructure to evacuate residents. Lackluster, choppy emergency management responses from local and international governments coupled with profiteering by transportation companies (selling evacuation flights for $4500.00 per person) placed resident rescues as a low priority. Additionally, persons with disabilities, if rescued, might be separated from wheelchairs or other vital supports and not re-united with those items. GETTING RESCUE ITEMS TO THE BAHAMAS. Katie and German noted that the typical rescue assets of water, food, clothing and shelter were quickly brought to warehouses in southern Florida. Such staples are rapidly staged after a disaster. However, barriers to bringing the items into the Bahamas included clearing Customs and also having to break down items packed onto pallets to be transported on small planes. Decimated communication systems and damaged roads continued to keep many people isolated from population hubs – the places that will be the first to receive supplies. The number of missing persons has been reported in the thousands and it is likely most that are missing will be deemed losses. The risk of disease grows exponentially with each passing day under the sweltering, wrecked landscape. ITEMS NEEDED FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. Of course, water, food, clothing and shelter are needs shared by persons impacted by disaster. And, items for persons with disabilities, such as wheelchairs, walkers, catheters, insulin, trach components, etc., weren’t efficiently gathered and staged. These items also require collaboration with rescue coordinators in the Bahamas to ensure that they are matched with persons in need. German shared how he interfaced with civilian rescue forces in the Bahamas that work to support persons with disabilities. TRAUMA. German brought attention to the traumatic stress experienced by persons that endured Hurricane Dorian. Fear and anxiety manifested when it was known that the hurricane was projected to slam into the islands and such feelings will quickly rekindle with the next proximal tropical depression. The psychological shock is under-stated by the mainstream media. WHAT IS REAADI and DRMA? As we expanded the discussion to consider steps to improve domestic safety, German and Shaylin described the Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion for Disasters Act (REAADI) and the Disaster Relief Medicaid Act (DRMA) that were introduced in the House and Senate on June 10, 2019. These bills include measures to improve outcomes for persons with disabilities during disasters. First, REAADI ensures that persons with disabilities contribute government rescue plans designed to bring persons with disabilities to safe location and support their needs during a sentinel event such as a hurricane in the United States. People will have input into the development of the plans that will be followed to ensure that they are supported during a disaster. DRMA fixes the existing problem of Medicaid funding terminating as a person crosses the state line. For example, if a person with a disability receiving Medicaid services evacuates Florida for Alabama during a hurricane, that person is not able to access Medicaid supports available to a resident of Alabama. Yep, that’s messed up and this remedy is overdue. CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THIS EPISODE'S GUESTS. Katie Pechon: VP Triton Relief Group Kpechon@tritonrelief.org; Germán Luis Parodi: UNDRR Persons with Disabilities Co-Focal Point for the Americas and the Caribbean dart@disasterstrategies.org; Shaylin Sluzalis: Disaster Disability Access Response Team (DART) | Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies Shaylin@disastrategies.org; Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies portlight.org. 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. 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 107.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: Schools of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Who is in Charge of School Safety?
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
Sunday Jul 14, 2019
School safety is the default responsibility of individual schools. Surprisingly, there are no federal laws mandating school safety plans of school-based mental health services. Some, and not all, states require school safety plans. Individual school districts safety plans are inconsistent and with site-based management, most schools apply discretion to make safety policies fit the unique characteristics of the school – from the population served to the design of the building. In other words, schools are pretty much on their own to craft and ensure school safety protocols. KEY TERMS FOR ENTITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR SCHOOL SAFETY. “Local entity” includes local, regional or district boards, agencies or offices (such as local boards of education, district boards of trustees or school system committees). “School” includes administrators, principals and other designated officials at the school-level. “School safety entity” includes agencies, departments, task forces, committees, etc., which were created with the intent of addressing school safety matters (Education Commission of The States, 2019). Confusing, right? FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ROLE IN SCHOOL SAFETY. The federal government doesn’t mandate school safety plans. Beyond some token legislation of gun free zones, the federal government defaults the responsibility for maintaining safe schools to the states. The Feds saturate states and schools with recommendations to the point where the one-size-fits-all templates simply overwhelm the end-users. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has produced solid research and resources for school connectedness, a framework known to decrease school violence and increase student attendance and academic performance. A school is not obligated to follow the CDC’s school connectedness model. STATES ROLE IN SCHOOL SAFETY. Only 43 of 50 states mandate that schools have safety plans. Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania do not (1) require a school safety plan; (2) identify an entity responsible for creating the safety plan; (3) require that law enforcement be involved in creating the plan; (4) frequency with which the plan is required to be reviewed and updated; or (5) have a legal citation referencing school safety. Most states require drills, but then require a submitted checklist once a year to verify compliance. There are no onsite district safety assessments. DISTRICTS ROLE IN SCHOOL SAFETY. Districts are responsible for adopting school safety policies and practices. Wisconsin, for example, has 421 districts! Templates are available, but school safety plans, drills and exercises have a modicum of inter-school reliability due to the fact that most schools function under site-based management. In other words, principals are responsible for safety training procedures and safety drill design and fidelity in their buildings. Using Wisconsin as an example, that’s more than 2,200 school buildings – not including hundreds of community preschool partner sites. SAFETY GRANTS. In July, 2019, the US Department of Education made $65 million dollars available in competitive school safety grants. These grants are divided into 3 categories. Each grant is vaguely described and won’t evoke sustained change. Obtaining one of these grants is like winning the lottery – you can do more until the money is expended. None of these grants is for researching root causes of school violence or the Youth Code of Silence. 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 103.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: Schools of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America
Sunday Jun 23, 2019
Customer Perceived Value - Putting a Price on Safe Schools
Sunday Jun 23, 2019
Sunday Jun 23, 2019
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
Monday May 20, 2019
What Common Rule Means for School Safety Drills
Monday May 20, 2019
Monday May 20, 2019
As of May, 2019, only 43 of 50 states require schools to have safety plans and conduct safety drills (Education Commission of the States, 2019). When states mandate schools to have safety plans and conduct safety drills, it is the individual schools left to determine how they will design said plans and drills. In some states, the safety plan must be presented to a school board and submitted to the state Department of Justice. However, without templates and rubrics, there is littler inter-school reliability. What is a “good” safety plan or “effective” safety drill? Nobody knows. STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT WAS THE TIPPING POINT FOR PROTECTING HUMAN SUBJECTS. While the Stanford Prison Experiment was originally slated to last 14 days, it had to be stopped after just six due to what was happening to the student participants. The guards became abusive, and the prisoners began to show signs of extreme stress and anxiety. These were university students, assuming assigned roles, as part of an experiment that attempted to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison officers. THE MELTDOWN. Similar to the infamous 1963 Milgram shock experiment, Stanford’s experiment flew off the rails as subjects in positions of power followed directives that seemingly brought pain or harm to recipients. Were the subjects acting as prison guards cruel, despicable people? Probably not. But, they were in a university context and a professor was mingling among them. They probably assumed that some measures were in place to prevent harm to recipients - and simultaneously lacked awareness of the endorphin rush they received from exerting their will over others. IRB WAS FORMED. In 1974, universities collectively ratified the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process. The mandate of the IRB is to provide ethical and regulatory oversight of research that involves human subjects by: Protecting the rights, welfare and well-being of human research participants, recruited to participate in research conducted or supported by the university. Psychological and physical welfare are carefully considered and risks are identified and mitigated. WHAT IS COMMON RULE? In 1991, 16 federal agencies formally adopted the core of these regulations in a common Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects also known as the "Common Rule" (Grady, 2015). I propose that adopting the IRB in K-12 settings will increase safety for all drill participants and, through the scientific model, increase efficacy of school safety drills. Common Rule applies, for example, to the Food and Drug Administration and clinical trials for medications. Common Rule was updated in 2019 with greater emphasis placed upon simplifying subject consent forms and clearly explaining potential consequences of participating in studies. IRB or COMMON RULE WOULD ELEVATE SCHOOL SAFETY DRILLS. Schools can establish their own standards for school safety plans and safety drills as long as they are complying with state mandates. In other words, schools IRB or COMMON RULE for these reasons: (1) Corral theatrical intruder drills that might traumatize or physically harm participants. This happens - just do a search on Google for “Intruder Drill Lawsuit”. Also, hyper-realistic drills are not the gold standard. If they were, we would conduct fire drills and tornado drills with similar drama. So, a committee of administrators, teachers, students, parents and board members review each proposed safety drill. (2) Each drill would have at least one learning objective. For example, “If a lockdown is announced during passing time, students would go to a safe location.” You can define “safe” per your site. Another example of a learning objective is, “Emergency responders will learn 3 techniques to engage with students with disabilities.” 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
Resources used in this post:
- Grady C. Institutional Review Boards: Purpose and Challenges. Chest. 2015;148(5):1148–1155. doi:10.1378/chest.15-0706
- https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-k-12-school-safety/
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: Schools of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America
Monday Apr 29, 2019
How the Notre Dame Fire Exemplified Torus Theory
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Monday Apr 29, 2019
Dr. Perrodin notes curious inaccuracies of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, the bizarre subsequent investigation, a looming detrimental Paris health hazard and wraps this entire discussion within a the philosophical shell of torus theory. INACCURACIES ABOUT THE CATHEDRAL FIRE. This episode was originally drafted as a platform to use the cathedral fire as an example of torus theory - as interpreted by Dr. Perrodin. However, numerous oddities presented surrounding the fire and, more notably, the unusual activities hours and days following the fire. Dr. Perrodin clearly states that he believes the fire was accidental. Nonetheless, the borderline conspiracy elements surface in the dearth of media coverage specific to the spire renovation and an acknowledgment of the public health ramifications of 500,000 pounds of lead on the roof that was mostly vaporized during the fire. It is known that lead contaminants have been detected proximal to the cathedral, but Dr. Perrodin questions the assessment of lead contamination and also lead abatement in and near the cathedral. Also, firefighters are observed without breathing masks or air filtration masks which seems very dangerous when fighting a fire with a massive component of lead. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION’S POSITION ON THE ELEMENT LEAD. At high levels of exposure, lead attacks the brain and central nervous system to cause coma, convulsions and even death. ... There is no known safe blood lead concentration. Dr. Perrodin postulates that it might not even be an option to rebuild the cathedral due to contamination and that costs of lead abatement will certainly became public within the next 6 months. TORUS THEORY, SIMILARITY and the NOTRE DAME FIRE. David steps the audience through the steps that occurred as a typical day as Notre Dame Cathedral disintegrated into historic disaster. TYPICAL. Humans expect today to be similar to yesterday and also that tomorrow will be similar to today. This is known as torus theory and it was very much a contributing factor both the seemingly casual response to the initial fire alarm at Notre Dame as well as the billion dollars of donations that poured in within one day and earmarked to rebuild the cathedral. ACKNOWLEDGE. As we embrace routines and similarity, it took a while for it to “sink in” that Notre Dame was on fire and wouldn't open up in a "couple of weeks". The onsite fire inspectors had no choice but to become informed as they observed leaping flames. For the public, it took longer to grasp what was happening to this 850 structure not only from a physical perspective, but the gut feeling of how the desecrated structure impacted beliefs about permanence and Christianity. SHIFT FROM THE TORUS TO CHAOS. After the cathedral was cleared of occupants, everyone understood that the torus was shattered and the next several hours, days and years would negotiate chaos. Chaos, however, can be liberating - it simplifies things and also leaves us to “work the problem” as it unfolds. Hence, the line of people conveying artifacts from the cathedral and firefighters having to determine how to deploy over-matched assets to best prevent the destruction of the structure. ACCEPTANCE. As the flames consumed the attic structure, it became widely accepted that the cathedral had been rocketed into a state of chaos. Everyone realized it was failing and mourning displaced awe. ATTEMPT TO RESTORE SIMILARITY. President Macron seized the opportunity to proclaim that the cathedral would be rebuilt, better than before, within 5 years. He made this statement as firefighters were still poking around the structure to cool hot spots. It was a powerful declaration that served to help millions of people return to similarity and it also opened the flow of donations to restore the cathedral. Macron told people what they wanted to hear and not what they needed to hear. The reality was that it would take structural engineers weeks to assess the damage to the structure. Had the load-bearing stonework been substantially damaged, had toxic levels of lead been found throughout the structure? I mean, it might not have made sense to undertake the money pit of rebuilding a fatally-wounded landmark. This might still prove to be true. And, if so, what happens to the billion dollar donation fund? What if will cost a billion dollars JUST to address the toxic contamination of the site? 20 YEARS FROM NOW. Dr. Perrodin predicts that the health-related implications of the Notre Dame fire won’t be realized for at least a decade - similar to the disabling conditions that eventually afflicted workers removing debris at the World Trade Center complex in New York. What will be the long-term impacts of thousands of pounds of vaporized lead on Paris? 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 and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. 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
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Exempting Disabled Students from Safety Drills with Attorney James Sibley
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Attorney James Sibley is a potent advocate for special needs students and their families fighting for fair treatment. In this episode of the Safety Doc Podcast, Attorney Sibley and host David Perrodin discuss the sprawling practice of limiting or exempting students with disabilities from school safety instruction, drills and access to threat reporting systems. James and David employ authentic stories that educators and parents will relate to in this vibrant discussion that is not about assigning blame and all about a more informed way for parents, educators and students to think about how to calibrate inclusive school safety. REASONS FOR EXEMPTING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS FROM SAFETY INSTRUCTION. Attorney Sibley explains that educators think they are somehow "protecting" students with special needs by limiting their participation in safety drills. Many of these students present unique challenges during emergency situations and they shouldn't just be included in regular safety planning, there should be specialized safety plans in place for them. And, for those plans to be successful there needs to be preparation and practice. Dr. Perrodin adds that the hyper-realistic design of contemporary school intruder drills also prompts educators and parents to limit students with special needs from exposure to these types of drills. However, the question also arises of the appropriateness of these drills for all students and staff. Has the threshold of “reasonable” safety drills been crossed? LAWS FOR STUDENT SAFETY INSTRUCTION: IDEA and ADA. Attorney Sibley describes two of the primary laws that impact student safety instruction. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a piece of legislation that ensures the approximately 8 million students with a disability are provided a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that is tailored to their individual needs. Students with disabilities that receive special education or related services have a plan developed by the school team and parents to meet the needs of the child. That plan can, and should, include specific instruction and supports to ensure the student’s safety is maintained during a crisis situation. The other significant piece of legislation addressed by Attorney Sibley is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). People commonly think of this in terms of ramped entrances and accessible bathrooms. However, he brought awareness to Chapter 7 Addendum 2: The ADA and Emergency Shelters: Access for All in Emergencies and Disasters identifies that one of the government’s (including schools) primary responsibilities is to protect people during disasters and emergencies and to provide shelter that accommodates all persons, including people with disabilities. INCORRECT APPLICATION OF THE IEP PROCESS RELATIVE TO STUDENT SAFETY. First, you can’t do something in the IEP that would violate the ADA. The IEP has a portion that includes testing accommodations and Attorney Sibley mentioned that as teams discuss this section it is sometimes incorrectly broadened to include participation in safety instruction. Ultimately, students can’t be exempted from school safety instruction or drills for any reason. ASKING QUESTIONS IS THE WAY TO LEARN ABOUT A STUDENT’S SAFETY INSTRUCTION AT SCHOOL. Attorney Sibley believes much can be learned when parents adopt an inquiry-based approach to learning about their child’s school safety instruction and participation in drills. He gave the example of the following questions a parent might pose to school staff: “Are these drills designed to increase and enhance the safety on the campus? And if the answer is yes, is there some reason that you don’t want my child to be safe – as I want them to be safe and I assume you do, too.” WE UNDER-ESTIMATE THE POTENTIAL OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES DURING CRISIS SITUATIONS. Dr. Perrodin gave accounts of educators that exempted children with special needs from drills only because they anticipated that they would not perform well during the drill. In fact, the student had never been afforded the opportunity to demonstrate competency in the drill. Attorney Sibley added a story of when he was a Scout Leader and the Scouts, including some with disabilities, needed to respond to a rapidly rising river. Although the Scouts hadn’t practiced for that specific scenario, they had practiced for unforeseen situations and also recognized a chain of command. They processed the flood without panic and, as Attorney Sibley underscores, students with special needs will surprise us with how well they can handle emergency situations. 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 and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. 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 Learn more about ADA Chapter 7 Addendum 2 at https://www.ada.gov/pcatoolkit/chap7shelterprog.pdf
About our guest, please visit
- https://specialeducationcounsel.com/attorney/james-b-sibley-esq/
- http://survivingspecialeducation.com/ (Personal Website)
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: Schools of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America
Sunday Mar 03, 2019
Why the Sidelines of School Safety Are a Tragic Act of Kindness
Sunday Mar 03, 2019
Sunday Mar 03, 2019
Schools are exempting students with disabilities from participating in safety instruction and safety drills. These misplaced pardons are enabled via an incorrect application of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process or a district-generated parent “opt-out” form. First, let’s be clear that it is illegal to exempt students from mandated fire drills. However, the practice is sprawling, unchecked and not enforced. Dr. Perrodin predicts deadly consequences from “protecting” children with special needs from receiving proper safety instruction. ANECDOTES. David kickstarts this episode by noting he is donning a beanie and insulated jacket as the basement of his North Star Studio was barely pushing the thermometer to 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Worse yet, the evening temperature would dip to minus ten degrees - a bit brisk for March. He shuffles through a few thoughts on his mind including: Why aren’t windshield’s more durable; How his home town issued a rare decree liberating residents from shoveling their sidewalks for the rest of winter; Why is it that people forget the blatant racism of Dr. Seuss’ cartoons during World War II; and looking ahead to the August 10th release of his book School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America. THE PROBLEM WITH EXEMPTING STUDENTS FROM SAFETY DRILLS: There are at least 10 million school-age children with disabilities in America and they aren’t receiving the same quality of safety instruction as their non-disabled peers. Per disability rights attorney James Sibley, “It is amazing how schools think that "sparing" special ed students from participation in fire drills active shooter drills and the like is showing them some sort of kindness. Many disabled students present special challenges during emergency situations and they shouldn't just be included in regular safety planning, there should be specialized safety plans in place for them. And, for those plans to be successful there needs to be preparation and practice.” Students must be provided skills that will generalize to home, stores or trips. And, these skills must be resilient and reliable as the student exits school and enters the post-secondary setting. WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES AND SCHOOL SAFETY. Davis, Alicia & Gast, David. (1998). Social safety for young children: A review of the literature on safety skills instruction. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. 18. 222-234. “Young children in today's society may find themselves in situations that require appropriate action in order to avoid dire consequences, such as injury of death. These situations may be the result of contact with objects in the physical environment action in order to avoid dire consequences, such as injury or death. such as guns, knives, or toxins. In other cases, children may be faced with confronting dangers in the social environment, such as avoiding the lures of strangers or responding to the abuse or neglect of a caregiver. Although safety education programs are implemented frequently in school settings, few research studies have systematically evaluated the methodology for teaching safety skills to young children.” Dr. Perrodin praised this study and also noted it was perhaps the best available on school safety instruction although it was done more than 2 decades ago. He pointed out that the study urged future research not be conducted in a group style, but individualized, and that it was critical to conduct “in vivo” data gathering - or to observe the child in various natural settings including school. 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 and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. 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