Fear and the Sheepdog

This has been a rough week for Sheepdogs, especially those who watch over children in schools.

First was a school shooting in Normal, IL, where a 14-year old boy fired a gun into the ceiling of a classroom, to be subdued by a heroic teacher.

Then came September 11, and a new generation of children who only know about this watershed event in the abstract.

Then comes a story out of Brownsburg, IN, in which an Iraqi propaganda group known as IRAQI-TOP hacked their website, leaving a threatening message.  The FBI now has the lead on the investigation.

Then came a story out of Indianapolis, IN, about a threatening message found in Perry Meridian High School.

Then there was today, in which three college campuses were the recipients of bomb threats, including at least one claiming to be a member of al Qaeda.  There was also a bomb scare in Kansas City, MO.

Add in the unrest in the Middle East over a movie made here in the US, and you have a lot of fear flying around.  How does the sheepdog handle fear?

LTC Dave Grossman has studied fear, among other things, and has developed some interesting insights.

"The ultimate fear and horror in most modern lives is to be raped, tortured, beaten, or physically degraded in front of loved ones or to have the sanctity of the home invaded by aggressive and hateful intruders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association affirms this when it notes that, "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) . . . may be especially severe or longer lasting when the stressor is of human "design." PTSD resulting from natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes is comparatively rare and mild, but acute cases of PTSD will consistently result from torture or rape. Ultimately, like tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes, bombs from 20,000 feet are simply not "personal" and are significantly less traumatic to both the victim and aggressor.
Death or debilitation is statistically far more likely to occur by disease or accident than by malicious action, but statistics have nothing to do with fear. Statistically speaking, cigarette smoking is an extraordinarily dangerous activity that annually inflicts slow, hideous deaths upon millions of individuals worldwide, but this fact does not dissuade millions of individuals from smoking, and around the globe few nations are motivated to pass laws to protect their citizens from this threat. But the presence of one serial rapist in a large city can change the behavior of hundreds of thousands of individuals, and there is a broad tradition of laws designed to protect citizens from rape, assault, and murder.
When snakes, heights, or darkness cause an intense fear reaction in an individual it is considered a phobia, a dysfunction, an abnormality. But it is very natural and normal to respond to an attacking, aggressive fellow human being with a phobic-scale response. This is a universal human phobia. More than anything else in life, it is intentional, overt human hostility and aggression that assaults the self-image, sense of control and ultimately, the mental and physical health of human beings." (http://www.killology.com/art_psych_arousal.htm)

The sheepdog must learn that fear, as Grossman states, is normal and natural. There is no shame in being afraid. Indeed, fear can be a great motivator, when controlled. I'll guarantee you that the teacher in Normal was afraid when the student fired the gun in his class. Yet he grabbed the gun and subdued the shooter, and no one was hurt. So bravery is not the absence of fear, but the acceptance of fear, and control of oneself in the face of fear.

Keep up-to-date on current events, especially those related to schools. Study them, learn from them, and look for them in your own school. Do away with the "It can't happen here" mentality of the sheep. Everyday the news services have stories of schools that 'had it happen there'. So operate with the mentality that it WILL happen, and work from there.

Plan for what will happen, and don't do it alone. Sheepdogs are better in packs. Work with other sheepdogs and use their knowledge and resources to help your mission. Once you have plans prepared, exercise them. Don't be afraid of failure in an exercise, because that is how you improve your plans.

Study, plan, prepare, exercise, and know that you are not alone, and that the price of failure is too high to bear.

Non in meus vigilo!

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