Thoughts and views on the state of child and school safety in K-12 education today. Useful tips and insights into emergency management and severe weather preparedness as well.
The election can be boiled down to an incident that occurred yesterday.
I
took my 13-year old daughter with me to the polls. I figured I would teacher her about the electoral process, something my wife and I have done since she was born.
She watched me check in, showing my ID, and i was given my ballot, and we walked over to a voting booth. There I showed her the
ballot, explained straight ticket and split-ticket voting, and gave her my views on how
to select candidates. I told her that, even when voting straight
ticket, to look at all the candidates to know for whom you are voting.
She didn't say anything, and I thought maybe I had lost her, as will
happen with teens at times.
She came with me to the voting machine, and she watched me put the ballot in. All of a sudden, my daughter says, "'Murica!"
Startled, I looked at her. She grinned at me and I grinned
back, knowing now that she had been listening, and that my lesson had
been taken in.
School safety is a lot like voting. The duty to vote is not related to whether your candidate wins or
loses. Consent of the governed means that we accept the system, and
because we do, we accept the outcomes of the system.
Being a School Safety Officer is not related to whether you agree with what your Superintendent or School Board says. In the Army it was called Saluting Time. You have input up to a point, and then it's time to salute, and drive on. Our job is to stand on the Wall between chaos and order. When we take a job, we consent to all the vagaries of the job, the good and the bad.
As we left the polling place, I told my daughter to look around. No gunfire, no intimidation, no
threats. A peaceful transition of power in the Greatest Nation on
Earth. Win or lose for your candidate, this is still 'Murica. Land of
the Free, BECAUSE of the Brave.
My daughter got it and, in doing so, she taught her daddy a lesson.
Learn it, live it, and continue to stand on that Wall.
I took my 13-year old daughter with me to the polls. I figured I would teacher her about the electoral process, something my wife and I have done since she was born.
She watched me check in, showing my ID, and i was given my ballot, and we walked over to a voting booth. There I showed her the ballot, explained straight ticket and split-ticket voting, and gave her my views on how to select candidates. I told her that, even when voting straight ticket, to look at all the candidates to know for whom you are voting. She didn't say anything, and I thought maybe I had lost her, as will happen with teens at times.
She came with me to the voting machine, and she watched me put the ballot in. All of a sudden, my daughter says, "'Murica!"
Startled, I looked at her. She grinned at me and I grinned back, knowing now that she had been listening, and that my lesson had been taken in.
School safety is a lot like voting. The duty to vote is not related to whether your candidate wins or loses. Consent of the governed means that we accept the system, and because we do, we accept the outcomes of the system.
Being a School Safety Officer is not related to whether you agree with what your Superintendent or School Board says. In the Army it was called Saluting Time. You have input up to a point, and then it's time to salute, and drive on. Our job is to stand on the Wall between chaos and order. When we take a job, we consent to all the vagaries of the job, the good and the bad.
As we left the polling place, I told my daughter to look around. No gunfire, no intimidation, no threats. A peaceful transition of power in the Greatest Nation on Earth. Win or lose for your candidate, this is still 'Murica. Land of the Free, BECAUSE of the Brave.
My daughter got it and, in doing so, she taught her daddy a lesson.
Learn it, live it, and continue to stand on that Wall.
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