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Cameras and video surveillance have become ubiquitous with school safety. Those super-tech tools have amazing capabilities - such as zooming in to read print on a piece of paper on the hallway floor. But, cameras are almost exclusively forensic equipment - they might be helpful for identifying who stole a jacket from a locker. From a prevention standpoint, cameras are over-hyped. Realistically, nobody is watching a dozen live camera streams. And, it’s unlikely that camera systems will allow law enforcement to track and intercept a school shooter who is inside of a school. But, perhaps the bad rap of cameras should be re-visited. Has Doc shifted his position on video surveillance in school settings, beginning with license plate readers? WHAT IS IT? This rabbit hole begins with license plate readers. Automated license plate reader (ALPRs) systems combine high-speed cameras and sophisticated software to capture and convert license plate images into data that can be compared with information in other databases. Cameras used in ALPRs may be mobile or stationary and are small enough to be mounted on police cars, road signs or traffic lights, or placed at the sides of roads or on bridges. License plate reader systems can collect a driver’s geographic location, along with the date and time a vehicle was in a particular place. DETERRENCE. A 2014 survey of more than 97,000 school bus driver’s found that 76,966 vehicles illegally passed school buses on a single day! As of 2015, thirteen states explicitly allow school districts to use cameras to capture drivers illegally passing stopped buses. Clearly marking school buses as having ALPRs and coupling that to billboards and media awareness campaigns might deter people from illegally passing buses. This is just one example of deterrence from ALPRs. Another might be ALPRs verifying parent’s vehicles entering a school area. What if a non-custodial guardian went to the school to take a student? And systems with ALPRs might notify office staff that the vehicle is not associated with someone approved to pick up the child. WHAT IF PLATE READERS COULD ALSO DETECT WEAPONS? In a 2021 research study titled: ‘Handgun detection using combined human pose and weapon appearance’, it was observed that “This work proposes the use of the human pose as complementary information to improve the performance of current handgun detectors based on deep learning. The human pose, defined as the relative position of the different joints and limbs of the human body, is quite characteristic in shootings.” In other words, deep learning AI is getting very good at identifying the pattern of not only a gun, but the human movements that happen prior to firing a gun. So, thinking beyond ALPRs, one can step into even more sophisticated AI that recognizes types of vehicles, shapes, and patterns. How about software paired with ALPRs in order to detect someone holding a gun or a knife? It’s not far-fetched, and already in place at some of the world’s most secure settings (we just don’t know about it). In the fight to mitigate drug overdoses, mosaic camera systems might be able to identify when someone collapses - and immediately flash that information to authorities. So, there’s much more capability here than simply reading license plates - and is that a good thing?  ARE LICENSE PLATE READERS LEGAL? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (2022), at least 16 states have statutes that expressly address the use of ALPRs or the retention of data collected by ALPRs. For example, Arkansas prohibits use of ALPRs by individuals, partnerships, companies, associations or state agencies. There are exceptions for limited use by law enforcement or controlling access to secure areas. And, data can not be preserved for more than 150 days. Vermont requires a law enforcement officer to be certified in the use of an automated license plate reader to operate such a system. Provides that active system data may only be accessed by an officer with a legitimate law enforcement purpose for the data. What is a ‘legitimate law enforcement purpose’ in a school setting, and who is monitoring how these systems are being accessed as well as how the data is kept secure? SAFETY WITHOUT COMPROMISING PRIVACY? ALPRs collects a lot of “customer” data. With data breaches commonplace, what are the risks of having ALPRs data hacked, or shared, or even sold? And, ALPRs data from a variety of locations might be able to identify an individual's behavior. 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 202 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-10-2023. 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

Have you imagined that not missing a day of high school could put you square in the driver’s seat of a new car? What began as a novel #truancy pilot roughly twenty years ago is becoming increasingly popular in high schools across America. Why are cash-strapped #schools ponying up cars for students with perfect, or near-perfect #attendance? What are the outcomes of these incentives? What are the positions of advocates and opponents? In this episode, Doc describes the “cars for attendance” trend speeding through the parking lots of America’s high schools. WHAT IS TRUANCY? States have statutory citations for compulsory school attendance and school attendance enforcement. These exist to compel students to attend school on a regular basis. Truancy, or unexcused absence from school, is informally referred to as “skipping school.” A “truant student'' is typically absent for several days, or weeks, during the school year. The pattern tends to be pervasive and the lack of regular attendance diminishes the student’s ability to benefit from instruction. Students who are truant are often ineligible to participate in organized sports and generally are not connected with school activities. TRUANCY REDUCTION: KEEPING STUDENTS IN SCHOOL. In September 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice published a 16-page bulletin titled: Truancy Reduction, Keeping Students in School. Truancy had been well-studied by 2001, and although it impacted students of all ages, it was most prevalent in high schools. The report stated, “Truancy has been clearly identified as one of the early warning signs that youth are headed for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, and/or educational failure. Other studies established lack of commitment to school as a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.” OTHER CONSEQUENCES OF TRUANCY. The DOJ’s 2001 report predicted dire financial impacts of truancy and dropouts, including (1) Less educated workforce, (2) Business loss because of youth who “hang out” and/or shoplift during the day, (3) Higher daytime crime rates, and (4) cost of social services for families of children who are habitually truant. INCENTIVES FOR STUDENT ATTENDANCE - YOU GET A CAR! In 2022, Bastrop ISD partnered with the local Sames Bastrop Ford dealership to offer one lucky student the chance to win a car in its “Drive Sames 4 Education.” “Kristi Lee, BISD's district deputy superintendent, said the district has seen a dip in attendance and all students' grades. The free car acts as an incentive to get students to come back to class. For the 2021-22 school year, BISD had an attendance rate of 90.59% – the lowest rate in the last four years. When the pandemic originally hit, during the 2019-2020 school year, overall attendance was almost three percentage points higher at 93.67% (Comme, P. 2022).” Search engines return thousands of similar stories, from New Caney High School to Honey Grove ISD to San Antonio High School. ARGUMENTS FOR CARS AND HIGH-VALUE PRIZES. It works. Research has found that financial incentives typically are the most effective in driving teenagers. Oftentimes, parents will reward students with a cash bonus after they produce good grades. But on the contrary, children are more prone to strive for something they can control, like studying or even attendance (Prothero, A. 2017). On the flip side, incentives are much less effective for actual test scores. In other words, incentives work to motivate kids to attend school, but not necessarily to perform well in school. The cost of a car (and some of the prizes are used cars) might be $25,000, or less if donated by a dealership or community philanthropy. That expense is lower than the school funding a truancy officer or cuts to school funding due to lower enrollment. ARGUMENTS AGAINST CARS AND HIGH VALUE PRIZES. Schools create an artificial external reward system for something that should be internalized as having value. For example, we don’t brush our teeth to receive a chance to win a car from the dental office, although lack of dental hygiene could deteriorate our health and cost thousands of dollars to fix. Another argument is that the fact that high-value prizes increase attendance underscore that traditional school operations don’t motivate students. Maybe it’s a stale curriculum? It’s worth noting The Safety Doc Podcast episode 195 and guest Mike Dahle discussing how Esports is rocketing in popularity in schools - and also contributing to increased attendance. Yet, the majority of schools don’t offer Esports. For car raffles, people claim the optics look bad - of quasi-paying kids to attend school. 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 201 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-03-2023. 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

It’s counterintuitive, but research findings indicate that someone in need is more likely to receive help when one person is present compared to when several people are standing by. That’s right, you are less inclined to #help another person in trouble if you are in a group. But, wouldn’t the group be more capable and powerful to help than any single individual of the group? Most of us have seen inspiring videos of strangers locking arms to create a human chain in order to rescue a victim struggling in a swollen river. Anecdotally, we might be more willing to collectively intervene to counter a force of nature. That river won’t hire a lawyer and sue us. In this episode, Doc defines the bystander effect, identifies the three types of #bystandereffect, provides reasons for the #bystander effect, and concludes with ways to overcome the bystander effect. WHAT IS THE BYSTANDER EFFECT? “Psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley identified a pattern of behavior they called the bystander effect, which they demonstrated in their labs for the first time in 1968. They describe it as a #behavior that occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Latané and Darley were spurred to their studies by the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City, a case that became infamous because of observers’ inaction (Vernon, J., Overcoming the Bystander Effect. American Scientist). Genovese, age 28, was returning from her job as a manager of a bar when she was brutally attacked and murdered near her residence in Queens, New York. 38 eye witnesses stood by as she was stabbed and killed. None of them called the police. 3 TYPES OF BYSTANDER EFFECT. Researchers Latané and Darley (1970), proposed three different psychological processes that might prevent a bystander from helping a person in distress. (1) diffusion of responsibility; (2) evaluation apprehension (fear of being publicly judged); and (3) pluralistic ignorance (the tendency to rely on the over-reactions of others when defining an ambiguous situation). REASONS FOR THE BYSTANDER EFFECT. When we are in a group, it’s easier to assume that someone else will step and do something - that there is someone “better-qualified” to lend help. When people make the assumption that someone will spring into action, no one actually steps up and helps. And, oddly, the most common observation at the scene of an accident is a sea of people aiming their phones at the incident. This also amplifies evaluation apprehension as an individual’s attempts to render aid will be forensically analyzed from fifty angles. Undoubtedly, the lack of overt public education about Good Samaritan laws (all at the state level) toss dust into the cost-reward measurement of potential responders. “Does the law have my back if I step up and step in to help?” PILIAVIN SUBWAY STUDY. In 1969, researchers designed a study to investigate how a group of people would react if they saw a person who collapsed on a train. Here are notable findings from that study: (A) The public usually helped quickly and on their own - nobody had to direct them what to do; and, (B) The longer no help was offered, the more likely it was that observers would leave the incident. Piliavin proposed that humans are hard-wired to become physiologically aroused when they see someone in distress. The longer they think about responding, the less likely they are to respond. HOW TO OVERCOME THE BYSTANDER EFFECT. Many people experience the cost of “regret” for not helping when they were capable of helping. They might experience guilt, disapproval, damaged self-esteem and negative emotional responses. To overcome the bystander effect, people must practice situational awareness and, in doing so, heighten their ability to recognize when things begin to change from the baseline. This is often the tacit ability of identifying that something is, in fact, an emergency. Feel responsible to take action. That’s a tough call, though, as you can’t place yourself in harm’s way. You might be able to dodge downed live wires to carry someone from a wrecked car - or you might be electrocuted. Finally, choose a form of assistance. You might be able to apply pressure to a cut that’s bleeding. Maybe you can be on the phone with 9-1-1 relaying important information about the event. What if you need help - and what if the crowd watches as you fade away. SOURCES: Latané, Bibb & Nida, Steve. 1981/03/01. Ten Years of Research on Group Size and Helping. Psychological Bulletin; Piliavin I. M., Rodin, J., & Piliavin, J. A. (1969). Good samaritanism: an underground phenomenon?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 13(4), 289. 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 200 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-27-2022. 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

On September 7, 2022, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced bill S.4794 - Naloxone Education and Access Act (NEAA). This bill reauthorizes through FY2027, expands eligibility for, and otherwise makes changes to a grant program that supports access to medications that reverse opioid overdoses (e.g., naloxone). What might this mean for K-12 schools? WHAT IS AN OPIOID? Opioids are a class of drug prescribed by doctors to treat moderate to severe pain. Common types of opioids are oxycodone (Oxycontin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), morphine, and methadone (REMS, 2022). OPIOID USE DATA. According to the 2017 Final Report of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis: In 2016, an estimated 239,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were current misusers of pain relievers (1.0% of adolescents), and 631,000 young adults aged 18 to 25 misused pain relievers in the past month (1.8% of young adults) … Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 152,000 (0.6%) had a pain reliever use disorder in the past year, and 291,000 young adults aged 18 to 25 (0.8%) and 1.3 million adults aged 26 or older in 2016 (0.6%) had a pain reliever use disorder in the past year (p. 24). OPIOIDS IN SCHOOLS. Opioid use and overdoses are increasing in schools. In addition to user-exposure, second-hand exposure also poses risks, especially with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine (REMS, 2022). Per EducationWeek, “Citing concerns about student opioid use—and fentanyl specifically—a growing number of districts have equipped schools with naloxone, a drug that temporarily reduces the harmful effects of overdoses. The Los Angeles Unified School District became the latest to do so last month when it said it would stock the drug, and train qualified staff to use it, as part of a multiprong response to a “devastating epidemic of overdoses that are all too common in Los Angeles. [Other] districts—from Des Moines, Iowa, to Denver— have also stocked naloxone in recent years, some empowered by changes in state laws that make it easier to do so.” (Blad, 2022). SENATOR BALDWIN’S BILL. The bill would amend Section 545 of the Public Health Service Act and bring federal-level clarity and guidance to states regarding who can dispense reversal medication, where it can be placed, training, and immunity for using it in an attempt to benefit a suspected overdose person. Specifically, the NEAA would strike “for pharmacists to dispense a drug or device approved and cleared” and insert “that increase access to drugs and devices approved, cleared, or otherwise legally-marketed.” In other words, reversal drugs would be available to community-based distribution programs and there would be some type of “standing order” allowing for non-medical personnel to administer the reversal drug. CONSIDERATIONS FOR SCHOOLS. For some educators and community members, Naloxone on campus will signal a defeat against the invasiveness of opioids. Once Naloxone is stashed in AED cabinets - it’s there forever. Others will have more favorable perceptions that might center on saving lives. How will schools integrate opioid awareness and overdose prevention along with other alcohol and other drug (AOD) programs? Naloxone availability has been impacted by supply chain disruptions, but it’s typically about $25 per dose and there’s little incentive for someone to steal or misuse it. Naloxone could be placed in the AED cabinet, for example. A top concern for school officials will be legal ramifications of administering Naloxone. Would a student be permitted to administer it to another student? Who has discretion to use it? A guidance document from REMS (2022) states, “Identify, with general counsel, and inform the campus community about state Good Samaritan laws that provide immunity from arrest, charge, or prosecution for certain drug offenses for a person experiencing an overdose — or witnessing another person experiencing an overdose — who seeks medical attention.” So, it’s ultimately placing the risk upon the local board of education and the school’s insurer. Hopefully, Senator Baldwin’s proposed bill, or others like it, will align Naloxone with the standard for a non-trained person to be able to use a publicly-available AED to attempt to benefit a person encountering a heart attack. SOURCES: Blad, E. (2022, October 10). Why Districts Are Stocking Naloxone in Response to the Opioid Crisis. Education Week.; Preparing for Opioid-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Education. Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA). (Retrieved 2022) 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 199 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-20-2022. 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

Professional discretion and acting in the best interest of the child affords school district officials options to unravel the snags created by their own protocols and policies webs. What happens when a school district doubles down behind flawed policies? What recourse exists for parents? In this episode, Doc shares an authentic case study from his special education legal issues course. Would you ban a kindergarten student with epilepsy from attending school because of her doctor-prescribed CBD oil? THE CASE (The following is copied from Rogoway Law Group, 2018). “Brooke Adams is a five-year-old girl diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy. Brooke currently uses medicinal cannabis-derived CBD oil to significantly reduce the frequency of seizures and medicinal cannabis-derived THC oil as an emergency medication to quickly stop seizures once they start. Brooke obtains both oils pursuant to a valid recommendation from a licensed physician. The Rincon Valley Union School District refused to place Brooke on a District campus because it alleged that her medication is not permitted on a school campus or school bus under both state and federal law; instead, in April 2018, the District offered to Brooke an individualized educational program (“IEP”) that included only one (1) hour of home-based schooling each day.” SPECIAL EDUCATION DUE PROCESS HEARING. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), schools are required to ensure that all children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet the child’s unique needs. When a parent believes that their child has been denied FAPE (in this case, the parents believed the school district was required to educate Brooke with her peers), they can pursue what is known as a “due process hearing” that compels the state’s department of education to investigate and then rule on findings of whether the school district violated the students procedural rights, failed to provide FAPE, and also the remedy. The special education due process hearing essentially is a trial including lay and expert witnesses, exhibits, testimony, and briefs filed by the parties. Schools are always represented by an attorney, often via their errors and omissions insurance policy. Parents can retain an attorney or represent themselves. IS CBD OIL ILLEGAL IN SCHOOLS? This varies from state to state, but CBD oil is typically not illegal in schools. However, schools can create policies that ban CBD oil - including CBD oil prescribed by a physician. REASONS WHY DISTRICTS BAN CBD OIL. CBD oil is a slippery slope as it cannot, per federal law, contain more than .3 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Anything with more THC is considered a schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration and is federally illegal. CBD oil is not sold through typical state-regulated pharmacies. The purity and level of THC in the product is regulated by the manufacturers and sellers, not the FDA. The methods for measuring the level of THC might not be uniform across manufacturers. School staff can test if CBD oil contains THC, but they wouldn’t be able to determine the percentage of CBD. A school nurse, or designee, administering CBD oil that somehow contained more than .3 THC would be, in fact, committing a schedule 1 federal drug offense! A school nurse could lose his license! WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? The Department of Education at the state level is unwilling to give clear guidance on the administration of CBD oil prescribed by a doctor. Instead, state agencies offer vague guidance and direct districts to consult their own legal counsel to inform a stance on the matter. DISCRETION AND ACTING IN THE BEST INTEREST. School officials had options to remedy this situation before it landed on the judge’s desk. One course of action would have been to modify the school’s board of education policy to permit the administration of CBD oil with a doctor’s order. Another plan might have involved working with the manufacturer of the CBD oil to become better informed, and confident in, the monitoring for THC in the end product. Ultimately, the state should have made a clear ruling affirming the use of CBD oil in school and to hold harmless staff for administration of CBD oil that might contain trace amounts of THC. What would you have done? RULING. The judge ruled that Rincon Valley Union School District had denied 5-year-old Brooke Adams a “free and appropriate public education” in the “least restrictive setting” — which federal special education law requires. Hooray, Brooke went to school! 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 198 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-13-2022.  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

Guest Lee Jarvis returns to the show and explains the features and benefits of a bank account-style voting system. As people grow skeptical of elections, Lee describes that trust may be restored by using existing systems in different ways, and such a pivot might even make it easier for voters to cast votes and to track their ballot. The main points of a bank account-like voting system are: universal national voter registry; voter “bank account” to track and log votes so voters can track their ballot/vote; more locations for a to vote; and improved data logistics for the public to observe the data. ELECTION INTEGRITY CONCERNS. News media have stirred the US public with the incomplete portrayal of the timeline of concerns about the integrity of American elections. In other words, election-doubt didn’t appear from thin air in 2016. Per Pippa Norris, author of Electoral Integrity in America: Securing Democracy, Oxford University Press (2018), “Concern about the integrity of American elections did not start with Trump's election; flaws in procedures have gradually grown during recent decades. The contemporary "tipping point" that raised public awareness was the 2000 Bush v. Gore Florida count, but the 2016 campaign and its aftermath clearly worsened several major structural weaknesses. This deepened party polarization over the rules of the game and corroded American trust in the electoral process.” Furthermore, the 2022 Arizona governor election was marred when officials in populous Maricopa county stated that on election day, [technical] “problems affected ballot tabulation machines in about 60 of the county’s 223 voting centers.” Hence, actions must be taken to infuse integrity-supports into the eroding election framework. NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRY. A national voter registry would utilize local voting locations in order for people to register and vote at any location in the system. Combining that feature with an online account system would help people to track their vote. In ways similar to Social Security cards, voters could be issued “voting cards” and these cards might incorporate QR codes, barcodes, numbers, and a photo. Think of using your credit card to purchase items at a store. The card is unique to you, although there were a hundred shoppers in the store - all purchasing different constellations of items. And, you can go online and check your credit card account to verify your purchases and monitor for fraud. Similar principles could be in place for a “voting card.” INDIVIDUAL VOTING RECEIPTS. Voting machines could be designed to print receipts coupled with opt-in quarterly mail statements (mail statements is a must) along with the digital account. And, digital accounts should list nullified votes. VOTING ONLINE OR VIA APP. Lee stated that he has concerns over online or app-based voting. If such a model were to exist, it should require a decade of vetting and voter registry every 1-2 years. The ability to hack such a system is underscored with the frequent data breaches and ransomware attacks rife in public institutions as well as private businesses. VOTING LOCATIONS. A system of secured verified accounts (voter cards) would expand voting locations beyond traditional locations. Per Lee, an organization or business could rent voting machines and host a party! Why can’t voting be a celebration? The rental units might be paired with body-cam security guards and body cam staff for the machines - and the machines are valid anywhere in America. Think of the voting machines as similar to ATMs. EARLY VOTING. Early voting could be as simple as a portable voting machine controlled by the election commission. It could be transported to nursing homes, or community centers. HOW MIGHT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ACCESS THEIR ACCOUNTS? Cashless stores and accounts requiring 2-step verification are not always easy-to-use for people who are elderly or people with disabilities. As voting moves further to the digital age, considerations must center on both security and accessibility. To offset this access barrier, Lee notes that banks have automated phone account systems and the postal system features mailing of letters. Lee adds that those in the military or US citizens, but not in the US during an election, would be able to use their voter card at their locations to cast their vote. Lee further postures that bank ATM machines could theoretically be repurposed as voting machines. 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 197 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-06-2022. 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

School safety exercises often involve #school staff, #students and agencies (police/fire/EMS), but lack measurable learning objectives. What did exercise coordinators specifically measure during and following the exercise? Does everyone need to participate in the safety exercise, or should some staff and students be assigned to different roles, such as observers? Is it OK to include parents in the exercise? In this episode, Dr. Perrodin fixes the broken framework of inter-agency #schoolsafety exercises in order to center on learning and practices that promote safe schools. BONUS. Doc shares a powerful, yet simple “5-minute safety asset inventory” that will greatly improve school personnel’s awareness of fire alarm pulls, AEDs, and fire extinguishers. OVERARCHING THEMES. Three overarching themes are present in school safety exercises. (1) Discretion - who has it, and how do you measure it? (2) Decision Making - how are decisions informed, and are they made at a brisk pace? (3) Induction - how are new staff, students and families made aware of safety protocols? CONSTRUCTS. These are specific areas that will be measured through learning objectives. There are seven constructs for school safety exercises: (1) Communications, (2) Incident command system/structure, (3) protocols, (4) response times, (5) mechanical systems, (6) staging assets, and (7) maintaining the perimeter. COMMUNICATION. Was there a sufficient number of 2-way radios? What is the range of the radios? Are radios available at community partner 4K sites? INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM. Who has discretion to activate crisis notifications and systems? Will people delay the alert as they search for the “person in charge?” Who has the authority to commit personnel and resources and does that change during an evolving event? PROTOCOLS. Does the intruder protocol direct students to flee the school or to barricade within the classroom, or both? What should staff say as they communicate over 2-way radios? Who is responsible for grabbing “Go Bags” for students with medical needs? RESPONSE TIMES. How much time passed between someone becoming aware of an incident and the activation of the crisis notification. How much time passed for staff and students to evacuate the school or to get into their secured positions for intruders or storms? How much time passed between the 9-1-1 call and emergency responders arriving on scene and then entering the building or impacted area? MECHANICAL SYSTEMS. Assess the functioning of the PA, door locks and the software system that enables electronic messages to be sent to parents. If a door lock malfunctions, who is responsible for ensuring that it is repaired? STAGING ASSETS. Where did arriving responders put their equipment? Was that efficient throughout the response? How were additional resources staged, such as extra emergency responders from a neighboring community, or extra buses - were they brought on site, or kept somewhere else close by? Where might officials stage arriving parents (even if you did not ask them to come to the school). MAINTAINING THE PERIMETER. Who determines the perimeter, and how is that communicated to school officials, parents, and the public? How might we be proactive and direct parents to not rush to school during a crisis, or to rush to other schools? What if someone enters a perimeter? PARTICIPANTS AND OBSERVERS. Most people will be participants, but aim for up to 10 observers who will wear a high-vis vest to identify their role. They will monitor communications, orderly response, trauma features, and interactions between responders and recipients. ROLE PLAYERS. Consider a parent at the perimeter who wants to access the school. What did role players find helpful, or what was frustrating? HOT WASH. A Hotwash is a facilitated discussion to capture feedback about any issues, concerns or proposed improvements participants may have following an exercise, planned event or real-world incident. The hot wash is not intended to critique, grade success, or failure. COMMUNICATE FINDINGS OF THE EXERCISE. Dr. Perrodin notes that preliminary findings should be shared with staff, families, and the community within 72 hours. He also steps through a template to generate a 4-page report to the board of education including photos and quotes from participants. 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 196 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-29-2022. 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

More youth are participating in Esports - and it’s nothing like the trope stereotype of “gamer kids” isolated  in their basements, chomping on chips and sipping sodas while gaming online with other kids in similar grunge contexts. In this episode, Esports expert Mike Dahle will help to accurately inform us about school Esports, including how it’s in-person and team-centric, ways Esports hones skills for learning - from analytical problem solving to time management, and how Esports helps students consider STEM career paths. In fact, universities are providing scholarships for Esports athletes! ABOUT MIKE DAHLE. Mike Dahle is a Business Teacher at Elkhorn Area HS and President of the Wisconsin HS Esports Association, WIHSEA.org. He was a second-year teacher when he learned how far PC gaming had come since his younger gaming days when a student gave a presentation on the League of Legends World Championship. Ever since that presentation, his interest in esports has grown exponentially. He started one of the first state associations that has since grown to 125+ schools around the state, serves as a Board Member for the Milwaukee Esports Alliance, serves as a Board Member for the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance, and is constantly trying to push esports to the next level in the state of Wisconsin. WHAT DOES BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICY LOOK LIKE FOR ESPORTS. There isn’t a template for BOE policy for Esports. It’s often treated similar to other school clubs. Surprisingly, some districts have bypassed Esports due to the cartoonish guns in some of the games. It’s worth noting that high school trap shooting team numbers are at record highs in America. ARE ESPORTS INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM? Most games are team-based, and individual matches add into a team score. This happens in the game SUPER SMASH BROTHERS, for example. Think of it like batting order in baseball. Players are seeded so one school’s #5 player would compete against the #5 player from a different school. Esports can be played by teams within a state, but also between states. It depends upon how the league is structured. WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR ESPORTS? The top five popular titles are: Super Smash Bros, Rocket League, Fortnite, Valorant, and League of Legends. ARE ESPORTS ACCESSIBLE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES? Yes! There is much flexibility in accommodating Esport players as long as the accommodation doesn’t afford them an unfair competition edge. In Milwaukee, for example, a company designs adaptive controllers. A high-ranked quadriplegic player uses a mouth-held device to game. Esports also require minimal travel. Students typically only leave their district if they are participating in a state-level competition. 3D PRINTING AND ESPORTS. The 3D printing community collaborates through sites such as “Thingiverse” to create different or adapted controllers, and Microsoft offers several adaptive controllers. BENEFITS OF ESPORTS FOR STUDENTS. Gamers gain useful skills from participating in esports that help them on a broader learning journey. Analytical problem solving, time management, collaboration, and teamwork are key. Video games can also help to improve visual perception, enhance memory, and lead to better focus and attention. Some students who participate in Esports had previously not participated in other extracurricular activities. DO SCHOOLS GIVE CREDIT FOR ESPORTS. In most instances, students do not receive “credit” for participating in Esports. There is no curriculum approved by DPI to this point, although there is discussion to develop a curriculum. There is an inaugural INTRO to ESPORTS class at UW (Wis)-Parkside this year. Some Wisconsin schools, including: Random Lake, Racine, and Montello, award a patch for varsity. ARE ESPORTS PART OF TRADITIONAL STATE ATHLETIC ORGANIZATIONS? This varies by state. In Wisconsin, the WIAA and WIHSEA are separate entities and, at present, do not collaborate. Playfly (an Esports business) partners with high school state associations in Washington and Arizona to provide students with the infrastructure to compete and learn. HOW DO SCHOOLS FUND ESPORTS? Esports has a very small funding footprint. Coaches are either unpaid volunteers or receive stipends ranging from $400 to $5,000. Compensation for coaches and persons managing leagues is inconsistent across schools. Esports is generally under-funded when compared to compensation for coaches or people who oversee school clubs. Twitch channel and affiliate program generates $2.50 per subscriber. SPONSORS at the local level (Wisconsin) include: Spectrum Industries from Eau Claire, Bug Tussel Wireless, and Allstate insurance agents. Jolly Good Soda sponsors Random Lake. There are no state-level sponsors for Esports in Wisconsin. It is difficult for Esports groups to obtain a bank account or PayPal. Some schools host fundraiser invitationals. The “Extra Life” www.extra-life.org gaming marathon is a 24-hour charity event that raises money for children’s hospitals, including Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. It was held on November 5, 2022. POST HIGH SCHOOL OPPORTUNITIES AND CAREERS. There is a significant and growing collegiate scene for Esports with various organizers, including The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). Students might receive scholarships. Post-secondary institutions have dedicated facilities and faculty, and the universities that recognize Esports as a varsity level program enable players to compete for a national championship. In less formal settings, Esports might be thought of similar to intramural sports, or be student-run club level teams, like Rec Well or Student Life. Collegiate teams can compete in other leagues. Universities feature Esports as a recruitment tool. ESports might have a similar influence for K-12 open enrollment. Beyond gaming, players maximize Esports to develop their own business acumen - complete with social media marketing, analytics, coaching, blogs, analyzing competition film, networking, and IT infrastructure. Being an Esports player or working in an Esports league as an analyst, IT, etc., has parallels to an internship in marketing and IT. WHAT SHOULD PARENTS AND SCHOOL LEADERS KNOW ABOUT ESPORTS? Esports is broadly popular, but specifically offers opportunities for a school’s under-represented students. For some students, Esports is the only extracurricular activity they participated in during their school career. And there’s evidence to suggest that playing Esports improved student’s grades and attendance. Esports aligns with the CDC’s themes for School Connectedness. At Arrowhead Union High School (Wisconsin), 60-70 students stay after school on Fridays to play Esports. Parents drop off TVs and students even play under tables. Esport players are voluntarily participating in-person with their peers. They are not sitting at home in their basement. Esports participants learn play-by-play announcing, media coaching, post-game interviewing, and public speaking skills. Esports has helped students obtain scholarships. One student received a 60% scholarship. He was an athlete on the autism spectrum. “If you leverage this program correctly, you can do a ton with it.” The National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors works to serve, legitimize, and advance Esports at all levels  https://www.naecad.org/about-naecad. Mankato University (MN) presented at the NAECAD conference. It’s ranked as the top school for broadcasting. An Esport player's next step could be to form a broadcasting club, or to pursue a career in broadcasting - perhaps by attending Mankato University. MORE THINGS SCHOOLS SHOULD CONSIDER ABOUT ESPORTS. Some games include cartoon guns, a disqualifying feature per some school districts. Student data privacy is a concern. What is on the networks? Is there an in-game chat feature, and if so, how do we turn it off? The Esports launching software can present challenges. The games themselves are efficient, but the system to access the game can be buggy. Schools should create separate Esports logins on computers and also toggle settings so Esports can’t be accessed until after 2PM. Esports is inclusive, and also an equity-oriented activity. You don’t need expensive gear and to pay a sports fee to participate. You also don’t have to rent expensive facilities. Esports increase opportunities for students both as players as well as other niche roles, such as announcing, communications, web design, and IT. There isn’t a Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) prohibition clause in Esports. Although it is rare, a high school Esports player could enter into paid sponsorship deals - and by doing so, wouldn’t have to forfeit their eligibility to play Esports. Esports can be included in the school district’s DPI 5-year Pupil Nondiscrimination report as increasing extracurricular opportunities for students. It is particularly inclusive for students with disabilities or students without the financial means to participate in activities that have higher barriers to entry for personal equipment costs, facility rentals, and participation fees. Esports teams can consist of a mixed-gender roster. Consider formal club recognition for Esports to facilitate a funding account in your school district’s fiscal chart of accounts. 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 195 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2022. 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

The Safety Doc welcomes attorney Lisa Linney back to show! Lisa was the guest on episode 157 and discussed the complex factors in play when parents sued school districts over masking or remote learning during the pandemic. In this show, she helps us understand the ‘law of necessity,’ or breaking a law or laws for an anticipated greater good. For example, what if you had to trespass in order to save someone from drowning? Lisa will also navigate the intersection of the ‘law of necessity’ and the civil-immunity granting Good Samaritan laws. How might the government better educate citizens about these types of laws? Should there be a “Good Samaritan Day?” Lisa discusses these issues on the show, but this discussion is not intended to be legal advice.  ABOUT LISA LINNEY. Lisa Linney is a Texas attorney with over ten years of litigation experience. In the past year, she has focused on research and writing for litigation and transactional matters. She works from her home in Houston with her nine cats. It’s a long story. IS IT OK TO TRESPASS WHEN SEARCHING FOR A LOST PERSON? The initial person in charge of a search might not be from law enforcement or the fire department. It might be a school principal or the shift supervisor at an assisted living center. Especially in rural areas, several minutes might pass before emergency responders arrive on scene. Is it OK to trespass if searching for a lost person? To answer this, we need to become familiar with the "Law of Necessity." This is a legal defense in both common and criminal law. The 'necessity' definition in law is a defense that arises when a person is forced to break the law in an emergency situation to prevent a greater harm from occurring. If a child with autism is lost and wandering near a river, it is presumed that a 'reasonable' person would believe that harm or death might be a reasonably-expected outcome. The trespass, in this situation, would be of much greater societal value than a mere property trespass is detrimental. While this response is not legal advice and there's no way of determining how a fact finder would interpret one's application of the 'Law of Necessity,' it is essential that persons with discretion and ability to commit assets to a rescue effort not be hamstrung by the 'what-ifs' consequences of inaction. LAW OF NECESSITY. Necessity has been around for a very long time in common law. Most states also have statutes that address necessity as an available affirmative defense. It is a common defense in property law regarding trespass, but it is also present in criminal law as well. An affirmative defense must be brought up by the defendant and proven by the defendant, in order for it to apply. If it is successful, it becomes a complete defense to the crime and the defendant cannot be charged. Necessity is a defense that sometimes precludes liability for breaking a law, if it is more advantageous to society to do so. WHAT THE COURTS LOOK AT. “The courts do not look at the person's, who is acting, state of mind, but what the value of their actions are to society. The defendant is not arguing that they did not commit the crime, but that it was necessary to avoid a greater harm. Is it better to commit a trespass to save a life? Normally, the answer is yes (Cull, 2022)” Per attorney Lisa Linney, the following areas might help school leaders to better understand the elements of a Necessity Defense: (1) The elements of the tort of “intentional trespass to real property,” which is what a plaintiff has to prove. (2) Defenses: in Texas, some of the defenses are statute of limitations, immunity (not available for employees), plaintiff’s fault, consent to enter, and privilege to enter (Necessity Defense concept). (3) Damages available to a plaintiff. (4) Cost-benefit analysis, and (5) Liability if the searcher is injured while on private property. GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS. Good Samaritan laws are similar to the concept of the Necessity Defense. Good Samaritan Laws are in all states, but they vary from state to state. But, the contexts of “scene of emergency or accident” or “emergency care” are often noted in states’ Good Samaritan laws. In Wisconsin, under current law, any person who renders emergency care at the scene of any emergency or accident in good faith is immune from civil liability for the person’s acts or omissions in rendering such emergency care. [s. 895.48 (1), Stats.] Known as the “Good Samaritan” law, the provision encourages members of the public to aid others who need prompt emergency care, without fear of being sued. REFERENCES. Cull, Traci. (2022). Necessity Defense in Law - Elements, Definition, and Examples. 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 194 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-15-2022. 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  

Can I make a citizen’s arrest? What are the implications of taking matters into your own hands? How might you defend your decision to a judge or jury? The Safety Doc welcomes the Legalman to this episode to address those questions and to delve into the Legalman’s perspectives, juries, voting, political propaganda, and government overreach. ABOUT THE LEGALMAN. Legalman’s website states, “Forget left v right. This is the truth about the system from a man who knows. The Quash (podcast) is hosted by a lawyer with 30 years of experience. He unmasks the absurd false narratives we've been immersed in 24/7 since birth and laughs at them. There's a reason nothing about the system ever makes any sense. You've been lied to your whole life. But that ends now. Learn more at https://the-quash.captivate.fm/   CAN I MAKE A CITIZEN’S ARREST? Per the Village of Bayside, Wisconsin website, “Wisconsin doesn’t actually have a specific statute regarding citizen’s arrests, but such arrests are covered by common law or judge-made law. Those laws allow citizens to make arrests under one of two conditions. The first is when a citizen has probable cause to believe that the person they are arresting has committed a felony. The second is when someone witnesses a misdemeanor and the misdemeanor is a breach of the peace. Generally, we don’t advise making citizen’s arrests. We do advise calling police and staying on the scene if it’s safe, but safety is paramount. If someone is wielding a knife or attacking someone, he or she may just as easily attack you. Some exceptions apply, particularly when the perpetrator is going to flee. For example, if you see a child being kidnapped and can block the kidnapper’s car from getting away with the child, it may be worth the risk. In addition to safety concerns, you also face legal risks when making a citizen’s arrest. The Fourth Amendment restricts unreasonable searches and seizures, and you could be prosecuted for depriving someone of their constitutional rights. You could also face a civil lawsuit for false imprisonment, assault, or battery.” JURY TRIAL - THE LAST BASTION OF HOPE? In episode #43 of The Quash, the Legalman explains how the jury trial is a piece of the political structure of this country. How has the jury American trial changed over time, and what obstacles are between a citizen and impartial legal due process? What are the differences between what most people perceive as impartial justice and actual court-delivered “justice” as observed by a lawyer with 3 decades of experience? FULLY INFORMED JURY ASSOCIATION. Legalman urged people to increase their knowledge about jury trials, noting that, as an example, learning from Fully Informed Jury Association, www.fija.org might empower jurors’ awareness of their right to refuse unjust law. As stated on FIJA’s website, “We will be looking at numerous aspects indicative of the health or lack thereof of jury systems nationwide. We will evaluate the rules as officially spelled out, as well as their functionality in practice, of juries at the federal level, in all fifty states, and in Washington, D.C. with respect to each of these jury health indicators.” People can subscribe, at no cost, to obtain emails from FIJA centering on what’s happening in and around their community.  HOBBES’ LEVIATHAN. Government overreach is a theme in The Quash podcasts, and it was also depicted in Doc’s book, School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America. Doc wrote about the Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) and the social contract. Hobbes’ premise was that people functioned optimally with some basic level of a “sovereign” to facilitate order. But, Hobbes also opined that it was predictable human nature that the governed would progressively surrender their rights (and freedoms) in exchange for progressively more control from the government. Or, the people in power would be unwilling to relinquish it. “To Hobbes, people are plagued by these two forces: the desire for power and everyone else’s annoying desire for power. Everyone would be all for power struggles if they could just concentrate on conniving, but watching your back is a pain in the neck (it would be centuries before Sartre sputtered that “hell is other people,” but surely this is a precursor). A few people enjoy constant drama, but most would rather be left alone if they can’t have all the pie. Therefore, power tends to coalesce into a formal government because most people can’t be bothered to micromanage their power relationships to everyone and everything around them—they would rather outsource that headache, thank you very much (School of Errors, 2019).” 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 193 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-11-2022. 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

In May 2022, Wisconsin legislators Robin Vos and Kevin Nicholson conveyed that they were open to the idea of arming teachers. Wisconsin isn’t a state that embraces the practice of school staff carrying firearms, but that makes it an exception to the norm. Per usconcealedcarry.com, 32 states allow teachers and staff to “effectively protect children with concealed carry of a firearm.” What are the variables to consider when making the decision to arm school staff? When we think about guns and schools, we might overlook the growing sport of high school trap shooting. What are the benefits of high school clay target shooting teams? In Wisconsin, more than 85 high school teams feature with more than 2,000 student athletes competing in clay target leagues. This show’s guest is a long-range, pistol, and 3-gun firearms shooter who has competed on national-level circuits for 15 years and coaches youth interested in competitive shooting. Joining us from the rolling hills of Kentucky to unpack these questions is Bending Ballistics. ARMING TEACHERS. The matter of teachers carrying guns in school is multifaceted, including culture, safety, training, and liability. A popular argument supporting this position is that armed staff would be able to immediately confront an armed intruder. Most school shootings concluded in under 10 minutes, and for some schools - especially in rural areas, police might be 20 minutes away. The loudest opposition to arming educators is that arming staff sends a stark message that schools are no longer “safe” places. By arming staff, the school is implicitly expecting an armed intruder. Second, in a moment of extreme duress and confusion, it’s unrealistic for a teacher to be expected to transform into a specially trained law enforcement officer. What if a teacher shoots an innocent student by mistake? BENDING BALLISTIC’S THOUGHTS ON ARMING TEACHERS. He doesn’t think teachers should carry at school. Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) respond to an active shooter situation seeking the individual with a firearm. What happens when an LEO enters an active shooter call to a school and happens upon an armed teacher running around a hallway corner? Another consideration is a local LEO deputizing staff, which might require them to complete specific firearms training and competencies. That includes range time, classroom studies, and figuring out school policies and procedures for carrying and using a firearm in a school. Who pays for ongoing training? While Bending Ballistic feels this is an OK idea, it would also place a burden on the local LEO - which is running tight on staff and budget. BENDING BALLISTICS ATTENDED A SCHOOL WITH 4 SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS AND PRIVATE SECURITY. Despite that high level of overt security, Bending Ballistic noted that his school was “pretty violent.” Is adding more security personnel an answer to violence prevention and safer schools? HIGH SCHOOL CLAY TARGET LEAGUES. From wiclaytarget.com, “The USA High School Clay Target League is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is an independent provider of shooting sports as an extracurricular co-ed and adaptive activity for high schools and students in grades 6 through 12. The organization’s priorities are safety, fun, and marksmanship – in that order. The League attracts student athletes that have earned their firearm safety certification to participate in shooting sports while creating a “virtual” competition among high school teams at no cost to the schools. Family travel costs are minimal because practice and competition are conducted at a shooting range near the school’s location. The league is also the safest sport in high school, with no reported injuries since the inception of the League in 2001. BENDING BALLISTICS COACHES YOUTH ON SHOOTING SPORTS. From teaching the safe handling of firearms to the rules and strategy of shooting sports, Bending Ballistics has observed youth increase their confidence and skills - setting and achieving goals. Some receive college scholarships. ZERO TOLERANCE SCHOOLS AND CLAY TARGET LEAGUES. Doc noted that a barrier to schools having Esports teams was that a character using a cartoonish gun or inflicting violence, as in Super Smash Brothers, violated the district’s zero tolerance policy for firearms or violence. Have clay target teams been denied due to similar interpretations of school policies? Doc shared that his school district has a trap shooting team and he doesn’t feel that it contradicts a safe school environment. IMAGES: Avatar and target provided by Bending Ballistics. Target sights #28139 by Clker-Free-Vector-Images / 29539 Free for commercial use, no attribution required 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 192 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-29-2022. 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

Presenting on PBS TV entails luck, months of preparation, and confidence. Entrusted as a topic ambassador sets forth high expectations - not to mention standing before a live audience. I delivered two school safety presentations on PBS TV: School Safety in America: Rhetoric vs Reality (2019) and School Security and Crisis Preparedness (2013). In this episode, I will explain how I received an offer to present on PBS; show preparation; things that happen the day of the broadcast; giving the presentation - including the techy podium; rules and tips for a successful televised show; what happens immediately following the show - it’s not what you might think; what PBS does with the presentation - from close-captioning to syndication; and how people around the nation responded to me in days and even years after I was TV. HOW TO GET AN OFFER TO PRESENT ON PBS. I was a school administrator on December 14, 2012. That was the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. It was a watershed moment in school shootings due to the young age of the students. Media coverage swarmed to the community of Newtown, Connecticut, and wagged microphones at anyone who would speak. After that adrenalized day, parents and educators sought empirical guidance on school safety. There wasn’t a clearinghouse presentation - an impartial expert attempting to frame, in layman’s language, the phenomena of school security and how and why schools prepare for crisis situations - what are the ingredients to their plans and are we as powerless to interrupt disasters as was implied by the media. So, I contacted my local PBS affiliate, pitched the idea of a school safety special, and the folks in charge issued the green light. I would assemble and deliver PBS’s first school safety special. SHOW PREP. Where to begin, right? My show was scheduled for May so I had roughly 5 months to craft my presentation. I spent hundreds of hours developing outlines, PowerPoint slides, rehearsing, and having member checks evaluate my content and delivery. I also contacted parents of children killed or injured in acts of school violence. My presentation would be tight and punchy, but I had to read the room. I would not stir grieving parents. Instead, they served as member checks, to point to the line in the sand. The show wasn’t about the students, teachers or parents - but they were all wedded to the topic. DAY OF THE SHOW. I arrived 3 hours before air time. Phase one is acclimating to the studio and receiving coaching on the various knobs, screens, and lights on the massive podium. Next, I signed waivers. Then it was time for the dry run in an empty hall. Other than sound checks, I spoke softly to preserve my voice. Some last-minute adjustments to font sizes, too. About 30 minutes before the show, the doors opened and people claimed seats. I made small talk with the host and the presentation was locked from future changes. THE PRESENTATION - RULES & TIPS. Stay behind the podium and look at the real-time display embedded in the lectern to track your presentation. It was OK to periodically step left of the podium. It was never appropriate to look over your shoulder and point to the big screen in front of the audience. That might mess up the camera crew and the people at home were fed from different angles from the person in the third row. Watch the timer on the podium, colored lights up in the booth, and friends in the audience strategically placed to cue me on time markers. Hitting the allotted time was not only necessary, but going long would limit the ability for syndication. 60 minutes. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SHOW | NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK! The end of the show isn’t the actual end of the show. Off camera, the presenter answers questions from the audience and this can go on for an hour or more. I even went out for an impromptu late supper with audience members! DOES PBS RERUN THE PRESENTATION? Yes. After the live presentation, PBS edits, closed-captions, and submits the show for a TV Parental Guidelines rating. The presentation is then premiered and available for syndication by affiliate networks. My shows continue to air on PBS stations - especially following a sentinel school safety event. In addition, the shows are available to view at no cost at PBS.com. RESPONSES TO MY PRESENTATIONS. People have emailed, called, and met me in person to share their thoughts about my shows. School leaders, board of education members, and school safety directors convey that the content validates their efforts toward sensible school safety. Parents share personal stories. Others inform me of their research and lines of inquiry, such as a relationship between food additives and violence. 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 191 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-19-2022. 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

What motivates people to seek and maintain fitness and wellness? How do expectations for fitness and wellness differ for younger people and older people? Do chaotic events, such as a pandemic or health scare, catapult people toward action to increase fitness and wellness? What feedback or rewards help people to stay motivated and act in ways to promote fitness and wellness? In this show, fitness professional Megan Usui helped us to understand and find answers to those questions. In addition, Megan and David time travel to March of 2020 to inform a hypothetical national fitness campaign. ABOUT MEGAN USUI. Megan Usui has worked as a fitness director, personal trainer, weight loss coach, gym designer and group fitness instructor at health clubs, weight loss and biofeedback centers in California, New York, Virginia and Washington State, including the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. WHAT MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO SEEK AND MAINTAIN FITNESS AND WELLNESS? Megan begins by asking, “How can I help you?” She also guides people to define the concept of “fit.” Most of her clients aren’t seeking to improve their time running a mile. Megan educates clients about better eating habits. What are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats? She made a color-coded food type and portion wheel for her sons. HOW DO EXPECTATIONS FOR FITNESS AND WELLNESS VARY FOR PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT AGES? Megan shares that BOOMERS want to do basic things like get down on the floor and play with their grandkids or walk up the driveway without huffing. Megan talked about “Silver Sneakers,” a program available from Medicare at no cost for adults age 65+ and honored by most gyms. GEN X wants to stay active. These are people in their 40s or early 50s and want to look better and keep up with their now-in-their-20s children. MILLENNIALS tend to plug into whatever app or fitness equipment is available to them. They buy expensive Peloton bikes and are happy to stay at home. TEENS associated fitness with ‘coolness,’ although that doesn’t seem to be true today. Megan shared that frustrated parents come to her asking for ways to get their screen-addicted kids out of their rooms. Teens are interested in their virtual presence. DO CHAOTIC EVENTS, SUCH AS A PANDEMIC OR HEALTH SCARE, CATAPULT PEOPLE TOWARD ACTION TO INCREASE FITNESS AND WELLNESS? At the onset of the pandemic, some people hid under a blanket when their gym closed. Other people bought all the fitness equipment that they could. Are we a fighter? Or, are we someone that flees? Surprisingly, chaotic events don’t motivate the populace toward fitness. WHAT FEEDBACK OR REWARDS HELP PEOPLE TO KEEP MOTIVATED AND ACT IN WAYS TO PROMOTE FITNESS AND WELLNESS? As for FitBits, wearables, and online fitness leaderboards, Megan believes those appeal to some people, but are incomplete. And, who are you accountable to? An app? So, they might get 10,000 steps a day, but are they improving their overall health? And, individual rewards mean more than a mass-produced fitness patch. FITNESS AND FORTITUDE CAMPAIGN. How might the American government introduce a civilian fitness program designed to encourage people of all ages and abilities to improve their health and fitness through formal physical exercise training and other wellness activities? What was possible in March and April of 2020? (The following excerpt is from ‘The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times’ (2022). “We know fitness and nutrition are good for everyone, for all living creatures. Not just good for the body, but good for the mind. [T]he COVID-19 fitness research was falling into place, too. In a July 2020 study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, researchers wrote, ‘The practice of physical activities strengthens the immune system, suggesting a benefit in the response to viral communicable diseases. Thus, regular practice of adequate intensity is suggested as an auxiliary tool in strengthening and preparing the immune system for COVID-19.’” Megan noted that music is a motivator in group exercises. She suggested that a contemporary national fitness campaign might be similar to the 1985 charity song “We Are the World” that was played around the globe with a message to prompt the listener to make a decision to give support and save others’ lives (famine) because in doing that, they are indirectly saving the whole human race. Recording artists, celebrities, and influencers could partner with Nike for a “Just Do It” type of song about moving and in that song, demonstrate squat, push, pull. Merely listening to the song might evoke some volitional muscle contractions! The tune could be called “The Pandemic Shuffle.” 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 190 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-12-2022. 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

The start of the 2022-2023 school year has been marred by a flurry of swatting-type threats targeting schools across the nation. A swatting threat is when someone, perhaps a thousand miles away, contacts law enforcement and makes a false report that an active shooter is on a school campus. In Minnesota, police responded to swatting reports at 14 different school districts on September 21st. In this episode, we will define swatting, identify its origins, examine the impacts on schools and communities, and measures being taken, or being considered, to reduce swatting. WHAT IS SWATTING? Per the Seattle Police Department, “Swatting is a crime. For those unfamiliar with the term, swatting is the act of creating a hoax 911 call typically involving hostages, gunfire, or other acts of extreme violence, with the goal of diverting emergency public safety resources to an unsuspecting person's residence. It is a deliberate and malicious act that creates an environment of fear and unnecessary risk, and in some cases, has led to loss of life.” Swatting is most recognizable in the online video game communities or online broadcasting. As of April, 2022, popular Youtuber Tim Pool has been swatted 8 times during his live-streamed politically-themed shows. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SWATTING? Swatting has been around for decades. It wasn’t particularly common and was carried out with landline phones or pay phones. But with the implementation of the 9-1-1 emergency number, advances in cellular phone, “burner phones,” and online technology, along with social media, swatting is becoming more sophisticated and happening more frequently than any time in history. “In June 2009, a blind 19-year-old hacker named Matthew Wegman was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of computer intrusion and witness intimidation. The FBI first began investigating the teen after a 2005 swatting incident in which Wegman staged a hostage hoax, sending police to the home of a woman who had refused the teen hacker’s request for phone sex” (SOURCE: Kayla Kibbe, Inside Hook, March 30, 2019.) In 2017, a fatal swatting incident occurred in Wichita, Kansas, when Shane Gaskill was shot and killed by police after exiting his swatted-upon house. The motive was revenge swatting due to a disagreement in the online video game Call of Duty. In many cases, however, it is difficult to determine who placed the swatting call.  IMPACT OF SWATTING ON SCHOOLS. Per Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, “[School swatting] has become much more common in the past five years. These incidents not only instill fear and panic throughout school communities, they are very costly in first responder manpower, time, and taxpayer dollars. Sadly, they pull away first responder manpower resources needed for credible emergencies elsewhere in local communities (Trump, 2021)” The trauma impact of students, staff, parents, and communities is also palpable and might have lasting effects. HOW TO STOP SWATTING - REGISTRY LISTS AND LAWS. There is no clear path to a solution for swatting. For persons or locations that are frequently the target of swatting, some local law enforcement will create a registry where residents concerned about swatting can communicate those concerns to their local 911 Center. However, this doesn’t mean that the response will be delayed or carried out with lesser resources. The other route is anti-swatting legislation and stronger consequences for persons convicted of swatting. State Representative Kevin Miller (Ohio) is an author of House Bill 462, which would make “swatting” a felony. He says right now, there is nothing on the books that specifically addresses "swatting." Under the bill, if someone is convicted, the person could face prison time, as well as fines and restitution. In Colorado, a 2018 law penalizes hoax 911 calls. “If you make a swatting call, the penalties are similar to third-degree assault,” said state Sen. Jeff Bridges, a sponsor of the 2018 measure. “And the thing is, if someone is hurt in the process, that increases to a [class 4] felony. If someone is killed, It increases to a felony in the third degree.” IMAGE CREDIT. Police car image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-anke. Image 1889057 on Pixabay. Pixabay license free for commercial use and no attribution required. 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 189 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-04-2022. 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

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

On May 2, 2016, I confidently marched into the Education Building at UW-Madison expecting, in a few short hours, I would be high-stepping Bascom Hill as “Dr. Perrodin.” That day didn’t go as planned. In fact, my priest was in attendance (per my invitation), and he even brought lunch and snacks for the dissertation committee members. Despite [mostly] following the pomp and circumstance protocol, the committee failed me. In this episode, I’ll explain the doctoral dissertation process and how to bounce back from an unexpected big-stage defeat. WHAT IS A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION? The dissertation is the student’s final task to obtain a doctoral degree. It’s a lengthy piece of scholarly writing that is the product of extensive original research and results in an original contribution to the field. My dissertation was 167 double-spaced pages and took me about a year to complete - beginning with a research proposal and culminating with (eventually) a successful “defense” of my work. It’s worth noting that 50% of all doctoral students never complete the dissertation. If they complete all other requirements, these folks are considered ABD (All But Dissertation). It’s something you might see on a resume, but there is no diploma for ABD. WHAT WAS MY DISSERTATION ABOUT? My dissertation’s title was ‘How Educational Administrators Prepare Schools For High-Stakes Safety Situations: A Focus On Elementary Schools In Rural and Suburban Contexts.’ I had already established myself as a national safety expert, having presented a special on PBS in 2013. I wanted my dissertation to be rigorous and add value to my worth as a school safety expert. WHAT DID I LEARN? The first thing I learned was to contact the “experts” and “sources” directly whenever possible. What I mean by that is most student-researchers have a tendency to merely cite the work of others. My dissertation included more than 100 citations. (By comparison, there are 471 citations in my (2022) book, ‘The Velocity of Information’). Beyond just citing experts, my advisor encouraged me to contact them directly and ask them specific questions about their findings. That worked, and was a pivotal moment in my budding research and writing endeavors. Whenever possible, I go directly to the source. The second thing that I learned was that people in roles that require high-stakes decision making fatigue from unrelenting high-stakes decision making. They don’t immediately bounce back.There’s degrees of elasticity in decision making recovery. One principal admitted that following a high-stakes decision about student or school safety, he was exhausted - as most decisions involved drama. He speculated that it took him a few days to return to baseline. DEFENDING THE DISSERTATION - A BIT LIKE SHARK TANK. The dissertation defense is similar to the TV show Shark Tank. You have 15-20 PowerPoint slides and up to an hour to showcase your research methods, findings, and how your work contributed to the overall scholarly knowledge base. It’s tense. Expect probing questions and challenges. My dissertation was held in a classroom with my advisor and four committee members - other professors at the University that I had invited to serve on my committee. It’s typical to invite one or two people for support. I invited my priest - and he brought a meal and snacks for the committee members! The food part is also oddly common (and expected) for a defense. That part has an awkward feel to it. Also, professors or students might sit in on the defense. I attended a few defenses prior to my own in order to learn the expectations and settle myself by watching the student referred to as “doctor” as they shook hands and walked head-held-high out of the room. WHY DID THE COMMITTEE FAIL YOU? To be clear, I was prepared and my advisor didn’t anticipate any stumbling blocks from the committee members. But, 10 minutes into my defense, a committee member shut it down. I made a critical mistake. I veered from my presentation and centered on timely, local school safety decision-making situations in order to (I thought) establish firm groundwork to justify the importance of my study. Even with that breach of protocol, my advisor was shocked, my priest prepared last rites, and I was miffed at the committee. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FAIL? My advisor met with the committee members. I adjusted my presentation and dissertation. But, I wasn’t required to defend it a second time. The committee members signed off, and I walked the signed ‘warrant’ to the Old Main - becoming, without fanfare, Dr. Perrodin. I have zero regrets about pursuing and obtaining my PhD. I learned research methods subsequently applied in two published books. 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 187 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-20-2022. 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

Guest Graham Wilson is a former Chief Flight Instructor and Pilot Examiner in Windsor, Ontario. He has worked as a machinist and served on a school board. Graham produces aviation-themed content for his ‘Superpilotish’ YouTube channel and website superpilotish.com. In this interview, Graham, a from-real-experiences storyteller, talks about decision making for pilots, including ‘The DECIDE Model’; non-punitive mistake reporting; obvious or nuanced risks pilots encounter during flying (including toilet paper in the fuel tank); and benefits and drawbacks of at-home flight simulator software for aspiring pilots. THE DECIDE MODEL. DECIDE is an acronym from flight literacy training. It is a six-step risk management loop process, similar to simulated annealing, that provides the pilot with a logical way of making decisions during atypical situations. DETECT that a change has occurred. This requires the pilot to exercise situational awareness and baseline awareness. ESTIMATE the need to counter or react. A blinking dash light might only require that it be noted for further scrutiny after landing. CHOOSE the desired outcome. This might be to return to the airport. IDENTIFY actions to control the change. Review emergency checklists, which might be “turn things off and then turn them back again,” and then communicate the problem to the airport. DO (perform) the action. The tower might ask if you want to declare an emergency. If you do, the tower will give you priority to land and might send out emergency services. As Graham reminds us, always be communicating your observations and actions to others. There is a tendency during a crisis for people to not talk while they act. Pilots are taught to describe their actions as they do or plan them, but this isn’t inherent to non-pilots facing uncertainty. EVALUATE the success of the action. NON-PUNITIVE MISTAKE REPORTING. Graham underscores that pilots applying their professional discretion to report a mistake will not encounter blowback of blame or shame. Measuring information-sharing won’t dig to the root causes. Why did the failure occur? Did a part fail? Did software fail? Is there a flaw in a larger system? Should there be more or different training? If it was a mistake by the pilot, what contributed to that mistake and what redundancies might be put in place to account for it. Focus on a better system and you’re working together. Graham adds that a pilot won’t be billed for the airport’s emergency services. Doc noted that billing for emergency services is common in America, from search and rescue to firefighting, and that some people refuse emergency care in anticipation of huge bills. DUMB DESIGN OF WWII PLANES. Cliff Kuang (2019) wrote an article for WIRED in which he described how WWII pilots were blamed for crashing their B-17 Flying Fortresses. In one instance, a confused pilot jumped into a new plane during a bombing raid to find the instruments completely re-arranged. He managed to dart around the runway until the attack was over. However, the true cause of many of the pilot-attributed crashes was actually due to the design of the plane, or “designer error.” “The reason why all those pilots were crashing when their B-17s were easing into a landing was that the flaps and landing gear controls looked exactly the same and felt exactly the same." The ingenious solution was to create a system of distinctively shaped knobs and levers that made it easy to distinguish all the controls of the plane merely by feel, so that there’s no chance of confusion even if you’re flying in the dark. And, it worked! BIGGEST RISK TO A PILOT. The top risk is running out of fuel, with adverse weather being a close second. But, using a cheaper fuel, such as an 89 octane with 10% ethanol, might be a subtle risk to a pilot. Depending upon how long the fuel has been in the tank, it might begin to absorb moisture and also congeal. This could impair the plane’s fuel system during flight. Ego is also a risk. There’s no shame in getting cleared for takeoff and then aborting the flight as you stare at a dark storm cloud beyond the runway. Flight instructors will model this practice of confident decision making. It’s the primacy effect. The first time the student sees the instructor cancel a flight due to iffy weather, for example, is something that is burned into the student’s brain. AT-HOME SIMULATOR SOFTWARE - IS IT GOOD? Graham fields these questions often from aspiring pilots. He notes that such programs fuel students' enthusiasm for flying and can help them with an early grasp of terminology and some basic operations of the plane. However, any simulators will not prepare a student to fly a plane. 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 186 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-13-2022. 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

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  

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 

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