MANAGING THE EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED STUDENT
I haven’t posted in a couple weeks. Been out of town conducting trainings. Defensive Tactics for law enforcement personnel and a DSM for a group of teachers and security staff. Thought you might be up for
with a few Hammer-Tips on how to deal with the EDS (Emotionally Disturbed Student) that comes right out of my Disruptive Student Management (DSM) training program.
First things first. For the purpose of this post, and, for that matter, my DSM course, an EDS has two criterion: He or she must be emotionally distraught to the second power. Meaning this child or young adult (teenager) is upset to the point he or she is beyond being (verbally) reasoned with. Secondly, whatever is brewing inside this student has now manifested into destructive physical actions that place the safety of the teacher and the entire classroom in jeopardy.
My tips are important because this EDS must be controlled in such a way and in such a manner as to stop the student now with a minimum likelihood of injury to the student, the teacher and other students. In other words, these Hammer-Techniques are designed to have a maximum certainty of success with a minimum outlay of energy. Like all the techniques in my DSM program, the techniques I will discuss are designed to work quickly (within 10 to 15 seconds, the amount of time a teacher can fight at 100% maximum output) and are easily doable (based on Gross Motor Skills, which are simple push-pull symmetrical skills) for the average teacher), and are defendable in court.
I’m taking a stab in the dark here, folks, but I’m thinking that you will agree when I say that Court Defensibility is a nice touch for any technique you may use on a student in today’s litigious society. Right? Abolutely.
KEEPING THE EDS SEATED
There are several easy and safe ways to accomplish this. These two use the biomechanical composition of the human body to keep the EDS seated long enough for him/her to explode through the adrenal compound and to find some semblance of peace. Usually takes anywhere from 18 seconds to a half-minute.
1. Pressure Point Control. Take your thumb and run it along either one of your clavicles. Runs above your sternum toward your shoulder. You should feel a little bump about halfway across. Hook the thumb inside that clavicle and press straight down toward your feet. You have just located the Brachial Plexus Clavicle Notch Nerve Pressure Point. Using the correct location and downward pressure you can easily keep the most adrenalized and powerful student seated with even below-average strength. Cool thing is the harder the EDS tries to stand, the more Pain Compliance Control a teacher can achieve. An important caveat: Combine soothing, repetitive and reassuring Peace Phrases and other sincere De-escalation Techniques to the Brachial Plexus Clavicle Notch technique to maximize the effectiveness of this EDS Control Technique.
2. Straight Arm Bar Technique. For this technique you will need another teacher or security staff. Quickly take control of each elbow and place your inside hands on the EDS corresponding shoulder. Push each shoulder forward so the EDS’ balance is tilted toward the floor, weakening the EDS slightly. Now extend each arm toward each side until each shoulder, elbow, wrist and thumb form a rigid, straight line. The trick is to understand that the farther away from a person’s center the hand is, the weaker that hand will be. Correspondently, the closer to one’s center (abdominal area, for the sake of argument) the hand is, the stronger the practitioner (teacher in this case). Turn the EDS’ elbows and palms of his or her hands toward the ceiling and maintain control for as long as it takes for either the student to switch from the primitive brain to the Neo-Cortex (Smart Brain) or security to arrive. Once again, maximize the technique by reassuring the student with slow, soft and sincere (the 3 S’s) de-escalation techniques. Also, advise the student to breathe deeply and slowly. You can model Cycle Breathing by doing it yourself, and, by all means, Mirror Calm. After all, Calm like Anger, Is Contagious.
“ENCOURAGING” THE EDS INTO A SEATED POSITION
Getting a child or teenager to sit when every nerve fiber, hormone and muscle wants to stand and deliver – you can imagine – can be a lot trickier than keeping a seated or supine student (later on that) stay put. The remedy, hence, is a little riskier. It can be done, mind you, but it’s jus a little dicey, is all. The teacher in this situation needs to make a command decision and commit to it: The way I see it, the critical decision comes down to allowing the EDS to wreak havoc in the classroom, breaking objects and injuring students and maybe even the teacher and putting the student into a lower and much weaker physical position where continuing the rampage is damn near impossible. The longer one allows an EDS to Stand and Deliver, the higher the chances of someone getting hurt, including the EDS, so, in my opinion thisd technique is worth the effeort.
Two teachers working in tandem are ideal in this situation, but one determined teacher can do this. Once again, the technique is designed to work in realistic survival stress situations with a maximum certainty of success with a minimal outlay of energy. Size and strength differentials are not a major factor because this technique works because it will concomitantly distract and weaken the largest and strongest of students, even EDS’s. More importantly – based on the natural tendency for the EDS to try to take the slack out of the pain by recoiling away from the Pain Compliance Technique, he/she will lean his or her upper body away from the teacher and bend both knees, which will cause his/her body to replicate a sitting position, meaning that all the teacher would have to do is push the EDS the rest of the way into the chair.
THE JUGULAR NOTCH NERVE PRESSURE POINT
Take your middle two fingers of either hand and place them in the notch at the juncture of your two clavicles. If you are a man, you will find this notch directly under your Adam’s Apple. Now, create the same Pain Compliance technique by pushing in and down with gentle but steady pressure. Doesn’t hurt too bad, but you can quickly see how this can be effective against a student who is charging you or maybe grappling with you by grabbing your lapel, right? And don’t worry about the pain or injury to the student. The beauty of this Touch Pressure or Pain Compliance technique is that the pain vanishes almost immediately upon the teacher relinquishing the pressure. As always, accompany any physical technique with Slow, Soft and Sincere words of reassurance, plus verbal directions to stay seated, etc.
Next Blog: Keeping An EDS in a supine (prone) position, plus some great reductive de-escalation techniques.
Until then, Stay Safe.
Hammer
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Posted on August 3rd, 2008 by Harry A Widger
Filed under: College, Fighting, High School, K-6, People Involved, School Grade Level, Security, Students, Violence
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