The Safety Doc Podcast

Cameras and video surveillance have become ubiquitous with school safety. Those super-tech tools have amazing capabilities - such as zooming in to read print on a piece of paper on the hallway floor. But, cameras are almost exclusively forensic equipment - they might be helpful for identifying who stole a jacket from a locker. From a prevention standpoint, cameras are over-hyped. Realistically, nobody is watching a dozen live camera streams. And, it's unlikely that camera systems will allow law enforcement to track and intercept a school shooter who is inside of a school. But, perhaps the bad rap of cameras should be re-visited. Has Doc shifted his position on video surveillance in school settings, beginning with license plate readers? WHAT IS IT? This rabbit hole begins with license plate readers. Automated license plate reader (ALPRs) systems combine high-speed cameras and sophisticated software to capture and convert license plate images into data that can be compared with information in other databases. Cameras used in ALPRs may be mobile or stationary and are small enough to be mounted on police cars, road signs or traffic lights, or placed at the sides of roads or on bridges. License plate reader systems can collect a driver's geographic location, along with the date and time a vehicle was in a particular place. DETERRENCE. A 2014 survey of more than 97,000 school bus driver's found that 76,966 vehicles illegally passed school buses on a single day! As of 2015, thirteen states explicitly allow school districts to use cameras to capture drivers illegally passing stopped buses. Clearly marking school buses as having ALPRs and coupling that to billboards and media awareness campaigns might deter people from illegally passing buses. This is just one example of deterrence from ALPRs. Another might be ALPRs verifying parent's vehicles entering a school area. What if a non-custodial guardian went to the school to take a student? And systems with ALPRs might notify office staff that the vehicle is not associated with someone approved to pick up the child. WHAT IF PLATE READERS COULD ALSO DETECT WEAPONS? In a 2021 research study titled: ‘Handgun detection using combined human pose and weapon appearance', it was observed that “This work proposes the use of the human pose as complementary information to improve the performance of current handgun detectors based on deep learning. The human pose, defined as the relative position of the different joints and limbs of the human body, is quite characteristic in shootings.” In other words, deep learning AI is getting very good at identifying the pattern of not only a gun, but the human movements that happen prior to firing a gun. So, thinking beyond ALPRs, one can step into even more sophisticated AI that recognizes types of vehicles, shapes, and patterns. How about software paired with ALPRs in order to detect someone holding a gun or a knife? It's not far-fetched, and already in place at some of the world's most secure settings (we just don't know about it). In the fight to mitigate drug overdoses, mosaic camera systems might be able to identify when someone collapses - and immediately flash that information to authorities. So, there's much more capability here than simply reading license plates - and is that a good thing?  ARE LICENSE PLATE READERS LEGAL? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (2022), at least 16 states have statutes that expressly address the use of ALPRs or the retention of data collected by ALPRs. For example, Arkansas prohibits use of ALPRs by individuals, partnerships, companies, associations or state agencies. There are exceptions for limited use by law enforcement or controlling access to secure areas. And, data can not be preserved for more than 150 days. Vermont requires a law enforcement officer to be certified in the use of an automated license plate reader to operate such a system. Provides that active system data may only be accessed by an officer with a legitimate law enforcement purpose for the data. What is a ‘legitimate law enforcement purpose' in a school setting, and who is monitoring how these systems are being accessed as well as how the data is kept secure? SAFETY WITHOUT COMPROMISING PRIVACY? ALPRs collects a lot of “customer” data. With data breaches commonplace, what are the risks of having ALPRs data hacked, or shared, or even sold? And, ALPRs data from a variety of locations might be able to identify an individual's behavior. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 202 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-10-2023. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Have you imagined that not missing a day of high school could put you square in the driver's seat of a new car? What began as a novel #truancy pilot roughly twenty years ago is becoming increasingly popular in high schools across America. Why are cash-strapped #schools ponying up cars for students with perfect, or near-perfect #attendance? What are the outcomes of these incentives? What are the positions of advocates and opponents? In this episode, Doc describes the “cars for attendance” trend speeding through the parking lots of America's high schools. WHAT IS TRUANCY? States have statutory citations for compulsory school attendance and school attendance enforcement. These exist to compel students to attend school on a regular basis. Truancy, or unexcused absence from school, is informally referred to as “skipping school.” A “truant student'' is typically absent for several days, or weeks, during the school year. The pattern tends to be pervasive and the lack of regular attendance diminishes the student's ability to benefit from instruction. Students who are truant are often ineligible to participate in organized sports and generally are not connected with school activities. TRUANCY REDUCTION: KEEPING STUDENTS IN SCHOOL. In September 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice published a 16-page bulletin titled: Truancy Reduction, Keeping Students in School. Truancy had been well-studied by 2001, and although it impacted students of all ages, it was most prevalent in high schools. The report stated, “Truancy has been clearly identified as one of the early warning signs that youth are headed for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, and/or educational failure. Other studies established lack of commitment to school as a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school.” OTHER CONSEQUENCES OF TRUANCY. The DOJ's 2001 report predicted dire financial impacts of truancy and dropouts, including (1) Less educated workforce, (2) Business loss because of youth who “hang out” and/or shoplift during the day, (3) Higher daytime crime rates, and (4) cost of social services for families of children who are habitually truant. INCENTIVES FOR STUDENT ATTENDANCE - YOU GET A CAR! In 2022, Bastrop ISD partnered with the local Sames Bastrop Ford dealership to offer one lucky student the chance to win a car in its “Drive Sames 4 Education.” “Kristi Lee, BISD's district deputy superintendent, said the district has seen a dip in attendance and all students' grades. The free car acts as an incentive to get students to come back to class. For the 2021-22 school year, BISD had an attendance rate of 90.59% – the lowest rate in the last four years. When the pandemic originally hit, during the 2019-2020 school year, overall attendance was almost three percentage points higher at 93.67% (Comme, P. 2022).” Search engines return thousands of similar stories, from New Caney High School to Honey Grove ISD to San Antonio High School. ARGUMENTS FOR CARS AND HIGH-VALUE PRIZES. It works. Research has found that financial incentives typically are the most effective in driving teenagers. Oftentimes, parents will reward students with a cash bonus after they produce good grades. But on the contrary, children are more prone to strive for something they can control, like studying or even attendance (Prothero, A. 2017). On the flip side, incentives are much less effective for actual test scores. In other words, incentives work to motivate kids to attend school, but not necessarily to perform well in school. The cost of a car (and some of the prizes are used cars) might be $25,000, or less if donated by a dealership or community philanthropy. That expense is lower than the school funding a truancy officer or cuts to school funding due to lower enrollment. ARGUMENTS AGAINST CARS AND HIGH VALUE PRIZES. Schools create an artificial external reward system for something that should be internalized as having value. For example, we don't brush our teeth to receive a chance to win a car from the dental office, although lack of dental hygiene could deteriorate our health and cost thousands of dollars to fix. Another argument is that the fact that high-value prizes increase attendance underscore that traditional school operations don't motivate students. Maybe it's a stale curriculum? It's worth noting The Safety Doc Podcast episode 195 and guest Mike Dahle discussing how Esports is rocketing in popularity in schools - and also contributing to increased attendance. Yet, the majority of schools don't offer Esports. For car raffles, people claim the optics look bad - of quasi-paying kids to attend school. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 201 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-03-2023. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

It's counterintuitive, but research findings indicate that someone in need is more likely to receive help when one person is present compared to when several people are standing by. That's right, you are less inclined to #help another person in trouble if you are in a group. But, wouldn't the group be more capable and powerful to help than any single individual of the group? Most of us have seen inspiring videos of strangers locking arms to create a human chain in order to rescue a victim struggling in a swollen river. Anecdotally, we might be more willing to collectively intervene to counter a force of nature. That river won't hire a lawyer and sue us. In this episode, Doc defines the bystander effect, identifies the three types of #bystandereffect, provides reasons for the #bystander effect, and concludes with ways to overcome the bystander effect. WHAT IS THE BYSTANDER EFFECT? “Psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley identified a pattern of behavior they called the bystander effect, which they demonstrated in their labs for the first time in 1968. They describe it as a #behavior that occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Latané and Darley were spurred to their studies by the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City, a case that became infamous because of observers' inaction (Vernon, J., Overcoming the Bystander Effect. American Scientist). Genovese, age 28, was returning from her job as a manager of a bar when she was brutally attacked and murdered near her residence in Queens, New York. 38 eye witnesses stood by as she was stabbed and killed. None of them called the police. 3 TYPES OF BYSTANDER EFFECT. Researchers Latané and Darley (1970), proposed three different psychological processes that might prevent a bystander from helping a person in distress. (1) diffusion of responsibility; (2) evaluation apprehension (fear of being publicly judged); and (3) pluralistic ignorance (the tendency to rely on the over-reactions of others when defining an ambiguous situation). REASONS FOR THE BYSTANDER EFFECT. When we are in a group, it's easier to assume that someone else will step and do something - that there is someone “better-qualified” to lend help. When people make the assumption that someone will spring into action, no one actually steps up and helps. And, oddly, the most common observation at the scene of an accident is a sea of people aiming their phones at the incident. This also amplifies evaluation apprehension as an individual's attempts to render aid will be forensically analyzed from fifty angles. Undoubtedly, the lack of overt public education about Good Samaritan laws (all at the state level) toss dust into the cost-reward measurement of potential responders. “Does the law have my back if I step up and step in to help?” PILIAVIN SUBWAY STUDY. In 1969, researchers designed a study to investigate how a group of people would react if they saw a person who collapsed on a train. Here are notable findings from that study: (A) The public usually helped quickly and on their own - nobody had to direct them what to do; and, (B) The longer no help was offered, the more likely it was that observers would leave the incident. Piliavin proposed that humans are hard-wired to become physiologically aroused when they see someone in distress. The longer they think about responding, the less likely they are to respond. HOW TO OVERCOME THE BYSTANDER EFFECT. Many people experience the cost of “regret” for not helping when they were capable of helping. They might experience guilt, disapproval, damaged self-esteem and negative emotional responses. To overcome the bystander effect, people must practice situational awareness and, in doing so, heighten their ability to recognize when things begin to change from the baseline. This is often the tacit ability of identifying that something is, in fact, an emergency. Feel responsible to take action. That's a tough call, though, as you can't place yourself in harm's way. You might be able to dodge downed live wires to carry someone from a wrecked car - or you might be electrocuted. Finally, choose a form of assistance. You might be able to apply pressure to a cut that's bleeding. Maybe you can be on the phone with 9-1-1 relaying important information about the event. What if you need help - and what if the crowd watches as you fade away. SOURCES: Latané, Bibb & Nida, Steve. 1981/03/01. Ten Years of Research on Group Size and Helping. Psychological Bulletin; Piliavin I. M., Rodin, J., & Piliavin, J. A. (1969). Good samaritanism: an underground phenomenon?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 13(4), 289. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 200 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-27-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

On September 7, 2022, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced bill S.4794 - Naloxone Education and Access Act (NEAA). This bill reauthorizes through FY2027, expands eligibility for, and otherwise makes changes to a grant program that supports access to medications that reverse opioid overdoses (e.g., naloxone). What might this mean for K-12 schools? WHAT IS AN OPIOID? Opioids are a class of drug prescribed by doctors to treat moderate to severe pain. Common types of opioids are oxycodone (Oxycontin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), morphine, and methadone (REMS, 2022). OPIOID USE DATA. According to the 2017 Final Report of the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis: In 2016, an estimated 239,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were current misusers of pain relievers (1.0% of adolescents), and 631,000 young adults aged 18 to 25 misused pain relievers in the past month (1.8% of young adults) … Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 152,000 (0.6%) had a pain reliever use disorder in the past year, and 291,000 young adults aged 18 to 25 (0.8%) and 1.3 million adults aged 26 or older in 2016 (0.6%) had a pain reliever use disorder in the past year (p. 24). OPIOIDS IN SCHOOLS. Opioid use and overdoses are increasing in schools. In addition to user-exposure, second-hand exposure also poses risks, especially with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine (REMS, 2022). Per EducationWeek, “Citing concerns about student opioid use—and fentanyl specifically—a growing number of districts have equipped schools with naloxone, a drug that temporarily reduces the harmful effects of overdoses. The Los Angeles Unified School District became the latest to do so last month when it said it would stock the drug, and train qualified staff to use it, as part of a multiprong response to a “devastating epidemic of overdoses that are all too common in Los Angeles. [Other] districts—from Des Moines, Iowa, to Denver— have also stocked naloxone in recent years, some empowered by changes in state laws that make it easier to do so.” (Blad, 2022). SENATOR BALDWIN'S BILL. The bill would amend Section 545 of the Public Health Service Act and bring federal-level clarity and guidance to states regarding who can dispense reversal medication, where it can be placed, training, and immunity for using it in an attempt to benefit a suspected overdose person. Specifically, the NEAA would strike “for pharmacists to dispense a drug or device approved and cleared” and insert “that increase access to drugs and devices approved, cleared, or otherwise legally-marketed.” In other words, reversal drugs would be available to community-based distribution programs and there would be some type of “standing order” allowing for non-medical personnel to administer the reversal drug. CONSIDERATIONS FOR SCHOOLS. For some educators and community members, Naloxone on campus will signal a defeat against the invasiveness of opioids. Once Naloxone is stashed in AED cabinets - it's there forever. Others will have more favorable perceptions that might center on saving lives. How will schools integrate opioid awareness and overdose prevention along with other alcohol and other drug (AOD) programs? Naloxone availability has been impacted by supply chain disruptions, but it's typically about $25 per dose and there's little incentive for someone to steal or misuse it. Naloxone could be placed in the AED cabinet, for example. A top concern for school officials will be legal ramifications of administering Naloxone. Would a student be permitted to administer it to another student? Who has discretion to use it? A guidance document from REMS (2022) states, “Identify, with general counsel, and inform the campus community about state Good Samaritan laws that provide immunity from arrest, charge, or prosecution for certain drug offenses for a person experiencing an overdose — or witnessing another person experiencing an overdose — who seeks medical attention.” So, it's ultimately placing the risk upon the local board of education and the school's insurer. Hopefully, Senator Baldwin's proposed bill, or others like it, will align Naloxone with the standard for a non-trained person to be able to use a publicly-available AED to attempt to benefit a person encountering a heart attack. SOURCES: Blad, E. (2022, October 10). Why Districts Are Stocking Naloxone in Response to the Opioid Crisis. Education Week.; Preparing for Opioid-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Education. Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA). (Retrieved 2022) SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 199 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-20-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Professional discretion and acting in the best interest of the child affords school district officials options to unravel the snags created by their own protocols and policies webs. What happens when a school district doubles down behind flawed policies? What recourse exists for parents? In this episode, Doc shares an authentic case study from his special education legal issues course. Would you ban a kindergarten student with epilepsy from attending school because of her doctor-prescribed CBD oil? THE CASE (The following is copied from Rogoway Law Group, 2018). “Brooke Adams is a five-year-old girl diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy. Brooke currently uses medicinal cannabis-derived CBD oil to significantly reduce the frequency of seizures and medicinal cannabis-derived THC oil as an emergency medication to quickly stop seizures once they start. Brooke obtains both oils pursuant to a valid recommendation from a licensed physician. The Rincon Valley Union School District refused to place Brooke on a District campus because it alleged that her medication is not permitted on a school campus or school bus under both state and federal law; instead, in April 2018, the District offered to Brooke an individualized educational program (“IEP”) that included only one (1) hour of home-based schooling each day.” SPECIAL EDUCATION DUE PROCESS HEARING. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), schools are required to ensure that all children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet the child's unique needs. When a parent believes that their child has been denied FAPE (in this case, the parents believed the school district was required to educate Brooke with her peers), they can pursue what is known as a “due process hearing” that compels the state's department of education to investigate and then rule on findings of whether the school district violated the students procedural rights, failed to provide FAPE, and also the remedy. The special education due process hearing essentially is a trial including lay and expert witnesses, exhibits, testimony, and briefs filed by the parties. Schools are always represented by an attorney, often via their errors and omissions insurance policy. Parents can retain an attorney or represent themselves. IS CBD OIL ILLEGAL IN SCHOOLS? This varies from state to state, but CBD oil is typically not illegal in schools. However, schools can create policies that ban CBD oil - including CBD oil prescribed by a physician. REASONS WHY DISTRICTS BAN CBD OIL. CBD oil is a slippery slope as it cannot, per federal law, contain more than .3 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Anything with more THC is considered a schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration and is federally illegal. CBD oil is not sold through typical state-regulated pharmacies. The purity and level of THC in the product is regulated by the manufacturers and sellers, not the FDA. The methods for measuring the level of THC might not be uniform across manufacturers. School staff can test if CBD oil contains THC, but they wouldn't be able to determine the percentage of CBD. A school nurse, or designee, administering CBD oil that somehow contained more than .3 THC would be, in fact, committing a schedule 1 federal drug offense! A school nurse could lose his license! WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? The Department of Education at the state level is unwilling to give clear guidance on the administration of CBD oil prescribed by a doctor. Instead, state agencies offer vague guidance and direct districts to consult their own legal counsel to inform a stance on the matter. DISCRETION AND ACTING IN THE BEST INTEREST. School officials had options to remedy this situation before it landed on the judge's desk. One course of action would have been to modify the school's board of education policy to permit the administration of CBD oil with a doctor's order. Another plan might have involved working with the manufacturer of the CBD oil to become better informed, and confident in, the monitoring for THC in the end product. Ultimately, the state should have made a clear ruling affirming the use of CBD oil in school and to hold harmless staff for administration of CBD oil that might contain trace amounts of THC. What would you have done? RULING. The judge ruled that Rincon Valley Union School District had denied 5-year-old Brooke Adams a “free and appropriate public education” in the “least restrictive setting” — which federal special education law requires. Hooray, Brooke went to school! SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 198 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-13-2022.  Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Guest Lee Jarvis returns to the show and explains the features and benefits of a bank account-style voting system. As people grow skeptical of elections, Lee describes that trust may be restored by using existing systems in different ways, and such a pivot might even make it easier for voters to cast votes and to track their ballot. The main points of a bank account-like voting system are: universal national voter registry; voter “bank account” to track and log votes so voters can track their ballot/vote; more locations for a to vote; and improved data logistics for the public to observe the data. ELECTION INTEGRITY CONCERNS. News media have stirred the US public with the incomplete portrayal of the timeline of concerns about the integrity of American elections. In other words, election-doubt didn't appear from thin air in 2016. Per Pippa Norris, author of Electoral Integrity in America: Securing Democracy, Oxford University Press (2018), “Concern about the integrity of American elections did not start with Trump's election; flaws in procedures have gradually grown during recent decades. The contemporary "tipping point" that raised public awareness was the 2000 Bush v. Gore Florida count, but the 2016 campaign and its aftermath clearly worsened several major structural weaknesses. This deepened party polarization over the rules of the game and corroded American trust in the electoral process.” Furthermore, the 2022 Arizona governor election was marred when officials in populous Maricopa county stated that on election day, [technical] “problems affected ballot tabulation machines in about 60 of the county's 223 voting centers.” Hence, actions must be taken to infuse integrity-supports into the eroding election framework. NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRY. A national voter registry would utilize local voting locations in order for people to register and vote at any location in the system. Combining that feature with an online account system would help people to track their vote. In ways similar to Social Security cards, voters could be issued “voting cards” and these cards might incorporate QR codes, barcodes, numbers, and a photo. Think of using your credit card to purchase items at a store. The card is unique to you, although there were a hundred shoppers in the store - all purchasing different constellations of items. And, you can go online and check your credit card account to verify your purchases and monitor for fraud. Similar principles could be in place for a “voting card.” INDIVIDUAL VOTING RECEIPTS. Voting machines could be designed to print receipts coupled with opt-in quarterly mail statements (mail statements is a must) along with the digital account. And, digital accounts should list nullified votes. VOTING ONLINE OR VIA APP. Lee stated that he has concerns over online or app-based voting. If such a model were to exist, it should require a decade of vetting and voter registry every 1-2 years. The ability to hack such a system is underscored with the frequent data breaches and ransomware attacks rife in public institutions as well as private businesses. VOTING LOCATIONS. A system of secured verified accounts (voter cards) would expand voting locations beyond traditional locations. Per Lee, an organization or business could rent voting machines and host a party! Why can't voting be a celebration? The rental units might be paired with body-cam security guards and body cam staff for the machines - and the machines are valid anywhere in America. Think of the voting machines as similar to ATMs. EARLY VOTING. Early voting could be as simple as a portable voting machine controlled by the election commission. It could be transported to nursing homes, or community centers. HOW MIGHT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ACCESS THEIR ACCOUNTS? Cashless stores and accounts requiring 2-step verification are not always easy-to-use for people who are elderly or people with disabilities. As voting moves further to the digital age, considerations must center on both security and accessibility. To offset this access barrier, Lee notes that banks have automated phone account systems and the postal system features mailing of letters. Lee adds that those in the military or US citizens, but not in the US during an election, would be able to use their voter card at their locations to cast their vote. Lee further postures that bank ATM machines could theoretically be repurposed as voting machines. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 197 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-06-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

School safety exercises often involve #school staff, #students and agencies (police/fire/EMS), but lack measurable learning objectives. What did exercise coordinators specifically measure during and following the exercise? Does everyone need to participate in the safety exercise, or should some staff and students be assigned to different roles, such as observers? Is it OK to include parents in the exercise? In this episode, Dr. Perrodin fixes the broken framework of inter-agency #schoolsafety exercises in order to center on learning and practices that promote safe schools. BONUS. Doc shares a powerful, yet simple “5-minute safety asset inventory” that will greatly improve school personnel's awareness of fire alarm pulls, AEDs, and fire extinguishers. OVERARCHING THEMES. Three overarching themes are present in school safety exercises. (1) Discretion - who has it, and how do you measure it? (2) Decision Making - how are decisions informed, and are they made at a brisk pace? (3) Induction - how are new staff, students and families made aware of safety protocols? CONSTRUCTS. These are specific areas that will be measured through learning objectives. There are seven constructs for school safety exercises: (1) Communications, (2) Incident command system/structure, (3) protocols, (4) response times, (5) mechanical systems, (6) staging assets, and (7) maintaining the perimeter. COMMUNICATION. Was there a sufficient number of 2-way radios? What is the range of the radios? Are radios available at community partner 4K sites? INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM. Who has discretion to activate crisis notifications and systems? Will people delay the alert as they search for the “person in charge?” Who has the authority to commit personnel and resources and does that change during an evolving event? PROTOCOLS. Does the intruder protocol direct students to flee the school or to barricade within the classroom, or both? What should staff say as they communicate over 2-way radios? Who is responsible for grabbing “Go Bags” for students with medical needs? RESPONSE TIMES. How much time passed between someone becoming aware of an incident and the activation of the crisis notification. How much time passed for staff and students to evacuate the school or to get into their secured positions for intruders or storms? How much time passed between the 9-1-1 call and emergency responders arriving on scene and then entering the building or impacted area? MECHANICAL SYSTEMS. Assess the functioning of the PA, door locks and the software system that enables electronic messages to be sent to parents. If a door lock malfunctions, who is responsible for ensuring that it is repaired? STAGING ASSETS. Where did arriving responders put their equipment? Was that efficient throughout the response? How were additional resources staged, such as extra emergency responders from a neighboring community, or extra buses - were they brought on site, or kept somewhere else close by? Where might officials stage arriving parents (even if you did not ask them to come to the school). MAINTAINING THE PERIMETER. Who determines the perimeter, and how is that communicated to school officials, parents, and the public? How might we be proactive and direct parents to not rush to school during a crisis, or to rush to other schools? What if someone enters a perimeter? PARTICIPANTS AND OBSERVERS. Most people will be participants, but aim for up to 10 observers who will wear a high-vis vest to identify their role. They will monitor communications, orderly response, trauma features, and interactions between responders and recipients. ROLE PLAYERS. Consider a parent at the perimeter who wants to access the school. What did role players find helpful, or what was frustrating? HOT WASH. A Hotwash is a facilitated discussion to capture feedback about any issues, concerns or proposed improvements participants may have following an exercise, planned event or real-world incident. The hot wash is not intended to critique, grade success, or failure. COMMUNICATE FINDINGS OF THE EXERCISE. Dr. Perrodin notes that preliminary findings should be shared with staff, families, and the community within 72 hours. He also steps through a template to generate a 4-page report to the board of education including photos and quotes from participants. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 196 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-29-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

More youth are participating in Esports - and it's nothing like the trope stereotype of “gamer kids” isolated  in their basements, chomping on chips and sipping sodas while gaming online with other kids in similar grunge contexts. In this episode, Esports expert Mike Dahle will help to accurately inform us about school Esports, including how it's in-person and team-centric, ways Esports hones skills for learning - from analytical problem solving to time management, and how Esports helps students consider STEM career paths. In fact, universities are providing scholarships for Esports athletes! ABOUT MIKE DAHLE. Mike Dahle is a Business Teacher at Elkhorn Area HS and President of the Wisconsin HS Esports Association, WIHSEA.org. He was a second-year teacher when he learned how far PC gaming had come since his younger gaming days when a student gave a presentation on the League of Legends World Championship. Ever since that presentation, his interest in esports has grown exponentially. He started one of the first state associations that has since grown to 125+ schools around the state, serves as a Board Member for the Milwaukee Esports Alliance, serves as a Board Member for the Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance, and is constantly trying to push esports to the next level in the state of Wisconsin. WHAT DOES BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICY LOOK LIKE FOR ESPORTS. There isn't a template for BOE policy for Esports. It's often treated similar to other school clubs. Surprisingly, some districts have bypassed Esports due to the cartoonish guns in some of the games. It's worth noting that high school trap shooting team numbers are at record highs in America. ARE ESPORTS INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM? Most games are team-based, and individual matches add into a team score. This happens in the game SUPER SMASH BROTHERS, for example. Think of it like batting order in baseball. Players are seeded so one school's #5 player would compete against the #5 player from a different school. Esports can be played by teams within a state, but also between states. It depends upon how the league is structured. WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR ESPORTS? The top five popular titles are: Super Smash Bros, Rocket League, Fortnite, Valorant, and League of Legends. ARE ESPORTS ACCESSIBLE FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES? Yes! There is much flexibility in accommodating Esport players as long as the accommodation doesn't afford them an unfair competition edge. In Milwaukee, for example, a company designs adaptive controllers. A high-ranked quadriplegic player uses a mouth-held device to game. Esports also require minimal travel. Students typically only leave their district if they are participating in a state-level competition. 3D PRINTING AND ESPORTS. The 3D printing community collaborates through sites such as “Thingiverse” to create different or adapted controllers, and Microsoft offers several adaptive controllers. BENEFITS OF ESPORTS FOR STUDENTS. Gamers gain useful skills from participating in esports that help them on a broader learning journey. Analytical problem solving, time management, collaboration, and teamwork are key. Video games can also help to improve visual perception, enhance memory, and lead to better focus and attention. Some students who participate in Esports had previously not participated in other extracurricular activities. DO SCHOOLS GIVE CREDIT FOR ESPORTS. In most instances, students do not receive “credit” for participating in Esports. There is no curriculum approved by DPI to this point, although there is discussion to develop a curriculum. There is an inaugural INTRO to ESPORTS class at UW (Wis)-Parkside this year. Some Wisconsin schools, including: Random Lake, Racine, and Montello, award a patch for varsity. ARE ESPORTS PART OF TRADITIONAL STATE ATHLETIC ORGANIZATIONS? This varies by state. In Wisconsin, the WIAA and WIHSEA are separate entities and, at present, do not collaborate. Playfly (an Esports business) partners with high school state associations in Washington and Arizona to provide students with the infrastructure to compete and learn. HOW DO SCHOOLS FUND ESPORTS? Esports has a very small funding footprint. Coaches are either unpaid volunteers or receive stipends ranging from $400 to $5,000. Compensation for coaches and persons managing leagues is inconsistent across schools. Esports is generally under-funded when compared to compensation for coaches or people who oversee school clubs. Twitch channel and affiliate program generates $2.50 per subscriber. SPONSORS at the local level (Wisconsin) include: Spectrum Industries from Eau Claire, Bug Tussel Wireless, and Allstate insurance agents. Jolly Good Soda sponsors Random Lake. There are no state-level sponsors for Esports in Wisconsin. It is difficult for Esports groups to obtain a bank account or PayPal. Some schools host fundraiser invitationals. The “Extra Life” www.extra-life.org gaming marathon is a 24-hour charity event that raises money for children's hospitals, including Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. It was held on November 5, 2022. POST HIGH SCHOOL OPPORTUNITIES AND CAREERS. There is a significant and growing collegiate scene for Esports with various organizers, including The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). Students might receive scholarships. Post-secondary institutions have dedicated facilities and faculty, and the universities that recognize Esports as a varsity level program enable players to compete for a national championship. In less formal settings, Esports might be thought of similar to intramural sports, or be student-run club level teams, like Rec Well or Student Life. Collegiate teams can compete in other leagues. Universities feature Esports as a recruitment tool. ESports might have a similar influence for K-12 open enrollment. Beyond gaming, players maximize Esports to develop their own business acumen - complete with social media marketing, analytics, coaching, blogs, analyzing competition film, networking, and IT infrastructure. Being an Esports player or working in an Esports league as an analyst, IT, etc., has parallels to an internship in marketing and IT. WHAT SHOULD PARENTS AND SCHOOL LEADERS KNOW ABOUT ESPORTS? Esports is broadly popular, but specifically offers opportunities for a school's under-represented students. For some students, Esports is the only extracurricular activity they participated in during their school career. And there's evidence to suggest that playing Esports improved student's grades and attendance. Esports aligns with the CDC's themes for School Connectedness. At Arrowhead Union High School (Wisconsin), 60-70 students stay after school on Fridays to play Esports. Parents drop off TVs and students even play under tables. Esport players are voluntarily participating in-person with their peers. They are not sitting at home in their basement. Esports participants learn play-by-play announcing, media coaching, post-game interviewing, and public speaking skills. Esports has helped students obtain scholarships. One student received a 60% scholarship. He was an athlete on the autism spectrum. “If you leverage this program correctly, you can do a ton with it.” The National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors works to serve, legitimize, and advance Esports at all levels  https://www.naecad.org/about-naecad. Mankato University (MN) presented at the NAECAD conference. It's ranked as the top school for broadcasting. An Esport player's next step could be to form a broadcasting club, or to pursue a career in broadcasting - perhaps by attending Mankato University. MORE THINGS SCHOOLS SHOULD CONSIDER ABOUT ESPORTS. Some games include cartoon guns, a disqualifying feature per some school districts. Student data privacy is a concern. What is on the networks? Is there an in-game chat feature, and if so, how do we turn it off? The Esports launching software can present challenges. The games themselves are efficient, but the system to access the game can be buggy. Schools should create separate Esports logins on computers and also toggle settings so Esports can't be accessed until after 2PM. Esports is inclusive, and also an equity-oriented activity. You don't need expensive gear and to pay a sports fee to participate. You also don't have to rent expensive facilities. Esports increase opportunities for students both as players as well as other niche roles, such as announcing, communications, web design, and IT. There isn't a Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) prohibition clause in Esports. Although it is rare, a high school Esports player could enter into paid sponsorship deals - and by doing so, wouldn't have to forfeit their eligibility to play Esports. Esports can be included in the school district's DPI 5-year Pupil Nondiscrimination report as increasing extracurricular opportunities for students. It is particularly inclusive for students with disabilities or students without the financial means to participate in activities that have higher barriers to entry for personal equipment costs, facility rentals, and participation fees. Esports teams can consist of a mixed-gender roster. Consider formal club recognition for Esports to facilitate a funding account in your school district's fiscal chart of accounts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 195 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

The Safety Doc welcomes attorney Lisa Linney back to show! Lisa was the guest on episode 157 and discussed the complex factors in play when parents sued school districts over masking or remote learning during the pandemic. In this show, she helps us understand the ‘law of necessity,' or breaking a law or laws for an anticipated greater good. For example, what if you had to trespass in order to save someone from drowning? Lisa will also navigate the intersection of the ‘law of necessity' and the civil-immunity granting Good Samaritan laws. How might the government better educate citizens about these types of laws? Should there be a “Good Samaritan Day?” Lisa discusses these issues on the show, but this discussion is not intended to be legal advice.  ABOUT LISA LINNEY. Lisa Linney is a Texas attorney with over ten years of litigation experience. In the past year, she has focused on research and writing for litigation and transactional matters. She works from her home in Houston with her nine cats. It's a long story. IS IT OK TO TRESPASS WHEN SEARCHING FOR A LOST PERSON? The initial person in charge of a search might not be from law enforcement or the fire department. It might be a school principal or the shift supervisor at an assisted living center. Especially in rural areas, several minutes might pass before emergency responders arrive on scene. Is it OK to trespass if searching for a lost person? To answer this, we need to become familiar with the "Law of Necessity." This is a legal defense in both common and criminal law. The 'necessity' definition in law is a defense that arises when a person is forced to break the law in an emergency situation to prevent a greater harm from occurring. If a child with autism is lost and wandering near a river, it is presumed that a 'reasonable' person would believe that harm or death might be a reasonably-expected outcome. The trespass, in this situation, would be of much greater societal value than a mere property trespass is detrimental. While this response is not legal advice and there's no way of determining how a fact finder would interpret one's application of the 'Law of Necessity,' it is essential that persons with discretion and ability to commit assets to a rescue effort not be hamstrung by the 'what-ifs' consequences of inaction. LAW OF NECESSITY. Necessity has been around for a very long time in common law. Most states also have statutes that address necessity as an available affirmative defense. It is a common defense in property law regarding trespass, but it is also present in criminal law as well. An affirmative defense must be brought up by the defendant and proven by the defendant, in order for it to apply. If it is successful, it becomes a complete defense to the crime and the defendant cannot be charged. Necessity is a defense that sometimes precludes liability for breaking a law, if it is more advantageous to society to do so. WHAT THE COURTS LOOK AT. “The courts do not look at the person's, who is acting, state of mind, but what the value of their actions are to society. The defendant is not arguing that they did not commit the crime, but that it was necessary to avoid a greater harm. Is it better to commit a trespass to save a life? Normally, the answer is yes (Cull, 2022)” Per attorney Lisa Linney, the following areas might help school leaders to better understand the elements of a Necessity Defense: (1) The elements of the tort of “intentional trespass to real property,” which is what a plaintiff has to prove. (2) Defenses: in Texas, some of the defenses are statute of limitations, immunity (not available for employees), plaintiff's fault, consent to enter, and privilege to enter (Necessity Defense concept). (3) Damages available to a plaintiff. (4) Cost-benefit analysis, and (5) Liability if the searcher is injured while on private property. GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS. Good Samaritan laws are similar to the concept of the Necessity Defense. Good Samaritan Laws are in all states, but they vary from state to state. But, the contexts of “scene of emergency or accident” or “emergency care” are often noted in states' Good Samaritan laws. In Wisconsin, under current law, any person who renders emergency care at the scene of any emergency or accident in good faith is immune from civil liability for the person's acts or omissions in rendering such emergency care. [s. 895.48 (1), Stats.] Known as the “Good Samaritan” law, the provision encourages members of the public to aid others who need prompt emergency care, without fear of being sued. REFERENCES. Cull, Traci. (2022). Necessity Defense in Law - Elements, Definition, and Examples. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 194 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-15-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com  

Can I make a citizen's arrest? What are the implications of taking matters into your own hands? How might you defend your decision to a judge or jury? The Safety Doc welcomes the Legalman to this episode to address those questions and to delve into the Legalman's perspectives, juries, voting, political propaganda, and government overreach. ABOUT THE LEGALMAN. Legalman's website states, “Forget left v right. This is the truth about the system from a man who knows. The Quash (podcast) is hosted by a lawyer with 30 years of experience. He unmasks the absurd false narratives we've been immersed in 24/7 since birth and laughs at them. There's a reason nothing about the system ever makes any sense. You've been lied to your whole life. But that ends now. Learn more at https://the-quash.captivate.fm/   CAN I MAKE A CITIZEN'S ARREST? Per the Village of Bayside, Wisconsin website, “Wisconsin doesn't actually have a specific statute regarding citizen's arrests, but such arrests are covered by common law or judge-made law. Those laws allow citizens to make arrests under one of two conditions. The first is when a citizen has probable cause to believe that the person they are arresting has committed a felony. The second is when someone witnesses a misdemeanor and the misdemeanor is a breach of the peace. Generally, we don't advise making citizen's arrests. We do advise calling police and staying on the scene if it's safe, but safety is paramount. If someone is wielding a knife or attacking someone, he or she may just as easily attack you. Some exceptions apply, particularly when the perpetrator is going to flee. For example, if you see a child being kidnapped and can block the kidnapper's car from getting away with the child, it may be worth the risk. In addition to safety concerns, you also face legal risks when making a citizen's arrest. The Fourth Amendment restricts unreasonable searches and seizures, and you could be prosecuted for depriving someone of their constitutional rights. You could also face a civil lawsuit for false imprisonment, assault, or battery.” JURY TRIAL - THE LAST BASTION OF HOPE? In episode #43 of The Quash, the Legalman explains how the jury trial is a piece of the political structure of this country. How has the jury American trial changed over time, and what obstacles are between a citizen and impartial legal due process? What are the differences between what most people perceive as impartial justice and actual court-delivered “justice” as observed by a lawyer with 3 decades of experience? FULLY INFORMED JURY ASSOCIATION. Legalman urged people to increase their knowledge about jury trials, noting that, as an example, learning from Fully Informed Jury Association, www.fija.org might empower jurors' awareness of their right to refuse unjust law. As stated on FIJA's website, “We will be looking at numerous aspects indicative of the health or lack thereof of jury systems nationwide. We will evaluate the rules as officially spelled out, as well as their functionality in practice, of juries at the federal level, in all fifty states, and in Washington, D.C. with respect to each of these jury health indicators.” People can subscribe, at no cost, to obtain emails from FIJA centering on what's happening in and around their community.  HOBBES' LEVIATHAN. Government overreach is a theme in The Quash podcasts, and it was also depicted in Doc's book, School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America. Doc wrote about the Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) and the social contract. Hobbes' premise was that people functioned optimally with some basic level of a “sovereign” to facilitate order. But, Hobbes also opined that it was predictable human nature that the governed would progressively surrender their rights (and freedoms) in exchange for progressively more control from the government. Or, the people in power would be unwilling to relinquish it. “To Hobbes, people are plagued by these two forces: the desire for power and everyone else's annoying desire for power. Everyone would be all for power struggles if they could just concentrate on conniving, but watching your back is a pain in the neck (it would be centuries before Sartre sputtered that “hell is other people,” but surely this is a precursor). A few people enjoy constant drama, but most would rather be left alone if they can't have all the pie. Therefore, power tends to coalesce into a formal government because most people can't be bothered to micromanage their power relationships to everyone and everything around them—they would rather outsource that headache, thank you very much (School of Errors, 2019).” SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 193 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-11-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

In May 2022, Wisconsin legislators Robin Vos and Kevin Nicholson conveyed that they were open to the idea of arming teachers. Wisconsin isn't a state that embraces the practice of school staff carrying firearms, but that makes it an exception to the norm. Per usconcealedcarry.com, 32 states allow teachers and staff to “effectively protect children with concealed carry of a firearm.” What are the variables to consider when making the decision to arm school staff? When we think about guns and schools, we might overlook the growing sport of high school trap shooting. What are the benefits of high school clay target shooting teams? In Wisconsin, more than 85 high school teams feature with more than 2,000 student athletes competing in clay target leagues. This show's guest is a long-range, pistol, and 3-gun firearms shooter who has competed on national-level circuits for 15 years and coaches youth interested in competitive shooting. Joining us from the rolling hills of Kentucky to unpack these questions is Bending Ballistics. ARMING TEACHERS. The matter of teachers carrying guns in school is multifaceted, including culture, safety, training, and liability. A popular argument supporting this position is that armed staff would be able to immediately confront an armed intruder. Most school shootings concluded in under 10 minutes, and for some schools - especially in rural areas, police might be 20 minutes away. The loudest opposition to arming educators is that arming staff sends a stark message that schools are no longer “safe” places. By arming staff, the school is implicitly expecting an armed intruder. Second, in a moment of extreme duress and confusion, it's unrealistic for a teacher to be expected to transform into a specially trained law enforcement officer. What if a teacher shoots an innocent student by mistake? BENDING BALLISTIC'S THOUGHTS ON ARMING TEACHERS. He doesn't think teachers should carry at school. Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) respond to an active shooter situation seeking the individual with a firearm. What happens when an LEO enters an active shooter call to a school and happens upon an armed teacher running around a hallway corner? Another consideration is a local LEO deputizing staff, which might require them to complete specific firearms training and competencies. That includes range time, classroom studies, and figuring out school policies and procedures for carrying and using a firearm in a school. Who pays for ongoing training? While Bending Ballistic feels this is an OK idea, it would also place a burden on the local LEO - which is running tight on staff and budget. BENDING BALLISTICS ATTENDED A SCHOOL WITH 4 SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS AND PRIVATE SECURITY. Despite that high level of overt security, Bending Ballistic noted that his school was “pretty violent.” Is adding more security personnel an answer to violence prevention and safer schools? HIGH SCHOOL CLAY TARGET LEAGUES. From wiclaytarget.com, “The USA High School Clay Target League is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is an independent provider of shooting sports as an extracurricular co-ed and adaptive activity for high schools and students in grades 6 through 12. The organization's priorities are safety, fun, and marksmanship – in that order. The League attracts student athletes that have earned their firearm safety certification to participate in shooting sports while creating a “virtual” competition among high school teams at no cost to the schools. Family travel costs are minimal because practice and competition are conducted at a shooting range near the school's location. The league is also the safest sport in high school, with no reported injuries since the inception of the League in 2001. BENDING BALLISTICS COACHES YOUTH ON SHOOTING SPORTS. From teaching the safe handling of firearms to the rules and strategy of shooting sports, Bending Ballistics has observed youth increase their confidence and skills - setting and achieving goals. Some receive college scholarships. ZERO TOLERANCE SCHOOLS AND CLAY TARGET LEAGUES. Doc noted that a barrier to schools having Esports teams was that a character using a cartoonish gun or inflicting violence, as in Super Smash Brothers, violated the district's zero tolerance policy for firearms or violence. Have clay target teams been denied due to similar interpretations of school policies? Doc shared that his school district has a trap shooting team and he doesn't feel that it contradicts a safe school environment. IMAGES: Avatar and target provided by Bending Ballistics. Target sights #28139 by Clker-Free-Vector-Images / 29539 Free for commercial use, no attribution required Pixabay license. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 192 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-29-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Presenting on PBS TV entails luck, months of preparation, and confidence. Entrusted as a topic ambassador sets forth high expectations - not to mention standing before a live audience. I delivered two school safety presentations on PBS TV: School Safety in America: Rhetoric vs Reality (2019) and School Security and Crisis Preparedness (2013). In this episode, I will explain how I received an offer to present on PBS; show preparation; things that happen the day of the broadcast; giving the presentation - including the techy podium; rules and tips for a successful televised show; what happens immediately following the show - it's not what you might think; what PBS does with the presentation - from close-captioning to syndication; and how people around the nation responded to me in days and even years after I was TV. HOW TO GET AN OFFER TO PRESENT ON PBS. I was a school administrator on December 14, 2012. That was the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. It was a watershed moment in school shootings due to the young age of the students. Media coverage swarmed to the community of Newtown, Connecticut, and wagged microphones at anyone who would speak. After that adrenalized day, parents and educators sought empirical guidance on school safety. There wasn't a clearinghouse presentation - an impartial expert attempting to frame, in layman's language, the phenomena of school security and how and why schools prepare for crisis situations - what are the ingredients to their plans and are we as powerless to interrupt disasters as was implied by the media. So, I contacted my local PBS affiliate, pitched the idea of a school safety special, and the folks in charge issued the green light. I would assemble and deliver PBS's first school safety special. SHOW PREP. Where to begin, right? My show was scheduled for May so I had roughly 5 months to craft my presentation. I spent hundreds of hours developing outlines, PowerPoint slides, rehearsing, and having member checks evaluate my content and delivery. I also contacted parents of children killed or injured in acts of school violence. My presentation would be tight and punchy, but I had to read the room. I would not stir grieving parents. Instead, they served as member checks, to point to the line in the sand. The show wasn't about the students, teachers or parents - but they were all wedded to the topic. DAY OF THE SHOW. I arrived 3 hours before air time. Phase one is acclimating to the studio and receiving coaching on the various knobs, screens, and lights on the massive podium. Next, I signed waivers. Then it was time for the dry run in an empty hall. Other than sound checks, I spoke softly to preserve my voice. Some last-minute adjustments to font sizes, too. About 30 minutes before the show, the doors opened and people claimed seats. I made small talk with the host and the presentation was locked from future changes. THE PRESENTATION - RULES & TIPS. Stay behind the podium and look at the real-time display embedded in the lectern to track your presentation. It was OK to periodically step left of the podium. It was never appropriate to look over your shoulder and point to the big screen in front of the audience. That might mess up the camera crew and the people at home were fed from different angles from the person in the third row. Watch the timer on the podium, colored lights up in the booth, and friends in the audience strategically placed to cue me on time markers. Hitting the allotted time was not only necessary, but going long would limit the ability for syndication. 60 minutes. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SHOW | NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK! The end of the show isn't the actual end of the show. Off camera, the presenter answers questions from the audience and this can go on for an hour or more. I even went out for an impromptu late supper with audience members! DOES PBS RERUN THE PRESENTATION? Yes. After the live presentation, PBS edits, closed-captions, and submits the show for a TV Parental Guidelines rating. The presentation is then premiered and available for syndication by affiliate networks. My shows continue to air on PBS stations - especially following a sentinel school safety event. In addition, the shows are available to view at no cost at PBS.com. RESPONSES TO MY PRESENTATIONS. People have emailed, called, and met me in person to share their thoughts about my shows. School leaders, board of education members, and school safety directors convey that the content validates their efforts toward sensible school safety. Parents share personal stories. Others inform me of their research and lines of inquiry, such as a relationship between food additives and violence. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 191 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-19-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

What motivates people to seek and maintain fitness and wellness? How do expectations for fitness and wellness differ for younger people and older people? Do chaotic events, such as a pandemic or health scare, catapult people toward action to increase fitness and wellness? What feedback or rewards help people to stay motivated and act in ways to promote fitness and wellness? In this show, fitness professional Megan Usui helped us to understand and find answers to those questions. In addition, Megan and David time travel to March of 2020 to inform a hypothetical national fitness campaign. ABOUT MEGAN USUI. Megan Usui has worked as a fitness director, personal trainer, weight loss coach, gym designer and group fitness instructor at health clubs, weight loss and biofeedback centers in California, New York, Virginia and Washington State, including the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. WHAT MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO SEEK AND MAINTAIN FITNESS AND WELLNESS? Megan begins by asking, “How can I help you?” She also guides people to define the concept of “fit.” Most of her clients aren't seeking to improve their time running a mile. Megan educates clients about better eating habits. What are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats? She made a color-coded food type and portion wheel for her sons. HOW DO EXPECTATIONS FOR FITNESS AND WELLNESS VARY FOR PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT AGES? Megan shares that BOOMERS want to do basic things like get down on the floor and play with their grandkids or walk up the driveway without huffing. Megan talked about “Silver Sneakers,” a program available from Medicare at no cost for adults age 65+ and honored by most gyms. GEN X wants to stay active. These are people in their 40s or early 50s and want to look better and keep up with their now-in-their-20s children. MILLENNIALS tend to plug into whatever app or fitness equipment is available to them. They buy expensive Peloton bikes and are happy to stay at home. TEENS associated fitness with ‘coolness,' although that doesn't seem to be true today. Megan shared that frustrated parents come to her asking for ways to get their screen-addicted kids out of their rooms. Teens are interested in their virtual presence. DO CHAOTIC EVENTS, SUCH AS A PANDEMIC OR HEALTH SCARE, CATAPULT PEOPLE TOWARD ACTION TO INCREASE FITNESS AND WELLNESS? At the onset of the pandemic, some people hid under a blanket when their gym closed. Other people bought all the fitness equipment that they could. Are we a fighter? Or, are we someone that flees? Surprisingly, chaotic events don't motivate the populace toward fitness. WHAT FEEDBACK OR REWARDS HELP PEOPLE TO KEEP MOTIVATED AND ACT IN WAYS TO PROMOTE FITNESS AND WELLNESS? As for FitBits, wearables, and online fitness leaderboards, Megan believes those appeal to some people, but are incomplete. And, who are you accountable to? An app? So, they might get 10,000 steps a day, but are they improving their overall health? And, individual rewards mean more than a mass-produced fitness patch. FITNESS AND FORTITUDE CAMPAIGN. How might the American government introduce a civilian fitness program designed to encourage people of all ages and abilities to improve their health and fitness through formal physical exercise training and other wellness activities? What was possible in March and April of 2020? (The following excerpt is from ‘The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times' (2022). “We know fitness and nutrition are good for everyone, for all living creatures. Not just good for the body, but good for the mind. [T]he COVID-19 fitness research was falling into place, too. In a July 2020 study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, researchers wrote, ‘The practice of physical activities strengthens the immune system, suggesting a benefit in the response to viral communicable diseases. Thus, regular practice of adequate intensity is suggested as an auxiliary tool in strengthening and preparing the immune system for COVID-19.'” Megan noted that music is a motivator in group exercises. She suggested that a contemporary national fitness campaign might be similar to the 1985 charity song “We Are the World” that was played around the globe with a message to prompt the listener to make a decision to give support and save others' lives (famine) because in doing that, they are indirectly saving the whole human race. Recording artists, celebrities, and influencers could partner with Nike for a “Just Do It” type of song about moving and in that song, demonstrate squat, push, pull. Merely listening to the song might evoke some volitional muscle contractions! The tune could be called “The Pandemic Shuffle.” SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 190 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-12-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

The start of the 2022-2023 school year has been marred by a flurry of swatting-type threats targeting schools across the nation. A swatting threat is when someone, perhaps a thousand miles away, contacts law enforcement and makes a false report that an active shooter is on a school campus. In Minnesota, police responded to swatting reports at 14 different school districts on September 21st. In this episode, we will define swatting, identify its origins, examine the impacts on schools and communities, and measures being taken, or being considered, to reduce swatting. WHAT IS SWATTING? Per the Seattle Police Department, “Swatting is a crime. For those unfamiliar with the term, swatting is the act of creating a hoax 911 call typically involving hostages, gunfire, or other acts of extreme violence, with the goal of diverting emergency public safety resources to an unsuspecting person's residence. It is a deliberate and malicious act that creates an environment of fear and unnecessary risk, and in some cases, has led to loss of life.” Swatting is most recognizable in the online video game communities or online broadcasting. As of April, 2022, popular Youtuber Tim Pool has been swatted 8 times during his live-streamed politically-themed shows. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SWATTING? Swatting has been around for decades. It wasn't particularly common and was carried out with landline phones or pay phones. But with the implementation of the 9-1-1 emergency number, advances in cellular phone, “burner phones,” and online technology, along with social media, swatting is becoming more sophisticated and happening more frequently than any time in history. “In June 2009, a blind 19-year-old hacker named Matthew Wegman was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of computer intrusion and witness intimidation. The FBI first began investigating the teen after a 2005 swatting incident in which Wegman staged a hostage hoax, sending police to the home of a woman who had refused the teen hacker's request for phone sex” (SOURCE: Kayla Kibbe, Inside Hook, March 30, 2019.) In 2017, a fatal swatting incident occurred in Wichita, Kansas, when Shane Gaskill was shot and killed by police after exiting his swatted-upon house. The motive was revenge swatting due to a disagreement in the online video game Call of Duty. In many cases, however, it is difficult to determine who placed the swatting call.  IMPACT OF SWATTING ON SCHOOLS. Per Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, “[School swatting] has become much more common in the past five years. These incidents not only instill fear and panic throughout school communities, they are very costly in first responder manpower, time, and taxpayer dollars. Sadly, they pull away first responder manpower resources needed for credible emergencies elsewhere in local communities (Trump, 2021)” The trauma impact of students, staff, parents, and communities is also palpable and might have lasting effects. HOW TO STOP SWATTING - REGISTRY LISTS AND LAWS. There is no clear path to a solution for swatting. For persons or locations that are frequently the target of swatting, some local law enforcement will create a registry where residents concerned about swatting can communicate those concerns to their local 911 Center. However, this doesn't mean that the response will be delayed or carried out with lesser resources. The other route is anti-swatting legislation and stronger consequences for persons convicted of swatting. State Representative Kevin Miller (Ohio) is an author of House Bill 462, which would make “swatting” a felony. He says right now, there is nothing on the books that specifically addresses "swatting." Under the bill, if someone is convicted, the person could face prison time, as well as fines and restitution. In Colorado, a 2018 law penalizes hoax 911 calls. “If you make a swatting call, the penalties are similar to third-degree assault,” said state Sen. Jeff Bridges, a sponsor of the 2018 measure. “And the thing is, if someone is hurt in the process, that increases to a [class 4] felony. If someone is killed, It increases to a felony in the third degree.” IMAGE CREDIT. Police car image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-anke. Image 1889057 on Pixabay. Pixabay license free for commercial use and no attribution required. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 189 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-04-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Many people with disabilities use a service animal in order to fully participate in everyday life. Dogs can be trained to perform many important tasks to assist people with disabilities, such as providing stability for a person who has difficulty walking, picking up items for a person who uses a wheelchair, preventing a child with autism from wandering away, or alerting a person who has hearing loss when someone is approaching from behind (USDOJ, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section). How do schools address service animals for students? Is it common? What if it's a comfort animal? In this episode, we step through a fabricated case study of a student bringing a “comfort” animal to school. WHAT IS A SERVICE ANIMAL? Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal is defined as a dog, or other animal, that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability. It is almost a certainty that a school district has a board of education (BOE) policy about service animals. WHAT IS AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL (ESA)? An ESA is defined as an animal that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability. An emotional support animal (pig, chicken, snake, sugar glider, etc.) is recognized as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability under the federal Fair Housing Act and may be a reasonable accommodation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973). An ESA, also referred to as an “assistance” animal, is not a pet according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); however, no special training is required for an animal to be considered an ESA. What is necessary is that the person with an ESA has a disability and the ESA mitigates the impact of the disability. BOE policy is less consistent for ESAs. Some school districts don't have an ESA policy. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT'S A SERVICE ANIMAL - PERMISSIBLE INQUIRY. In situations where it is not obvious that the dog or animal is a service animal, the individual may be asked only two specific questions: (1) is the dog/service animal a service animal required because of a disability? And if yes, (2) what work or task has the dog/service animal been trained to perform? If either response is “no”, the animal is only permitted as an emotional support animal (ESA). Requesting any documentation for the service animal, requiring that the animal demonstrate its task, or inquiring about the nature of the person's disability is not permitted. PEGGY THE COMFORT PIG CASE STUDY. You've just read a letter from the parents of Carol, a student transferring to your district next month from another school district in Wisconsin.  She is a student with disabilities and receives special education services. A copy of her current IEP was included with the letter. Carol has both an educational and medical diagnosis of autism and is identified as meeting Other Health Impaired (OHI) criteria by her current district due to anxiety.  She also has a comfort animal, a small pig, with her full-time at school. Per the parents' letter, the pig helps to keep Peggy calm. Her IEP documents that since she has brought the pig to school (a year ago), she has exhibited fewer aggressive behaviors and is engaging for longer periods of time on academic work.  Her IEP states that she is permitted to have the pig with her at all times and during all school functions. The parents' letter also notes that the current district wasn't well-informed of the benefits of comfort animals and that the parents want to make sure that your district will fully comply with supporting the comfort pig.  The parents are asking for your school's policy on comfort animals as they couldn't locate one on the policy page of the district's website. They have cited the following legal case as backing for their right of their daughter to have a comfort animal at school: In Alejandro v. Palm Beach State College, District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks ruled in favor of a student's right to be accompanied on campus, in residence halls, and to classes by a psychiatric service dog, which was trained to respond to the onset of anxiety attacks the student experienced as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The ruling stated that any potential harm or disruption caused by the presence of the service dog was minimal in comparison to the benefit experienced by the student, and, therefore, its presence was considered a reasonable accommodation. Pig image #3961588 on Pixabay free to use under Pixabay License. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 188 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-27-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

On May 2, 2016, I confidently marched into the Education Building at UW-Madison expecting, in a few short hours, I would be high-stepping Bascom Hill as “Dr. Perrodin.” That day didn't go as planned. In fact, my priest was in attendance (per my invitation), and he even brought lunch and snacks for the dissertation committee members. Despite [mostly] following the pomp and circumstance protocol, the committee failed me. In this episode, I'll explain the doctoral dissertation process and how to bounce back from an unexpected big-stage defeat. WHAT IS A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION? The dissertation is the student's final task to obtain a doctoral degree. It's a lengthy piece of scholarly writing that is the product of extensive original research and results in an original contribution to the field. My dissertation was 167 double-spaced pages and took me about a year to complete - beginning with a research proposal and culminating with (eventually) a successful “defense” of my work. It's worth noting that 50% of all doctoral students never complete the dissertation. If they complete all other requirements, these folks are considered ABD (All But Dissertation). It's something you might see on a resume, but there is no diploma for ABD. WHAT WAS MY DISSERTATION ABOUT? My dissertation's title was ‘How Educational Administrators Prepare Schools For High-Stakes Safety Situations: A Focus On Elementary Schools In Rural and Suburban Contexts.' I had already established myself as a national safety expert, having presented a special on PBS in 2013. I wanted my dissertation to be rigorous and add value to my worth as a school safety expert. WHAT DID I LEARN? The first thing I learned was to contact the “experts” and “sources” directly whenever possible. What I mean by that is most student-researchers have a tendency to merely cite the work of others. My dissertation included more than 100 citations. (By comparison, there are 471 citations in my (2022) book, ‘The Velocity of Information'). Beyond just citing experts, my advisor encouraged me to contact them directly and ask them specific questions about their findings. That worked, and was a pivotal moment in my budding research and writing endeavors. Whenever possible, I go directly to the source. The second thing that I learned was that people in roles that require high-stakes decision making fatigue from unrelenting high-stakes decision making. They don't immediately bounce back.There's degrees of elasticity in decision making recovery. One principal admitted that following a high-stakes decision about student or school safety, he was exhausted - as most decisions involved drama. He speculated that it took him a few days to return to baseline. DEFENDING THE DISSERTATION - A BIT LIKE SHARK TANK. The dissertation defense is similar to the TV show Shark Tank. You have 15-20 PowerPoint slides and up to an hour to showcase your research methods, findings, and how your work contributed to the overall scholarly knowledge base. It's tense. Expect probing questions and challenges. My dissertation was held in a classroom with my advisor and four committee members - other professors at the University that I had invited to serve on my committee. It's typical to invite one or two people for support. I invited my priest - and he brought a meal and snacks for the committee members! The food part is also oddly common (and expected) for a defense. That part has an awkward feel to it. Also, professors or students might sit in on the defense. I attended a few defenses prior to my own in order to learn the expectations and settle myself by watching the student referred to as “doctor” as they shook hands and walked head-held-high out of the room. WHY DID THE COMMITTEE FAIL YOU? To be clear, I was prepared and my advisor didn't anticipate any stumbling blocks from the committee members. But, 10 minutes into my defense, a committee member shut it down. I made a critical mistake. I veered from my presentation and centered on timely, local school safety decision-making situations in order to (I thought) establish firm groundwork to justify the importance of my study. Even with that breach of protocol, my advisor was shocked, my priest prepared last rites, and I was miffed at the committee. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FAIL? My advisor met with the committee members. I adjusted my presentation and dissertation. But, I wasn't required to defend it a second time. The committee members signed off, and I walked the signed ‘warrant' to the Old Main - becoming, without fanfare, Dr. Perrodin. I have zero regrets about pursuing and obtaining my PhD. I learned research methods subsequently applied in two published books. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 187 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-20-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

Guest Graham Wilson is a former Chief Flight Instructor and Pilot Examiner in Windsor, Ontario. He has worked as a machinist and served on a school board. Graham produces aviation-themed content for his ‘Superpilotish' YouTube channel and website superpilotish.com. In this interview, Graham, a from-real-experiences storyteller, talks about decision making for pilots, including ‘The DECIDE Model'; non-punitive mistake reporting; obvious or nuanced risks pilots encounter during flying (including toilet paper in the fuel tank); and benefits and drawbacks of at-home flight simulator software for aspiring pilots. THE DECIDE MODEL. DECIDE is an acronym from flight literacy training. It is a six-step risk management loop process, similar to simulated annealing, that provides the pilot with a logical way of making decisions during atypical situations. DETECT that a change has occurred. This requires the pilot to exercise situational awareness and baseline awareness. ESTIMATE the need to counter or react. A blinking dash light might only require that it be noted for further scrutiny after landing. CHOOSE the desired outcome. This might be to return to the airport. IDENTIFY actions to control the change. Review emergency checklists, which might be “turn things off and then turn them back again,” and then communicate the problem to the airport. DO (perform) the action. The tower might ask if you want to declare an emergency. If you do, the tower will give you priority to land and might send out emergency services. As Graham reminds us, always be communicating your observations and actions to others. There is a tendency during a crisis for people to not talk while they act. Pilots are taught to describe their actions as they do or plan them, but this isn't inherent to non-pilots facing uncertainty. EVALUATE the success of the action. NON-PUNITIVE MISTAKE REPORTING. Graham underscores that pilots applying their professional discretion to report a mistake will not encounter blowback of blame or shame. Measuring information-sharing won't dig to the root causes. Why did the failure occur? Did a part fail? Did software fail? Is there a flaw in a larger system? Should there be more or different training? If it was a mistake by the pilot, what contributed to that mistake and what redundancies might be put in place to account for it. Focus on a better system and you're working together. Graham adds that a pilot won't be billed for the airport's emergency services. Doc noted that billing for emergency services is common in America, from search and rescue to firefighting, and that some people refuse emergency care in anticipation of huge bills. DUMB DESIGN OF WWII PLANES. Cliff Kuang (2019) wrote an article for WIRED in which he described how WWII pilots were blamed for crashing their B-17 Flying Fortresses. In one instance, a confused pilot jumped into a new plane during a bombing raid to find the instruments completely re-arranged. He managed to dart around the runway until the attack was over. However, the true cause of many of the pilot-attributed crashes was actually due to the design of the plane, or “designer error.” “The reason why all those pilots were crashing when their B-17s were easing into a landing was that the flaps and landing gear controls looked exactly the same and felt exactly the same." The ingenious solution was to create a system of distinctively shaped knobs and levers that made it easy to distinguish all the controls of the plane merely by feel, so that there's no chance of confusion even if you're flying in the dark. And, it worked! BIGGEST RISK TO A PILOT. The top risk is running out of fuel, with adverse weather being a close second. But, using a cheaper fuel, such as an 89 octane with 10% ethanol, might be a subtle risk to a pilot. Depending upon how long the fuel has been in the tank, it might begin to absorb moisture and also congeal. This could impair the plane's fuel system during flight. Ego is also a risk. There's no shame in getting cleared for takeoff and then aborting the flight as you stare at a dark storm cloud beyond the runway. Flight instructors will model this practice of confident decision making. It's the primacy effect. The first time the student sees the instructor cancel a flight due to iffy weather, for example, is something that is burned into the student's brain. AT-HOME SIMULATOR SOFTWARE - IS IT GOOD? Graham fields these questions often from aspiring pilots. He notes that such programs fuel students' enthusiasm for flying and can help them with an early grasp of terminology and some basic operations of the plane. However, any simulators will not prepare a student to fly a plane. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 186 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-13-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com

James David Dickson, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, wrote an article about Michigan House Bill 6171, introduced in June (2022) by Representative Gary Eisen. The proposed bill reads: “Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the board of a school district or intermediate school district or board of directors of a public school academy shall ensure that each school operated by the board or board of directors develops or adopts and implements a policy that prohibits the use of personal cellular devices by pupils enrolled in the school during the scheduled school day when the pupil is at school.“ At school” means in a classroom, elsewhere on school property, or on a school bus or other school-related vehicle.” Per Dickson, HB 6171 shows the faults of the “There Should Be A Law” mentality. Dickson wrote a compelling piece skewering the bill - and this episode will spelunk those, and other, rabbit holes for and against banning cellphones in school, with 7 reasons to not ban cellphones and 7 reasons to ban them. REASONS NOT TO BAN CELLPHONES (1) CELLPHONES ARE PART OF LEARNING. Cellphones are inseparable from learning. By 2007, educators conceded that cell phones could play an important part in learning. Universities started using text messages to reach out to students, and a survey released by Cingular Wireless indicated that parents believed text messaging helped to improve communications with children (Loveless, 2022). (2) SCHOOL SAFETY. School safety is enhanced by cell phones. Although phone-based danger reporting or incident notification apps are not nearly as effective or reliable as purported by their enthusiastic vendors, they hold much potential for the future of personal safety. If each student's phone was viewed the same way we view smoke detectors, it would be unthinkable to remove them from our schools. (3) SINGULARITY IS INEVITABLE. Banning cellphones is an update to the 1970s argument to ban calculators. Schools are slow to infuse technology into curriculum and operating systems. Today, kids flash an electronic ticket on their phone to attend their school's sporting event. Futurist Ray Kurzwel predicts that something known as ‘singularity' will happen around the year 2045. Singularity is a merging of the human brain with computers and AI. It might be a form of neuralink. At that point, will school require students to disconnect their links during instructional time, to remove their slim 3D projection goggles, etc.? In 20 years, cellphones will be a relic of the past. (4) COMMUNICATIONS. Be it text, email, or call, the cellphone makes communication efficient and reliable. I remember a 1990 computer lab where logging in via modem speed and bringing up text-only email once or twice a day was considered cutting-edge mass communications. (5) NAVIGATION. GPS and navigation apps, such as What3Words and Waze, help students navigate the campus and have an enhanced comprehension of their surroundings. With the What3Words app, rescuers could respond to a 3 meter by 3 meter square area where the student - or the student could share their location as a gathering point for teammates getting off a bus for a competition. (6) IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE. Schools are operating short-staffed and enforcing cellphone violations is not a realistic expectation of time-strapped staff or administration. BOEs won't be able to undo bad state policy. And, Policing cellphones damages school connectedness. And, what are the consequences for breaking this law? (7) PROTECTION. Cameras provide evidence, especially when deep fakes can shame or destroy a person. In 2021, an allegedly crafted fake video of Pennsylvania high school cheerleader Madi Hime vaping resulted in her being kicked off the cheerleading squad. The student's mother contacted the police, sparking an investigation, and involvement of legal counsel. As deepfake technology becomes easier and cheaper to use, these types of “alleged” claims will overwhelm school staff and local police departments. Having the option to present recorded video might help in one's defense. REASONS TO BAN CELLPHONES (1) OVER-RELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGY. Cellphones are integrated into most information-storing and retrieving aspects of our lives. Any kid attending school in the 1970s remembers that pocket calculators were prohibited in most schools. The argument against electronic calculators was that the student wouldn't be motivated to learn the intricacies of the math equations - but rather, the sequence of formulas - which were also becoming more integrated into shortcuts in the calculators. “You won't always have a calculator with you to figure out the slope of a tangent line,” teachers said. In 1984, I wore a scientific calculator watch on my wrist. The banning of cellphones today was the banning of personal learning technology devices (tablets, iPads) ten years ago. And while we think cell phones as learning tools in schools is a new idea, it's important to remember that a school in Brooklyn began distributing cell phones to students way back in 2008! (2) DISTRACTION. Social media companies employ psychologists and human behavior experts in order to hone their sites to be as addictive as possible. And everyone, not just kids, spend arguably “too many” hours a day interacting with their phones. But instead of flat out banning cellphones, they could be parked during certain instructional times, or incorporated into the teaching / learning tool process. The app ‘Poll Everywhere” can be used for students to vote on a topic. It enables most students to participate and works around the groupthink of one or two students stating an answer and the rest of class falls in line with the claim. Imagine a class topic about household chemicals. Students capture photos of chemicals found in their phones. These photos are transmitted to the classroom's online site. In the following lesson, the teacher and students discuss how to classify the chemicals - as medical supplies, detergents, fuel, discretionary, and so on. (3) BULLYING. Cyberbullying is real and is an unsavory side effect of social media. The 2019 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice) indicates that, nationwide, about 16 percent of students in grades 9–12 experienced cyberbullying. (4) RECORDING INSTRUCTION - PROPRIETARY MATERIAL. Most schools purchase curriculum packages for hundreds of thousands of dollars and adhere to strict protocol for not sharing proprietary learning materials. This was tested during online instruction during the pandemic. In addition, would a school want students to record and post intruder drill protocols or other sensitive information? (5) DEEP FAKES. The integrity of instruction is at stake. A cellphone makes it exponentially easier for a student to create a deep fake of school staff saying something that would land them in hot water. Schools are way behind the curve with figuring out how to respond to deep fakes. Banning phones might limit the opportunities for deep fakes. (6) EQUITY. Equity was an argument against one-to-one electronic tablets or iPads for students. Only the affluent students would be able to afford the technology. And then, BOEs adopted 1:1 policies and funded devices for all students. Most students have 1:1 devices. It would be a similar BOE action to bring forth 1:1 cell phones. (7) SINGULARITY - As mentioned earlier, humans and AI will merge at some more invasive  level - and probably within the next 20 years. We've already achieved the first few steps of singularity with our cell phones. But with singularity comes a great push to store our knowledge ‘in the cloud.' This is known as cognitive offloading and was written about in great detail in the book The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022). If we become out-of-balance dependent on going to our phone as the arbiter for each decision in our life, we are at risk for being unable to figure things out if the Internet fails - perhaps due to hacking, solar flare, EMP, etc. Counter this by integrating phones with real-world applications. Use the GPS on the phone for a scavenger hunt in the authentic environment of a park or school grounds. SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG POST. Loveless, B. (2022). Using Cell Phones as Learning Tools. https://www.educationcorner.com/cell-phones-learning-tools.html; Dickson, James David. (2022). Michigan bill would ban cellphones on school buses, in class. https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/news/michigan-bill-would-ban-cell-phones-on-school-buses-in-class SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 185 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 09-06-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com  

Between 2004 and 2014, in the US National Parks alone, there were 46,609 individuals who became lost and required a search and rescue campaign, which cost about $51.4 million in total (Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2018 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics. Tech. Rep., National Crime Information Center). What are characteristics of lost persons and who has the discretion and authority to commit agency resources to find them? ROBERT KOESTER: LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR. The scientific study of lost person cases to identify patterns specific to characteristics, such as age groups, disability, dementia, and so on began in the mid 1970s with Bill Syrotuck. In 2008, however, Robert Koester revolutionized search and rescue with his book, Lost Person Behavior - A Search and Rescue Guide on Where to Look - for Land, Air, and Water. He not only developed 41 categories of being “lost,” but coupled those to passage of time and terrain. LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR APP (It's Not Free!). The US Dept. of Homeland Security released a Lost Person App in 2015 based on data from over 150,000 missing person cases. The app provides guidance on over 40 scenarios including lost hikers, children, and dementia patients. The app is available on Amazon for $9.95 from dbS Productions LLC.The app doesn't require a network connection so can be used anywhere. 13 FACTS ABOUT LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR. The following 13 facts are from Karen Hume's blog post on May 17, 2017 found at https://profoundjourney.com/13-facts-lost-person-behaviour/ (1) It is a myth that we panic when lost. Instead, most of us experience shock, disbelief, and embarrassment. (2) Many people experience an irrational belief that no one is looking for them. When that happens, they don't call out. Some even ignore a helicopter flying overhead. (3) Hansel and Gretel may have benefited from leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, but it's not a good sign when a lost person leaves a trail of clothing or equipment. Rather, it's an unfortunate indicator of either late stage hypothermia or exhaustion. (4) Fifty percent of searches resolve within three hours. (5) Fifty-four per cent of people are found within two miles of the point where they were last seen. (6) Hikers tend to become lost if the trail is obscured or if there are confusing trails that intersect. Rescuers do a map and terrain analysis to determine where the confusing spots are so they can look there first. (7) Hunters become lost because they are focused on game rather than navigation or time of day. If caught after dark, the typical hunter will build a shelter and then proudly walk out of the woods, unassisted, at daybreak. (8) Despondent people typically don't travel very far. If suicidal, they hide from search teams. Despondent people are often found at the interface between two types of terrain, such as a cliff edge, or along a shoreline. (9) Lost adults will usually stay on a trail, however they may climb a hill to get a view of the area. They rarely travel in a straight line, and rarely reverse direction. (10) Children, on the other hand, look for familiar spots rather than trails. They can't judge either direction or distance and tend to move randomly. (11) Young people of ages 13-15 often become lost in groups of two or more. Youth in a group rarely travel very far from where they were last seen. (12) Children, ages 1-3, look for the most convenient location to lie down and are, as a result, very difficult to detect. A little bit older, ages 4-6, and one of the big problems is that they won't answer rescuers' calls because they've been taught to avoid strangers. (13) Berry pickers, nature photographers, and rock hounds are often inadequately clothed or equipped. Rescuers try to put themselves in the lost person's shoes, asking questions such as, “Where do the best berries grow?” HOW TO GET FOUND. (1) Stop: As soon as you realize you may be lost: stop, stay calm, stay put. (2) Think: Go over in your mind how you got to where you are. What landmarks should you be able to see? Do not move at all until you have a specific reason to take a step. (3) Observe: If you are on a trail, stay on it. Blow a whistle. (4) Plan: Inventory your options and determine if you can act to get yourself to a more favorable optimum. DO SCHOOLS TRAIN FOR LOST STUDENTS? In my experience, schools don't conduct lost-student drills or exercises. There are accounts of students with autism, for example, wandering from schools. In February, 2022, an 8-year-old boy with autism wandered away from school and walked home alone (ClickonDetroit, 2022). Children with autism might exhibit a diminished sense of fear of traffic and environmental hazards. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 184 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-30-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Des Moines Public Schools is offering a $50,000 incentive to teachers, nurses, and administrators who are nearing retirement to stay with the district through the 2022-2023 school year. A few states over, Michigan's Jackson Public Schools is offering a $10,000 signing bonus for new teachers willing to stay at least two years. Unheard of five years ago, educator signing and retention bonuses are the new normal and range from $500 to several thousand dollars. But they aren't solving Des Moines staffing issues - and the state of Georgia found little success in attempting to recruit retired teachers. Of 56,000 retirees eligible to return with incentives, less than 100 contacted the state about returning. TEACHER SHORTAGES. In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute released a report examining the magnitude of the at-the-time teacher shortage in America, as well as projections to the year 2025. In 2017-2018, it was estimated that there was a shortage of 110,000 teachers. Projecting to 2025, the shortage will swell to 200,000 teachers available to enter the classroom and the demand for new hires. WHY ARE TEACHERS LEAVING? Teachers report that they are “burned out” - citing increasing student discipline, sprawling obligations, high-stakes testing, and low pay. Note that in the World Happiness Report, people choose living in an area where someone would return their wallet over having their salary doubled. WHAT LOCATIONS ARE MOST AFFECTED? High-poverty schools and rural schools, seemingly obvious, have the greatest challenges maintaining a full staff. These locations also endure the most turnover, as teachers move to higher-paying districts or communities with more amenities. Per Universities.com, teacher shortages are reported across the US. “Nevada students started school on August 8, 2022, with a shortage of over 1400 Teachers.” California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, and Hawaii are the top 5 states with teacher shortages. OTHER STRATEGIES TO BOOST APPEAL OF THE TEACHING OCCUPATION. Some schools are trimming the work week, although it's uncertain how doing so will impact required minutes for student's education, especially services for students with disabilities. “Texas' rural school districts are implementing a 4-day school week to alleviate the Teacher shortage. Houston, Texas currently has over 2200 teaching vacancies (Unversities.com).” There has been a growing effort to make it easier for non-teachers to become certified teachers. “Florida is recruiting military Veterans to teach without a license to help the Teacher shortage and Polk County has hired 60 international Teachers Universities.com). Still, other schools are paying teachers relocation expenses. FREE-AGENCY TYPE NEGOTIATION. Teachers in highest-demand areas, such as tech-ed, chemistry, or foreign languages might receive the highest bonuses and most-tailored packages from school districts. In addition, specialists, such as speech-language pathologists, an area with chronic shortage, might be paid nearly double the salary of a classroom teacher. It hasn't happened yet, but we are on course for a teacher or specialist to hire an agent, similar to pro sports. This is already happening for school administrator jobs, with aspiring leaders hiring an agency to stump for an interview of the candidate. RETIREMENT PACKAGES HAVE LOST APPEAL. The teaching profession is typically coupled with a robust state pension plan and even retirement payouts to be applied to healthcare. The “retire at 55 with a pension mantra for life” mantra isn't resonating with younger people who do not want to trade lower wages today for a pension 30 years from now. That generation is day-trading stocks on their Robinhood apps. On the other hand, the National Education Association argues that pensions ``successfully attract people to education as a profession, retain teachers, and provide solid retirement security.`` So perhaps what needs to happen is better “educating” teachers about the value of having a pension, but this doesn't seem to be the appropriate set of talking points for people under 40. It's out-of-touch to tell people who just emerged from a pandemic, civil unrest, and an economic crash (that slid into inflation and shortages) to think decades down the road. They aren't going to do that, and the school district office's human resources folks need to think of the teaching profession as becoming more similar to the private sector. Maybe we'll see a “Moneyball” approach of fielding a roster year-to-year. Sure, that eviscerates legacy and institutional knowledge, but it's the way things are - so get novel with staff induction. Some districts will figure this out. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 183 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-20-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Doc highlights what has changed in school safety since the May 24, 2022, Robb Elementary School shooting that ended the lives of 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas. He interprets how schools will be impacted by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (signed into federal law July, 2022). Doc peruses each website to critically evaluate and assign ratings to the existing and “new” school safety clearinghouse websites. BIPARTISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT: Per Everytown.org, the bill will purportedly enhance background checks for buyers under 21; support state red flag laws; disarm domestic abusers; clarify who must run a background check; crack down on gun trafficking; fund community violence intervention; invest in mental health services; and provide school safety funding. We will examine some of the centerpieces of the school safety section of the bill. (1) ANOTHER (and competing?) SCHOOL SAFETY RESOURCES WEBSITE. The bill installed schoolsafety.gov as the “official” repository for best practices in school safety. It will be situated at the Department of Homeland Security. However, this action is confusing because the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, already has the robust and updated Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center, or REMS. And, REMS TA has a “toolbox” feature that allows schools across the country to upload forms, job descriptions, tabletop exercises, organizational charts, and more - to be curated, easily-searched, and freely shared. These are from-the-field tools. (2) MORE MENTAL HEALTH DOLLARS TO SCHOOLS. Expanded reimbursement for schools billing Medicaid for Individualized Education Plan (IEP) mental health services. And, $500 million each for the School Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the School Based Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant. The expected outcome is hiring and training more staff, but this doesn't seem to be a problem that will be solved by more funding as school staffing shortages haven't been ameliorated by increased pay and bonuses. In August of 2022, Des Moines Public Schools offered a $50,000 bonus to teachers who planned to retire but are willing to work another year. Also, grants are temporary. They are intended to start the ball rolling, not to keep the ball rolling. Professionals will hesitate to accept even well-paying grant-funded positions. (3) EXPAND ACCESS TO JUVENILE MENTAL HEALTH RECORDS. Thorough reviews of potential gun buyers under the age of 21 will require implementing a new protocol for checking juvenile records. This implies access to a student's school records - specifically, discipline, disability, or mental health records. These are areas strongly protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This is a can of worms and will vary greatly per perceived discretion and authority to make a subjective summary decision based upon a student's records. Schools might counter by pushing more behavioral events “off the books” by a practice known as ‘abeyance agreements.' GLARING OVERSIGHTS FROM THE BILL: LOCKED DOORS AND REGULATED DEVICES. Absent from the school section of the bill was a requirement that schools lock their doors during instructional time. This decision continues to be defaulted to the states. Kentucky (2020) requires that schools lock their doors. Recently California, Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts have taken steps toward stronger emphasis on “best policy” to require doors to be locked. However, most school districts' board of education policies or handbooks continue to use the term “should lock doors” instead of “must lock doors.” It's clear this is done to dodge accountability and liability. In addition, school safety devices or apps continue to be unregulated and able to be marketed and purchased by schools without some standard of testing and pilot trials. Think of Underwriters Laboratories, but for school safety. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 182 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 08-12-2022.   Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

A popular Reddit thread is titled, “What's a ‘Today is going to suck' red flag. A top up-voted response was, “Waking up with a huge headache,” and another was “When you get all the red lights on your commute.” Each of us could add a comment to that thread, right? Per the National Institute of Health, “Consistent with this focus, an anxiety-linked negative expectancy bias reflects an inflated tendency for anxious individuals to expect an increased probability of negative relative to positive events.” In other words, when people expect negative events, bad luck, or suboptimal outcomes - that's what they will observe, and perceive, of the world around them. This frame of thinking might be accurate, but it is also damaging to morale if allowed to continue for long spans of time. In this episode, Doc will share his current observations of negative expectation bias, identifies times it has happened throughout history, and offers research-supported and anecdotal suggestions to mitigate the languishing impact of negative expectation bias. He will read related excerpts from his book, The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (VOI). WE SEEK AND ACCEPT EVIDENCE ALIGNED TO OUR BIASES. Per Psychology Today, “A bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice toward or against something or someone. Some biases are positive and helpful—like choosing to only eat foods that are considered healthy or staying away from someone who has knowingly caused harm. But biases are often based on stereotypes, rather than actual knowledge of an individual or circumstance. Whether positive or negative, such cognitive shortcuts can result in prejudgments that lead to rash decisions or discriminatory practices.” Our life experiences shape our biases, as do our families, as do our sources of information. NORMALCY BIAS. One of the most-prominent biases in the safety community is normalcy bias - or the belief that an event isn't severe enough to warrant a course-altering reaction. And, things will return to normal in a very short time. If this is how we think, then that's how we will perceive the events that we observe in our world. People rooted to normalcy biases typically perform poorly during crisis situations. They fail to act, or the suddenly-changed context overwhelms them. They are slow to adapt. And, life and death is measured in the seconds between the onset of an emergency and one's reaction to it. FILTERING FOR NEGATIVE EXPECTATIONS. On the other hand, if we expect negative news, then we will perceive news as negative - or filter out neutral or positive news as it doesn't match our expectation for bad news. It's also remarkably hard to convince people that authentic events are not matched to their expectation bias. In other words, if you expect things to be good and they are, in fact, negative, you'll have a predisposition to perceive things as good. Such a person might be happy and easy going, but they are also the last one into the lifeboat or out of the burning building. MEDIA ABHORS IN A VACUUM. “The media abhors an information vacuum. It will take what information it has and amplify it, completing the ensemble with speculation when deemed necessary. Uncertainty makes us crave more information, so many people spend a lot of time looking for news updates, refreshing screens every few minutes to seek reassurance. As people lose proportion and perspective, they spiral down a whirlpool of confirmation (expectation) bias.” Pg. 50 of VOI. MARTIAN ATTACK. “On October 28, 1938, many Americans believed they were being invaded by Martians. This erroneous belief was the result of a Halloween stunt orchestrated by Orson Welles in which he adapted H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds to the radio and then broadcast the play as though it was actually happening. “[A] few short weeks before this broadcast, millions of listeners had kept their radios tuned for the latest news from a Europe apparently about to go to war.” Radio listeners therefore had a preexisting expectation bias toward catastrophically bad news. In the weeks that followed, Psychology professor Howard Cantril of Princeton University and colleagues interviewed people to try and understand their reactions to the broadcast. Of those that mistook the radio play as a live news report, almost none of them tuned to another station where they would have quickly found that life was completely normal.” Pg. 67 of VOI. HOW TO LIMIT YOUR BIASES. Humans have biases - they are part of our survival wiring. Acknowledge when your biases are influencing your perceptions - you'll probably be aware of this - more than you think. Listen to others' perspectives. Vary your information sources. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 181 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 05-10-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

It is legally recognized that time is cleanly divided into years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. But in certain chaos conditions, the construct of time might distort and collapse into what is known as a flow state. All that matters is the moment. And while we convince ourselves that we will observe and respond to bountiful warning signs, we'll learn that the collapse of physical time is a hard bifurcation that appears “obvious and avoidable” in hindsight. In this episode, Doc talks about the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire's collapse of physical time and reads excerpts from pages 10-11 in the book ‘The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times' by David P. Perrodin. PIGEON FORGE AND GATLINBURG WILDFIRES. “Consider the wildfires that killed 14 people and destroyed nearly 20,000 acres in the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg areas of the Great Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee in November and December 2016. More specifically, imagine being among the residents and vacationers in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area attempting to flee down the mountainside at night, in the dark, in some cases encountering downed trees and abandoned automobiles blocking roadways, while walls of flame consuming trees and underbrush rapidly approach the road from both sides. “At 8:30 p.m. on November 28, 2016, high winds and roaring flames disabled cell towers, melted fiber-optic cables, disrupted digital radio signals and shut down phone lines. Backup systems and protocols failed.” Everything cut out in an instant.” LULLED INTO FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY. “Emily Walpole, a NIST scientist who studied the incident, uncovered a perplexing finding in her analysis of the multiday fire. “It's possible that you get used to smelling smoke and it basically lulls you into a false sense of security . . . the fire could be miles away and be producing smoke.” Likewise, some resorts and vacationers in the area ignored the nearby threat until it was almost too late. “It seemed that people expected that if a large wildfire requiring evacuation was going to happen, they would be told. Instead, many had to find out on their own.” Resorts closed, issuing eleventh-hour evacuation orders as their hope that the fires would spare their area was extinguished, while the fire was not. One such couple relates how it was not until they texted a picture of encroaching fire to their firefighter son—who replied for them to get out of the area immediately—that their own perception of their immediate situation changed.” THE FIRE WAS OBSERVED TWO DAYS BEFORE HELL BROKE LOOSE - SO WHY WASN'T THE PUBLIC ALERTED? Survivors blame park rangers and other federal personnel for failing to adequately alert the town about the fire's danger and speed. Insurance companies also have filed litigation in the case. The fire started as a small blaze Nov. 23, 2016, the day before Thanksgiving, on the popular Chimney Tops trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Authorities said it appeared two teenage boys set the fire, which grew in subsequent days until it became an inferno that swept into Gatlinburg on Nov. 28. INSUFFICIENT NOTIFICATION LAWSUIT CAN CONTINUE. In 2020, Senior U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer stated that the government failed to properly alert neighbors of the risk of the fire. "The United States cannot rely on the press releases and an E-Blast to satisfy a requirement to notify “Park Neighbors, Park visitors, and local residents” when it doesn't tell the Court where the press releases and E-Blast were sent to," Greer wrote. He continued: "Likewise, the United States relies on the information posted to websites and social media accounts to satisfy the requirement. The problem with this argument is the same as the problem with the press release and E-Blast argument. The information posted on the websites gave notice to the visitors of the Park's website, the Instagram posts may have given notice to the people who follow the Park on Instagram, etc. But posting information on websites and social media accounts is not the same as notifying “Park neighbors, Park visitors and local residents . . . of all planned and unplanned fire management activities that have the potential to impact them. RELYING ON SMART DEVICES. Many of us rely so heavily on “smart” devices on a daily basis when hell is not breaking loose. We have trained ourselves to assume that the technology that allows us to receive the information we need to navigate our home turf on a typically uneventful day will always work because it always has worked. This assumption is our torus, our normalcy bias. When your observations are mismatched to your technology, choose a course of action to get out of harm's way. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 180 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 05-03-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

In 2017, America's tallest dam complex had partially, but catastrophically, failed. The Oroville Dam, located in northern California, left operators scrambling to figure out how to manage a main spillway failure, eroding secondary spillway, and a rising water level in the reservoir. Remember those tense days when America was riveted to the nightly news for the latest updates? Remember the engineers who calculated that Sacramento, which is in a geological basin, would be hip-deep in water if the Oroville complex collapsed? The thing is, this didn't make the nightly news - at least nothing more than five seconds of video and another ten seconds of narrative. But, that didn't mean Americans, Californians, and people near Oroville didn't have questions. They had a lot of questions. In fact, people across the world were thirsty for updates about Oroville - and they received them from Juan Browne. In this episode, Doc discusses Chapter 2: Face Validity, from his book, ‘The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. He reads an excerpt about Juane Browne and the Oroville Dam and points out how there are reliable, organic journalists around us - and how we can responsibly break our own news to inform our communities and friends. David will reference pages 41-45 from The Velocity of Information. THE OROVILLE DAM. Completed in 1968, Oroville Dam was a showpiece of the California State Water Project. Located on the Feather River, east of the city of Oroville and 70 miles north of Sacramento, the earthen embankment dam was used for flood control, water storage, and hydroelectric power generation. The dam was modern and, until 2017, had an insignificant history. But as all structures, entropy took its toll. 2017 SPILLWAY FAILURE.  On February 8, 2017, during a routine water release, a large portion of the center spillway collapsed. With fears that continued use of the spillway could erode further toward the gates and completely collapse the structure, a decision was made to pass water over the emergency spillway. On February 11, 2017, Oroville Dam, America's tallest, at 770 feet, overtopped and damaged its emergency spillway for the first time in its history, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people. The unnatural disaster took about one billion dollars to repair and caused millions more in property damage. JUAN BROWN'S FIRST VIDEO OF THE DAM. “Just one day prior to the incident, on February 10, Browne made his first video about the dam. Fearing that the government would soon restrict air traffic over the site, Browne, a commercial pilot for American Airlines, got into his 1946 Luscombe 8A single-engine plane to offer the world the rarest of bird's-eye view. Browne used a GoPro Hero5 camera to shoot the video. He added narration and published it to his YouTube channel, @blancolirio, the next day. The video immediately went viral. It has since amassed more than 500,000 views. In the five-minute, ten-second video, Browne shows a command of the scene, the situation, and the possible consequences of the dam's failure. The view from 3,000 feet is intimate and dramatic. With no other planes in the sky, and no people at the site, the rarity of the vantage is apparent. One gets the feeling of being led on a backstage tour. Throughout, Browne's tone is even and informative, never breathless or excited. “That's the big concern going forward: how much erosion are we going to get?” Browne says at one point, summarizing the fears of his neighbors who were watching. That concern was justified. BROWNE BECAME THE TRUSTED SOURCE. Up in the air, seeking truth, and answering the questions that mattered to neighbors fearing for their futures is when things took off for Juan's YouTube Channel. He was granted special access to the dam complex to film his updates and to interview workers. When he appeared at state informational meetings, the audience sought his input as much as it did the engineers at the front table. “As the months-long repair effort went on, Browne continued his reports. Over time, he was perceived as an honest broker by the state and the engineering firm, and was allowed a unique level of access to the dam. “Nobody else was really doing it with this level of detail or interest,” Browne said. PEOPLE WANT THE FACTS. Juan also believes that is why the public responded so strongly. “There is a huge void, or a huge market for, just the facts,” Browne said. “People really responded to that, and it seems to be so lacking in today's modern infotainment industry. They just wanted the facts.” THREE LESSONS FROM JUAN. (A) See it for yourself, (B) You have not because you ask not, and (C,) Be curious, not cunning. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 179 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 04-26-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Between 1933 and 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered 31 evening radio addresses to ameliorate the fears and concerns of the American people as well as to inform them of the positions and actions taken by the U.S. Government. The addresses were both novel and sticking. Ranging from 11 to 44 minutes, these informal addresses resembled a pull-up-your-chair fireside chat atmosphere more than a formal projection originating behind an ordained podium. In this episode, Doc examines FDR's fireside chats as he unpacked them (for messaging strategies during uncertain times) in his book, ‘The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.' Doc notes striking similarities to the style of presentation adopted by Ukraine President Volodymer Zelnskyy. Has Zelenskyy managed to modernize the propaganda formula that was a resounding success for FDR? ROOSEVELT'S FIRESIDE CHATS - THE MAGIC IS THE MEDIUM. The following excerpts are from pages 96-98 of Dr. Perrodin's book, The Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency stands out not only for its duration but also the challenges he and America faced together from 1933 to 1945, from the Great Depression to World War II. The enormity of those two challenges, but especially the Depression, which welcomed FDR to office, forced him to the radio airwaves, early and often, in his now famous ‘fireside chats.' The fireside chat was the creation of a White House aide. The idea was that beaming the president's words, live, from his house to yours, unfiltered by time or editors, would allow unprecedented intimacy between the president and the public. “To many, the Great Depression confirmed what they had suspected all along: individuals no longer mattered in the new economic order (1).” THE FIRST FIRESIDE CHAT. “The first fireside chat went out live just eight days after FDR's inauguration, on March 12, 1933. “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking,” he said at the start of the inaugural chat (2). The fireside chats were “the first media events—live, pre-planned, extraordinary broadcasts that riveted the attention of the nation—in American history,” writes history professor David Ryfe (3). “Roosevelt often used the ‘you' form,” Ryfe continues “throughout the chats, he is concerned to ‘tell you,' ‘interest you,' ‘make it clear to you,' and ‘make you understand (4).'” It was as if the president were speaking directly to each individual. FEATURES OF THE FIRESIDE CHAT: FDR vs. ZELENSKYY. The appeal and enduring success of FDR's fireside chats are attributable to several features, many of which are observed in the addresses of Ukraine President Zelenskyy amidst the 2022 military invasion-conflict by Russia. (A) Talk of the particulars and not mechanics: During the 1933 banking crisis, FDR didn't speak at lengths explaining the banking holiday (closed banks), but rather the “fortitude” of Americans and the inconvenience and hardships they endured due to closed banks. Zelensky appeals to emotions, strength, and allegiance - even if he seemingly enrolls allies that are not formally allies, such as NATO. He avoids updates on the specifics of the conflict, but does not soften the devastation. (B) Short duration speeches: FDR's fireside chats were between 11 and 44 minutes. This kept his message relevant without becoming rambling or redundant. During chaotic times, people have less tolerance and information-processing capacity for long-winded messaging. Zelensky's addresses to Ukrainians mirror these figures. (C) Consistency: FDR spoke in plain language and without walk-up promotion. Zelenskyy is similar with his use of common language (and recognizable visuals) and his green-henley shirts have not yielded to suits. ZELENSKYY TALKING TO THE WORLD AS FDR ADDRESSED A NATION. As speeches are now just a smart-device away, Zelenskyy tends to address his countrymen through his addresses to the European Union, NATO, and Congress. And while the world tuned into FDR's fireside chats, FDR was never addressing the world - he was talking to fellow Americans as the world listened in. CITATIONS: (1) Ryfe, David Michael. “From Media Audience to Media Public: A Study of Letters Written in Reaction to FDR's Fireside Chats.” Media, Culture and Society 23 (November 1, 2001): 767–781. doi: 10.1177/016344301023006005; (2) History.com Editors. “FDR Broadcasts First ‘Fireside Chat' During the Great Depression.” History.com. November 24, 2009. https://www.history.com /this -day -in-history /fdr -gives -first -fireside -chat; (3) Ryfe, From Media Audience to Media Public, 767–781; (4) Ibid. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 178 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 04-19-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Stagnant, sweltering summer days cocoon us with unshakable pulsing heat and sticky humidity in what is known as a wet bulb effect. It's downright uncomfortable. Our attention deviates from things at hand and centers on making an escape to our air-conditioned cars and dwellings, but the reprieve is temporary - and some of us lack the luxury of climate control other than sitting beneath the canopy of trees and sipping on a cold drink. But, it's that combination of heat and humidity which agitates us, saps our energy, stifles our motivation, and can even knock us out with heatstroke. It's uncomfortable just thinking about it - and that's what most people have been doing the past two years, sweltering in their minds - bad news is the heat and unrelenting information is the humidity. In today's show, Doc explains the wet bulb effect as it relates to information and human attention. We'll learn how human attention works and ways to mitigate information overload during uncertain times. Doc will read an excerpt about Wet Bulbs from pages 74-75 of his book, ‘The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.' WHAT IS A WET BULB? “A wet bulb temperature is taken when you wrap an ambient-temperature thermometer bulb in a wet muslin fabric, exposing it to air flow to promote evaporation, and then measure the difference in temperature. When the air is hot and humid, evaporation is stifled and the wet bulb and dry bulb measurements will be close—too close for comfort. We are saturated, swimming in sweat, and overheating.” COMPETITIVE CYCLISTS, WET BULBS, AND MAKING CRITICAL DECISIONS. Competitive cyclists, like former Soviet National team member Nikolai Razouvaev, rely on the wet bulb measurement to inform their decision to take the bicycle out on a hot and humid day. What can be done to cool down? Perhaps lighter clothing, extra water, frequent breaks, easier terrain, or postponing the outing for a time with a lower wet bulb reading. But what if you do not have an option? What if you must race?” EXAMPLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WET BULB EFFECT. “Your phone buzzes. It is a push alert from the newspaper you trust, about the governor's upcoming press conference on COVID-19. Another alert comes in an hour later: case and death numbers and summary guidance from the press conference.The phone buzzes a third time. It is an emergency alert ordered by the governor; if you had somehow missed his comments earlier. On your way home, a dynamic messaging sign on the freeway encourages you to “mask up.” Your televised football game is interrupted by misty-eyed celebrities urging that “we're all in this together.” The 11 o'clock news will offer the very latest.” “[In] a global pandemic, at the height of the Information Age, we are all wet bulbs, spinning away. We are not just wet, we are soaked. OPTING IN FOR INFORMATION. And we chose this situation for ourselves.” “[W]e opt in to news push alerts. And we could opt out of emergency alerts, if we so chose. But in both cases, we have decided that the risk of saturation is tolerable compared to the alternative, fear of missing out. The velocity of information is too great to remove ourselves from the equation. MITIGATING THE WET BULB EFFECT. Begin by acknowledging your behaviors. Short-tempered, frustrated, overwhelmed, unable to attend to tasks. These are reactions to stimuli. Change the channel, or better yet, turn off the receiver. The information is still hammering down on you, but if you've turned off your receiver, your attention shifts to the hike or the golf game (Aaron Clarey?) and you seemingly be the last person around who hasn't heard the “latest hyped news” which, actually, likely won't have a significant impact on your life. And, what are you going to do about it? During uncertain times when media and people feverishly pass headlines, take a pass. You can sample from time to time and get the information that you need. No use in hovering at the buffet table waiting for another pan of wings to be dumped into the trough. OPT IN TO BECOME FORCE IN? Putting a toe in the metaverse, real-time digital tracking of our phones and cars, and Elon Musk's hints of neural links are all easements (or encroachments?) into a life where opting out will require effort and consequences. How are you preparing for the omnipresent wet bulb? SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 177 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 04-12-2022. Order Doc's new book today and suggest it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

In June, 2019, U.S. lawmakers held their first hearing devoted primarily to the threat of artificially generated imagery. Then in October, 2019, California banned political deep fakes during election season. But, such actions have raised questions. What might be consequences looming at the intersection of deep fakes and public policy? WHAT ARE DEEP FAKES? Per Tim Biggs and Robert Moran of Explainer, “Deep fakes are the most prominent form of what's being called ‘synthetic media': images, sound and video that appear to have been created through traditional means but that have, in fact, been constructed by complex software. [D]eep fakes are, in their most common form, videos where one person's face has been convincingly replaced by a computer-generated face, which often resembles a second person.” Deep fakes, which came to prominence in 2017, can be of a single person or people. RISKS OF DIGITAL DEEP FAKES. Digital deep fakes could rapidly erode trust in people's main source for information - the Internet. Deep fakes will damage reputations, end careers, and cause people to be skittish and hesitant to trust most media sources. Deep fakes could fuel civil unrest and toss dust in the eyes of stressed citizens anticipating negative news as they plot high-stakes next steps in order to navigate war-torn landscapes. Furthermore, anyone can be the target of this technology. We have to play defense and offense. How do you prove your innocence against a convincing deep fake that portrays you as a fraud or of association with their ilk? FIND THE TRUTH. The following are excerpts from pages 69-70 from the book ‘The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.' “In any investigation, the goal is to find the truth, not to confirm suspicions or predetermined positions. If you approach panic-inducing situations with that attitude, you will arrive at awareness, rather than panic. Your initial assumptions and conclusions may not always be correct.” THE PACKED STADIUM - OR IS IT? “[I]magine watching a professional baseball game on TV and texting your attending-in-person friend, “Stadium is packed! Hope the concession lines aren't a mile long!” Seconds later, they respond with a wide-angle selfie from a bleacher seat, “What are you talking about? This place is practically empty!” FOX SPORTS' DIGITAL FANS. “On July 23, 2020, Fox Sports posted a thirty-seven-second video to its Twitter account demonstrating how it would place thousands of virtual lifelike fans in the stands of major league stadiums (1). “Fox Sports producers will be able to control things like how full the virtual ‘crowds' are for a given game, what weather fans are dressed for, and what percentage of the crowd will be home fans versus away (2).” The crowds appeared strikingly authentic and would be indiscernible from real crowds to most TV viewers. That snippet was both incredible and chilling at the same time.” HACKED REALITY? “What other real-world scenarios could be “hacked” to distort crowd density? Political rallies, protests, lines outside stores? Is there an app for that?” CITATIONS: (1) Fox Sports. [@FoxSports.] “No Fans? Not on FOX Sports. Thousands of Virtual Fans Will Attend FOX's MLB Games This Saturday.” Twitter. July 23, 2020. https://twitter .com /FOXSports /status /1286281346390740993. (2) Gartenberg, Chaim. “How Fox Sports Will Use Virtual Fans Created in Unreal Engine to Fill Empty Stadiums in MLB Broadcasts. Real Sports, Fake Fans.” The Verge. July 25, 2020. https://www .theverge .com /2020 /7 /25 /21336017 /fox -sports-baseball -virtual -fans -epic -unreal -engine -empty -stadiums -mlb. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 176 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 04-05-2022. Order Doc's new book today and suggest it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Remember fiddling around until the final hour to hunker down and complete an assignment for school or a project for work - even though you knew of the deadline for weeks? There you were, confident you could serviceably complete the task and submit it in a nick of time. WHAT IS PARKINSON'S LAW? Parkinson's Law is the adage that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a humorous essay he wrote for “The Economist” in 1955. If someone has 5 hours to rake leaves from a yard - and apprises that task of clearing the small yard might take, at most, 2 hours, the tendency - per Parkinson's Law, is for the person to take the full 5 hours to rake the leaves. They might rake at a slower pace, take frequent breaks, walk around to assess their progress, adjust their gloves, hat and jacket, and so on. NEW DEFINITION OF PARKINSON'S LAW. In his book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times, Doc postulates a second interpretation of Parkinson's Law. In this take, Parkinson's Law represents the ingrained need for humans to have a distinct ritualistic start and end routine to their work days. He wrote about this in his book, centering on a business owner in Chicago who found people knocking on his door (a closed non-essential virtual reality gaming business), to inquire about renting a table for a few hours - so they could unfold their laptops and “got to work.” BREAKING PARKINSON'S LAW IN CHICAGO. The following is an excerpt (pages 75-76) from the book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times by David P. Perrodin. “Prior to 2020, Aaron Sawyer's Redline VR, a virtual reality club and bar in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, was doing great business. His mega-computers, 3D game configurations, and 360-degree immersive goggles and haptic wearables were something that people could not get at home. He offered the best zombie-battling experience in the city. So much so that Sawyer considered opening a second location (1). Then the pandemic hit. Chicago city government started deciding which businesses were “essential,” and thus allowed to operate, and which were not. Redline VR was not deemed “essential.” Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot's plan, Redline VR was allowed to reopen in phase four (2) at 25 percent capacity. There was no phase five. There was no revenue coming into the business. So Sawyer pivoted. Again and again (3) Parkinson's Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion (4).” Linda Stone, the consultant who has studied attention behavior, found that during the pandemic, people were checking work emails “at all hours of the night,” as their homes became their workplace (5). At the outset of the pandemic, many people left their office on a Friday, began working remotely the following Monday, and did not return to their offices. Many still have no return date in sight, and a significant number of positions have become permanently remote. Getting out of the home, and into an office setting, became an attractive option for some people. At home, the roles of spouse and mother and caregiver all intersect with the workday. Work now fills the physical space once reserved for family and relaxation. The mind is not always able to differentiate between the two.” REMOTE WORKERS WANTED A PLACE TO GO TO WORK. In May and June 2020, Aaron Sawyer observed an uptick in people asking if they could rent his VR stations, which were similar to work cubicles, for a few hours or for a day. “Redline VR rebranded to offer rented office space, at just fifteen dollars for the day. Curtains and separators were put up so people could keep their social distance and have a work space of their own, away from home and family.” CITATIONS. (1) Aaron Sawyer, interview with the author, August 14, 2020; (2) City of Chicago. “Reopening Chicago.” City of Chicago. 2020. https://www.chicago .gov /city /en /sites /COVID -19 /home /reopening -chicago .html; (3) Sawyer, interview with the author; (4) Parkinson, Cyril Northcote. Parkinson's Law [And Other Studies in Administration] (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1957), 3. http://sas2 .elte .hu /tg /ptorv /Parkinson -s-Law.pdf; (5) Linda Stone, personal communication with the author, August 14, 2020. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 175 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-29-2022. Order Doc's new book today and suggest it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

What are the differences between crisis and chaos? Is a sudden bifurcation better than a gradual bifurcation? How might a "strange attractor" contribute to the sometimes long duration, and difficult-to-recognize, patterns in chaos? Doc will discuss these questions and read an excerpt pertaining to them from his book 'The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.' WHAT IS CRISIS? The following excerpts are from pages 139-140 of the book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. “Crisis implies a decisive point in a dangerous situation with anticipation of an abrupt change to the condition, for better or for worse. [A] crisis is often of short duration and will have an identifiable turning point(s). It tends to scale in a predictable manner. People believe their own actions might resolve a crisis. This is a key distinction between crisis and chaos. While people believe that they can negotiate to resolve a crisis, the mindset when faced with chaos is to survive, or “wait-out” the condition. HARD OR SOFT BIFURCATIONS. A crisis may be characterized by a bifurcation, which is a parameter-dependent change in dynamical behavior. A useful distinction exists between hard (abrupt) and soft (gradual) bifurcations. Hard bifurcation: the ice on a lake slowly warms (temperature is the bifurcation parameter) and suddenly breaks, dropping you into the cold lake. Soft bifurcation: an ice cube (temperature is again the bifurcation parameter) once at a temperature greater than or equal to 32 degrees slowly melts into a glass of Scotch. A soft bifurcation is clearly preferable, particularly because its impacts are dispersed over time. STRANGE ATTRACTORS (Has Nothing To Do With Gravity). As mathematically defined, a crisis occurs with the appearance of a strange attractor. The word “attractor” has nothing to do with gravitation. As in dynamic systems, attractors provide a way to describe the asymptotic behavior of typical orbits. Operationally, this means that there is a dramatic change in the dynamical behavior of the system. The present disconnects from the past and the past behavior has little or no predictive value as the system navigates its way through a profoundly altered landscape. An undetected, racing comet with a 20,000 year orbit could be a strange attractor that alters life on earth. HYPERINFLATION AS A STRANGE ATTRACTOR. In a fiat money economy, sudden-onset hyperinflation might be characterized as a strange attractor resulting in extraordinary behaviors in the country's monetary system. For example, during the 1923 hyperinflation crisis of the Weimar Republic, “workers were often paid twice per day because prices rose so fast their wages were virtually worthless by lunchtime (1).” In addition, “[f]armers refused to take any form of paper money for their crops. The harvest of 1923 sat in farmers' warehouses while supermarkets in the cities were empty. Starvation and civil unrest loomed (2).” WHAT IS CHAOS? “Chaos is a state of disorder that is amorphous and without clear turning points. Chaos quickly or gradually settles into outcome basins or creates a new mean. Chaos describes a system that will develop in unpredictable ways and will not scale linearly. It exists on a continuum with degrees of absorption by systems. A state of chaos, due to a lack of, or impossibility of, a scripted response will usually, if not inevitably, spread. Chaos affects the global consciousness, even if only temporarily. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami near Japan was a chaos event that killed 15,899 people and caused the Fukushima nuclear energy plant disaster. CITATIONS: (1) BBC. “Bitesize The Weimar Republic 1918-1929: The Hyperinflation Crisis, 1923.” https://www .bbc .co .uk /bitesize /guides /z9y64j6 /revision /5.; (2) Forbes. “In Hyperinflation's Aftermath, How Germany Went Back to Gold.” Forbes .co m. June 9, 2011. https://www .forbes .com /2011 /06 /09 /germany -gold -standard.html ?sh =330426c35934. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 174 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-08-2022. GET the book VELOCITY OF INFORMATION. Purchase the preeminent book of scholarship for an uncertain epoch from your favorite bookstore or online retailer and recommend it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022) by David P. Perrodin. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

What is comorbid chaos, how is it different from other types of chaos, and what are its consequences for societies and individuals? Doc explains the markers of uncertain times and reads an excerpt from his book, The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. COMORBID CHAOS. (Pages 144-45) “This fourth state of chaos includes qualities of Extended and International chaos events with the addition of one or more secondary, population-level chaos events that are intermediate and regional or extended and international. The secondary event happens concurrently with some or the entire primary event. In addition, chaos at this level oscillates in intensity. For example, there may be civil unrest affected by weather patterns (e.g., protests taper off on rainy days). Populations exhibit a lack of trust in government and authority. There is a corresponding loss of credibility by those in authority due to changing narratives.” EXAMPLES OF COMORBID CHAOS. Examples of comorbid chaos include The Great Depression from 1929 to 1939 confounded by the 1931–1939 Great Plains Dust Bowl and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in conjunction with racial justice protests. THE GREAT DEPRESSION. The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. In 1932, many politicians, businessmen, and journalists started to contemplate the possibility of massive revolution in the United States. In fact, thousands of the most desperate unemployed workers began raiding food stores (1). By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some fifteen million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country's banks had failed (2). Economic stability gradually returned in 1939 due, in part, to government New Deal projects that reformed financial systems and put people back to work. Many people who lived through the era distrusted banks and would no longer buy goods using credit. THE DUST BOWL. But before the economic improvement, the Dust Bowl intensified the crushing economic impacts of the Great Depression. In 1931, severe drought hit the Midwestern and Southern Plains of the United States. As crops died, crumbling topsoil from over-plowed and over-grazed land led to powerful dust storms that pummeled the region (3). “Residents crawled to safety in the dust (summer) storms and ‘snust' (winter) storms. Many towns were abandoned (4)” Hundreds of people succumbed to what doctors at the time called “dust pneumonia,” a respiratory illness caused by tiny inorganic particles in the windblown dust (5). Famine gripped the region as it was impossible to sustain livestock. “Cattle went blind and suffocated. When farmers cut them open, they found stomachs stuffed with fine sand (6).” RECENT EXAMPLES OF COMORBID CHAOS. Since March 2020, there have been two instances of comorbid chaos in the world. PANDEMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE PROTESTS. The epoch of March 2020 through January 2022 was marked by the pandemic as the primary event with episodic anti-racism demonstrations serving as the secondary event. INFLATION AND WORLD CONFLICT. The consumer price index climbed 7% in 2021, the largest 12-month gain since June 1982, according to Labor Department data. Gasoline prices also approached $5 a gallon in many parts of the United States. Inflation, which many pundits speculate to be higher and more severe than official statistics, brought further instability to the roaring housing market and faltering supply chain. On February 24, 2022, Russian invaded Ukraine, leading to military conflict, over 2 million people fleeing Ukraine, and widespread sanctions applied to Russia. The world was brought closer to the first use of nuclear weapons since World War II. CITATIONS: (1) Marx, Jerry D. “American Social Policy in the Great Depression and World War II.” VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project. 2011. http://socialwelfare.library .vcu .edu /eras /great -depression /american -social -policy -in -the -great -depression-and -wwii. (2) History.com Editors, Great Depression History. (3) American Experience. “Surviving the Dust Bowl. Timeline: The Dust Bowl.” PBS. n.d. https://www .pbs .org /wgbh /americanexperience /features /dust -bowl -surviving-dust -bowl/. (4) Gordon, Dan. “When Deadly Dirt Devastated the Southern Plains.” The Denver Post. May 12, 2011. https://www .denverpost .com /2011 /05 /12 /when -deadly-dirt -devastated -the -southern -plains. (5) Williford, James. “Children of the Dust. The Dirty Thirties as Witnessed by People Who Were Actually There.” Humanities 33, no. 6. National Endowment for the Humanities. November/December 2012. https://www .neh .gov /humanities /2012 /novemberdecember /feature /children -the -dust (6) Gordon, Deadly Dirt. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This is episode 173 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-15-2022. GET DOC'S BOOKS. Purchase the preeminent book of scholarship for an uncertain epoch from your favorite bookstore or online retailer and recommend it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022) by David P. Perrodin. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com   

The `Conjunction Fallacy' is a fallacy or error in decision making where people judge that a conjunction of two possible events is more likely than one or both of the conjuncts. Here are some examples. EXAMPLE ONE: Doc went to the store and bought tofu, eggplant, broccoli, and frozen meatless lasagna. Is it more likely that Doc is a man or a man who is a vegetarian? EXAMPLE TWO: Doc has a PhD or Doc has a PhD and reads the Wall Street Journal. EXAMPLE THREE: Aaron drove to a party in South Dakota in a Rolls Royce or Aaron drove to a party in South Dakota in a Rolls Royce as is a millionaire. In each example, the former is the correct answer. CONJUNCTION FALLACY: MR. F. HAD A HEART ATTACK. Excerpt from pages 51-52 of the book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022). In 1983, world-renowned psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman published a ground-breaking study on intuitive human cognitive bias (cite 1). They showed that when subjects are asked the likelihood of several alternatives, including single and joint events, they often make a conjunction fallacy. That is, they rate the conjunction of two events as being more likely, or more plausible, than only one of the constituent events. They presented the following fabricated scenarios to 115 undergraduates at Stanford University and the University of British Columbia: A health survey was conducted in a representative sample of adult males in British Columbia of all ages and occupations. Mr. F. was included in the sample. He was selected by chance from a list of participants. Which of the following statements is more probable? (A) Mr. F. has had one or more heart attacks. (B) Mr. F. has had one or more heart attacks and he is over 55 years old. This seemingly transparent problem elicited a substantial proportion (58% selected option B) of conjunction errors among statistically naive respondents (cite 2). WE ARE PRONE TO BELIEVE VIVID STORIES. This example, and countless like it, reveal that we are all subject to the conjunction fallacy, where we regularly violate the laws of probability due to a vivid story. This error in decision-making happens when people judge that a conjunction of two possible events is more likely than one or both of the conjuncts. Innate human reasoning infers that the addition of more details increases the probability of two events occurring simultaneously. (It is also an explanation for why liars tend to add additional or even excessive detail to a given lie in order to predispose the recipient to accepting the lie as truth.) However, the more detailed outcome is just that, more detailed. It is not more plausible or more likely. In fact, the probability of the two events occurring together (in conjunction) is always less than or equal to the probability of either one occurring alone. In other words, a conjunction cannot be more probable than one of its constituents. CONJUNCTION FALLACY DURING THE PANDEMIC. Which of these statements might you have deemed to be most probable on March 25, 2020? (A) The governor has ordered people to stay home. (B) The governor has ordered people to stay home, and state highways are closed. Previous studies of conjunction statements imply that the majority of people presented with these statements would select B. Fortunately, conjunction bias collapses in on itself when too many conditions are stated. Most people are able to identify the mental trickery of a statement with a dozen conjunctions. It no longer makes sense from a face validity standpoint. CITATIONS: (1) Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman. “Extensional Versus Intuitive Reasoning: The Conjunction Fallacy in Probability Judgment.” Psychological Review, 90 (1983): 293–315. (2) Tversky and Kahneman, Extensional Versus Intuitive Reasoning, 293–315. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 172 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-08-2022. GET DOC'S BOOKS. Purchase the preeminent book of scholarship for an uncertain epoch from your favorite bookstore or online retailer and recommend it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times (2022) by David P. Perrodin. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Guest William Wesley Lee Jarvis returns to the show to discuss "Normal Box Theory" and how it applies to how people, and societies, in identifying the illusion of priorities. What is "thinking in averages?" Why is perception of normality everything? What are counter-processes and fixes? How do we analyze processes of culture relative to box theory? What are the range of consequences of "the law" interfering with "individual will?" NORMAL BOX THEORY. Imagine a typical cardboard box. Now imagine that everything inside of the box is what humanity considers normal and safe. Rather than thinking of a sliding scale of good or bad, the “normal box” plainly communicates what is good and safe as well as what is bad and evil. What's inside of the box is determined by some sort of authority or by majority. The contents of the box are constantly changing - perhaps subtle adjustments, or, as in times of great uncertainty, there might be a substantial change to what is deemed worthy of the box. PROBLEM WITH BOX THEORY. The box is finite. When something is added, something must be removed. Lee suggests that the staunch binary status of box-or-no-box should allow for people to “think in averages” where there are no normal or abnormal or limitations to the box. In Lee's nuanced interpretation, “you just let people be, treating those that harm others as problems once they make problems.” PERCEPTION OF NORMALITY IS EVERYTHING. Lee explains that “people dislike what they think is “different” and go out of their way to be a busy-body to force their perception of normality on others. This is most likely due to simple mental survival mechanisms to thin the herd, it enhances the “bullying nanny” in everyone to report people not wearing masks in their homes, For example, real-live 24/7 thought police and other such nonsense. It can turn adults into kindergartners, because people lose a sense of themselves and their limits. This also enhances culture wars and group conflict, which is very profitable for most of the modern world.” GOVERNMENT COMPETENCY AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT. It was Thomas Hobbes' book Leviathan, written in 1651, that described the delicate balance between just-enough government and individuals' free will. The book's tenets are clearly evident today as governments have extracted concessions from their citizens for the sake of safety. The most controversial permanent program under the Patriot Act is the "National Security Letters" program, which lets the government demand communications records from telecom companies without even going through the surveillance court for approval first. PEOPLE DON'T QUESTION THE RULES. Lee notes that, “Not only are bad rules made without due diligence, but they are also embraced and cherished by much of the population. It only makes the “Wealth equals Power equals Corruption” dynamic worse as people profit from the conflagration of incompetence which leads to more waste and corruption. In other words, people want to be governed, the government grows, and it becomes too large and cumbersome to be effective. The “box” is stuffed with tangled rules. CHICKEN AND EGG. It's a bit of a chicken and an egg problem, to counter this you need sane and reasonable people in governance, to make laws devoid of proactive discrimination, to focus people on flowing with individual will, to not interfere with the will of another unless another is harming them, and if the situation becomes where one wishes to be harmed by another in some way, then that person in the dominating interpersonal position is responsible for the actions and care of the submissive person, to ensure responsibility is metered out fairly to limit abuse from drugs or any contract or job, to ensure people are innocent until proven guilty, which means if good capable people are in governance then incompetence and corruption would be mitigated. And yes jobs and contracts have their own rules and balanced-out responsibilities. If you handwave away people's basic responsibilities to each other, to do no harm to each other, to ensure a stable environment, then you get what we have now, a legal system that allows any law to be “for your protection” to be enacted and then enforced with punitive measures and opportunities for others to report “non-compliers” because the system is desperate for money to maintain the system.” FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 171 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-01-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Guest Josh the Locksmith has been helping people get into their cars and homes for the past decade. He informally learned the craft on the side and then became a business owner and a successful locksmith. Working from Minneapolis-St. Paul metro, it's not uncommon for a service call to result in a 200 mile round trip. This is an in-demand field. Josh educates us about working as a locksmith, memorable calls, and advice on home and property security. WHAT IS A LOCKSMITH. A locksmith is someone who works with locks on doors, windows, cars, safes, etc. Locksmiths install, repair, and adjust locks in everything from cars to office buildings, and they also offer services to people who are locked out or individuals who want to consult with someone about their security systems. ARE LOCKSMITHS LICENSED. Doc assumed that locksmiths were licensed in each state and perhaps were members of a national association. However, Josh shared that in Minnesota, locksmiths aren't required to be licensed. Upon further inquiry, Doc learned that most states don't require locksmiths to be licensed or registered with a government agency. So, how do you know that a locksmith is legit? SECURITY SCAMS - WHAT TO LOOK FOR. Josh noted that unsavory locksmith companies are a problem across the country and tend to pop-up for a short time and then vanish. When someone is searching the Internet for a locksmith, that person is probably stressed and will pursue the first results - these are sometimes the scammers. They offer a low rate service call, perhaps $15, and then once on scene, exaggerate the problem and technical effort required to resolve the matter. They might drill out your lock and stick you with a several hundred dollar bill. To avoid scams, Josh recommends that during the initial phone call to ask for a total cost as most locksmiths will provide that. A typical car or house unlock should be in the $75 ballpark. WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN TRY ON YOUR OWN? For your own property, Josh suggests people keep a long reach grabber and air wedge in their garage. Such vehicle entry kits are available on Amazon for $50. While getting into your car with the tools from a kit might be relatively easy, it can cost several hundred dollars to have a new vehicle key manufactured by a locksmith due to the chips and electronic fobs. But, Josh notes, modern vehicles are much more difficult to steal due to the complexity of the keys. SECURITY 101. Josh advocates for every residence to have a deadbolt on exterior doors. In addition, the plate should be screwed into the support frame (not trim) of the door. This is often accomplished by using 3 inch screws. Another tip is to bathe your house and property in motion-sensing lights and even sirens. As for windows, Josh shared that 75% of forced entries are through doors and not windows. For some reason, criminals don't want to break glass. Some final security advice is to not draw attention to your property with fancy decor or leaving valuable items in plain view. BE A KAREN. Josh notes that people seldom ask him for identity and as long as he looks the role of a locksmith, he largely has access, without question, to locations. But, if something seems off, he suggests that you ask questions, “Excuse me, what are you doing?” He feels some sketchy behavior would be curtailed by people simply asking questions. Doc noted a popular short YouTube video of a man carrying a ladder as a way to make it appear that he has the authority to enter various locations - and he was granted access most of the time - simply because he “looks the part” and moves with authority. BAD LOCKSMITH CALLS. One of the most prevalent situations Josh encounters is when people feel he has some sort of legal or police authority. This can be tricky when arriving to change locks due to domestic disputes. He also conducted a welfare check in which the occupant of the residence was dead. In addition, he opened a vehicle that had two bodies inside of it. Some of his calls resulted in generous tips - although, Josh notes, that's not as common today. His business was unchanged during the pandemic. People weren't asking him to engage in special disinfecting processes and he was unscathed by the essential - nonessential decrees. CAMERAS AND DIGITAL LOCKS. Josh feels there is some deterrence value in surveillance cameras, but it's not a part of his business. And, new keypad and electronic systems can be difficult or impossible to unlock without drilling out the lock. FINAL TIP. Take a photo of the 5 digits punched into the top of your house key and keep it in a secure file on your phone. A locksmith can make a replacement key based upon those numbers. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This is episode 170 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 02-22-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

WHAT IS THE BRAESS PARADOX? Braess' Paradox states that, counterintuitively, adding a road to a road network can slow down overall traffic through it. The paradox was discovered in 1968 by German mathematician Dietrich Braess. At the root of this paradox is that every driver thinks for themselves as the lack of cooperation with other drivers means that every driver will aim to take the fastest possible route. Hence, the shortest route becomes overwhelmed and also slows down merging-in from lesser-traveled nodes, which, in turn, causes delays on those nodes. In New York, Boston, London, and Seoul, traffic congestion decreased in as little as a week after congested roadways were closed. HUMAN VS. ANT. “According to scientists who studied traffic density for humans and for ants, it was discovered that when the occupancy rate on the road exceeds 40 percent, people gradually slow down their speed and stop after a certain stage. Thus, congested traffic or traffic jams. In ants, on the other hand, we observe an opposite phenomenon. As the traffic density increases, the flow increases at the same time. When the occupancy rate on the road reaches 80 percent, the ants synchronize their tempo and continue on their path at the most optimal speed (SOURCE: Ibrahim Kovin, Oct 18, 2021. Cantorsparadise.com). It might be argued that the ants' goal is survival of the colony and the human's goal is to be the first person at work. So we expect people to flock to the shortest possible route, or our navigation apps pull from the same maps and data to funnel us into a bogged down shortcut. AI can sell us out, but the antecedent event can also steer our subconscious thinking. FORCED LEARNED BEHAVIOR. When people are forced to alter their routines due to an unexpected, dramatic event - such as a bridge failure, they tend to begrudgingly follow government-placed detour signs and also poke around for a new path that allows them to complete their commute. As their long-accustomed-to primary route is out of service, drivers tend to stick with their first-experienced new routes - even if they are not particularly efficient. They would rather travel a known route than attempt to find a shorter route. One would think this new patterning would be readily tossed aside if the previous route, which was shorter and faster, was restored. That's what happens during expected closures of familiar routes. However, when the I35W bridge was re-opened in 2008, demand did not bounce back to pre-collapse levels as expected - and the addition of lanes didn't cause the dreaded Braess' Paradox. THREE REASONS DRIVERS DIDN'T REVERT TO FASTER PRE-COLLAPSE ROUTES. These three facts might have influenced drivers' behavior: (1) The unexpectedness of the I-35W Bridge collapse and the mandatory route changes some commuters were forced to make created inherent resistance to return the bridge following reopening; (2) The prolonged closure was lengthy enough for the benefits of route familiarity in the disrupted network to outweigh the low travel times found on the new bridge; and (3) The tragedy itself discouraged some commuters from returning to the site (SOURCE: MN DOT Research Services. Traffic Flow and Road User Impacts of the Collapse of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River. David Levinson, Principal Investigator). SUMMARY. Three take-away points. (1) Humans tend to think individually and gravitate to the shortest or fastest path, often overloading it. This has been observed with new roads as well as drive-thru lines at restaurants. The phenomenon is known as Braess' Paradox. (2) Following an unexpected disruption, an avoidance phenomenon is observed that will typically diminish over time. (3) And, in contrast, pre-planned disruptions, even with similar magnitude, generate much smaller impacts. Bonus tip. In a crisis, think the opposite of the masses. ACCORDING TO THE JOKER: “I just did what I do best. I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmmm? You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds. Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!” (quotation from Heath Ledger as The Joker in Christopher Nolan movie, The Dark Knight). FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This is episode 169 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 02-08-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

In March 2020, you awoke to find that the government deemed you essential or nonessential. Over-the-road (OTR) haulers, or truck drivers, were deemed essential. But as the arrival of healthcare workers was celebrated with fire engine parades, truck drivers were spared recognition and told to shift into overdrive and deal with peeled back restrictions, including letting drivers with learner's permits drive without their Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and changing hours of service guidelines so truckers could drive longer than they would be allowed to otherwise. In other words, truckers were directed to stretch themselves, and not just absent parades, but in a landscape of closed waysides, truck stops, restaurants -- while being told to stay in their cabs when picking up or delivering their cargo. Being a trucker before the pandemic meant choosing a profession under-appreciated by the public. During the pandemic, finite truckers were unfathomably treated as expendable. IN THIS EPISODE. Doc interviews former trucker Jonathan Burger to discuss the state of OTR haulers before the pandemic, at the onset of the pandemic, and now in 2022. Jonathan will talk about OTR haulers access to toilet facilities, restaurants, and places to park when they sleep. In addition, Jonathan will bring awareness to lesser known aspects of trucking including new Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandates, negative behaviors within the trucker workforce, hazard pay (lack of), and lumpers. Doc and Jonathan consider how government and society might better demonstrate appreciation from truckers - the seemingly forgotten essential workers. ABOUT JONATHAN BURGER. Jonathan Burger has a YouTube channel focused on Second Amendment activism/advocacy. His channel is called Guns N BBQ as he periodically tosses in content about his hobby of barbecuing. He is a former armed security officer and corrections officer turned truck driver. Jonathan drove truck for just over 5 years before going blind. Shortly after losing his vision he decided to start a YouTube channel. Jonathan remains well-connected to the OTR hauler community and understands the lesser-understood nodes along the OTR hauler network. PRE-2020 STATE OF TRUCKING. Jonathan reminds us that the trucking industry had challenges prior to the pandemic. Overnight parking was particularly difficult to find and even booking ahead didn't necessarily secure a spot for the rig. Fewer businesses were allowing truckers to park in their lots due to the poor behavior of some in the industry who would leave behind trash. IMPACT OF 2017 ELD MANDATE. On January 23, 2022, Grace Dean of Business Insider wrote an article titled: Truckers say an electronic device that measures the hours they drive each day sometimes leaves them stranded just 30 minutes from home. While truckers had maintained paper logging records for decades, electronic logging devices went into effect in 2017 for most rigs. The logs track when truckers drive and take breaks, but the system is inflexible. Jonathan offered an example of a trucker taking a break in the parking lot near a warehouse. A few minutes into the mandated break, someone asks the driver to move his truck to the end of the lot, perhaps a hundred feet away. When the truck begins to move, the ELD resets the break. Ultimately, the purpose of ELDs was to prevent fatigued drivers from being on the roads - so ELDs make sense, but in their current incarnation, they seem to be too restrictive. PANDEMIC RELAXED TRUCKING RULES WITHOUT SUPPORT TO TRUCKERS - LUMPERS CASH IN AS DRIVERS TOLD NOT TO UNLOAD THEIR FREIGHT. On March 13, 2020, the US government made an emergency relief declaration that allowed OTR drivers with expiring licenses to continue working, eliminated the 30-minute break requirement during 11 hours driving, and relaxed the 60/70-hour rule. However, neither federal or state governments took action to support truckers. Arizona opened two shuttered waysides with limited hours - so that was at least something. But, no hazard pay for truckers, no National Guard deployed to keep open waysides and supply food, showers, and basic care to truckers. County fairgrounds could have been temporarily opened for truckers, right? There were no hero parades for truckers - even as wait times increased for truckers to unload and they were told to stay in their rigs, cubed away from the world. BROWN BAG BOOST CAMPAIGN. Doc and Jonathan pondered items that might go into a brown bag that would be given, as a sign of support, for truckers at waysides or scales. Items included a thank you note, chunky soup, socks, plastic utensils, and 3D printed air vent diffusers. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 168 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-25-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Doc calls our attention to the strange disappearance of civic organizations in America. Peaking in the 1960s, tiny villages and big cities bustled with volunteers of all ages to build parks, serve as crossing guards, hold free throw shooting contests for kids, work voting stations, and pass local knowledge from generation to generation. There was a time when people prioritized the time to gather at local restaurants to discuss ways to volunteer and improve their community. HISTORY. Civic organizations in the US were closely tied to church-affiliated groups (Knights of Columbus), fraternal organizations (Freemasons), and also unions. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is an organization of U.S. war veterans. And while VFW posts were practically in every community in America following WWII, membership is dwindling and posts have been closed and consolidated. “Per a 2021 article by Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal, “The VFW has around 1.5 million members, a drop of a million from 1992. The average age is 67, with 400,000 members over 80. The largest organization of veterans' clubs, the American Legion, has two million members, down from 3.3 million in 1946.” POPULAR CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS. Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Jaycees, and Optimists are among the well-known volunteer groups of the latter half of the twentieth century. Most have been reduced to a small fraction of their halcyon days. According to a 2020 article by Payal Gangishetti of Nonprofit Sector News, “The Jaycees, founded in 1920, is a leadership training and civic organization for people between the ages 18 and 40. [It's] peak membership was 360,000 in 1976 and today has just 12,000 members in the United States. Doc recalls the village Jaycees chapter building a playground near the river in the community of 1200 where he was raised in northern Wisconsin. “The park is still there,” noted Doc. “The Jaycees and other civic organizations' names and logos adorn the ‘Welcome to Town' signs, but for practical purposes, the organizations are extinct. Maybe their endowment funds their fee for the placards on the main roads heading into town?” LOSS OF VESTING TO BUILD COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS AND PERSONAL PURPOSE. As Doc researched the relationship between volunteering in civic organizations and community safety, the literature review was similar to driving a car that was out of alignment. Everything pulled in the direction of how the individual benefited from volunteering and much less was written about the collective benefit of society or of the community. Doc interprets this as false-memory solipsism. In other words, the core value of a civic organization (as written in numerous articles) is the fulfillment of each member. What's in it for me? Simply put, the literature review doesn't match Doc's experiences with civic organizations. BENEFITS TO VOLUNTEERS. The Mayo Clinic Health System says volunteering reduces stress levels and the risk of depression. Volunteers often learn valuable life and job skills while staying physically and mentally active. The Mayo Clinic cites a Longitudinal Study of Aging that concludes volunteers even live longer. Volunteers who have chronic or serious illnesses often experience less pain. HealthyPeople.gov -- a part of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion that is tasked with providing science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans -- agrees. Healthy People points out that clubs offer emotional support and create a sense of community. BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY. Beyond enriching each individual volunteer, projects benefit the greater community in the manifestations of parks or mentoring. Groups might focus on raking leaves at somebody's house. Build relationships - rally around people in need. A Lions Club in Windsor Locks (pop. 12,613), Connecticut ran the volunteer ambulance service in 2019! WHY THE DECLINE? The Loki argument is “The Internet” wiped out the organizations. But, this is recited by people who don't recall the days before the Internet. The across-the-board declines in membership appeared in the 1980s. Most recently, remote work mobility and pandemic cocooning might have sealed the fates for many civic organizations. These organizations have adapted to social media platforms, but that isn't a substitute for in vivo community enrichment activities. DOC'S CIVIC VOLUNTEERING. From 2004-2009, Doc served as a volunteer tour guide and handyman at historic Fort Winnebago Surgeons' Quarters in Portage, Wisconsin. With his Dad, he re-built the split rail fence and the well. Doc also volunteered in various roles for the monthly community lunch at Couper Hall. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 167 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-18-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Doc was recently interviewed by a large-market news company assembling a documentary about youth violence directed at adults. Ultimately, the question of “What can be done to prevent this?” was asked. A staunch proponent of increasing funding, research, and training on threat identification and reporting, Dr. Perrodin delivered his versed spell-binder on the matter. When asked about sports, or perhaps the decline of youth sports, contributing to youth violence, Dr. Perrodin found himself conflicted with the research. YOUTH SPORTS PARTICIPATION IN AMERICA ARE DECREASING, INCREASING, or CONFUSING. Per the National Council of Youth Sports, “About 60 million children and teens from age 6 to 18 participate in organized sports each year with 73 percent involved in more than one sport.” But those numbers are complicated. From 2008 to 2018, Aspen Project Play found that the participation rate of kids between the ages of 6 and 12 dropped from 45 to 38 percent, due largely to the increasing costs, time commitments, and competitive nature of organized sports leagues. Statista reports (2019) reports that there are 50 million children in the United States between the ages of six and seventeen. DOES PARTICIPATING IN SPORTS DECREASE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY? According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, “Participation in sports activities is very popular among adolescents, and is frequently encouraged among youth. Many psychosocial health benefits in youth are attributed to sports participation, but to what extent this positive influence holds for juvenile delinquency is still not clear on both the theoretical and empirical level. SOURCE: doi: 10.1007/s10964-015-0389-7.” As Dr. Perrodin examined studies and meta-analysis reports, the findings largely fell into the same basin - there was not a statistical relation between youth sports participation and youth violence. The most prevalent connections were between youth physical activity and youth physical health. HOW ABOUT E-SPORTS? This is where things get interesting. When we think of youth sports, our minds are populated with images of baseball diamonds and folding-camp-chair-lined soccer fields. Though generating controversy over whether the pastime qualifies as true sport, E-Sports has exploded in popularity in recent years. In a 2019 Forbes article by Bob Cook, “At least seven state high school associations are offering esports at a varsity level, and more will add it. Even states without official varsity esports run state tournaments, and prizes can include scholarship money to one of the 115 colleges (and growing) fielding esports teams, and, in many cases, offering scholarships to gamers.” Complexity Gaming, a professional esports organization owned by Dallas Cowboys' owner and youth sports investor Jerry Jones, is building a training facility at the Cowboys' headquarters, The Star in Frisco, Texas. https://complexity.gg/ DO VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOUTH VIOLENT? No. This question is oft-asked, and the 2008 book Grand Theft Childhood by Harvard University's Dr. Cheryl K. Olson and Dr. Lawrence Kutner is one of the most-cited works to debunk violent or graphic video games causing youth to engage in violent behavior. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUTH VIOLENCE RESEARCH? We are at a disruption point or possibly a convergence in what is considered a youth sport. Studies seeking to uncover relationships between participation in sports and violence must now include E-sports. What nuanced areas might be studied in E-sports? If Doc was assembling a research study, his constructs might be (1) badges and incentives; (2) social etiquette and moderating; (3) incidents of delinquent or violent behavior compared to non-sport youth; and (4) incidents of harm to self or harm to others compared to overall youth population. E-SPORTS AND INCLUSION. While traditional sports are difficult to access by youth with physical disabilities, E-Sports are more inclusive. You could have a wheelchair-using student be a captain of his school's E-Sports team. What might be the impact of E-Sports on Title IV? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 166 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-11-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

When his pool vacuum cleaner's bearings failed, a Florida man didn't bolt to Amazon to order an expensive replacement vacuum (in the slight chance it was in stock). Instead, he found open source code for a similar bearing, modified it, and then programmed his home 3D printer to make a new bearing. With the cost of operating the 3D printer at 75 watts per hour, and filament mere cents, and after a few trials, the pool vacuum was back in service for $3 of parts and power. IN THIS EPISODE. In this episode, Doc interviews flyingRich to learn about the arrival of 3D home printing as more than a novelty. In addition, flyingRich will talk about the positive impact of 3D printing in crisis situations, such as PPE items and ventilator parts as well as 3D printed mesh network solutions for antennas used in emergency communication conditions. ABOUT FLYINGRICH. flyingRich (spelled with lowercase f) has been doing tech podcasts for more than ten years (His YouTube channel is titled flyingRich). Rich is an advocate of open source software solutions. He is a regular host on "The Mini PC Show" on the PodNutz network that focuses on single board computing like the Raspberry Pi. Professionally he is a cloud engineer. Being a 3D printing enthusiast he combines the love of tech, open source & cloud computing. Rich is also a 1,000 hour instrument rated pilot. 3D HOME PRINTING NO LONGER A NOVELTY. Rich showed off a number of items that he had 3D printed, including a stand for his monitor and a specialized device to bend pipe. In fact, through open source computing and networking, Rich has worked with people across the world to design, refine, and 3D print parts for a range of applications. While the public might perceive home 3D printing as centered on toys, flutes, and trinkets, the reality is that actual houses are being 3D printed, hard-to-configure replacement parts for old homes, automotive parts, and even food. THINGIVERSE. Rich noted that much sharing exists within the 3D printing community. In particular, THINGIVERSE is a website dedicated to the sharing of user-created digital design files. “Providing primary free, open-source hardware designs licensed under the GNU General Public License or Creative Commons licenses, the site allows contributors to select a user license type for the designs that they share (Source: Wikipedia). 3D PRINTING IN DISASTERS. The December 2021 wildfire that destroyed 1000 homes in Boulder County or the tornado that ripped apart towns in the Kentucky region caused massive damage with little warning. How might mobile 3D printing units be deployed and benefit these areas? Rich and Doc explored this question. Rich felt that 3D printers could build many of the parts needed for geodesic domes, which are lattice shell structures. These are both strong and relatively easy to configure. They could provide shelter to people and animals or staging of assets. Doc felt that portable 3D printing units might yield much relief to hurricane stricken areas, such as the Bahamas. On a September 11, 2019  show, Doc interviewed German Parodi, a disability rights advocate. In that interview, Parodi explained that people (in the Bahamas)  in need of catheters, for example, were unable to obtain them as large planes were unable to land at the damaged airport and it was time-consuming and red-tape-filled to have pallets broken into smaller shipments. A 3D printer might have offered other options in that scenario. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 165 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 01-04-2022. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com   

Doc discusses the mythical Loki, it's societal role over time, and our present-day tendency to offload responsibility and accountability to Loki. In addition, Doc also examines The Straw Man Fallacy, which is often found lurking in the same shadows as the Loki. WHAT IS LOKI? Loki is the mythical Norse chaos god. Portrayed as everything from trickster to an evil force, Loki shoulders the blame for poor crops, storms, and personal strike. In present time, the concept of Loki takes the form of a pandemic. Blame the pandemic for store smash-and-grabs, inflation, and empty store shelves. PROBLEM WITH BLAMING LOKI. A thousand years ago, folks in the Netherlands might have blamed Loki for an unrelenting blizzard and frigid temperatures. Loki could also be used to explain unexpected deaths. Loki served a purpose - what couldn't be attributed to scientific knowledge or benevolent gods could be shouldered by Loki. By blaming Loki, people didn't dwell on the dire event, but instead acknowledged it, and moved on. It's the moving on part that is key. Modern day Loki-blaming doesn't include the “moving on” part. Instead, Loki relieves us of responsibility and accountability. Observe for Loki arguments in the media or made by others. In those instances, problems are pinned on Loki, but there is little attempt to move forward in life. However, there is a strategy that is often found where the contemporary Loki lurks -- and that is The Straw Man Fallacy. THE STRAW MAN FALLACY can be explained in the following 4 steps. (1) Ignore the real argument; (2) Create a pretend argument; (3) Defeat the pretend argument; and (4) Claim victory over the real argument. STRAW MAN FALLACY EXAMPLE WITH HOMELESSNESS. Here's what The Straw Man Fallacy looks like when applied to homelessness in San Francisco. (1) Pivot away from homelessness as the main argument and instead make the main argument about lack of micro homes (8' x 10' portable homes). (2) Funding more micro homes will solve homelessness. (3) We built thousands of micro homes and set them up in parks or other places for homeless people to live in, hence no longer making them homeless. (4) We solved homelessness. Yet, in reality, homelessness in San Francisco wouldn't (and hasn't) been solved by micro homes. The now-micro-housed people need food, mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, community building, job skills, and so on. If a person is jacket-less, giving him a jacket solves the issue. If a person is homeless, giving them a home doesn't solve the issue. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 164 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-29-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com   

On December 17, 2021, the CDC changed its guidance for students in schools who have been “close contacts” to persons that have tested positive for COVID-19. In this episode, Doc analyzes the new guidance, compares it to previous guidance, unpacks how contact tracing works in schools, and also takes a macro-look at overall immunization compliance in schools for students K-12 for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, and other required (non-COVID) vaccinations. Doc studied schools' data and assembled a graphic with alarming information. Thanks to all of you for helping Doc surpass 1000 subscribers to his “The Safety Doc” YouTube channel. CDC TEST-TO-STAY. From the CDC: “Test to Stay combines contact tracing and serial testing (testing that is repeated at least twice during a seven-day period post-exposure) to allow asymptomatic school-associated close contacts who are not fully vaccinated and do not test positive for SARS-CoV-2 to continue in-person learning. Because fully vaccinated close contacts are not required to quarantine following exposure, they would not be included in Test to Stay. Students who participate in Test to Stay should consistently and correctly wear masks while in school and should stay home and isolate if they develop symptoms or test positive for SARS-CoV-2. In the studies done in Illinois and California, both the person with COVID-19 and the close contact had to be properly masked at the time of exposure to qualify for Test to Stay. If schools are considering implementing Test to Stay, they should also have robust contact tracing in place and access to testing resources (for example, testing supplies and personnel to conduct testing, or access to an existing community testing site), among other layered prevention strategies. Testing frequency can vary (for example, from twice in a seven-day period to daily), but more frequent testing can more quickly identify students who become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and need to isolate.” CONTACT TRACING IN SCHOOLS. Dr. Perrodin shares that most school districts in his state have fewer than 1000 students and do not employ a designated “contact tracer.” Close Contacts are determined by settings in the school's schedule software. For example, identifying which students were in a 7th hour geometry course attended by a student who tested positive for COVID. Doc is skeptical of the test-to-stay guidance due to shorthanded schools and lack of tests. WISCONSIN STUDENT IMMUNIZATION COMPLIANCE CHECK. Wisconsin Immunization Law (State Statute 252.04)requires that each of the state's 421 school districts annually submit a report of immunization compliance for students. The 2020-2021 compliance requirements are found at (https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p44021.pdf). Here are the requirements: K-5: 4 doses polio, 3 doses hepatitis B, 2 doses MMR, and 2 doses Varicella. Per Wisconsin DHS, students are compliant with the immunization law if they meet all of the minimum immunization requirements, are considered “in process”, or have a waiver on file. The percent of Students Compliant with Immunization Law in 2020-2021 in Wisconsin is publicly available at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02388a.pdf  : Here are reports from 12 of Wisconsin's 421 school districts: Blair Taylor 628 students total enrolled in district = no reports received; Beloit 5426 students with 389 students not in compliance = 92.82%; Baraboo = 100%; Ashland 1863 students with 95 students not in compliance = 94.87%; Butternut = no reports received; Columbus 1242 students with 30 students not in compliance = 97.52%; Fall River 492 students with 3 students not in compliance = 99.38%; Portage = 100%; Potosi = no reports give; Madison 25,503 students with 438 students not in compliance = 98.28%; Milwaukee 66,977 students with 6429 students not in compliance = 90.40%; and Montello (614 students with 29 students not in compliance = 95.22%. 32/421 (8%) school districts did not submit reports! This is abysmal, yet there are no statements from the DPI or DHS indicating efforts to complete the data sets. A diagram of this information is included in the corresponding blog post for episode 163 at safetyphd.com. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 163 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-22-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Have you wondered what life is like for staff and students at a state residential school for blind children? In this episode, Doc shares his experiences as the director of rehabilitation services for a school for the blind. Did his expectations match what he encountered with the job? What are things few people know about working with visually impaired students? Why was there a swingset inside of the school? How did working with visually impaired students and staff change the ways that Doc thought about school safety? His book, School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America, was written during the time he worked at the school for the blind. Here are the top ten questions about working at the school for the blind. (1) DO STAFF HAVE TO LEARN BRAILLE? Surprisingly, no. Most staff learn how to visually read the Braille alphabet and common words, but learning to read and write tactile Braille is required primarily of instructors of Braille. A student taught Doc the Braille alphabet and he used a free “Braille Helper” phone app to practice words written in the six dots braille system (Braille is not a language, but a way to communicate a language). (2) IS IT A SAD PLACE TO WORK? No. With less than a hundred students and a high staff-to-student ratio, the campus had a positive tone. There was little staff turnover and students had an array of activities to participate in during school and after hours. (3) ARE THERE SPORTS AND EXTRACURRICULARS? Yes. The school offered track, swimming, wrestling, 4H, and numerous clubs. The most popular sport was goalball. At one time, the school had its own radio station and former students continue to work in radio and communications. (4) DO THE STUDENTS LIVE AT THE SCHOOL? Most of the students stay in the dorms during the week - especially students who live 90 minutes away from the school. In fact, some students are flown into the local airport each Sunday for school and then flown back home on Fridays. Other students are transported to the campus daily and some split time between the campus and local schools or the two-year college. (5) DO THE OLDER STUDENTS DATE? Yes. This is similar to students in other school settings. However, online matchmaking presents unique challenges for blind students as dating apps aren't accessible and students sometimes ask staff to help them complete dating profiles and give opinions on their potential matches. Staff divert those questions to the students' adult friends or sighted peers. (6) ARE ALL OF THE STUDENTS BLIND? All of the students have some level of vision loss that meets criteria for them to receive services at the school for the blind. However, some students have partial sight and a few are even able to obtain a driver's permit for daytime driving! (7) DO STUDENTS GET INTO TROUBLE? Yes, but staff with experience at different school settings generally concur that school discipline incidents happen less frequently and with less severity at the school for the blind. Typical violations of the code of student conduct might be bullying or having tobacco on campus. (8) HOW IS SCHOOL SAFETY ADAPTED FOR BLIND STUDENTS? There is a heavy emphasis on verbal communication and teaching students to identify landmarks, such as the perimeter sidewalk that loops the campus. Safety-purposed phone apps are seldom reliable for students with vision loss as such apps don't have VoiceOver features to read information or present choice menus. All students participate in all safety instruction and all drills. (9) WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO WORK THERE? A hurdle for new employees is that students' schedules are very fluid. This is due to orientation and mobility instruction and braille courses taking priority along with maximizing field practice. If a residential student is ill, they typically miss the entire week of school due to transportation schedules of picking students up on Sundays and taking them home on Fridays. As all students at the school have disabilities, working there can present a moral dilemma for people who believe that it isn't an inclusive setting and that students should be educated in their schools of residence. (10) WHAT ARE THE MOST UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FOR STAFF? It was common for half the school's staff and students to go on impromptu bike outings on warm fall or spring days. The school had tandem or three-wheeled bikes and a staff member or community volunteer was paired with a student. Doc describes a special CPR awareness project he helped a student work on which brought in the local TV and the student was given awards at an assembly. And, there was the pesky dorm cow that roamed the hallways at the most inopportune times! FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 162 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-13-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

Sassed1 2Many works in the IT Field as a mainframe technician. He's an avid shooter, rides motorcycles, and flies radio-controlled airplanes. And all of that was almost ripped away when early on life's journey he was spun and strewn with obstacles that forced him to literally rethink everything.  In this episode, Sassed discusses his career and the constant companion of the post effects of traumatic brain injury. Additionally, as a father, Sassed explains the disconnect between television narratives and proclamations by so-called experts and his search for authentic information. TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI). Per Mayo Clinic, “Traumatic brain injury usually results from a violent blow or jolt to the head or body. An object that goes through brain tissue, such as a bullet or shattered piece of skull, also can cause traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury may affect your brain cells temporarily. More-serious traumatic brain injury can result in bruising, torn tissues, bleeding and other physical damage to the brain. These injuries can result in long-term complications or death.” At the age of 21, Sassed was involved in a violent motorcycle accident, launching him over a stationary vehicle, and inflicting a serious traumatic brain injury into the aspiring tradesman's life. His face was smashed into the pavement and his mouth, numerous bones were shattered or dislocated, muscles torn, and nerves damaged. His mouth was wired shut and he was near metal snips as vomiting with a wired-shut mouth put him at risk for suffocating. Dizziness was nearly a constant experience and for years it was precarious to simply stand up from a chair without losing his balance. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION. Physical, Occupational, and Speech therapy are common for persons recuperating from TBI. Sassed didn't receive these therapies, but did partake in extensive hands-on training to rebuild motor memory and coordination. During recovery, he worked at a famous Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher - and later trained as a Tempura chef. Two years after the accident, Sassed enrolled in a state-sponsored vocational rehabilitation program which guided him into a career in computer operations. His first computer-related job, in 1984, centered on decollating six part computer printouts for $4.50 an hour. WHAT'S IN A NAME: SASSED1 2MANY. Sassed = past tense: to be cheeky or rude to (someone). 1 = one: the lowest cardinal number. 2 = to͞o: to a higher degree than is desirable, permissible, or possible many = innumerable, countless. Sassed1 2Many is a state of mind actualized from constant exposure to innumerable amounts of un-thoughtful impetuous impertinent and disrespectful content in the public and social digital communications age,  resulting in a singularly sarcastic existence. BEHIND THE MEDIA CURTAIN. It was as a father of young children that Sassed found himself recoiling from the nightly news and the abrasive social-shaping of commercials. He disconnected from contemporary media and immersed in personal research and engaging in thought-provoking discourse and debates. Doc and Sassed lamented on how even BIG news events receive perhaps ninety seconds of coverage on TV and are posted, with superficial information, on websites. The era of investigative journalism seemingly went extinct in the 1980s. Today, prominent media mouthpieces are well-compensated to read teleprompters and to not ask questions. Eventually, even they arrive at a crossroads of dissonance with what they speak and what they observe - and are quickly replaced by the long line of talking heads that want their shot at being a news celebrity. CANNONBALL RUN. In 1989, Sassed roared across the eastern seaboard in his 1988 Isuzu Impulse while averaging over 140MPH. In what many call the real-life remake of the famous 1981 movie starring Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, Sassed acquired a six pack, carton of donuts, and a first class postage stamp (25 cents at the time). FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 161 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-07-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Books: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com 

As Doc was writing School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America, he talked with parents of children killed or maimed by school shooters. Writing a book about school safety and taking on a multi-billion dollar industry needed to be done in a way that didn't encroach on the dignity of those killed in acts of school violence or upon that of survivors and family. From those discussions and through his research and observations of crisis communication, Doc found universal tenets for authentic, empathic messaging during a crisis or chaos. I HAVE BAD NEWS TO SHARE (The Chris Voss Method) Chris Voss is a retired FBI negotiator and his book Never Split the Difference is essential for anyone who might be at the podium on the worst day of their life. You're not doing the stressed audience a favor by attempting to ease them into horrific news. To begin with, “We had a fast response and everyone worked hard…” might be accurate, but it's a long wind-up for a pitch you intentionally have to aim at the batter. Instead, begin with “I have bad news to share.” Then pause. The second sentence is what might appear as the title of the forensic paper on this event. “Students and staff were involved in a bus accident on their way to a field trip.” The third sentence is the information known at the time about the well-being of those involved in the incident. This must be an “I” statement. “I have been in contact with the state patrol and was informed that some occupants of the bus have been transported to hospitals. I have no information about the types of injuries or potential fatalities.” And then tell people what to do or not to do. People shouldn't drive to the scene, but they should assemble in high school commons. LOST THEIR LIVES vs. HAD THEIR LIVES TAKEN. It's always better to use “had their lives taken” when acknowledging death. This is one resounding point of unison from parents of children killed by school shooters. To say, “This child lost his life” implies some culpability on the part of the child. We don't lose lives like we lose keys or socks. We don't find those lost lives. While the phrase “lost their life” might be said without negative intent, there are other times when “lost their life” is an intentional blurring by the media or officials. CRASH, ATTACK, and TRAGEDY. News media throttles or measures headlines per their agendas and somewhat to the Overton Window of the political temperature of the moment. On September 12, 2001, the headline from The New York Times read (in all caps): U.S. ATTACKED - HIJACKED JETS DESTROY TWIN TOWERS AND HIT PENTAGON IN DAY OF TERROR. That was an accurate headline. If it was written today, some media would opt for: Planes Crash Into Twin Towers and Pentagon - Unknown Number Lose Their Lives. And, the word “tragedy” is the catch basin for all disasters - it would be in most contemporary headlines. Tragedy is a word specifically selected by weak-willed journalists and editors who are afraid to assign a cause to an incident. What's present and what's absent from headlines and stories reveals the bias of the publisher/editor and not a lack of credible information. Everyone has a movie studio in their pocket. A from-the-street rendering from Google Maps is three clicks from the home screen. There's a reason “tragedy” didn't appear in any of the major newspaper headlines of 9/12/2001 - and a reason why other words did. BE OBJECTIVE, BE BRIEF. There is the main situation and then ancillary situations. When talking about that bus accident, convey everything in 50 words. If there's a need to talk about re-unification sites, that should be a second and different statement. Inform people that you, or someone else (name that person) will provide an update in one hour (for example). Do not attempt to field questions until after your second statement. THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU. Always try to have someone else read your statements for accuracy and tone. That person must be a membercheck willing to tell you the truth. Privately, read the statement to yourself. We are remarkably good at detecting when our messages aren't landing as we intended. Use simple, familiar vocabulary. Do not infuse your own emotions or experiences into the situation. Every person in that audience has a story to share about how this impacts them. Avoid, “In my twenty years as a school administrator, I have experienced loss of students and faculty, and this situation is a reminder that life is precious and that our community is strong in trying times…” That's a statement for a support event or rally. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 160 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-29-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com

Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder. An example of entropy is a melting ice cube. Water molecules are fixed and ordered in the cube. As it melts, the molecules become free to move and become independent and therefore become disordered. The second law of thermodynamics is that all things lead to entropy - from ice cubes to the human body. In this episode, Doc examines the entropy of structures and systems and centers these concepts on the example of a small village purchasing a replacement for its 30-year-old fire engine. ENTROPY OF STRUCTURES. Over time, cars will rust, pavement will crack, and the human body will deteriorate. Although entropy of structures is a certainty, preventive measures and maintenance will slow the rate of entropy. For the car, it's washing, waxing, and applying touch-up paint to new chips. Exercise staves off muscle atrophy. Even if all structures on Earth were immune from entropy, the sun would engulf the planet. ENTROPY OF SYSTEMS. When the Texas power grid failed in the winter of 2017, a forensic analysis revealed a power grid system that had become old, outdated, and inefficient. Remember when you were in elementary school and participated in a monthly fire drill? The purpose of the drill was to ensure fidelity of the evacuation system. If you only practiced a fire drill the first week of the school year, then some students would forget the protocols as the year went on. THE NEW FIRE ENGINE EFFECT. In October, 2021, the village board of a community of 1500 people in Wisconsin approved an expenditure for a new fire engine. At $400,000, the rescue pumper would be the costliest purchase in the village's 2022 budget. The volunteer department's fire chief was grilled by the city council members to justify the large expenditure. The prepared chief noted that the village's primary engine, a 1990 pumper bought for $78,000, was well-maintained and also succumbing to entropy of structure and systems. In other words, the engine itself was demonstrating fatigue and it was difficult to find replacement parts for the aging apparatus. But there was something else. The outside world evolved 30 years beyond the world the engine entered. This is important. Let's say that an exact new replica of the 1990 engine could be delivered to the fire station. Would that make sense? The firefighters would be familiar with the various levers and controls, right? Going back to the 1990 engine - it doesn't have a crew cab and therefore only 3 firefighters can travel in it. Because of this limitation, the engine always needed a companion as the department always sent at least 4 firefighters to a call. This meant that two fire trucks were sent to accidents in order to have sufficient personnel - an accepted practice in 1990 - in fact, the firehouse was often emptied for most calls as the mindset was to bring as many assets to an incident as possible. Today, the “industry” protocol is to send a single "rescue" engine specifically built to transport 4-5 crew and extrication gear. The stalwart 1990 engine had a 1000 GPM pump. New engines are outfitted with a 1500 GPM pump. The village's fire rating fell over the years due to static pumping capacity as the once-tiny industrial park flourished with new businesses. And then there's GPS, comms, LED lighting and improved designs so ladders can be stored on top of the apparatus and lowered with ease. So that was all on the structure entropy side of things. The next part was systems entropy. In 1990, nobody thought about extinguishing an electric vehicle. Firefighters today train differently than their 1990 counterparts. The system of individual fire departments battling any blaze was a thing in 1990. In that Wisconsin village,a massive fire on Main Street was tackled by the fire department and the neighboring rural town's department. Today, such a fire would activate mutual aid from multiple communities. With the advent and acceptance of mutual aid, fire departments are streamlining their fleets and pool assets. SCHOOL SAFETY. So what does this mean for school safety? As entropy happens slowly, it's almost impossible for schools to detect it. Plus, there is frequent turnover of school staff - so these folks aren't around long enough to observe entropy. What can a safety expert do for a school? Identify the state of entropy and make recommendations to restore structures or systems (to original), refurbish them (modernize them as possible), or replace them. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. This is episode 159 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com

On Friday, November 12, 2021, classes were canceled for many public school districts in North Carolina. The intended purpose of the motion was to offer a mental health day for teachers and students experiencing burnout from the pandemic and the cumulative stress of contemporary education. Doc, with 25 years experience as an educator, describes the sudden popularity of mental days for school staff and why mental health days will both increase and also compound teacher burnout. WHAT HAPPENS ON MENTAL HEALTH DAYS? Staff and students are typically given vague guidance on how to focus on their mental health during days off. When Doc asks educators what they do on mental health days, they respond, “catch up on work,” instead of yoga, journaling or anything related to self care. Some note that the days off actually add to their workloads - and that makes sense. Instead of covering a planned lesson in 5 days, now they have 4 days, or 20% less time. Let's be honest, a “day away from school” isn't a magical elixir. This is trendy, but ineffective. Teachers are still burning out. MENTAL HEALTH DAYS DISRUPT ROUTINES. The school calendar provides consistency - especially now. Students have been out of school or toggled between hybrid and in-person instruction the past two years. Mental wellness days disrupt the continuity of routine. A human's predictable routine can be called the torus - a concept Doc wrote extensively about in his book School of Errors. FIVE WAYS TO SOLVE TEACHER BURNOUT. Here are five ways to counter teacher burnout. Note that some call for disrupting long-held practices, such as the summer-off school calendar. (1) OBEY PARKINSON'S LAW. Humans function efficiently with defined start and end routines to daily activities. It wasn't just the teaching profession that seemingly went 24/7 during remote learning, but schools have maintained one foot in remote learning and the other in the brick classroom. This has mushroomed the prep and planning for teachers. Schools can't saddle teachers with planning for online, hybrid, and in-person learning. (2) YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL CALENDAR. In The Velocity of Information, Doc wrote about the groundbreaking work of World War II Army psychiatrist Dr. John Appel. Appel studied burnout in combat soldiers. He discovered that frontline warfighters would be killed, wounded, captured, mentally collapse, or found to be missing in action by 200 days. Increasing pay or championing “Why We Fight” didn't offset the burnout. By that account, increasing teachers' compensation, even doubling it, would likely have minimal effect on burnout. It might increase retention, but retaining a burned-out teacher is a bad idea. Back to Appel, he found that the British got 400 days out of their soldiers on the Italian front lines. How? The British would pull fighters out of duty within twelve days and then rest them for four days. In overlaying this thinking to K-12 schools, a year-round calendar creates rest periods - true “breaks” versus a periodic mental health day. Furthermore, year-round schedules lessen the impact of summer learning loss. Summers off goes back to when we were an agrarian society and then a recreation society. Most educators that talk with Doc are ready for year-round calendars. Beware, the school calendar is a sacred cow. (3) EMBRACE CROWD-IN MINDSET. There is zero sense that we are in transitory chaos. When people are convinced that chaos will continue for months or years, they surround themselves with comfort items. Remember the Michael Keaton movie Mr. Mom? In it, a fictional company called “Schooner Tuna” was steered away from advertising gimmicks by Keaton's wife. In a surprise move, Schooner Tuna reduced the price of its tuna by 50 cents a can to convey empathy during the economic crisis of the time. Schools are overloaded with initiatives - and these initiatives are baking teachers. (4) CRACKED BOARDS. Recon Sniper Clay Martin spoke of “cracked boards” when Doc interviewed him about dealing with long periods in high stress settings. In short, it's OK to tacitly acknowledge that you are frustrated - it's the last fuse before burnout. (5) QUIT ZOOMING. Former Microsoft executive Linda Stone is an expert on human attention. In The Velocity of Information, Stone mentioned that she advises clients that Zoom calls are exhausting and a phone call places less demand on attention. Not every conversation requires a Zoom call. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 158 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-16-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com

The issue of masks and other COVID-19 precaution strategies in schools has become contentious, sparking a firestorm of lawsuits. Special guest Attorney Lisa Linney helps us understand behind-the-scenes strategizing when a parent sues a school district over insufficient virus mitigation protocols. What is the strongest argument for the plaintiff? Beyond the parent and the school district, will other “responsible third parties'' be at fault? What must happen in the hours after a school district has been served a lawsuit? DISCLAIMER. Attorney Lisa Linney will not be giving legal advice during this episode. Please contact your legal counsel for guidance on specific school safety legal matters. ABOUT LISA LINNEY. Lisa Linney is an attorney at Murphy Legal in Texas. Her focus is motion practice and appellate law. Lisa's appellate practice begins before a case even goes to trial. She participates in trial preparation by researching thorny issues and crafting motions in support of her clients' positions and to preserve the trial record for any potential appeal. Lisa also handles appellate work, including briefing and oral argument. She is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. WHAT IS DECLARATORY RELIEF? Lisa notes that the lawsuits are between the parent and the school district. Declaratory relief would be , for example, the court interpreting the contract to determine rights of parents and the school without ordering action or awarding damages. In other words, the court has the ability to compel the school to implement a mask mandate or specific pandemic mitigation protocols. However, such a ruling would not extend to other school districts in the state. But, when similar parent-filed lawsuits against multiple districts catch the attention of the media and state legislators, there might be pressure for either the state department of health or state department of instruction to take a firm position, or in the rare chance, issue a decree on the matters. WHAT IS INJUNCTIVE RELIEF? The court may issue a sanction (injunction) regarding a school district's pandemic mitigation practices. For example, if a school had a “masks optional” policy, the court might sanction the school district to remove the “optional” from its protocol. In Wisconsin, parent lawsuits against school districts claiming that "The school board and the superintendent are not providing a safe environment” are seeking declaratory or injunctive relief. In other words, the intent of the lawsuits is to change policy and protocol - most likely to require masks in schools. BURDEN OF PROOF. Lisa notes that the burden of proof in these lawsuits will be with the parent. As the plaintiff gather's evidence (discovery) it's as important to examine how a school district engaged in due diligence and debated pandemic mitigation protocols. The board of education is empowered with the responsibility of creating policies and voting on actions. When looking at the school's decision to mitigate effects of COVID-19 in the school setting, something more could have always been done. The question is, what is reasonable? Anything publicly available from the county health department, local hospitals, CDC, FDA, NIH, WHO should be considered. Demonstrate due diligence in obtaining and weighing information from a variety of reputable sources - and government sources will be perceived as credible. Then boil down to more specific data as to what information applies to children. If the school district engaged in these steps, it's going to be difficult for a parent to prevail in a lawsuit. WHAT IS NEGLIGENCE? Attorney Linney explained the three elements of negligence. (First) Defendant owned a legal duty; (Second) Defendant breached that duty; and (Third) Breach caused the injury. The plaintiff (parent) has to show that the defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff and the defendant breached that duty, and that breach was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. Attorney Linney felt it would be a great technical challenge to prove the student contracted COVID at school and that it was a result of insufficient mitigation efforts by the school. Proximate cause will be the problem in the courts - how do you show the child got COVID. Where else has the child been, and the people that the children live and interact with outside of school? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 157 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-2-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.

One lesser-mentioned reason for the sustained and worsening supply chain disruption is that manufacturing has entered the “transfer portal” between JIT and 3D printing. In other words, an old technology is being usurped by a new technology. The pandemic hastened the process and the question centered on in this episode is how the baton pass will occur as the race track is quaking. WAREHOUSE to JIT to 3D PRINTING. In the 1990s, manufacturing experienced an evolution from warehouse manufacturing (or creating excess product and to ship as needed), to Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing - which meant products would skip the warehouse and go directly from the manufacturer to the store / business / consumer. JIT was clunky at first, but as computers improved, RFID to quickly track and improve asset management, and sophisticated transportation logistics, the JIT system was proven, and improving, by the early 2000s. 3D-PRINTED HOUSES GO MAINSTREAM. (Yahoo News' Joann Muller, Monday, October 25, 2021) Doc shares a story about 3D-printed cement houses. Instead of conventional materials like steel, aluminum and lumber, 3D-printed structures are built by a robot squeezing a cement mixture out of a nozzle, layer upon layer, like a soft swirl ice cream cone. It's the same additive manufacturing process used to make everything from dental implants to airplane parts — just on a much, much larger scale. Texas-based ICON has delivered two dozen 3D-printed homes in the US and Mexico and has raised $207 million to expand. The homes are printed on-site. While something as disruptive as 3D printed houses seems far-fetched, Doc noted that from 1908 to 1940, you could choose from over 400 styles of homes to purchase through Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog. HOW 3D-PRINTED FOOD COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE COOK AND EAT. General Electric's GE Additive Manufacturing branch released a report in 2020 describing 3D-printing of food as entering mainstream testing. “At one gourmet restaurant in the United Kingdom, everyone is eating 3D-printed food because that is all that is served. The enterprising entrepreneurs at London's Food Ink decided to push additive manufacturing to its logical extreme. Everything is 3D printed, including the utensils, plates, tables and chairs. At Miramar, a gourmet restaurant in Spain, food printers take on more mundane tasks, freeing chefs to better focus on their creative cuisine.” BENEFITS OF 3D PRINTING (Statsys.com) (1) Advance time-to-market turnaround; (2) Save on tooling costs with on-demand 3D printing; (3) Reduce waste with additive manufacturing; (4) Save weight with complex part designs; (5) Eliminate shipping of finished products, along with packaging. ISSUES WITH 3D PRINTING (1) Need for raw materials - you won't be able to harvest from your backyard; (2) Intellectual property enforcement - while some open source and public domain, it's most likely 3D printers will have a subscription service like Amazon; (3) Unclear as to how 3D printed items will be recycled; (4) What is liability if you 3D print something that fails - like a part for your car; (5) Ransomware and hackability. What prevents 3D food printers from being corrupted? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 156 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-26-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.

Doc clarifies the issues around threats toward school officials, discusses the National School Board Association's (NSBA) under-informed hyperbolic letter to president Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland's knee jerk memo directing the FBI to figure out strategies to address school threats within the next 30 days, reactions from state-level school board associations, and how your local school district board of education might implement changes including recording audiences attending board of education (BOE) meetings. Doc matches solutions to these issues and also refreshes our minds to how similar matters have been effectively addressed in the past, including FDR's 1930s letter writing campaign. NSBA LETTER TO BIDEN REGARD THREATS TO SCHOOLS. On September 29, 2021, the NSBA, an advocacy group, sent a letter to President Biden with the heading: Federal Assistance to Stop Threats and Acts of Violence Against Public Schoolchildren, Public School Board Members, and Other Public School District Officials and Educators. In the letter, NSBA rolled off this 97-word sentence in which it put some parents in the arena with domestic terrorists: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. As such, NSBA requests a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight.” AG GARLAND MEMO TO FBI. On October 4, 2021, US Attorney General Merrick Garland send a memorandum to the Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation directing the FBI to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days in order to facilitate strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response. STATE SCHOOL BOARD CHAPTERS NOT ON BOARD. The organization Parents Defending Education is curating a running tally of state school boards that have withdrawn from NSBA over the Biden letter (18 state school board associations have bailed from NSBA) as well as state school board associations answers to the following three questions: (1) As the [state association] has not yet commented on the National School Board Association's September 29 letter to President Biden that requested federal intervention in local school board issues – which likened civic participation to “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and cited the Patriot Act – Parents Defending Education (PDE) would like to know whether your organization was involved in the creation of this letter and whether you agree with its substance and tone. If not, have you contacted the NSBA to let them know? (2) Can you please tell us how, going forward, your organization defines “intimidation,” harassment,” and “threat”? (3) Finally, do you plan to report individuals in your state to the U.S. Department of Justice – or do you believe that concerns can be adequately managed by local and state law enforcement? STATE RESPONSES BURN NSBA. It's apparent that state's are displeased with NSBA and the Garland Memo. Here's the Delaware School Board Association response to PDE's questions: “The DSBA has seen school board meeting protests, some of which have become quite impassioned, however we have received NO reports of violence or threats of violence toward school staff or school board members.  The DSBA does NOT condone violence or threats of violence toward students, staff or board members.  After consultation with the Governor's office, the Public Health Department and the Delaware Department of Education the DSBA developed and issued guidance to school board presidents regarding how to best handle school board meeting protests, which included the ultimate use of LOCAL law enforcement if absolutely necessary.  This guidance was issued prior to the NSBA September 29 2021 letter.  The NSBA letter to President Biden was unnecessary and quite frankly not helpful.” ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS? Doc believes threats of violence toward school officials is happening, but over-stated by NSBA and Garland. Also, the National Threat Assessment Center has been effective in mitigating school threats for 20 years. Reviewing school board meeting video footage is at the bottom of the FBI's prioritization list. FDR ASKED FOR LETTERS. When FDR was president, the country was hammered by the Great Depression and fears of war. In his fireside chats, he asked listeners to write letters to him describing their plights. More than 8,000 letters a day arrived at the White House - many accusatory and fiery. Doc described why this approach worked, and how it might be one of the strategies considered to make people feel that they are being heard. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 155 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-20-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.

Doc peels apart the big sticky questions about K-12 school mask mandates. What's kicked off the flurry of mask/mitigation lawsuits filed by parents? Have county health services abandoned their obligations to school districts? Are school boards spending pandemic funds on football fields? Why are doctors invited to present at school board meetings instead of environmental services experts? Learn what is happening and what should be happening is schools around America. MASK GUIDANCE. Schools are frantically seeking guidance from county health departments. While some counties have stepped up, others have stepped away and turned off the lights. Boards of Education (BOEs) then attempt to align decisions to the CDC, state recommendation, advice from legal counsel, or local doctors. MASKS IN THE REAL SCHOOL WORLD. School officials are unable to define what is an effective and acceptable mask. Hundreds of students might wear old masks, homemade masks, or fashion masks. Should schools issue masks to students and staff to ensure some baseline of quality? How are students educated about mask wearing and how are schools responding to medical exemption orders for some students with disabilities? CONTACT TRACING. We've all heard this concept. In practice, it's messy for schools providing in-person instruction. What frequently happens is that a student tests positive for COVID-19 and then the district notifies parents that their child was in “close proximity” to a child that tested positive for COVID-19. The parents are advised to observe their child for symptoms, but typically aren't required to have the student self-quarantine or receive a rapid test. How does a parent distinguish symptoms of colds, seasonal flu, allergies, COVID-19, and fatigue? ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund (March, 2021) pumped cash into schools in the form of block grants that allowed schools to spend the dollars to increase student achievement or mitigate pandemic concerns. Some districts spent their dollars on staffing and cleaning. Others installed artificial turf athletic fields, tracks, and new weight rooms. There was much, and unchecked, interpretation of what measures promoted student health during a pandemic. Doc also notes that few schools spend the funds on HVAC upgrades due to the technical barriers of upgrading existing systems. For example, filters that remove viruses decrease air flow through the system and strain circulation motors. Furthermore, equipment and installers are in short supply as supply chains fell apart in 2021. SHOULD SCHOOLS TEST FOR COVID-19 ON SURFACES AND IN THE AIR? Yes. Schools have utilized professional environmental services to test for mold or MRSA, remove impacted areas, and help to prevent future problems. Environmental companies that offer those services are able to test surfaces and air samples for the presence of COVID-19. Doc states that professional environmental services should be informing school boards about COVID-19 management in schools. PARENTS SUE SCHOOLS - MY CHILD GOT COVID-10 AT SCHOOL. Doc notes very recent lawsuits that parents have filed against schools in his state alleging that the school “failed to implement reasonable COVID-19 mitigation measures.” How might schools respond to the lawsuits? Will parents prevail. If so, then what happens? Doc describes how foreseeable tort law might be something we begin to hear about and what that term means for BOEs. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 154 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-13-2021. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.

Lee Jarvis is an Analyzer of Data Processes. He has much knowledge about intellectual property and critical considerations for bloggers, podcasters, social media influencers, and the person in charge of adding uplifting cartoons or images to the church bulletin.  What happens if you post a copyrighted image to your blog? How about streaming a minute of copyrighted video within your podcast? How do we fix this mess? **LEE AND DAVID ARE NOT LAWYERS. THIS EPISODE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Read the full blog post for this episode at safetyphd.com. PANDEMIC RELIEF BILL MIGHT IMPACT CONTENT STREAMERS. Lawmakers slipped multiple copyright bills, including the CASE Act and a felony streaming law, into the $2.3 trillion spending and economic-relief legislation in December, 2020. The CASE ACT, for example, would create a small claims copyright court and a new U.S. law could hit streamers with felony charges for streaming copyrighted content. WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? Lee explains what IP is, why IP laws were made, what they cover, including copyright and patent, and the differences between patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Trademarks, for example, often expire after just 3 years while copyrights can exist for more than 70 years. Per Wipo, intellectual property (IP) refers to “creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” We often think of photos and songs as intellectual property. WHAT IS FAIR USE? Lee notes that Fair Use largely hinges on two points. First, is the content copyrighted? Second, did the person distribute it. Per Copyright.Gov, “Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.” However, a judge would determine if Fair Use was a valid “defense” in a lawsuit. WHAT IS CREATIVE COMMONS? Creative Commons is an internationally active non-profit organisation that provides free licences for creators to use when making their work available to the public. This means that they only need to seek the creator's permission when they want to use the work in a way not permitted by the license. CC was instrumental in facilitating the Open COVID Pledge, which calls on organizations around the world to make their patents and copyrights freely available in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. PROBLEMS WITH IP IN CURRENT TIMES AND HOW IT COULD COMPLICATE COLLABORATION IN A CRISIS. Problems with IP in current times and how it impacts people. Lee unpacks complicated laws, banned accounts, blocked content, and censorship. There's also a cottage industry of third party “IP enforcers” with practices that border on extortion when they threaten huge fines after their Internet-scanning software locates IP on web pages, such as a copyrighted image posted in a personal blog. Such businesses might not give a cent of recovered money to the copyright owner. IP IN THE TIME OF COVID. Doc adds that a recent study revealed that 3000 people contributed intellectual input to develop schematics for both home and commercial printing of face masks, face shields, and ventilator parts in response to COVID19 pandemic demands. This mass collaboration might be impossible with increased IP monitoring and enforcement. There is no amnesty for people that violate IP during times of crises, although some manufacturers eased IP protections during COVID. HOW TO IMPROVE IP. Unless changes are made to IP, Lee envisions scenarios of IP infringement claims overwhelming courts, IP creators stifled as they aren't being properly compensated for their efforts, and hesitation from content users as they don't want to be sued for potentially copyrighted material. Lee explores improvements such as expanding Fair Use, fines for false claims of IP infringement, or creating a new system of IP. Although overhauling IP is daunting, consider that most songs today are legally downloaded from Amazon or iTunes whereas many were illegally shared on Napster or Limewire in the 1990s. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 153 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-27-2020. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com

Has Apple or Google uploaded a COVID-19 tracking app to your phone without asking first? One million Coloradans have opted in to receive COVID-19 exposure notifications - now what? Could voluntary apps become part of unalterable operating systems? How exactly does Bluetooth work and what are the security risks with Bluetooth communications? What's the deal with homemade PPE? How do biological teachings or OSHA classes differ from the cascade of health-preservation advice or directives issued by governments, hospitals, and even talk show hosts? Environment / Health / Safety & Data Systems Expert Carl Hopf guides us to the granular level of these matters. Read the full blog post for this episode at safetyphd.com ABOUT CARL HOPF. Carl has worked in Environment, Health and Safety, and facility management for over 25 years. He started working as a technician in laboratories, then evolving into managing academic clinical and basic laboratories in NJ. He was also an academic IT manager, educational video conferencing manager  and has been involved in emergency response for many years. Carl has also worked in emergency management, HAZMAT/BIOMAT/RADMAT for eight years. He has also worked in EHS and data management in a corporate and manufacturing setting for six years. Currently, he is a contractor for multiple companies that are involved in management systems, EHS, and safety. COVID PHONE APP and BLUETOOTH. Carl noted that New Jersey was overt in notifying residents about the COVID19 tracking app downloaded to their phones. The app opt-in is voluntary and it functions by using the phone's Bluetooth feature, which constantly scans for nearby channels and is a big drain on battery life. Walking in public, Bluetooth has a radius of about 15 feet. The tracking app will immediately notify the phone's owner if they are in close contact with another app user who has tested positive for coronavirus. Close contact is defined as spending 15 minutes for longer near someone who tested positive for the virus. The app won't identify the infected person (HIPPA) and prompts the user to call a contact tracing team for additional directions (contact tracing). COULD VOLUNTARY APPS BECOME PART OF THE PHONE OS? Carl stated that if the COVID19 tracking app was embedded in a future version of his phone's operating system, he would choose to no longer use the phone. There was an uptick in flip phone sales prior to the pandemic as people attempted to break from addiction to their smartphones and concerns about tracking existed well before 2020. PROBLEMS WITH HOMEMADE PPE (and all PPE). Carl describes micron ranges and questions the effectiveness of homemade PPE which has been made from both yarn and underwear. He recounts the PPE he wore while working in virology labs and the stringent security protocols to ensure that PPE never left the “gray” zone - which was the area proximal to bacteria or viruses. This is a huge contrast to people around us carrying their masks with them from place to place and shoving them into the car's cup holder until the next time they “need it” to enter a building. WHAT A PPE AWARE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE WOULD BE LIKE. Imagine the entrance of a grocery store in which the incoming shopper was required to gown up and wear a store-issued mask. And, when they exited the store, they would deposit their PPE into a secure disposal unit. Carl states that the CDC manuals for biohazards are in conflict with recent guidance - and that guidance was also changing often and not standardized across locations - resulting in safety fatigue. COMPLIANCE SAFETY vs. BEHAVIOR BASED SAFETY. Carl unpacks two prevailing psychological approaches to safety. The first is compliance safety, or people performing an act in order to be compliant with a rule. For example, crossing a street at the crosswalk when the “WALK” light turns white. Behavior based safety is more centered to the person surveying their setting and making decisions that they deem matches the situation and context. For example, deciding which side of the street that they will walk on. Carl cautions that an over-abundance of compliance safety devolves to people complying just to get the outcome, and losing sight of the deeper rationale for their actions. These are also known as “check box” activities. He urges people to question why they are being asked to do things - to seek to understand the fundamental purposes. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward scholarly thought on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 152 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-24-2020. Purchase Dr. Perrodin's Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com