School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Although there has been an encouraging drop in student violence over the past year, I don’t think it is yet time for teachers to start dancing in the streets ala Fame quite yet.  Teachers and security personnel – and for that matter, police – are getting punched and kicked around like red-headed stepsons trying to break up fights with more frequency than ever before. With this in mind, I recently posited several critical changes in the way authority figures go about intervening in fights between two or more students.

 

Quickee Revie frpm my last posting:  In Breaking Up (A Fight) Is Hard To Do, Part I, I pointed out a few Critical Rules For Breaking Up a Fight, including:

 

1.       Always approach (the fighters) from the rear,

2.       Always use loud, repetitive verbal direction (to break through Auditory Exclusion).

3.       Always move (Balance Displacement Techniques) the student to a position of safety quickly.

 

Here’s the tricky part.  How the heck do you go about doing this?  Great question.   Before I start, let me say that reading this blog or watching a How To video clip can never replicate the value of professional training.  Look for a good PPCT Disruptive Student Management (DSM) training or instructor program for your best results.  Failing that, here we go with some great techniques to safely (for the students, for you, for innocent bystanders) Separate (student-fighters) quickly to a position of safety and/or control:

 

• The reasons for a speedy move is based on 2 principles.  First, displacing the student’s balance is a function of moving his or her Center Of Gravity (COG), most often the pelvic bowl – located on the beltline) beyond the width of his or her stance.  Using speed in displacing balance also works because separating too slowly gives him/her a chance to step in the direction of the move to regain his or her balance.  However, the below techniques performed real quickly will not give the student any chance of stepping to regain balance.  He or she, simply put, is gone from the fight before he/she knows it.  The second reason for technique speed is to protect the student from additional strikes.  The techniques I am about to advocate temporarily constrain the ability of the student from defending him or herself, making him all the more vulnerable to incoming blows.

 

TORSO ROTATION (TR).  This is a versatile technique, applicable for both children and teenagers.  The (Educational) professional approaches the student from the rear oblique, places one hand on the student’s bicep and the other on the opposite shoulder.  Quickly move him or her out of the danger zone by pulling the bicep back and down while pushing the shoulder forward.  This will probably not work on larger students who are grappling clothing, but, in my opinion, anytime you are dealing with a big kid try aggressively pushing the bicep across and down the student’s chest while pulling back on his shoulder.  You can enhance the power of the move by stepping forward into the push and temporarily stepping between your student and the unrestrained fighter.

INFRA ORBITOL BALANCE DISPLACEMENT.  Approach from directly behind while placing your strong hand across the boy or girl’s forehead and pull his or her head back against your shoulder for counter pressure and stabilization.  Now slide the hand down (temporarily blinding and disorienting him/her) and place the ridge of your index finger – supported by the rest of the hand – underneath the kid’s nose and push up and back toward the top of his/her head while stepping back.  This will cause an involuntary response where the student rolls his/her  head back and up.  By stepping back you accelerate the Balance Displacement, giving the student a helpless and disoriented feeling.  Quickly now, pull the student back and away from the fight.  The IOBD Technique is great for situations where the student is as tall or taller than the teacher.

 

REAR SHOULDER PULL.  The RSP must be limited to situations where the educational professional is required to intervene on a violent fight between two or more teenagers (considerable size and strength).  Naturally these situations require techniques utilizing more aggressive steps to displace balance and separate students.  Once again, the teacher approaches from behind the fighting student.  This time he places both hands on the teenager’s shoulders and begins to pull back and down.  In some cases, this may not work, so I advocate the educational professional weakening and distracting the student with a knee strike to the back of his or her thigh to initiate the displacement.  This knee strike of which I speak is an injury-free move identical to the move a lot of kids make from behind with other kids where they bump the rear of the leg of their victim when he or she least expects it and causes the victim’s leg to buckle.  The effectiveness of the knee strike, by the way, is attributable to two factors.  First, of course, it should cause the fighter’s leg to involuntarily to flex.  This flexing will now cause the kid’s brain to address the loss of balance and stability, which consequently forces the brain to focus away from the teacher or the other student he is fighting and focus on his loss of balance.  Secondly, the force of the strike will cause a pain stimulus, which also forces the brain to change its attention away from the target of his anger or fear.

 

As always, Stay Safe.

 

Hammer

 

 

 

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