Episodes
Tuesday May 14, 2019
Paris Must Learn From Citicorp Tower's Fatal Flaw
Tuesday May 14, 2019
Tuesday May 14, 2019
In 1978, an engineering student discovered a fatal structural flaw in New York City’s just-completed Citicorp Tower. What happened next wasn’t made public for nearly 20 years! NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL FIRE LEAD CONTAMINATION. Dr. Perrodin juxtaposes the Citicorp Tower dilemma with the modern day unfolding crisis of massive lead contamination resultant of the April, 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral Fire. Per the Guardian (in an article by Angelique Chrisafis dated May 9th), “The Paris police statement on Thursday said that on the surface of pavements and gardens immediately adjoining the cathedral, lead levels were found to be very high: between 32 and 65 times the recommended limit by French health authorities. The areas closest to the cathedral are currently closed. Lead levels are also high within the cathedral itself.” Wow! Dr. Perrodin notes that similar “defiant” articles are surfacing that both bring awareness to the lead contamination and bluntly state the dire short and long term health risks associated with approximately 500,000 pounds of lead vaporized from the cathedral’s roof. Chrisafis’s article later notes, “But the French environmental campaign group Robin des Bois has warned that about 300 tonnes of lead from the cathedral’s roof and steeple had melted in the blaze. The cathedral has been reduced to the state of toxic waste,” the association said shortly after the fire, urging authorities to detoxify the tonnes of rubble, ash and wastewater produced in the disaster. WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING IN PARIS? David states that Paris officials are aware of the breadth and depth of the lead contamination issue and that there’s likely a contingency plan being assembled to deal with thousands of people impacted by lead in their bodies secondary to the Notre Dame fallout. Dr. Perrodin wasn’t surprised that areas close to the cathedral weren’t registering high levels of lead contamination as he points out that the thick plume of lead-laden smoke probably carried the highest concentrations of lead 2-3 miles from the cathedral before cooling and the particles dusted over Paris. PARIS HAS A LOT TO LOSE. Yep, admission of widespread lead contamination would destroy tourism (the economic engine of Paris) and how do you tackle lead abatement in a population dense region? Chernobyl could be isolated - you can’t do the same with Paris. Also, imagine the litigation! What happens to the $billion in donations to rebuild NDC when thousands of people rack up medical bills due to complications from lead exposure? The public health crisis would be off the charts! THE CITICORP TOWER FLAW COULD HAVE KILLED 20,000 PEOPLE. Chief structural engineer, William LeMessurier, is largely credited as the person responsible for creating the wondrous Citicorp Tower in 1977. He was a thoughtful engineer and put the design of the tower through its paces with wind test scale simulations in the world’s best lab and worked the standard battery of industry calculations. The tower was built in an innovative way to accommodate an existing church. Hence, the pillars that supported the tower were moved from the corners to the middle of each wall. A strong central pillar, like a mushroom stem, also supported the structure. WHAT WAS WRONG. LeMessurier received a call from an engineering graduate student who was puzzled at how the structure could withstand perpendicular winds. LeMessurier listened and upon further study of the building and learning of some last-minute changes that included having tension braces bolted in place rather than welded in place, he was terrified to be informed that the tower would collapse with encountering a 70 MPH wind from a certain angle. The tower had a tuned dampening system that would offset such winds, but it was electrical - and if the power went out during a storm - well, lights out! WHAT CITICORP DID RIGHT. LeMessurier the Citicorp brass, insurance folks, NYC officials and the NYC welder’s union acted in unison to quickly fortify the tower. They also hired 3 weather agencies to rigorously track weather conditions and formulated a 10-block evacuation plan in case of high winds. WHAT CITICORP DID WRONG. The workers in the tower or in proximal structures were NOT made aware that the tower could collapse. The decision to withhold this information was done to prevent panic and massive economic disruption to the city. In addition, officials believed they could evacuate the zone in time. However, Lemessurier is most strongly criticized for not sharing the wind shear information with the greater engineering community for several years. How many buildings were constructed AFTER Citicorp Tower without calculating for the peculiar wind shear factors confirmed by Lemessurier? In a recorded 1997 presentation he gave at a university, Lemessurier implies that other tall buildings existed that were susceptible to failure due to similar wind dynamics. How many of those structures might have been built differently, or retrofitted, had Lemessurier’s knowledge immediately been shared with building engineers? IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL SAFETY. Dr. Perrodin presents different scenarios that happen in schools. Each impacts the safety of the setting. How do the schools respond to each scenario if following what is unfolding in Paris or per the protocol established by the team that quietly mitigated the Citicorp flaw? 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
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
Friday Mar 15, 2019
Confirmation Bias in School Safety
Friday Mar 15, 2019
Friday Mar 15, 2019
I was attending a convention for school safety “experts” - I suppose. The presentations were a mix of pitches from field experts and product vendors. There wasn’t much new for me to learn and I found myself rather cynical and skeptical watching others present on school safety as everyone has a self-serving agenda. One of the veteran experts, someone I knew and tipped my hat to his work in both law enforcement and then in schools. He begins his presentation with an amazing example of confirmation bias and headline research. Headlines appear on the screen - the baited / incomplete headlines of school shootings and school violence. A few seconds of audio from a newsreporter interrupted by another clip and another. Headline after headline and faster and faster and more dramatic, rising background music for maybe 100 seconds. The screen goes dark. The presenter stands silent for an uncomfortable number of seconds. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is the urgency of school safety in America”, he said. I countered that this was not the state of school safety in America, but rather a perfect example of “headline research” manifesting in confirmation bias. Yet, had that convention room been filled with parents, they would have demanded action – or fortification. Now. At any cost. WHAT IS CONFIRMATION BIAS. Per Wikipedia, confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations). HOW CONFIRMATION BIAS IMPACTS SCHOOL SAFETY. Remember, people will seek information that supports their beliefs. I can recognize this immediately when I’m not a “fit” for a school district that has hired me as a consultant. When I deviate from their company line, the audience frowns or they get a worried look. Confirmation bias often assumes there’s been some type of research conducted - but I’ve found that’s just not accurate - it’s more like my colleague and his headlines. Confirmation bias will prevent systems from evolving. New thinking is dismissed. THEY SAW A GAME; A CASE STUDY. “When the Dartmouth football team played Princeton in 1951, much controversy was generated over what actually took place during the game. Basically, there was disagreement between the two schools as to what had happened during the game. A questionnaire designed to get reactions to the game and to learn something of the climate of opinion was administered at each school and the same motion picture of the game was shown to a sample of undergraduate at each school, followed by another questionnnaire. Results indicate that the "game" was actually many different games and that each version of the events that transpired was just as "real" to a particular person as other versions were to other people.” (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) Hastorf, A. H., & Cantril, H. (1954). They saw a game; a case study. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(1), 129-134. 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
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
Friday Jan 25, 2019
Giles Rhys Jones Interview | Addressing the World
Friday Jan 25, 2019
Friday Jan 25, 2019
Giles Rhys Jones, Chief Marketing Officer for what3words, was interviewed for this episode of The Safety Doc Podcast. Dr. Perrodin contacted Giles after recently learning about what3words and instantly realizing its potential to recast swaths of school safety protocols. Giles and David discuss how w3w has interfaced with, and improved, rescue platforms and the potential ways the system might benefits schools. With 55 million students attending school daily in the United States, w3w could immediately have a profound impact on improving school safety. Giles shares the fun story of a comparison of two persons assigned to deliver packages to addresses. One was provided traditional mapping options and the other with what3words. The person with w3w not only delivered the packages faster, and without having to seek clarifying directions, but also was happier with the activity! WHAT IS WHAT3WORDS? what3words (yes, all small letters) is a really simple way to talk about location as the company’s geospatial engineering team divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately find any location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system. The service can be used via the free mobile app or online map. It can also be built into any other app, platform or website, with just a few lines of code. You might not be aware of the software, but it’s already integrated into several everyday platforms. For instance, car navigation systems are shifting to the precision of what3words. MERCEDES-BENZ USES W3W IN ITS VEHICLES. Mercedes-Benz is the first car company to integrate what3words into its in-car navigation systems. Drivers with compatible models can now say or type in a 3 word address to get directions to a precise 3m x 3m location, anywhere in the world. The adoption of what3words shows the company’s commitment to a premium and intuitive customer experience and sees Mercedes-Benz leading the way in destination input. SOLVING AN INDUSTRY-WIDE PROBLEM. In a recent survey of new car owners, JD Power found that car navigation systems being difficult to use and inaccurate is one of the most frequently reported problems, along with voice recognition issues. The automotive industry has struggled to improve these features, and a significant reason is that the world’s street addressing systems are incompatible with modern navigation needs, and especially voice input.‘Street addresses were just not built for voice input’ says Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words. ‘15 Ammanford Road and 50 Ammanford Road are hard for a voice system to distinguish between, and many road names aren’t unique. There are 14 different Church Roads in London, and 632 Juarez streets in Mexico City. Street addresses can also be difficult to pronounce correctly. The town of Godmanchester, is actually pronounced ‘Gumster’. Mercedes-Benz is known for innovation, so it’s no surprise to us that it is the first automotive company to integrate our system into their vehicles’. SCHOOL SAFETY AND 3-WORD ADDRESSES. David identified several benefits that what3words would bring to existing school safety practices. The first is the ability to map an entire campus. If a student is hiding in unfamiliar area of a campus due to an intruder, that student could use the w3w app to convey his or her specific location to emergency responders. Dr. Perrodin’s second point is carried forward from his previous podcast in that what3words solves the age-old problem of what to do if an evacuation site or re-unification site is not available due to a myriad of reasons, including a larger perimeter established by law enforcement that encompasses those pre-determined locations. W3W efficiently allows for sharing of the evacuation or re-unification site as part of “working the problem” by authorities. It prevents people from locking in on a sub-optimal outcome of heading to a location that might not even be available as dictated by the dynamic context and situation. 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 what3words at https://what3words.com/
Sunday Dec 09, 2018
Law of Subtraction - Will it Solve School Safety?
Sunday Dec 09, 2018
Sunday Dec 09, 2018
It's called the LAW OF SUBTRACTION, the act of removing anything that's excessive or unnecessary. The content that remains is much stronger for it. Unrestrained freedom to talk as long as you want or to create as many slides as you desire will only result in a presentation that is long, boring, meandering, and confusing. Dr. Perrodin recorded a school safety presentation that was a svelte 7 minutes and 53 seconds long! Seem impossible? Corners cut? Nope. And here’s how we can overhaul school safety professional development by boiling presentations and adding a large countdown clock in every school? 10 MILLION NEW STAFF AND STUDENTS AFTER FIRST DAY OF CLASS. Dr. Perrodin reflected upon a work project with a school safety client that wanted to provide training for staff and students that joined the school community during the year. It was not realistic to provide these individuals with the depth of training afforded to staff during the inservice week preceding the start of classes. Upon further examination, David proposed a complete overhaul of the school’s professional development format. 10-18 MINUTES IS THE LONGEST ANYONE WILL ENGAGE WITH A PRESENTATION. According to biologist John Medina at the University of Washington School of Medicine, “Your audience will mentally check out of your next PowerPoint presentation after about 10 minutes. Given a presentation of moderately interesting content, your audiences’ attention will ‘plummet to near zero’ after 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Before the first quarter-hour is over in a typical presentation, people usually have checked out,” says Medina who cites peer-reviewed studies to reinforce this observation. ALL TED TALKS ARE 18 MINUTES. TED curator Chris Anderson explained the organization’s thinking this way: “It [18 minutes] is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention. It turns out that this length also works incredibly well online. It’s the length of a coffee break. So, you watch a great talk, and forward the link to two or three people. It can go viral, very easily. The 18-minute length also works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.” DR. PERRODIN DELIVERED AN 8 MINUTE SCHOOL SAFETY PRESENTATION. He noted, “We [Society] are convinced that more is better and that a concise, engaging presentation somehow shortchanges of us compared to a rambling 90-minute lecture. We need to move beyond this mistaken belief and completely revamp school safety induction to include much shorter presentations and more coupling of new staff to peer mentors available to answer questions. I’ve changed my own consulting model to shorter presentations and have found across-the-board positive results from clients. 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
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
I’m Conducting Research with Iranian Professors and Then This Happens…
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Despite the fact that there have been several theories of personal resilience, and that some of the theories have suggested that there are more than one dimension, those theories have not focused on the person’s internal characteristics or provided an adequate elucidation of the exact components of adult personal resilience. Dr. Perrodin begins a discussion of what it means to be resilient as he shares the collaborative research he conducted with Iranian Professor Nemati Shahrooz, Ph.D., University of Tabriz, Iran to better inform what is known of resiliency and attachment to God with Hope in Mothers of Children with Specific Learning Disability. The study revealed a stark contrast between resiliency in Eastern and Western cultures and the personal characteristics that are ascribed to “resilient” people. RESILIENCY - MORE THAN JUST COMPRESSING A SPONGE AND HAVING IT BOUNCE BACK TO NORMAL. “It is necessary to distinguish between resilience for inanimate objects versus animate beings, with the objective of refining the concept for human beings. For certain inanimate physical objects, such as a soccer ball, resilience refers to the object regaining its shape after being distorted by some outside force. In other words, a resilient inanimate object that comes under pressure can spring back to its original size and shape without experiencing irreparable damage. [As humans aren’t soccer balls] external influences ought not to be included in defining personal resilience, which should be regarded as a characteristic that exists within a person (Taormina, 2015).” THE FOUR PARTS OF RESILIENCY. Taormina describes identifies four clear dimensions of adult personal resilience as internal factors that will help achieve a better understanding of what resilience is, and, by explaining the new dimensions, takes a positive psychology approach that will help both research and practice.
- DETERMINATION is defined as the willpower and firmness of purpose that a person has and the decision to persevere and/or to succeed.
- ENDURANCE is defined as the personal strength and fortitude that one possesses to withstand unpleasant or difficult situations without giving up.
- ADAPTABILITY is defined as the capacity to be flexible and resourceful, and to cope with adverse environments and adjust oneself to fit into changing conditions.
- RECUPERABILITY is defined as the ability to recover, physically and cognitively, from various types of harm, setbacks, or difficulties in order to return to and reestablish one’s usual condition. Dr. Perrodin notes that the questionnaire contains terms that will be interpreted differently across participants. For example, a noisy apartment might be unpleasant to one person while having spoiled food to eat might be unpleasant to another person. The questionnaire constructs are solid, but the actual questions that inform the constructs must be administered with much explanation and ability to clarify perceptions of the respondents.
DAVID TAKES THE RESILIENCY QUESTIONNAIRE. How resilient is Doc? Hard to say as he hasn’t endured some of the tribulations referenced in the assessment. Life experiences are integral to learning about one’s resiliency - and a reason why resiliency scales should be different for adults than for children. ANECDOTES IN THIS EPISODE. David dips a toe into the conspiracy theory of the October 3rd Presidential Alert message delivered to millions of cell phones. He’s irritated with his daughter’s school fundraiser; and also shares that friends and colleagues are considering significant alterations to their inter-personal encounters as a defensive measure to lessen the likelihood of being accused of inappropriate interactions - a definition which might change with the shifting sands of time. 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. ARTICLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE. Adult Personal resilience: A New Theory, New Measure, and Practical Implications by Robert J. Taormina. Psychological Thought 2015, Vol. 8(1), 35–46 doi:10.5964/psyct.v8i1.126
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
The Dark Side of School Safety Funding
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
The marketing of school safety is making headlines. Bulletproof whiteboards and clipboards. Bulletproof wall panels. Bulletproof backpack inserts. Bullet "resistant" window film. Specialized locks. Training that turns the emergency lockdown, "shelter in place" response on its head. Money is again available for “school safety” grants and corporations see dollar signs. IN THIS EPISODE. Dr. Perrodin’s South Dakota Vacation | Drowning of Local Boy | David Interviewed About School Safety by New York Daily News | White House “Stop the Bleed” Campaign | and Prioritizing School Safety Initiatives.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS – SCHOOLS ARE INVESTING IN WAR-ZONE TRAUMA KITS IN CASE A SHOOTING HAPPENS. (The following article was written by Megan Cerullo on June 13, 2018). “School is a battlefield. Some schools are investing in war-zone trauma kits to stop gunshot victims from bleeding to death. The medical kits — which contain tourniquets, medicated gauze, coagulant to stop bleeding and other medical supplies, and generally cost between $40 and $100 — could help school staff and students treat the wounded before professional help arrives. The initiative has gained traction after a recent spate of school shootings, including a February massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Smith High School in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people. Suffolk County school districts started stocking kits this year, accompanied by training in how to apply tourniquets and dress wounds. The Central Bucks, Chester County and Lower Merion school districts in Pennsylvania will also equip their schools with kits this fall, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. School safety experts say the medical kits — tested on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan — could be deployed for various uses, including sports injuries or science lab explosions, not just in the case of a school shooting. “Yes, tools like these might come into play in a school shooting, but they also may be relevant to a sports activity or other special event setting where someone is accidentally injured,” said Ken Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services. Dr. Matt Levy of Stop the Bleed, a movement dedicated to stopping preventable deaths, called the incidence of gun violence in schools an “unfortunate truth of modern society.” He said stocking the medical kits could play a part in keeping child gunshot victims alive, but that the kits alone are by no means a solution to preventing gun-related deaths in schools. “We have only minutes if someone is bleeding from an extremity to get them to a trauma center,” Levy told the Daily News. “If bystanders, who we call immediate responders, can render immediate aid before professional help arrives, that would help,” he said. “This doesn’t address the societal issues around shootings, we are just trying to get after the injuries we can do something about.” Levy added that kit sales have gone up since Stop the Bleed began selling them about a year ago. He said the organization’s site sees an uptick in traffic every time there is a high-profile shooting. Critics argue that efforts should instead be focused on finding ways to report threats in a timely manner. School safety expert David Perrodin said there was a push to bring supply kits into schools in 2007 after a gunman killed 32 people on Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg, Va. “It took a long time to clear the building for first responders to come inside,” he said. “So there was a long delay in bringing supplies into the building.” First responders often arrive before school shooting situations end and are equipped with materials designed to stop victims from bleeding to death, he said. He claims marketers are behind the move to introduce the kits into schools as they compete for grant money dedicated to improving school safety nationwide. “I have never learned of a situation where this has been applied by anyone working in a school,” he said. “I don’t think this is realistic at all.” “EMS and fire have modified their response, and they get tactical gear and units into schools quicker than in the past. So this is just clever marketing,” he said. Instead, he thinks schools should invest resources in “severely underfunded” reporting systems. “We know in recent events that shooters had posted to social media and people were well aware of their intentions, but we didn’t have a reporting system that encouraged students to break their code of silence.”
WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES “STOP THE BLEED” CAMPAIGN. In October, 2015, the White House launched its “Stop the Bleed” campaign – a special national initiative designed to provide bystanders with the tools and knowledge to stop life-threatening bleeding. It is intended to cultivate grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. DR. PERRODIN’S REASONS FOR CHALLENGING PLACING ADVANCED TRAUMA KITS IN SCHOOLS. David explains five reasons why he is not an advocate of schools spending dollars on medical trauma kits. His primary reason is that staff and students should remain in secured areas until the building is “cleared” by law enforcement. Having staff rush into hallways to treat victims could place them in the direct path of an intruder. He also argues that threat detection research is underfunded and little is known on how to break the youth "code of silence" which prevents youth from bringing forward information that would prevent an attack. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to comments & emails. 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. Article discussed in this episode: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny-news-schools-war-zone-trauma-kits-20180612-story.html
Saturday Feb 17, 2018
Online Predator Tactics | Child Grooming Awareness with Hector Solis
Saturday Feb 17, 2018
Saturday Feb 17, 2018
Dr. Perrodin and Hector Solis of Awareness Podcast traverse the uncomfortable and terrifying topics of youth grooming and youth trafficking. Despite its pivotal importance, this life-saving information is largely absent from mainstream media and school counseling curriculums. Yet choosing to ignore the monster does not make it disappear. CAUTION – MATURE CONTENT. This episode of The Safety Doc Podcast centers of agency, purpose and personal well-being. We discuss adult themes, and therefore, this show is not recommended for younger audiences. CHILD GROOMING IS RAMPANT IN AMERICA. This is an epidemic with incredible momentum and effortless growing and spreading by cable and Wi-Fi across all socioeconomic and racial constructs to infiltrate stable, 2-parent households as well as single parent families or families in transition. In fact, Hector shares that some children have been communicating with groomers while in the same room with their family! We often hear people say, “Yes, but this happens to other people - it won’t happen to me.” This can happen to you - and if it does, you may never be able to mend the damage. LESS THAN 2% OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS REPORTED. In a recent interview about human trafficking, expert Dottie Laster estimated that only 1 of 80-100 cases is reported due to traffickers being meticulous at hiding their involvement with victims (Solis, 2018). WHAT IS CHILD GROOMING? Child grooming is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It is also regularly used to lure minors into various illicit businesses such as child trafficking, child prostitutionor the production of child pornography. Public social media profiles are constantly scanned by potential groomers. The grooming process is subtle and typically begins with benign interactions such as, “Hey, saw your profile image and noticed the concert poster in the back. I also went to that concert and really like that group. What is your favorite song?” Groomers cultivate a deep trust and loyalty from their targets, who often perceive them as friends and people that validate their thoughts, such as “I think you are totally right that your parents are being unfair about not letting you buy those things at the mall. My parents were the same way so I understand what you are going through…” Groomers tell kids what they "WANT" to hear 100% of the time whereas parents tell the kids what they "NEED" to hear. CALL TO ACTION. Ask children how they might inform an adult if they had concerns about being the recipient of grooming or if they suspected that a peer might be involved in a grooming situation. Most school reporting systems are designed for bullying, harassment or threats so please help students find the words and phrases they could use to express concerns about grooming. Victims may refrain from sharing of their experiences due to the phenomenon of “victim blaming”, or when others consider the victims to be partially responsible for their situations. RESOURCES. THORN: https://www.wearethorn.org/child-sexual-exploitation-and-technology/ NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: http://www.missingkids.com/theissues/cse/cstt FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts RSS feed. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to comments & emails. 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. CONTACT THIS EPISODE’S GUEST – HECTOR SOLIS. Website: https://www.awarenesspodcast.com/contact-me/ ARTICLE CITED. Solis, H. (Producer). (2018, January 25). Trafficked – Story by Dottie Laster & Online Grooming: Carly Ryan. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://awarenesspod.podbean.com/e/trafficked-story-by-dottie-laster-online-grooming-carly-ryan/