Episodes
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
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Sassed1 2Many works in the IT Field as a mainframe technician. He’s an avid shooter, rides motorcycles, and flies radio-controlled airplanes. And all of that was almost ripped away when early on life’s journey he was spun and strewn with obstacles that forced him to literally rethink everything. In this episode, Sassed discusses his career and the constant companion of the post effects of traumatic brain injury. Additionally, as a father, Sassed explains the disconnect between television narratives and proclamations by so-called experts and his search for authentic information. TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI). Per Mayo Clinic, “Traumatic brain injury usually results from a violent blow or jolt to the head or body. An object that goes through brain tissue, such as a bullet or shattered piece of skull, also can cause traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury may affect your brain cells temporarily. More-serious traumatic brain injury can result in bruising, torn tissues, bleeding and other physical damage to the brain. These injuries can result in long-term complications or death.” At the age of 21, Sassed was involved in a violent motorcycle accident, launching him over a stationary vehicle, and inflicting a serious traumatic brain injury into the aspiring tradesman’s life. His face was smashed into the pavement and his mouth, numerous bones were shattered or dislocated, muscles torn, and nerves damaged. His mouth was wired shut and he was near metal snips as vomiting with a wired-shut mouth put him at risk for suffocating. Dizziness was nearly a constant experience and for years it was precarious to simply stand up from a chair without losing his balance. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION. Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy are common for persons recuperating from TBI. Sassed didn’t receive these therapies, but did partake in extensive hands-on training to rebuild motor memory and coordination. During recovery, he worked at a famous Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher - and later trained as a Tempura chef. Two years after the accident, Sassed enrolled in a state-sponsored vocational rehabilitation program which guided him into a career in computer operations. His first computer-related job, in 1984, centered on decollating six part computer printouts for $4.50 an hour. WHAT’S IN A NAME: SASSED1 2MANY. Sassed = past tense: to be cheeky or rude to (someone). 1 = one: the lowest cardinal number. 2 = to͞o: to a higher degree than is desirable, permissible, or possible many = innumerable, countless. Sassed1 2Many is a state of mind actualized from constant exposure to innumerable amounts of un-thoughtful impetuous impertinent and disrespectful content in the public and social digital communications age, resulting in a singularly sarcastic existence. BEHIND THE MEDIA CURTAIN. It was as a father of young children that Sassed found himself recoiling from the nightly news and the abrasive social-shaping of commercials. He disconnected from contemporary media and immersed in personal research and engaging in thought-provoking discourse and debates. Doc and Sassed lamented on how even BIG news events receive perhaps ninety seconds of coverage on TV and are posted, with superficial information, on websites. The era of investigative journalism seemingly went extinct in the 1980s. Today, prominent media mouthpieces are well-compensated to read teleprompters and to not ask questions. Eventually, even they arrive at a crossroads of dissonance with what they speak and what they observe - and are quickly replaced by the long line of talking heads that want their shot at being a news celebrity. CANNONBALL RUN. In 1989, Sassed roared across the eastern seaboard in his 1988 Isuzu Impulse while averaging over 140MPH. In what many call the real-life remake of the famous 1981 movie starring Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, Sassed acquired a six pack, carton of donuts, and a first class postage stamp (25 cents at the 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 P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 161 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-07-2021.
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 Nov 30, 2021
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
As Doc was writing School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America, he talked with parents of children killed or maimed by school shooters. Writing a book about school safety and taking on a multi-billion dollar industry needed to be done in a way that didn’t encroach on the dignity of those killed in acts of school violence or upon that of survivors and family. From those discussions and through his research and observations of crisis communication, Doc found universal tenets for authentic, empathic messaging during a crisis or chaos. I HAVE BAD NEWS TO SHARE (The Chris Voss Method) Chris Voss is a retired FBI negotiator and his book Never Split the Difference is essential for anyone who might be at the podium on the worst day of their life. You’re not doing the stressed audience a favor by attempting to ease them into horrific news. To begin with, “We had a fast response and everyone worked hard…” might be accurate, but it’s a long wind-up for a pitch you intentionally have to aim at the batter. Instead, begin with “I have bad news to share.” Then pause. The second sentence is what might appear as the title of the forensic paper on this event. “Students and staff were involved in a bus accident on their way to a field trip.” The third sentence is the information known at the time about the well-being of those involved in the incident. This must be an “I” statement. “I have been in contact with the state patrol and was informed that some occupants of the bus have been transported to hospitals. I have no information about the types of injuries or potential fatalities.” And then tell people what to do or not to do. People shouldn’t drive to the scene, but they should assemble in high school commons. LOST THEIR LIVES vs. HAD THEIR LIVES TAKEN. It’s always better to use “had their lives taken” when acknowledging death. This is one resounding point of unison from parents of children killed by school shooters. To say, “This child lost his life” implies some culpability on the part of the child. We don’t lose lives like we lose keys or socks. We don’t find those lost lives. While the phrase “lost their life” might be said without negative intent, there are other times when “lost their life” is an intentional blurring by the media or officials. CRASH, ATTACK, and TRAGEDY. News media throttles or measures headlines per their agendas and somewhat to the Overton Window of the political temperature of the moment. On September 12, 2001, the headline from The New York Times read (in all caps): U.S. ATTACKED - HIJACKED JETS DESTROY TWIN TOWERS AND HIT PENTAGON IN DAY OF TERROR. That was an accurate headline. If it was written today, some media would opt for: Planes Crash Into Twin Towers and Pentagon - Unknown Number Lose Their Lives. And, the word “tragedy” is the catch basin for all disasters - it would be in most contemporary headlines. Tragedy is a word specifically selected by weak-willed journalists and editors who are afraid to assign a cause to an incident. What’s present and what’s absent from headlines and stories reveals the bias of the publisher/editor and not a lack of credible information. Everyone has a movie studio in their pocket. A from-the-street rendering from Google Maps is three clicks from the home screen. There’s a reason “tragedy” didn’t appear in any of the major newspaper headlines of 9/12/2001 - and a reason why other words did. BE OBJECTIVE, BE BRIEF. There is the main situation and then ancillary situations. When talking about that bus accident, convey everything in 50 words. If there’s a need to talk about re-unification sites, that should be a second and different statement. Inform people that you, or someone else (name that person) will provide an update in one hour (for example). Do not attempt to field questions until after your second statement. THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU. Always try to have someone else read your statements for accuracy and tone. That person must be a membercheck willing to tell you the truth. Privately, read the statement to yourself. We are remarkably good at detecting when our messages aren’t landing as we intended. Use simple, familiar vocabulary. Do not infuse your own emotions or experiences into the situation. Every person in that audience has a story to share about how this impacts them. Avoid, “In my twenty years as a school administrator, I have experienced loss of students and faculty, and this situation is a reminder that life is precious and that our community is strong in trying times…” That’s a statement for a support event or rally. 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 P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 160 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-29-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy of Structures and Systems | The New Fire Engine Effect | SDP159
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder. An example of entropy is a melting ice cube. Water molecules are fixed and ordered in the cube. As it melts, the molecules become free to move and become independent and therefore become disordered. The second law of thermodynamics is that all things lead to entropy - from ice cubes to the human body. In this episode, Doc examines the entropy of structures and systems and centers these concepts on the example of a small village purchasing a replacement for its 30-year-old fire engine. ENTROPY OF STRUCTURES. Over time, cars will rust, pavement will crack, and the human body will deteriorate. Although entropy of structures is a certainty, preventive measures and maintenance will slow the rate of entropy. For the car, it’s washing, waxing, and applying touch-up paint to new chips. Exercise staves off muscle atrophy. Even if all structures on Earth were immune from entropy, the sun would engulf the planet. ENTROPY OF SYSTEMS. When the Texas power grid failed in the winter of 2017, a forensic analysis revealed a power grid system that had become old, outdated, and inefficient. Remember when you were in elementary school and participated in a monthly fire drill? The purpose of the drill was to ensure fidelity of the evacuation system. If you only practiced a fire drill the first week of the school year, then some students would forget the protocols as the year went on. THE NEW FIRE ENGINE EFFECT. In October, 2021, the village board of a community of 1500 people in Wisconsin approved an expenditure for a new fire engine. At $400,000, the rescue pumper would be the costliest purchase in the village’s 2022 budget. The volunteer department’s fire chief was grilled by the city council members to justify the large expenditure. The prepared chief noted that the village's primary engine, a 1990 pumper bought for $78,000, was well-maintained and also succumbing to entropy of structure and systems. In other words, the engine itself was demonstrating fatigue and it was difficult to find replacement parts for the aging apparatus. But there was something else. The outside world evolved 30 years beyond the world the engine entered. This is important. Let’s say that an exact new replica of the 1990 engine could be delivered to the fire station. Would that make sense? The firefighters would be familiar with the various levers and controls, right? Going back to the 1990 engine - it doesn’t have a crew cab and therefore only 3 firefighters can travel in it. Because of this limitation, the engine always needed a companion as the department always sent at least 4 firefighters to a call. This meant that two fire trucks were sent to accidents in order to have sufficient personnel - an accepted practice in 1990 - in fact, the firehouse was often emptied for most calls as the mindset was to bring as many assets to an incident as possible. Today, the “industry” protocol is to send a single "rescue" engine specifically built to transport 4-5 crew and extrication gear. The stalwart 1990 engine had a 1000 GPM pump. New engines are outfitted with a 1500 GPM pump. The village's fire rating fell over the years due to static pumping capacity as the once-tiny industrial park flourished with new businesses. And then there's GPS, comms, LED lighting and improved designs so ladders can be stored on top of the apparatus and lowered with ease. So that was all on the structure entropy side of things. The next part was systems entropy. In 1990, nobody thought about extinguishing an electric vehicle. Firefighters today train differently than their 1990 counterparts. The system of individual fire departments battling any blaze was a thing in 1990. In that Wisconsin village,a massive fire on Main Street was tackled by the fire department and the neighboring rural town’s department. Today, such a fire would activate mutual aid from multiple communities. With the advent and acceptance of mutual aid, fire departments are streamlining their fleets and pool assets. SCHOOL SAFETY. So what does this mean for school safety? As entropy happens slowly, it's almost impossible for schools to detect it. Plus, there is frequent turnover of school staff - so these folks aren’t around long enough to observe entropy. What can a safety expert do for a school? Identify the state of entropy and make recommendations to restore structures or systems (to original), refurbish them (modernize them as possible), or replace them. 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 P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. This is episode 159 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
On Friday, November 12, 2021, classes were canceled for many public school districts in North Carolina. The intended purpose of the motion was to offer a mental health day for teachers and students experiencing burnout from the pandemic and the cumulative stress of contemporary education. Doc, with 25 years experience as an educator, describes the sudden popularity of mental days for school staff and why mental health days will both increase and also compound teacher burnout. WHAT HAPPENS ON MENTAL HEALTH DAYS? Staff and students are typically given vague guidance on how to focus on their mental health during days off. When Doc asks educators what they do on mental health days, they respond, “catch up on work,” instead of yoga, journaling or anything related to self care. Some note that the days off actually add to their workloads - and that makes sense. Instead of covering a planned lesson in 5 days, now they have 4 days, or 20% less time. Let’s be honest, a “day away from school” isn’t a magical elixir. This is trendy, but ineffective. Teachers are still burning out. MENTAL HEALTH DAYS DISRUPT ROUTINES. The school calendar provides consistency - especially now. Students have been out of school or toggled between hybrid and in-person instruction the past two years. Mental wellness days disrupt the continuity of routine. A human’s predictable routine can be called the torus - a concept Doc wrote extensively about in his book School of Errors. FIVE WAYS TO SOLVE TEACHER BURNOUT. Here are five ways to counter teacher burnout. Note that some call for disrupting long-held practices, such as the summer-off school calendar. (1) OBEY PARKINSON’S LAW. Humans function efficiently with defined start and end routines to daily activities. It wasn’t just the teaching profession that seemingly went 24/7 during remote learning, but schools have maintained one foot in remote learning and the other in the brick classroom. This has mushroomed the prep and planning for teachers. Schools can’t saddle teachers with planning for online, hybrid, and in-person learning. (2) YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL CALENDAR. In The Velocity of Information, Doc wrote about the groundbreaking work of World War II Army psychiatrist Dr. John Appel. Appel studied burnout in combat soldiers. He discovered that frontline warfighters would be killed, wounded, captured, mentally collapse, or found to be missing in action by 200 days. Increasing pay or championing “Why We Fight” didn’t offset the burnout. By that account, increasing teachers’ compensation, even doubling it, would likely have minimal effect on burnout. It might increase retention, but retaining a burned-out teacher is a bad idea. Back to Appel, he found that the British got 400 days out of their soldiers on the Italian front lines. How? The British would pull fighters out of duty within twelve days and then rest them for four days. In overlaying this thinking to K-12 schools, a year-round calendar creates rest periods - true “breaks” versus a periodic mental health day. Furthermore, year-round schedules lessen the impact of summer learning loss. Summers off goes back to when we were an agrarian society and then a recreation society. Most educators that talk with Doc are ready for year-round calendars. Beware, the school calendar is a sacred cow. (3) EMBRACE CROWD-IN MINDSET. There is zero sense that we are in transitory chaos. When people are convinced that chaos will continue for months or years, they surround themselves with comfort items. Remember the Michael Keaton movie Mr. Mom? In it, a fictional company called “Schooner Tuna” was steered away from advertising gimmicks by Keaton’s wife. In a surprise move, Schooner Tuna reduced the price of its tuna by 50 cents a can to convey empathy during the economic crisis of the time. Schools are overloaded with initiatives - and these initiatives are baking teachers. (4) CRACKED BOARDS. Recon Sniper Clay Martin spoke of “cracked boards” when Doc interviewed him about dealing with long periods in high stress settings. In short, it’s OK to tacitly acknowledge that you are frustrated - it’s the last fuse before burnout. (5) QUIT ZOOMING. Former Microsoft executive Linda Stone is an expert on human attention. In The Velocity of Information, Stone mentioned that she advises clients that Zoom calls are exhausting and a phone call places less demand on attention. Not every conversation requires a Zoom call. 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 seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 158 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-16-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
The issue of masks and other COVID-19 precaution strategies in schools has become contentious, sparking a firestorm of lawsuits. Special guest Attorney Lisa Linney helps us understand behind-the-scenes strategizing when a parent sues a school district over insufficient virus mitigation protocols. What is the strongest argument for the plaintiff? Beyond the parent and the school district, will other “responsible third parties'' be at fault? What must happen in the hours after a school district has been served a lawsuit? DISCLAIMER. Attorney Lisa Linney will not be giving legal advice during this episode. Please contact your legal counsel for guidance on specific school safety legal matters. ABOUT LISA LINNEY. Lisa Linney is an attorney at Murphy Legal in Texas. Her focus is motion practice and appellate law. Lisa’s appellate practice begins before a case even goes to trial. She participates in trial preparation by researching thorny issues and crafting motions in support of her clients’ positions and to preserve the trial record for any potential appeal. Lisa also handles appellate work, including briefing and oral argument. She is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. WHAT IS DECLARATORY RELIEF? Lisa notes that the lawsuits are between the parent and the school district. Declaratory relief would be , for example, the court interpreting the contract to determine rights of parents and the school without ordering action or awarding damages. In other words, the court has the ability to compel the school to implement a mask mandate or specific pandemic mitigation protocols. However, such a ruling would not extend to other school districts in the state. But, when similar parent-filed lawsuits against multiple districts catch the attention of the media and state legislators, there might be pressure for either the state department of health or state department of instruction to take a firm position, or in the rare chance, issue a decree on the matters. WHAT IS INJUNCTIVE RELIEF? The court may issue a sanction (injunction) regarding a school district’s pandemic mitigation practices. For example, if a school had a “masks optional” policy, the court might sanction the school district to remove the “optional” from its protocol. In Wisconsin, parent lawsuits against school districts claiming that "The school board and the superintendent are not providing a safe environment” are seeking declaratory or injunctive relief. In other words, the intent of the lawsuits is to change policy and protocol - most likely to require masks in schools. BURDEN OF PROOF. Lisa notes that the burden of proof in these lawsuits will be with the parent. As the plaintiff gather’s evidence (discovery) it’s as important to examine how a school district engaged in due diligence and debated pandemic mitigation protocols. The board of education is empowered with the responsibility of creating policies and voting on actions. When looking at the school’s decision to mitigate effects of COVID-19 in the school setting, something more could have always been done. The question is, what is reasonable? Anything publicly available from the county health department, local hospitals, CDC, FDA, NIH, WHO should be considered. Demonstrate due diligence in obtaining and weighing information from a variety of reputable sources - and government sources will be perceived as credible. Then boil down to more specific data as to what information applies to children. If the school district engaged in these steps, it’s going to be difficult for a parent to prevail in a lawsuit. WHAT IS NEGLIGENCE? Attorney Linney explained the three elements of negligence. (First) Defendant owned a legal duty; (Second) Defendant breached that duty; and (Third) Breach caused the injury. The plaintiff (parent) has to show that the defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff and the defendant breached that duty, and that breach was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury. Attorney Linney felt it would be a great technical challenge to prove the student contracted COVID at school and that it was a result of insufficient mitigation efforts by the school. Proximate cause will be the problem in the courts - how do you show the child got COVID. Where else has the child been, and the people that the children live and interact with outside of 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. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 157 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-2-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
One lesser-mentioned reason for the sustained and worsening supply chain disruption is that manufacturing has entered the “transfer portal” between JIT and 3D printing. In other words, an old technology is being usurped by a new technology. The pandemic hastened the process and the question centered on in this episode is how the baton pass will occur as the race track is quaking. WAREHOUSE to JIT to 3D PRINTING. In the 1990s, manufacturing experienced an evolution from warehouse manufacturing (or creating excess product and to ship as needed), to Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing - which meant products would skip the warehouse and go directly from the manufacturer to the store / business / consumer. JIT was clunky at first, but as computers improved, RFID to quickly track and improve asset management, and sophisticated transportation logistics, the JIT system was proven, and improving, by the early 2000s. 3D-PRINTED HOUSES GO MAINSTREAM. (Yahoo News’ Joann Muller, Monday, October 25, 2021) Doc shares a story about 3D-printed cement houses. Instead of conventional materials like steel, aluminum and lumber, 3D-printed structures are built by a robot squeezing a cement mixture out of a nozzle, layer upon layer, like a soft swirl ice cream cone. It's the same additive manufacturing process used to make everything from dental implants to airplane parts — just on a much, much larger scale. Texas-based ICON has delivered two dozen 3D-printed homes in the US and Mexico and has raised $207 million to expand. The homes are printed on-site. While something as disruptive as 3D printed houses seems far-fetched, Doc noted that from 1908 to 1940, you could choose from over 400 styles of homes to purchase through Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog. HOW 3D-PRINTED FOOD COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE COOK AND EAT. General Electric's GE Additive Manufacturing branch released a report in 2020 describing 3D-printing of food as entering mainstream testing. “At one gourmet restaurant in the United Kingdom, everyone is eating 3D-printed food because that is all that is served. The enterprising entrepreneurs at London’s Food Ink decided to push additive manufacturing to its logical extreme. Everything is 3D printed, including the utensils, plates, tables and chairs. At Miramar, a gourmet restaurant in Spain, food printers take on more mundane tasks, freeing chefs to better focus on their creative cuisine.” BENEFITS OF 3D PRINTING (Statsys.com) (1) Advance time-to-market turnaround; (2) Save on tooling costs with on-demand 3D printing; (3) Reduce waste with additive manufacturing; (4) Save weight with complex part designs; (5) Eliminate shipping of finished products, along with packaging. ISSUES WITH 3D PRINTING (1) Need for raw materials - you won’t be able to harvest from your backyard; (2) Intellectual property enforcement - while some open source and public domain, it’s most likely 3D printers will have a subscription service like Amazon; (3) Unclear as to how 3D printed items will be recycled; (4) What is liability if you 3D print something that fails - like a part for your car; (5) Ransomware and hackability. What prevents 3D food printers from being corrupted? 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 seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 156 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-26-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Doc clarifies the issues around threats toward school officials, discusses the National School Board Association’s (NSBA) under-informed hyperbolic letter to president Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s knee jerk memo directing the FBI to figure out strategies to address school threats within the next 30 days, reactions from state-level school board associations, and how your local school district board of education might implement changes including recording audiences attending board of education (BOE) meetings. Doc matches solutions to these issues and also refreshes our minds to how similar matters have been effectively addressed in the past, including FDR’s 1930s letter writing campaign. NSBA LETTER TO BIDEN REGARD THREATS TO SCHOOLS. On September 29, 2021, the NSBA, an advocacy group, sent a letter to President Biden with the heading: Federal Assistance to Stop Threats and Acts of Violence Against Public Schoolchildren, Public School Board Members, and Other Public School District Officials and Educators. In the letter, NSBA rolled off this 97-word sentence in which it put some parents in the arena with domestic terrorists: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight.” AG GARLAND MEMO TO FBI. On October 4, 2021, US Attorney General Merrick Garland send a memorandum to the Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation directing the FBI to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days in order to facilitate strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response. STATE SCHOOL BOARD CHAPTERS NOT ON BOARD. The organization Parents Defending Education is curating a running tally of state school boards that have withdrawn from NSBA over the Biden letter (18 state school board associations have bailed from NSBA) as well as state school board associations answers to the following three questions: (1) As the [state association] has not yet commented on the National School Board Association’s September 29 letter to President Biden that requested federal intervention in local school board issues – which likened civic participation to “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and cited the Patriot Act – Parents Defending Education (PDE) would like to know whether your organization was involved in the creation of this letter and whether you agree with its substance and tone. If not, have you contacted the NSBA to let them know? (2) Can you please tell us how, going forward, your organization defines “intimidation,” harassment,” and “threat”? (3) Finally, do you plan to report individuals in your state to the U.S. Department of Justice – or do you believe that concerns can be adequately managed by local and state law enforcement? STATE RESPONSES BURN NSBA. It’s apparent that state’s are displeased with NSBA and the Garland Memo. Here’s the Delaware School Board Association response to PDE’s questions: “The DSBA has seen school board meeting protests, some of which have become quite impassioned, however we have received NO reports of violence or threats of violence toward school staff or school board members. The DSBA does NOT condone violence or threats of violence toward students, staff or board members. After consultation with the Governor’s office, the Public Health Department and the Delaware Department of Education the DSBA developed and issued guidance to school board presidents regarding how to best handle school board meeting protests, which included the ultimate use of LOCAL law enforcement if absolutely necessary. This guidance was issued prior to the NSBA September 29 2021 letter. The NSBA letter to President Biden was unnecessary and quite frankly not helpful.” ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS? Doc believes threats of violence toward school officials is happening, but over-stated by NSBA and Garland. Also, the National Threat Assessment Center has been effective in mitigating school threats for 20 years. Reviewing school board meeting video footage is at the bottom of the FBI’s prioritization list. FDR ASKED FOR LETTERS. When FDR was president, the country was hammered by the Great Depression and fears of war. In his fireside chats, he asked listeners to write letters to him describing their plights. More than 8,000 letters a day arrived at the White House - many accusatory and fiery. Doc described why this approach worked, and how it might be one of the strategies considered to make people feel that they are being heard. 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 seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 155 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-20-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Doc peels apart the big sticky questions about K-12 school mask mandates. What’s kicked off the flurry of mask/mitigation lawsuits filed by parents? Have county health services abandoned their obligations to school districts? Are school boards spending pandemic funds on football fields? Why are doctors invited to present at school board meetings instead of environmental services experts? Learn what is happening and what should be happening is schools around America. MASK GUIDANCE. Schools are frantically seeking guidance from county health departments. While some counties have stepped up, others have stepped away and turned off the lights. Boards of Education (BOEs) then attempt to align decisions to the CDC, state recommendation, advice from legal counsel, or local doctors. MASKS IN THE REAL SCHOOL WORLD. School officials are unable to define what is an effective and acceptable mask. Hundreds of students might wear old masks, homemade masks, or fashion masks. Should schools issue masks to students and staff to ensure some baseline of quality? How are students educated about mask wearing and how are schools responding to medical exemption orders for some students with disabilities? CONTACT TRACING. We’ve all heard this concept. In practice, it’s messy for schools providing in-person instruction. What frequently happens is that a student tests positive for COVID-19 and then the district notifies parents that their child was in “close proximity” to a child that tested positive for COVID-19. The parents are advised to observe their child for symptoms, but typically aren’t required to have the student self-quarantine or receive a rapid test. How does a parent distinguish symptoms of colds, seasonal flu, allergies, COVID-19, and fatigue? ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund (March, 2021) pumped cash into schools in the form of block grants that allowed schools to spend the dollars to increase student achievement or mitigate pandemic concerns. Some districts spent their dollars on staffing and cleaning. Others installed artificial turf athletic fields, tracks, and new weight rooms. There was much, and unchecked, interpretation of what measures promoted student health during a pandemic. Doc also notes that few schools spend the funds on HVAC upgrades due to the technical barriers of upgrading existing systems. For example, filters that remove viruses decrease air flow through the system and strain circulation motors. Furthermore, equipment and installers are in short supply as supply chains fell apart in 2021. SHOULD SCHOOLS TEST FOR COVID-19 ON SURFACES AND IN THE AIR? Yes. Schools have utilized professional environmental services to test for mold or MRSA, remove impacted areas, and help to prevent future problems. Environmental companies that offer those services are able to test surfaces and air samples for the presence of COVID-19. Doc states that professional environmental services should be informing school boards about COVID-19 management in schools. PARENTS SUE SCHOOLS - MY CHILD GOT COVID-10 AT SCHOOL. Doc notes very recent lawsuits that parents have filed against schools in his state alleging that the school “failed to implement reasonable COVID-19 mitigation measures.” How might schools respond to the lawsuits? Will parents prevail. If so, then what happens? Doc describes how foreseeable tort law might be something we begin to hear about and what that term means for BOEs. 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 seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 154 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-13-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Lee Jarvis is an Analyzer of Data Processes. He has much knowledge about intellectual property and critical considerations for bloggers, podcasters, social media influencers, and the person in charge of adding uplifting cartoons or images to the church bulletin. What happens if you post a copyrighted image to your blog? How about streaming a minute of copyrighted video within your podcast? How do we fix this mess? **LEE AND DAVID ARE NOT LAWYERS. THIS EPISODE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Read the full blog post for this episode at safetyphd.com. PANDEMIC RELIEF BILL MIGHT IMPACT CONTENT STREAMERS. Lawmakers slipped multiple copyright bills, including the CASE Act and a felony streaming law, into the $2.3 trillion spending and economic-relief legislation in December, 2020. The CASE ACT, for example, would create a small claims copyright court and a new U.S. law could hit streamers with felony charges for streaming copyrighted content. WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? Lee explains what IP is, why IP laws were made, what they cover, including copyright and patent, and the differences between patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Trademarks, for example, often expire after just 3 years while copyrights can exist for more than 70 years. Per Wipo, intellectual property (IP) refers to “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” We often think of photos and songs as intellectual property. WHAT IS FAIR USE? Lee notes that Fair Use largely hinges on two points. First, is the content copyrighted? Second, did the person distribute it. Per Copyright.Gov, “Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.” However, a judge would determine if Fair Use was a valid “defense” in a lawsuit. WHAT IS CREATIVE COMMONS? Creative Commons is an internationally active non-profit organisation that provides free licences for creators to use when making their work available to the public. This means that they only need to seek the creator's permission when they want to use the work in a way not permitted by the license. CC was instrumental in facilitating the Open COVID Pledge, which calls on organizations around the world to make their patents and copyrights freely available in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. PROBLEMS WITH IP IN CURRENT TIMES AND HOW IT COULD COMPLICATE COLLABORATION IN A CRISIS. Problems with IP in current times and how it impacts people. Lee unpacks complicated laws, banned accounts, blocked content, and censorship. There’s also a cottage industry of third party “IP enforcers” with practices that border on extortion when they threaten huge fines after their Internet-scanning software locates IP on web pages, such as a copyrighted image posted in a personal blog. Such businesses might not give a cent of recovered money to the copyright owner. IP IN THE TIME OF COVID. Doc adds that a recent study revealed that 3000 people contributed intellectual input to develop schematics for both home and commercial printing of face masks, face shields, and ventilator parts in response to COVID19 pandemic demands. This mass collaboration might be impossible with increased IP monitoring and enforcement. There is no amnesty for people that violate IP during times of crises, although some manufacturers eased IP protections during COVID. HOW TO IMPROVE IP. Unless changes are made to IP, Lee envisions scenarios of IP infringement claims overwhelming courts, IP creators stifled as they aren’t being properly compensated for their efforts, and hesitation from content users as they don’t want to be sued for potentially copyrighted material. Lee explores improvements such as expanding Fair Use, fines for false claims of IP infringement, or creating a new system of IP. Although overhauling IP is daunting, consider that most songs today are legally downloaded from Amazon or iTunes whereas many were illegally shared on Napster or Limewire in the 1990s. 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 seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 153 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-27-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com