Issue 6 | Volume 4 | 2015
DIVE
FOCUS TOPIC - FACULTY TRAINING
DEEP
At the Stafford School in suburban Chicago, teachers and students enjoy close relationships. It has always been the school’s mission to support learning through appropriate opportunities for meaningful connectivity. Emma was 14 when she met her first 'boyfriend'. The problem was that her boyfriend was also her geometry teacher, Mr. Wyncote. He – in his 30s – bought her presents, picked her up in his car, told her he loved her. It all started in an extra help session after school. Emma and her teacher would meet in his classroom to review the work of the day or prepare for an upcoming test. Her parents encouraged Emma to seek out the teacher and offered to pay him extra for tutoring. More than once, the math department chair told Mr. Wyncote to keep the door to his classroom open when tutoring students. The school has a policy that teachers cannot be paid for tutoring their own students. The two of them met a few times per week. On at least three occasions, Emma could not get a ride home from her parents and the teacher drove her. The school does not have a policy prohibiting the teachers from driving students in their own cars. The parents asked Mr. Wyncote if it would be easier to tutor Emma on the weekends and he, a single man, asked if she could be dropped of at his home on a few Saturday mornings. The school does not have a policy regarding teachers hosting students in their homes. More than once, Emma and Mr. Wyncote engaged in sexual activity. They spent extra time together (recess, lunch) during the class day - always with the door closed. At this point there were rumors around school and another teacher in the department told the Head of School that “something was not right between this student and teacher, but he has no evidence that an inappropriate relationship was taking place. The Head of School spoke with Mr. Wyncote about the rumors and Mr. Wyncote denied any bad behavior. He did agree to no longer tutor the student after school or drive her home. The Head of School did not know about the weekend study sessions. Later that week, Mr. Wyncote told Emma that they had to stop and he could no longer meet with her. Emma told her best friend, Sally, about the relationship. Sally immediately told the guidance counselor who tried to have a conversation with Emma herself. No attempt was made to communicate with the parents. After a very difficult session, the guidance counselor asked Emma to speak with the Head of School.
WEEK 4
SPOTLIGHT TOPIC - STUDENT TRAVEL
Do Your Students Know What To Do? This entry was posted on February 12, 2019 by School Health. You work each day to keep students healthy as they receive an education and prepare for future life. But what about preparing them to save a life during a cardiac emergency? Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in school affects 7,000 students annually. iswarning before SCA strikes and is witnessed 50% of the
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS What "hot button" issues relate to faculty training? What changes in policy could have been made to address these issues? What could have been prevented by better communication and planning?
Preparation is all about training and practice. The list below highlights areas for regular faculty, staff, and even student training. We have given you links to providers in the following areas. Armed Assailant and Lockdown (ALICE Training) Evacuation Drills Fire Safety Drills including Fire Extinguisher Training Chemicals and Hazardous Materials Safety Talk with Students (Big Back Pack) Medical Emergencies - First Aid/CPR, Accident and Injury (Red Cross) Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Training (Darkness to Light) Weather and Natural Disasters
The scenarios in this case study are based on real-life situations that have occurred in multiple schools over time. They are representative of the types of challenging situations that schools routinely face. Any similarity to actual schools or individuals of the same or similar names is purely coincidental.
The school’s policy is that any reports to the authorities can only be made by the Head of School himself and that any suspicion of child sexual abuse must be investigated directly by his office. Emma refused to speak about it with anyone else and no report was ever made to social services or law enforcement. Emma did not return to the Stafford School the next year and Mr. Wyncote still teaches there today. The school’s policy about child sexual abuse and mandated reporting has not changed.
April Topic Announced - Crisis Management This coming month we will be diving into the complex and delicate topic of Crisis Management, the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. From communication, to fostering a law enforcement relationship, and through the important issue of threat assessment, April will be a busy month. The Intro and Self-Assessment videos will be open on Sunday, March 31st.
1. There is no warning before SCA strikes and is witnessed 50% of the time. 2 High-quality CPR and an automated external defibrillator (AED) are a victims best chance of survival. When a victim collapses from SCA, you have three minutes to begin CPR and apply an AED. Every minute of delayed defibrillation leads to a 10% decrease in the survival of the victim. 3 When time is of the essence, is your school prepared to respond? Follow these steps to help a victim of SCA. And most importantly, don’t panic. 1. Check the area for safety. Before beginning treatment to the victim assess the scene for safety. Make sure you put yourself in the best position to help the victim. You do not want to put yourself in danger and become a victim yourself. 2. Check for responsiveness and call for help.Once you’ve determined the scene is safe, check the victim for responsiveness by asking, “Are you okay?”. Scan the victim to see if they are breathing and if a pulse is present. If the victim is unresponsive, ask someone to call 911 and get an AED. Next begin CPR. 3. Apply proper chest compressions.Chest compressions at the proper rate of 100 to 120 beats per minute at a depth of 2 to 2.4 inches are critical to move blood out of the heart and to the vital organs. Try to avoid leaning on the chest and minimize any pause between compressions. High-quality CPR is critical to ensure the survival of the victim. 4. Follow the AED prompts. When the AED arrives, turn it on, attached the pads to the victims bare chest, and follow the prompts. Make sure not to touch the patient while the AED analyzes the victim’s heartrate. If the AED advises a shock, make sure to stand clear until the shock is delivered. If the victim remains unresponsive, resume CPR until emergency responders arrive. Download this poster with step-by-step guidance on assisting SCA. victims and help your school be prepared to respond to an SCA emergency.
As part of this month's self assessment, we gave you some questions to think about. We want to reintroduce you to ten areas to ponder as you continue to put your people first as the most important element of keeping your school safe and more secure. Do you require any critically necessary training prior to the start of every school year or on a regular schedule? How frequently do you specifically address sexual harassment with your faculty and staff? Does preventing sexual harassment awareness receive the same attention that school-wide safety drills garner? How thorough are your orientation and onboarding programs? Does your school have a well-defined, team-oriented, multi-staged hiring process? How thorough are your screening practices for prospective new employees? Do they include a social media scan and a “deep web search?” Do you use any sort of personality profile or assessment tool as part of your hiring practices? How committed are you to obtaining references by phone for all new hires? Does your background checking process include criminal, civil, credit, and sexual offender searches. When was the last time you had your employment contracts reviewed by an attorney?
www.mandellonsafetyandsecurity.com
In my last year as Head of School, one of our alumni fell to the ground during a basketball workout and exhibited heart failure. Immediately after the incident, I received a call from our guidance director, who along with two of our coaches, had used the AED in response. In short, all three adults in the gym were trained in appropriate first aid/cpr. The young man survived thanks to having our people armed with the skills and confidence to respond. (Read the Story Here) Emergencies do not happen on our time frame. The only way to be ready to act is simple - train them all. In years of writing and rewriting crisis manuals, it bothered me that we maintained a small ongoing list of people on staff that had proper training in this area. Over time, we obtained additional AEDs (thanks to our athletic booster club) and most importantly, developed a plan to train everyone (or as many people as we could) in a Red Cross-based program. Like many things, at first, it seemed a titanic and very costly undertaking. However, thanks to the vision of our athletic trainer and school nurse, we learned that they could, in fact, become trainers themselves and tackle the problem of not having enough people ready to respond. There are so many lessons to be learned from that experience: 1) Train ‘Em All - No matter the challenge or numbers, find a way to implement a training program with that one lofty goal. Risks and threats do not ask permission to occur. Have your school properly prepared by having everyone ready. You would not train a few teachers in armed intruder response protocols or what to do in a fire drill, why cut corners in these other critical areas? 2) Train the Trainer - If we had not invested in our in-campus personnel to serve as trainers themselves, we would not have made the progress that ultimately saved a life. While the upfront costs are more expensive, the return on that investment is immeasurable when you can train new folks on your timetable. 3) Ask for Help - Everyone recognizes that safety and security is important. Without the help of our athletic booster club and parent-teacher organization, we could not have purchased the new AEDs or implemented the training program. Most importantly, seek people on your staff that are creative, enterprising,and committed. Support their ideas and get out of the way. 4) Don’t Give Up. Don't Ever Give Up - While there are lots of things for school leaders to worry about, nothing is more critical than basic safety and security concerns. Set the bar high and keep pushing your community to support you in this most fundamental responsibility. We have a tendency these days to concentrate on solutions to horrific, but much less likely to happen, scenarios like active shooter incidents. . The odds of someone experiencing heart failure or another health-related emergency at a school event are much higher. Invest and be ready. I trust that you have found our focus on this month’s topic, People Matter Most, valuable. We are appreciative of your engagement and on-going support of our mission.
