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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Patriot Day - A Day of Remembrance

Eleven years ago, wolves attacked our sheep in the World Trade Center Twin Towers, our sheepdogs in the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, sheep became sheepdogs as several rose to the challenge and attacked the terrorists, bringing their plane down near Shanksville, PA.



 This blog is dedicated to those who protect others, especially children, and today is a special day for all Sheepdogs.  Many gave the ultimate sacrifice that day.

Rick Rescorla was the Ultimate Sheepdog.  He was a highly decorated soldier of two armies, and was serving as the Vice President of Security for Morgan-Stanley/Dean-Witter, the largest tenant in the World Trade Center.  He doggedly drilled his people in evacuating the WTC, and on that fateful day, sang Welsh battle songs and guided his people to safety.   Following the Infantry Creed of 'Leave No Man Behind', he and three others went back up the Tower to make sure no one was left behind.  The Tower come down on them, killing them.

Then there was Flight 93.  Mark Bingham was a rugby player, he’s 6'5.  A big, physically fit guy.  Then there was Jeremy Glick, who was another six-footer. When he was in college, he was the national collegiate junior judo championship.  Lou Nacke was a weightlifter: at 5’9, he was 200 lbs. of muscle and had a Superman tattoo on his shoulder.  Japanese student Toshiya Kuge played American football; he was a linebacker.  Richard Guadagno, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manager, was trained in hand-to-hand combat.  Flight attendant CeeCee Lyles was a former cop.  Todd Beamer, as it was ready to happen said, ‘You ready?  Ok.  Let’s roll.’

As Jane Pauley writes, "In other words, Flight 93 could very well have gotten to Washington, to the U.S. Capitol, perhaps, or at the very least a well-populated area, if the passengers and crew hadn’t done what they did.

We will never know exactly which passengers and crew waged that counterattack, which ones reached the cockpit, and whether any of them could have stopped the plane from going down.

It doesn’t matter.

We do know that because of their collective courage, hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives were saved.   They were all of them real heroes; they’ll be remembered in many different ways."



How do we remember them?  We strive to make our lives worthy of their sacrifice.  We strive to be Sheepdogs, protecting others from the wolves in our lives.  We work to put the well-being of others ahead of our own, with our lives, if necessary.

On September 11, rededicate yourself to being a Sheepdog, and remember these brave Sheepdogs who went before us.

Live the motto, "Non in Meus Vigilo!"  (Not on my watch!)

Never forget.

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The Dark, Nasty World of the Child Predator

Mike Dorn sent me an email about this story, about a former St. Louis teacher who was arrested after admitting he had raped students years ago.  He mistakenly thought the statute of limitations had expired.

Whoops.

This story is an example of why I have such a passion for what I do.  I was raised to believe that it was wrong for the strong to prey on the weak.  I was also raised to believe that if I were strong, I should protect the weak.  Yet day after day, I see stories of adults who prey on children.

Shame. On. You. Perverts.

If you believe, as I do, that bullying is wrong, then how much MORE wrong is it for an adult to bully a child?  When you add in the dimension of the adult being an educator, the betrayal of trust adds a whole order of magnitude of pain to the situation.

If I were to coax a cute, cuddly bunny to my hand with a carrot, and then smashed the bunny in the head, how would you feel?  That is what child predators do.  They lure the innocent into their clutches, and then smash them.  Not only do they create the immediate pain of the assault itself, but they leave a permanent footprint on that child's mind, a lasting poison that never quite goes away, and can often lead to more issues later in life.

Yet, this happens daily, often in silence.  People don't want to talk about it, don't want to think about it, and thus don't want to do anything about it.  It is a dark, nasty underside of our culture that needs to be stamped out.

Who will stand between the wolves and the sheep?

The Sheepdog.

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A Powerful Article about Teacher Assaults

Lately, I have read several blogs and discussions concerning the under-reporting of crimes in schools.  As both a school administrator and a Director of School Safety, this directly impacts my work.

Yesterday I came across this article in the San Francisco Chronicle  "Teachers learning to file assault complaints".  The article covers Connecticut teachers who face problems with being assaulted in schools.  It provided a chilling statistic for Connecticut schools.  "In 2010-11, the latest school year data available, there were 181 assaults on teachers and school employees in Bridgeport and 1,528 assaults in the state, up from 1,308 in 2009-2010."  The article goes on to add more chilling statistics: "There were more than 6,400 reported incidents of physical violence against school employees from 2006 through 2010, according to data collected by the State Department of Education. (Connecticut)"

The first response from a person in denial is, 'That's just in Connecticut.'  While it might be hoped for, that is not the case.  "Using figures from the National Center for Educational Statistics, the study found that 253,100 teachers -- about seven percent -- report being threatened with injury, and 127,500 report being physically attacked in 2003-04. In 2007-08, according to the NCES, the number threatened had risen to 289,600 and the number attacked rose to 154,400. Reported assaults were more likely in urban districts and in secondary schools, the data showed." Seven percent of teachers across the country report being threatened with injury, and approximately 3.5% reporting being physically attacked, and it's clear that a major problem exists.

The American Psychological Association (APA) conducted a study which called violence against teachers a silent national crisis, with over 25% of teachers nationwide reporting being threatened at school.  A preview of that study had a quote from the Task Force which conducted the study, "“These numbers did not differ by school setting, by gender of the teacher or by years of teaching,” said Task Force Chair Dorothy L. Espelage, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."

The question always arises, "Why don't teachers report?" Many teachers are assaulted by young students, and they don't want the student to get into serious trouble. They may not want to get involved in a long, protracted legal procedure.  Perhaps they fear retribution, or they may not feel that they have the administration's support.  Sometimes teachers are dissuaded from reporting the crime, to help create the illusion that the school is safe.

This must not be.

School safety is a matter for all in schools, not just the children.  We cannot attract the best and brightest to the profession of education if people will fear for their safety.  People cannot perform at their best if they operate in fear.  It is up to us, those that dedicate ourselves to the protection of others, to create an atmosphere of safety and hope.  We cannot stand by as anyone is threatened or attacked.

Our society is in turmoil, with more and more children becoming aggressive.  Yet, they are not the enemy.  Their aggressive behaviors are, and it is from those that we must defend the other children, and the adults whose safety is our responsibility.

Sheepdogs protect the sheep from the wolves, from within the flock and from outside the flock.  We cannot look the other way, we cannot falter, we cannot fail.

Don't accept under-reporting, and don't allow the denial of others to influence your duty.

Who is with me?

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