School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

KEEP SCHOOLS SAFE

 

DEFUSE ANY STUDENT.   ANYWHERE, ANY TIME!  PART II.

 

To be honest, I know of no technique or set of techniques that will work 100% of the time on every angry, out of control, or emotionally disturbed student, or enraged parent/guardian/unauthorized person on campus.  What I will discuss in Part III, however, will de-escalate 98% of the educational population at least 97 to 98% of the time  

 

WHAT ABOUT THE REMAINING 3 PER CENT?

 

Unfortunately, there will be, for a myriad of reasons, students and others whom you might have to deal with who you will find to be impossible to calm through the use of Pro Com (Professional Communication Techniques) or any other calming method.  If my experience is any reliable gauge, these might include gangbangers, mentally or emotionally disturbed people, suicidal individuals and some individuals who are under the influence of extreme rage.  I am not saying you or I could not defuse these type of students – I have, and judging by some of the teachers whom I have trained, maybe so could you – but, under some circumstances, there are these types of people when, simply put, words do not work.

 

Which is why Verbal Judo’s founder, George Thompson, includes in his ingenious program a paradigm teaching the 5 Times When Words Fail, designed to alert practitioners how to recognize the occasions when it makes little sense to continue attempting to defuse an individual.

 

 

THE FIVE TIMES WORDS FAIL:  SAFER

 

1.       Security and Safety.  When the physical plant – the school itself – or another teacher is endangered by the actions of the individual whom you are attempting to calm, words fail and it is time to transition to appropriate physical control techniques.

2.       Attack.  When you are under attack or the threat of attack by the individual, words become subordinate to physical control techniques.  You should consider yourself under “attack” if the student is attempting to enter your personal safe zone despite your verbal requests and/or direction not to.  Almost every teachers whom I have talked to and/or trained, has been physically attacked is some way.  Many have required hospital care or at least medical care.

3.       Flight.  When the student or person is fleeing from you or security, words are no longer useful.

4.       Excessive Repetition.  When you find yourself repeating your verbal requests or directions, words have failed and it is time to transition to some sort of physical action.  On “the street,” repetition by an authority figure is considered weakness.

5.       Revised Priorities.  This simply means when you are talking to one student and some type of exigent circumstances happen elsewhere or with another student (gun in the room, hostage situation, epileptic seizure), you must stop communicating with the first student and move on to the revised priority.

 

WHAT IS “APPROPRIATE PHYSICAL ACTION?” 

 

Frankly, I don’t know and I can’t say.  Any time we talk about appropriate action, I must defer to your school’s protocol.  And judging by what I have seen so far, you might be on your own.  School systems are largely, if not universally, freaked out about legal action against them when students are “controlled” by teachers and/or security.  Nevertheless, I am an Instructor Trainer in Disruptive Student Management (DSM) and I know that there are Medically (safe), Tactically (effective) and Legally (Courtroom Defensible) techniques that can safely and effectively manage almost every type of disruptive or violent situation.  I have written in detail about how to safely separate fighting students, how to control distraught and “violent” children, and how to safely escort and control disruptive teenagers and/or larger and stronger children.  I will write about other physical tactics of control in future posts, to be sure.

 

But, even so, you always have two tactical options in any of the above situations:  Penetrate and stop the person from damaging property, attacking another teacher or yourself, or Disengage and get help.

And, please, remember one important fact.  You always have the right and obligation to defend yourself against an assault; and you always have the obligation to defend a student who is being beaten or attacked, so—-

 

Part III of Defuse Anyone, Any Time, coming up.

Stay safe.

Hammer

 

 

 

 

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