Episodes
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Many people with disabilities use a service animal in order to fully participate in everyday life. Dogs can be trained to perform many important tasks to assist people with disabilities, such as providing stability for a person who has difficulty walking, picking up items for a person who uses a wheelchair, preventing a child with autism from wandering away, or alerting a person who has hearing loss when someone is approaching from behind (USDOJ, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section). How do schools address service animals for students? Is it common? What if it’s a comfort animal? In this episode, we step through a fabricated case study of a student bringing a “comfort” animal to school. WHAT IS A SERVICE ANIMAL? Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal is defined as a dog, or other animal, that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability. It is almost a certainty that a school district has a board of education (BOE) policy about service animals. WHAT IS AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL (ESA)? An ESA is defined as an animal that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person’s disability. An emotional support animal (pig, chicken, snake, sugar glider, etc.) is recognized as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability under the federal Fair Housing Act and may be a reasonable accommodation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973). An ESA, also referred to as an “assistance” animal, is not a pet according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); however, no special training is required for an animal to be considered an ESA. What is necessary is that the person with an ESA has a disability and the ESA mitigates the impact of the disability. BOE policy is less consistent for ESAs. Some school districts don’t have an ESA policy. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT’S A SERVICE ANIMAL - PERMISSIBLE INQUIRY. In situations where it is not obvious that the dog or animal is a service animal, the individual may be asked only two specific questions: (1) is the dog/service animal a service animal required because of a disability? And if yes, (2) what work or task has the dog/service animal been trained to perform? If either response is “no”, the animal is only permitted as an emotional support animal (ESA). Requesting any documentation for the service animal, requiring that the animal demonstrate its task, or inquiring about the nature of the person's disability is not permitted. PEGGY THE COMFORT PIG CASE STUDY. You’ve just read a letter from the parents of Carol, a student transferring to your district next month from another school district in Wisconsin. She is a student with disabilities and receives special education services. A copy of her current IEP was included with the letter. Carol has both an educational and medical diagnosis of autism and is identified as meeting Other Health Impaired (OHI) criteria by her current district due to anxiety. She also has a comfort animal, a small pig, with her full-time at school. Per the parents’ letter, the pig helps to keep Peggy calm. Her IEP documents that since she has brought the pig to school (a year ago), she has exhibited fewer aggressive behaviors and is engaging for longer periods of time on academic work. Her IEP states that she is permitted to have the pig with her at all times and during all school functions. The parents’ letter also notes that the current district wasn’t well-informed of the benefits of comfort animals and that the parents want to make sure that your district will fully comply with supporting the comfort pig. The parents are asking for your school’s policy on comfort animals as they couldn’t locate one on the policy page of the district’s website. They have cited the following legal case as backing for their right of their daughter to have a comfort animal at school: In Alejandro v. Palm Beach State College, District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks ruled in favor of a student’s right to be accompanied on campus, in residence halls, and to classes by a psychiatric service dog, which was trained to respond to the onset of anxiety attacks the student experienced as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The ruling stated that any potential harm or disruption caused by the presence of the service dog was minimal in comparison to the benefit experienced by the student, and, therefore, its presence was considered a reasonable accommodation. Pig image #3961588 on Pixabay free to use under Pixabay License. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 188 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-27-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
James David Dickson, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, wrote an article about Michigan House Bill 6171, introduced in June (2022) by Representative Gary Eisen. The proposed bill reads: “Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the board of a school district or intermediate school district or board of directors of a public school academy shall ensure that each school operated by the board or board of directors develops or adopts and implements a policy that prohibits the use of personal cellular devices by pupils enrolled in the school during the scheduled school day when the pupil is at school.“ At school” means in a classroom, elsewhere on school property, or on a school bus or other school-related vehicle.” Per Dickson, HB 6171 shows the faults of the “There Should Be A Law” mentality. Dickson wrote a compelling piece skewering the bill - and this episode will spelunk those, and other, rabbit holes for and against banning cellphones in school, with 7 reasons to not ban cellphones and 7 reasons to ban them. REASONS NOT TO BAN CELLPHONES (1) CELLPHONES ARE PART OF LEARNING. Cellphones are inseparable from learning. By 2007, educators conceded that cell phones could play an important part in learning. Universities started using text messages to reach out to students, and a survey released by Cingular Wireless indicated that parents believed text messaging helped to improve communications with children (Loveless, 2022). (2) SCHOOL SAFETY. School safety is enhanced by cell phones. Although phone-based danger reporting or incident notification apps are not nearly as effective or reliable as purported by their enthusiastic vendors, they hold much potential for the future of personal safety. If each student’s phone was viewed the same way we view smoke detectors, it would be unthinkable to remove them from our schools. (3) SINGULARITY IS INEVITABLE. Banning cellphones is an update to the 1970s argument to ban calculators. Schools are slow to infuse technology into curriculum and operating systems. Today, kids flash an electronic ticket on their phone to attend their school’s sporting event. Futurist Ray Kurzwel predicts that something known as ‘singularity’ will happen around the year 2045. Singularity is a merging of the human brain with computers and AI. It might be a form of neuralink. At that point, will school require students to disconnect their links during instructional time, to remove their slim 3D projection goggles, etc.? In 20 years, cellphones will be a relic of the past. (4) COMMUNICATIONS. Be it text, email, or call, the cellphone makes communication efficient and reliable. I remember a 1990 computer lab where logging in via modem speed and bringing up text-only email once or twice a day was considered cutting-edge mass communications. (5) NAVIGATION. GPS and navigation apps, such as What3Words and Waze, help students navigate the campus and have an enhanced comprehension of their surroundings. With the What3Words app, rescuers could respond to a 3 meter by 3 meter square area where the student - or the student could share their location as a gathering point for teammates getting off a bus for a competition. (6) IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE. Schools are operating short-staffed and enforcing cellphone violations is not a realistic expectation of time-strapped staff or administration. BOEs won’t be able to undo bad state policy. And, Policing cellphones damages school connectedness. And, what are the consequences for breaking this law? (7) PROTECTION. Cameras provide evidence, especially when deep fakes can shame or destroy a person. In 2021, an allegedly crafted fake video of Pennsylvania high school cheerleader Madi Hime vaping resulted in her being kicked off the cheerleading squad. The student’s mother contacted the police, sparking an investigation, and involvement of legal counsel. As deepfake technology becomes easier and cheaper to use, these types of “alleged” claims will overwhelm school staff and local police departments. Having the option to present recorded video might help in one’s defense. REASONS TO BAN CELLPHONES (1) OVER-RELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGY. Cellphones are integrated into most information-storing and retrieving aspects of our lives. Any kid attending school in the 1970s remembers that pocket calculators were prohibited in most schools. The argument against electronic calculators was that the student wouldn’t be motivated to learn the intricacies of the math equations - but rather, the sequence of formulas - which were also becoming more integrated into shortcuts in the calculators. “You won’t always have a calculator with you to figure out the slope of a tangent line,” teachers said. In 1984, I wore a scientific calculator watch on my wrist. The banning of cellphones today was the banning of personal learning technology devices (tablets, iPads) ten years ago. And while we think cell phones as learning tools in schools is a new idea, it’s important to remember that a school in Brooklyn began distributing cell phones to students way back in 2008! (2) DISTRACTION. Social media companies employ psychologists and human behavior experts in order to hone their sites to be as addictive as possible. And everyone, not just kids, spend arguably “too many” hours a day interacting with their phones. But instead of flat out banning cellphones, they could be parked during certain instructional times, or incorporated into the teaching / learning tool process. The app ‘Poll Everywhere” can be used for students to vote on a topic. It enables most students to participate and works around the groupthink of one or two students stating an answer and the rest of class falls in line with the claim. Imagine a class topic about household chemicals. Students capture photos of chemicals found in their phones. These photos are transmitted to the classroom’s online site. In the following lesson, the teacher and students discuss how to classify the chemicals - as medical supplies, detergents, fuel, discretionary, and so on. (3) BULLYING. Cyberbullying is real and is an unsavory side effect of social media. The 2019 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice) indicates that, nationwide, about 16 percent of students in grades 9–12 experienced cyberbullying. (4) RECORDING INSTRUCTION - PROPRIETARY MATERIAL. Most schools purchase curriculum packages for hundreds of thousands of dollars and adhere to strict protocol for not sharing proprietary learning materials. This was tested during online instruction during the pandemic. In addition, would a school want students to record and post intruder drill protocols or other sensitive information? (5) DEEP FAKES. The integrity of instruction is at stake. A cellphone makes it exponentially easier for a student to create a deep fake of school staff saying something that would land them in hot water. Schools are way behind the curve with figuring out how to respond to deep fakes. Banning phones might limit the opportunities for deep fakes. (6) EQUITY. Equity was an argument against one-to-one electronic tablets or iPads for students. Only the affluent students would be able to afford the technology. And then, BOEs adopted 1:1 policies and funded devices for all students. Most students have 1:1 devices. It would be a similar BOE action to bring forth 1:1 cell phones. (7) SINGULARITY - As mentioned earlier, humans and AI will merge at some more invasive level - and probably within the next 20 years. We’ve already achieved the first few steps of singularity with our cell phones. But with singularity comes a great push to store our knowledge ‘in the cloud.’ This is known as cognitive offloading and was written about in great detail in the book The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022). If we become out-of-balance dependent on going to our phone as the arbiter for each decision in our life, we are at risk for being unable to figure things out if the Internet fails - perhaps due to hacking, solar flare, EMP, etc. Counter this by integrating phones with real-world applications. Use the GPS on the phone for a scavenger hunt in the authentic environment of a park or school grounds. SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG POST. Loveless, B. (2022). Using Cell Phones as Learning Tools. https://www.educationcorner.com/cell-phones-learning-tools.html; Dickson, James David. (2022). Michigan bill would ban cellphones on school buses, in class. https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/news/michigan-bill-would-ban-cell-phones-on-school-buses-in-class SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 185 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-06-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Lost Person Behavior Facts | 4 Ways to Make it Easier to Be Found | SDP184
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Between 2004 and 2014, in the US National Parks alone, there were 46,609 individuals who became lost and required a search and rescue campaign, which cost about $51.4 million in total (Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2018 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics. Tech. Rep., National Crime Information Center). What are characteristics of lost persons and who has the discretion and authority to commit agency resources to find them? ROBERT KOESTER: LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR. The scientific study of lost person cases to identify patterns specific to characteristics, such as age groups, disability, dementia, and so on began in the mid 1970s with Bill Syrotuck. In 2008, however, Robert Koester revolutionized search and rescue with his book, Lost Person Behavior - A Search and Rescue Guide on Where to Look - for Land, Air, and Water. He not only developed 41 categories of being “lost,” but coupled those to passage of time and terrain. LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR APP (It’s Not Free!). The US Dept. of Homeland Security released a Lost Person App in 2015 based on data from over 150,000 missing person cases. The app provides guidance on over 40 scenarios including lost hikers, children, and dementia patients. The app is available on Amazon for $9.95 from dbS Productions LLC.The app doesn’t require a network connection so can be used anywhere. 13 FACTS ABOUT LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR. The following 13 facts are from Karen Hume’s blog post on May 17, 2017 found at https://profoundjourney.com/13-facts-lost-person-behaviour/ (1) It is a myth that we panic when lost. Instead, most of us experience shock, disbelief, and embarrassment. (2) Many people experience an irrational belief that no one is looking for them. When that happens, they don’t call out. Some even ignore a helicopter flying overhead. (3) Hansel and Gretel may have benefited from leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, but it’s not a good sign when a lost person leaves a trail of clothing or equipment. Rather, it’s an unfortunate indicator of either late stage hypothermia or exhaustion. (4) Fifty percent of searches resolve within three hours. (5) Fifty-four per cent of people are found within two miles of the point where they were last seen. (6) Hikers tend to become lost if the trail is obscured or if there are confusing trails that intersect. Rescuers do a map and terrain analysis to determine where the confusing spots are so they can look there first. (7) Hunters become lost because they are focused on game rather than navigation or time of day. If caught after dark, the typical hunter will build a shelter and then proudly walk out of the woods, unassisted, at daybreak. (8) Despondent people typically don’t travel very far. If suicidal, they hide from search teams. Despondent people are often found at the interface between two types of terrain, such as a cliff edge, or along a shoreline. (9) Lost adults will usually stay on a trail, however they may climb a hill to get a view of the area. They rarely travel in a straight line, and rarely reverse direction. (10) Children, on the other hand, look for familiar spots rather than trails. They can’t judge either direction or distance and tend to move randomly. (11) Young people of ages 13-15 often become lost in groups of two or more. Youth in a group rarely travel very far from where they were last seen. (12) Children, ages 1-3, look for the most convenient location to lie down and are, as a result, very difficult to detect. A little bit older, ages 4-6, and one of the big problems is that they won’t answer rescuers’ calls because they’ve been taught to avoid strangers. (13) Berry pickers, nature photographers, and rock hounds are often inadequately clothed or equipped. Rescuers try to put themselves in the lost person’s shoes, asking questions such as, “Where do the best berries grow?”
HOW TO GET FOUND. (1) Stop: As soon as you realize you may be lost: stop, stay calm, stay put. (2) Think: Go over in your mind how you got to where you are. What landmarks should you be able to see? Do not move at all until you have a specific reason to take a step. (3) Observe: If you are on a trail, stay on it. Blow a whistle. (4) Plan: Inventory your options and determine if you can act to get yourself to a more favorable optimum. DO SCHOOLS TRAIN FOR LOST STUDENTS? In my experience, schools don’t conduct lost-student drills or exercises. There are accounts of students with autism, for example, wandering from schools. In February, 2022, an 8-year-old boy with autism wandered away from school and walked home alone (ClickonDetroit, 2022). Children with autism might exhibit a diminished sense of fear of traffic and environmental hazards. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 184 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-30-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Friday Aug 19, 2022
$50K Bonus for Teachers | Unpacking Educator Free Agency | SDP183
Friday Aug 19, 2022
Friday Aug 19, 2022
Des Moines Public Schools is offering a $50,000 incentive to teachers, nurses, and administrators who are nearing retirement to stay with the district through the 2022-2023 school year. A few states over, Michigan’s Jackson Public Schools is offering a $10,000 signing bonus for new teachers willing to stay at least two years. Unheard of five years ago, educator signing and retention bonuses are the new normal and range from $500 to several thousand dollars. But they aren’t solving Des Moines staffing issues - and the state of Georgia found little success in attempting to recruit retired teachers. Of 56,000 retirees eligible to return with incentives, less than 100 contacted the state about returning. TEACHER SHORTAGES. In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute released a report examining the magnitude of the at-the-time teacher shortage in America, as well as projections to the year 2025. In 2017-2018, it was estimated that there was a shortage of 110,000 teachers. Projecting to 2025, the shortage will swell to 200,000 teachers available to enter the classroom and the demand for new hires. WHY ARE TEACHERS LEAVING? Teachers report that they are “burned out” - citing increasing student discipline, sprawling obligations, high-stakes testing, and low pay. Note that in the World Happiness Report, people choose living in an area where someone would return their wallet over having their salary doubled. WHAT LOCATIONS ARE MOST AFFECTED? High-poverty schools and rural schools, seemingly obvious, have the greatest challenges maintaining a full staff. These locations also endure the most turnover, as teachers move to higher-paying districts or communities with more amenities. Per Universities.com, teacher shortages are reported across the US. “Nevada students started school on August 8, 2022, with a shortage of over 1400 Teachers.” California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, and Hawaii are the top 5 states with teacher shortages. OTHER STRATEGIES TO BOOST APPEAL OF THE TEACHING OCCUPATION. Some schools are trimming the work week, although it’s uncertain how doing so will impact required minutes for student’s education, especially services for students with disabilities. “Texas’ rural school districts are implementing a 4-day school week to alleviate the Teacher shortage. Houston, Texas currently has over 2200 teaching vacancies (Unversities.com).” There has been a growing effort to make it easier for non-teachers to become certified teachers. “Florida is recruiting military Veterans to teach without a license to help the Teacher shortage and Polk County has hired 60 international Teachers Universities.com). Still, other schools are paying teachers relocation expenses. FREE-AGENCY TYPE NEGOTIATION. Teachers in highest-demand areas, such as tech-ed, chemistry, or foreign languages might receive the highest bonuses and most-tailored packages from school districts. In addition, specialists, such as speech-language pathologists, an area with chronic shortage, might be paid nearly double the salary of a classroom teacher. It hasn’t happened yet, but we are on course for a teacher or specialist to hire an agent, similar to pro sports. This is already happening for school administrator jobs, with aspiring leaders hiring an agency to stump for an interview of the candidate. RETIREMENT PACKAGES HAVE LOST APPEAL. The teaching profession is typically coupled with a robust state pension plan and even retirement payouts to be applied to healthcare. The “retire at 55 with a pension mantra for life” mantra isn't resonating with younger people who do not want to trade lower wages today for a pension 30 years from now. That generation is day-trading stocks on their Robinhood apps. On the other hand, the National Education Association argues that pensions ``successfully attract people to education as a profession, retain teachers, and provide solid retirement security.`` So perhaps what needs to happen is better “educating” teachers about the value of having a pension, but this doesn’t seem to be the appropriate set of talking points for people under 40. It’s out-of-touch to tell people who just emerged from a pandemic, civil unrest, and an economic crash (that slid into inflation and shortages) to think decades down the road. They aren’t going to do that, and the school district office’s human resources folks need to think of the teaching profession as becoming more similar to the private sector. Maybe we’ll see a “Moneyball” approach of fielding a roster year-to-year. Sure, that eviscerates legacy and institutional knowledge, but it’s the way things are - so get novel with staff induction. Some districts will figure this out. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 183 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-20-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Bipartisan Safer Communities Bill | Biggest Impacts on School Safety | SDP182
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Doc highlights what has changed in school safety since the May 24, 2022, Robb Elementary School shooting that ended the lives of 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas. He interprets how schools will be impacted by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (signed into federal law July, 2022). Doc peruses each website to critically evaluate and assign ratings to the existing and “new” school safety clearinghouse websites. BIPARTISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT: Per Everytown.org, the bill will purportedly enhance background checks for buyers under 21; support state red flag laws; disarm domestic abusers; clarify who must run a background check; crack down on gun trafficking; fund community violence intervention; invest in mental health services; and provide school safety funding. We will examine some of the centerpieces of the school safety section of the bill. (1) ANOTHER (and competing?) SCHOOL SAFETY RESOURCES WEBSITE. The bill installed schoolsafety.gov as the “official” repository for best practices in school safety. It will be situated at the Department of Homeland Security. However, this action is confusing because the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, already has the robust and updated Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center, or REMS. And, REMS TA has a “toolbox” feature that allows schools across the country to upload forms, job descriptions, tabletop exercises, organizational charts, and more - to be curated, easily-searched, and freely shared. These are from-the-field tools. (2) MORE MENTAL HEALTH DOLLARS TO SCHOOLS. Expanded reimbursement for schools billing Medicaid for Individualized Education Plan (IEP) mental health services. And, $500 million each for the School Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the School Based Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant. The expected outcome is hiring and training more staff, but this doesn’t seem to be a problem that will be solved by more funding as school staffing shortages haven’t been ameliorated by increased pay and bonuses. In August of 2022, Des Moines Public Schools offered a $50,000 bonus to teachers who planned to retire but are willing to work another year. Also, grants are temporary. They are intended to start the ball rolling, not to keep the ball rolling. Professionals will hesitate to accept even well-paying grant-funded positions. (3) EXPAND ACCESS TO JUVENILE MENTAL HEALTH RECORDS. Thorough reviews of potential gun buyers under the age of 21 will require implementing a new protocol for checking juvenile records. This implies access to a student’s school records - specifically, discipline, disability, or mental health records. These are areas strongly protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This is a can of worms and will vary greatly per perceived discretion and authority to make a subjective summary decision based upon a student’s records. Schools might counter by pushing more behavioral events “off the books” by a practice known as ‘abeyance agreements.’ GLARING OVERSIGHTS FROM THE BILL: LOCKED DOORS AND REGULATED DEVICES. Absent from the school section of the bill was a requirement that schools lock their doors during instructional time. This decision continues to be defaulted to the states. Kentucky (2020) requires that schools lock their doors. Recently California, Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts have taken steps toward stronger emphasis on “best policy” to require doors to be locked. However, most school districts’ board of education policies or handbooks continue to use the term “should lock doors” instead of “must lock doors.” It’s clear this is done to dodge accountability and liability. In addition, school safety devices or apps continue to be unregulated and able to be marketed and purchased by schools without some standard of testing and pilot trials. Think of Underwriters Laboratories, but for school safety. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 182 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-12-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
In June, 2019, U.S. lawmakers held their first hearing devoted primarily to the threat of artificially generated imagery. Then in October, 2019, California banned political deep fakes during election season. But, such actions have raised questions. What might be consequences looming at the intersection of deep fakes and public policy? WHAT ARE DEEP FAKES? Per Tim Biggs and Robert Moran of Explainer, “Deep fakes are the most prominent form of what’s being called ‘synthetic media’: images, sound and video that appear to have been created through traditional means but that have, in fact, been constructed by complex software. [D]eep fakes are, in their most common form, videos where one person’s face has been convincingly replaced by a computer-generated face, which often resembles a second person.” Deep fakes, which came to prominence in 2017, can be of a single person or people. RISKS OF DIGITAL DEEP FAKES. Digital deep fakes could rapidly erode trust in people’s main source for information - the Internet. Deep fakes will damage reputations, end careers, and cause people to be skittish and hesitant to trust most media sources. Deep fakes could fuel civil unrest and toss dust in the eyes of stressed citizens anticipating negative news as they plot high-stakes next steps in order to navigate war-torn landscapes. Furthermore, anyone can be the target of this technology. We have to play defense and offense. How do you prove your innocence against a convincing deep fake that portrays you as a fraud or of association with their ilk? FIND THE TRUTH. The following are excerpts from pages 69-70 from the book ‘The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.’ “In any investigation, the goal is to find the truth, not to confirm suspicions or predetermined positions. If you approach panic-inducing situations with that attitude, you will arrive at awareness, rather than panic. Your initial assumptions and conclusions may not always be correct.” THE PACKED STADIUM - OR IS IT? “[I]magine watching a professional baseball game on TV and texting your attending-in-person friend, “Stadium is packed! Hope the concession lines aren’t a mile long!” Seconds later, they respond with a wide-angle selfie from a bleacher seat, “What are you talking about? This place is practically empty!” FOX SPORTS’ DIGITAL FANS. “On July 23, 2020, Fox Sports posted a thirty-seven-second video to its Twitter account demonstrating how it would place thousands of virtual lifelike fans in the stands of major league stadiums (1). “Fox Sports producers will be able to control things like how full the virtual ‘crowds’ are for a given game, what weather fans are dressed for, and what percentage of the crowd will be home fans versus away (2).” The crowds appeared strikingly authentic and would be indiscernible from real crowds to most TV viewers. That snippet was both incredible and chilling at the same time.” HACKED REALITY? “What other real-world scenarios could be “hacked” to distort crowd density? Political rallies, protests, lines outside stores? Is there an app for that?” CITATIONS: (1) Fox Sports. [@FoxSports.] “No Fans? Not on FOX Sports. Thousands of Virtual Fans Will Attend FOX’s MLB Games This Saturday.” Twitter. July 23, 2020. https://twitter .com /FOXSports /status /1286281346390740993. (2) Gartenberg, Chaim. “How Fox Sports Will Use Virtual Fans Created in Unreal Engine to Fill Empty Stadiums in MLB Broadcasts. Real Sports, Fake Fans.” The Verge. July 25, 2020. https://www .theverge .com /2020 /7 /25 /21336017 /fox -sports-baseball -virtual -fans -epic -unreal -engine -empty -stadiums -mlb. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 176 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 04-05-2022. Order Doc’s new book today and suggest it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
The `Conjunction Fallacy' is a fallacy or error in decision making where people judge that a conjunction of two possible events is more likely than one or both of the conjuncts. Here are some examples. EXAMPLE ONE: Doc went to the store and bought tofu, eggplant, broccoli, and frozen meatless lasagna. Is it more likely that Doc is a man or a man who is a vegetarian? EXAMPLE TWO: Doc has a PhD or Doc has a PhD and reads the Wall Street Journal. EXAMPLE THREE: Aaron drove to a party in South Dakota in a Rolls Royce or Aaron drove to a party in South Dakota in a Rolls Royce as is a millionaire. In each example, the former is the correct answer. CONJUNCTION FALLACY: MR. F. HAD A HEART ATTACK. Excerpt from pages 51-52 of the book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022). In 1983, world-renowned psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman published a ground-breaking study on intuitive human cognitive bias (cite 1). They showed that when subjects are asked the likelihood of several alternatives, including single and joint events, they often make a conjunction fallacy. That is, they rate the conjunction of two events as being more likely, or more plausible, than only one of the constituent events. They presented the following fabricated scenarios to 115 undergraduates at Stanford University and the University of British Columbia: A health survey was conducted in a representative sample of adult males in British Columbia of all ages and occupations. Mr. F. was included in the sample. He was selected by chance from a list of participants. Which of the following statements is more probable? (A) Mr. F. has had one or more heart attacks. (B) Mr. F. has had one or more heart attacks and he is over 55 years old. This seemingly transparent problem elicited a substantial proportion (58% selected option B) of conjunction errors among statistically naive respondents (cite 2). WE ARE PRONE TO BELIEVE VIVID STORIES. This example, and countless like it, reveal that we are all subject to the conjunction fallacy, where we regularly violate the laws of probability due to a vivid story. This error in decision-making happens when people judge that a conjunction of two possible events is more likely than one or both of the conjuncts. Innate human reasoning infers that the addition of more details increases the probability of two events occurring simultaneously. (It is also an explanation for why liars tend to add additional or even excessive detail to a given lie in order to predispose the recipient to accepting the lie as truth.) However, the more detailed outcome is just that, more detailed. It is not more plausible or more likely. In fact, the probability of the two events occurring together (in conjunction) is always less than or equal to the probability of either one occurring alone. In other words, a conjunction cannot be more probable than one of its constituents. CONJUNCTION FALLACY DURING THE PANDEMIC. Which of these statements might you have deemed to be most probable on March 25, 2020? (A) The governor has ordered people to stay home. (B) The governor has ordered people to stay home, and state highways are closed. Previous studies of conjunction statements imply that the majority of people presented with these statements would select B. Fortunately, conjunction bias collapses in on itself when too many conditions are stated. Most people are able to identify the mental trickery of a statement with a dozen conjunctions. It no longer makes sense from a face validity standpoint. CITATIONS: (1) Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman. “Extensional Versus Intuitive Reasoning: The Conjunction Fallacy in Probability Judgment.” Psychological Review, 90 (1983): 293–315. (2) Tversky and Kahneman, Extensional Versus Intuitive Reasoning, 293–315. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 172 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-08-2022. GET DOC’S BOOKS. Purchase the preeminent book of scholarship for an uncertain epoch from your favorite bookstore or online retailer and recommend it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022) by David P. Perrodin.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
Doc was recently interviewed by a large-market news company assembling a documentary about youth violence directed at adults. Ultimately, the question of “What can be done to prevent this?” was asked. A staunch proponent of increasing funding, research, and training on threat identification and reporting, Dr. Perrodin delivered his versed spell-binder on the matter. When asked about sports, or perhaps the decline of youth sports, contributing to youth violence, Dr. Perrodin found himself conflicted with the research. YOUTH SPORTS PARTICIPATION IN AMERICA ARE DECREASING, INCREASING, or CONFUSING. Per the National Council of Youth Sports, “About 60 million children and teens from age 6 to 18 participate in organized sports each year with 73 percent involved in more than one sport.” But those numbers are complicated. From 2008 to 2018, Aspen Project Play found that the participation rate of kids between the ages of 6 and 12 dropped from 45 to 38 percent, due largely to the increasing costs, time commitments, and competitive nature of organized sports leagues. Statista reports (2019) reports that there are 50 million children in the United States between the ages of six and seventeen. DOES PARTICIPATING IN SPORTS DECREASE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY? According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, “Participation in sports activities is very popular among adolescents, and is frequently encouraged among youth. Many psychosocial health benefits in youth are attributed to sports participation, but to what extent this positive influence holds for juvenile delinquency is still not clear on both the theoretical and empirical level. SOURCE: doi: 10.1007/s10964-015-0389-7.” As Dr. Perrodin examined studies and meta-analysis reports, the findings largely fell into the same basin - there was not a statistical relation between youth sports participation and youth violence. The most prevalent connections were between youth physical activity and youth physical health. HOW ABOUT E-SPORTS? This is where things get interesting. When we think of youth sports, our minds are populated with images of baseball diamonds and folding-camp-chair-lined soccer fields. Though generating controversy over whether the pastime qualifies as true sport, E-Sports has exploded in popularity in recent years. In a 2019 Forbes article by Bob Cook, “At least seven state high school associations are offering esports at a varsity level, and more will add it. Even states without official varsity esports run state tournaments, and prizes can include scholarship money to one of the 115 colleges (and growing) fielding esports teams, and, in many cases, offering scholarships to gamers.” Complexity Gaming, a professional esports organization owned by Dallas Cowboys' owner and youth sports investor Jerry Jones, is building a training facility at the Cowboys' headquarters, The Star in Frisco, Texas. https://complexity.gg/ DO VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOUTH VIOLENT? No. This question is oft-asked, and the 2008 book Grand Theft Childhood by Harvard University’s Dr. Cheryl K. Olson and Dr. Lawrence Kutner is one of the most-cited works to debunk violent or graphic video games causing youth to engage in violent behavior. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUTH VIOLENCE RESEARCH? We are at a disruption point or possibly a convergence in what is considered a youth sport. Studies seeking to uncover relationships between participation in sports and violence must now include E-sports. What nuanced areas might be studied in E-sports? If Doc was assembling a research study, his constructs might be (1) badges and incentives; (2) social etiquette and moderating; (3) incidents of delinquent or violent behavior compared to non-sport youth; and (4) incidents of harm to self or harm to others compared to overall youth population. E-SPORTS AND INCLUSION. While traditional sports are difficult to access by youth with physical disabilities, E-Sports are more inclusive. You could have a wheelchair-using student be a captain of his school’s E-Sports team. What might be the impact of E-Sports on Title IV? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 166 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-11-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
On December 17, 2021, the CDC changed its guidance for students in schools who have been “close contacts” to persons that have tested positive for COVID-19. In this episode, Doc analyzes the new guidance, compares it to previous guidance, unpacks how contact tracing works in schools, and also takes a macro-look at overall immunization compliance in schools for students K-12 for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, and other required (non-COVID) vaccinations. Doc studied schools’ data and assembled a graphic with alarming information. Thanks to all of you for helping Doc surpass 1000 subscribers to his “The Safety Doc” YouTube channel. CDC TEST-TO-STAY. From the CDC: “Test to Stay combines contact tracing and serial testing (testing that is repeated at least twice during a seven-day period post-exposure) to allow asymptomatic school-associated close contacts who are not fully vaccinated and do not test positive for SARS-CoV-2 to continue in-person learning. Because fully vaccinated close contacts are not required to quarantine following exposure, they would not be included in Test to Stay. Students who participate in Test to Stay should consistently and correctly wear masks while in school and should stay home and isolate if they develop symptoms or test positive for SARS-CoV-2. In the studies done in Illinois and California, both the person with COVID-19 and the close contact had to be properly masked at the time of exposure to qualify for Test to Stay. If schools are considering implementing Test to Stay, they should also have robust contact tracing in place and access to testing resources (for example, testing supplies and personnel to conduct testing, or access to an existing community testing site), among other layered prevention strategies. Testing frequency can vary (for example, from twice in a seven-day period to daily), but more frequent testing can more quickly identify students who become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and need to isolate.” CONTACT TRACING IN SCHOOLS. Dr. Perrodin shares that most school districts in his state have fewer than 1000 students and do not employ a designated “contact tracer.” Close Contacts are determined by settings in the school’s schedule software. For example, identifying which students were in a 7th hour geometry course attended by a student who tested positive for COVID. Doc is skeptical of the test-to-stay guidance due to shorthanded schools and lack of tests. WISCONSIN STUDENT IMMUNIZATION COMPLIANCE CHECK. Wisconsin Immunization Law (State Statute 252.04)requires that each of the state’s 421 school districts annually submit a report of immunization compliance for students. The 2020-2021 compliance requirements are found at (https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p44021.pdf). Here are the requirements: K-5: 4 doses polio, 3 doses hepatitis B, 2 doses MMR, and 2 doses Varicella. Per Wisconsin DHS, students are compliant with the immunization law if they meet all of the minimum immunization requirements, are considered “in process”, or have a waiver on file. The percent of Students Compliant with Immunization Law in 2020-2021 in Wisconsin is publicly available at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02388a.pdf : Here are reports from 12 of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts: Blair Taylor 628 students total enrolled in district = no reports received; Beloit 5426 students with 389 students not in compliance = 92.82%; Baraboo = 100%; Ashland 1863 students with 95 students not in compliance = 94.87%; Butternut = no reports received; Columbus 1242 students with 30 students not in compliance = 97.52%; Fall River 492 students with 3 students not in compliance = 99.38%; Portage = 100%; Potosi = no reports give; Madison 25,503 students with 438 students not in compliance = 98.28%; Milwaukee 66,977 students with 6429 students not in compliance = 90.40%; and Montello (614 students with 29 students not in compliance = 95.22%. 32/421 (8%) school districts did not submit reports! This is abysmal, yet there are no statements from the DPI or DHS indicating efforts to complete the data sets. A diagram of this information is included in the corresponding blog post for episode 163 at safetyphd.com. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 163 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-22-2021.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Top Ten Questions About Working At The School For The Blind | SDP162
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Have you wondered what life is like for staff and students at a state residential school for blind children? In this episode, Doc shares his experiences as the director of rehabilitation services for a school for the blind. Did his expectations match what he encountered with the job? What are things few people know about working with visually impaired students? Why was there a swingset inside of the school? How did working with visually impaired students and staff change the ways that Doc thought about school safety? His book, School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America, was written during the time he worked at the school for the blind. Here are the top ten questions about working at the school for the blind. (1) DO STAFF HAVE TO LEARN BRAILLE? Surprisingly, no. Most staff learn how to visually read the Braille alphabet and common words, but learning to read and write tactile Braille is required primarily of instructors of Braille. A student taught Doc the Braille alphabet and he used a free “Braille Helper” phone app to practice words written in the six dots braille system (Braille is not a language, but a way to communicate a language). (2) IS IT A SAD PLACE TO WORK? No. With less than a hundred students and a high staff-to-student ratio, the campus had a positive tone. There was little staff turnover and students had an array of activities to participate in during school and after hours. (3) ARE THERE SPORTS AND EXTRACURRICULARS? Yes. The school offered track, swimming, wrestling, 4H, and numerous clubs. The most popular sport was goalball. At one time, the school had its own radio station and former students continue to work in radio and communications. (4) DO THE STUDENTS LIVE AT THE SCHOOL? Most of the students stay in the dorms during the week - especially students who live 90 minutes away from the school. In fact, some students are flown into the local airport each Sunday for school and then flown back home on Fridays. Other students are transported to the campus daily and some split time between the campus and local schools or the two-year college. (5) DO THE OLDER STUDENTS DATE? Yes. This is similar to students in other school settings. However, online matchmaking presents unique challenges for blind students as dating apps aren’t accessible and students sometimes ask staff to help them complete dating profiles and give opinions on their potential matches. Staff divert those questions to the students' adult friends or sighted peers. (6) ARE ALL OF THE STUDENTS BLIND? All of the students have some level of vision loss that meets criteria for them to receive services at the school for the blind. However, some students have partial sight and a few are even able to obtain a driver’s permit for daytime driving! (7) DO STUDENTS GET INTO TROUBLE? Yes, but staff with experience at different school settings generally concur that school discipline incidents happen less frequently and with less severity at the school for the blind. Typical violations of the code of student conduct might be bullying or having tobacco on campus. (8) HOW IS SCHOOL SAFETY ADAPTED FOR BLIND STUDENTS? There is a heavy emphasis on verbal communication and teaching students to identify landmarks, such as the perimeter sidewalk that loops the campus. Safety-purposed phone apps are seldom reliable for students with vision loss as such apps don’t have VoiceOver features to read information or present choice menus. All students participate in all safety instruction and all drills. (9) WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO WORK THERE? A hurdle for new employees is that students’ schedules are very fluid. This is due to orientation and mobility instruction and braille courses taking priority along with maximizing field practice. If a residential student is ill, they typically miss the entire week of school due to transportation schedules of picking students up on Sundays and taking them home on Fridays. As all students at the school have disabilities, working there can present a moral dilemma for people who believe that it isn’t an inclusive setting and that students should be educated in their schools of residence. (10) WHAT ARE THE MOST UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FOR STAFF? It was common for half the school’s staff and students to go on impromptu bike outings on warm fall or spring days. The school had tandem or three-wheeled bikes and a staff member or community volunteer was paired with a student. Doc describes a special CPR awareness project he helped a student work on which brought in the local TV and the student was given awards at an assembly. And, there was the pesky dorm cow that roamed the hallways at the most inopportune times! FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 162 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-13-2021.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com