Podcasts about stoneman douglas

Head Baseball Coach Todd Fitzgerald of Stoneman Douglas joins Larry Blustein as they talk about the programing this year

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Chelsea Briggs is an experienced English educator with over a decade of teaching in Broward County. A graduate of Florida Atlantic University, she began her career as a paraprofessional at Horizon Elementary and has taught at Stoneman Douglas High School since 2017. Currently teaching 11th and 12th-grade English, Chelsea is known for inspiring students and fostering a love for literature and critical thinking. Her engaging teaching style and strong student connections reflect her dedication to shaping the next generation of thinkers.In this episode, Mrs. Briggs shares her incredible journey into teaching, revealing how past mentors inspired her to influence young lives. From encouraging students to pursue their genuine passions through innovative clubs like LED Dance and Acro Hoop to offering earnest advice on parenting teenagers, Chelsea emphasizes the critical role educators play as mentors and facilitators in their students' lives.Whether you're a parent, teacher, or advocate for education, this heartwarming and eye-opening conversation highlights the importance of supporting independence in young adults and fostering a community that champions students to explore their interests and thrive.TakeawaysTake the time to listen to your childEmpower students through passion projectsGambling is a big problem in the schools todayTimestamps00:00 Teaching Aspirations Inspired by Teachers03:30 From Bartender to Educator's Journey08:01 Kindergarten Para Experience Benefits Teacher12:04 Indifference to Personal Responsibility16:00 Overcoming Dyslexia: A Teacher's Journey16:55 Empowering Students Through Advocacy21:10 Prioritizing Student Enrichment23:31 Support at Graduation27:41 Youth Dreams and Reality Checks32:22 Balancing Kids' Phone Access34:52 Balancing Freedom and Safety for Teens37:57 Healthy Fear in Parenting41:45 Breaking Free from Self-Imposed Limits44:29 Motivation Through Mentorship46:39 Impactful Parenting Perspectives Podcast

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight, we're going to continue to highlight the podcast Continental Shifts created by bi-coastal educators Gabriel Anthony Tanglao and Estella Owoimaha-Church who embark on a voyage in search of self, culture and the ancestors.     TRANSCRIPT Episode 4 with Yan Yii   Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   Swati Rayasam: [00:00:35] Good evening, everyone. You're listening to Apex Express Thursday nights at 7 PM. My name is Swati Rayasam and I'm the special editor for this episode. Tonight, we're going to continue to highlight the podcast Continental Shifts created by bi-coastal educators Gabriel Anthony Tanglao and Estella Owoimaha-Church who embark on a voyage in search of self, culture and the ancestors. Last time we featured the ConShifts podcast, gabriel and Estella talked about anti-blackness in the PI community. And tonight they're talking to union leader and educator Yan Yii about creating culturally relevant classrooms, the importance and emotional toll of teachers being a social safety net for marginalized students, and the ever-growing union presence in education. If this is your first touch into the ConShifts podcast, I strongly recommend diving into the apex archives on kpfa.org, backslash programs, backslash apex express. But for now, let's get to the show.   Yan Yii: [00:01:38] But what about the other 179 days? We can't just celebrate them for one day a year. Or one month a year. We can't just say, okay, Black History Month and we're done. We have to celebrate our students all year long. Because, and we need to change the curriculum. You know, we talked about decolonizing curriculum. I am purposeful in the books that I choose to use in my classroom because, yes, I can teach “Number the Stars” for the 600th time, or maybe I can decide to use a book that reflects my students.   Gabriel: [00:02:10] How do we attract API educators into the workforce and support them throughout their professional journey? In this episode, we rap with Yan Yii on increasing the number of API educators that are coming through our teacher pipeline and emerging as union leaders.   Estella: [00:02:26] What up, what up? Tālofa lava, o lo'u igoa o Estella. My pronouns are she/her/hers, sis, and uso.   Gabriel: [00:02:32] What's good, family? This is Gabriel. Kumusta? Pronouns, he/him.   Estella: [00:02:36] I have the pleasure of introducing our guest today, Yan Yii. Yan is a fifth grade teacher in Canton, Massachusetts, local board president of the Canton Teachers Association. NEA Board of Director for Massachusetts and serves as the Northeast Regional Director for the NEA Asian and Pacific Islanders Caucus. We want to be intentional, though, about not centering our professions above who we are. So Yan, could you please share with us who you are, how do you identify, and who are your people?   Yan Yii: [00:03:05] Hi, as you said, I'm a fifth grade teacher. I'm in my 14th year of teaching. In Massachusetts public schools and I am one of six or seven Asian Pacific Islander NEA board of directors. And I think that number has doubled since last year, which is pretty exciting. I would say that I am a proud daughter of two immigrant Chinese parents. My dad grew up in Malaysia and my mom grew up in Hong Kong and you know being Chinese has always been a huge part of who I am, but it's also been an interesting divide growing up in America because, I've always been split between speaking English and speaking Chinese, you know, even an elementary level, my life was so split in two having my Chinese school on Sundays while all my friends went to church and then going to American school during the week. And that was a huge part of my life separating out, you know, who I was at school and who I was at home, what I spoke at school and what I spoke at home. And, you know, it's funny being bilingual. My friends have always asked like, “When did you learn how to speak English?” And I'm like, “I don't remember.” I know I went to school speaking English. I know that my brothers have always only spoken to me in English, but my parents only speak Cantonese to me. You know, Boston is a huge Cantonese community or it used to be anyways, it's a little more mixed now in our Chinatown, but it's an interesting divide because I remember being in college and having friends who made fun of the way I talked my English was spoken weirdly from my American friends and my Chinese was off for my Chinese friends. It was this difficulty finding a place where you really belong but I would say a huge part of why I became an educator was because of learning about my identity and being that kid who always loved school. I mean, I'm the kind of kid who didn't mind homework because I loved school so much. I was going home and playing school with my little brother and I remember, you know being 10 or 11 and my brother convincing me there was school in the middle of a snowstorm and I walked all the way to school because I wanted to be there and then I promplty went home because there was no school but it, you know, it's, it's some of those interesting things. Like growing up, aside from going to Chinese school, I really didn't see a teacher who looked like me. Now, I've loved each and every single teacher I ever had. I loved making that connection with them, but I think it was really disappointing to not see anybody who looked like me, except when I went to Chinese school where everybody looked like me. So it was this place where I never really felt like I belonged. I grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts, which is pretty diverse. And in eighth grade, we moved to Stoneham, which is 98 percent white and all of a sudden it felt like I had even less of an identity. Like I didn't know who I was supposed to be. And there was no one really who looks like me. And the few that did look like me were either adopted or didn't speak the language or they didn't share the same culture as me. I think that's the reason why when I went to college, I went to Simmons University, and the minute I got in there I signed up for Chinese classes. I became an East Asian studies major, even though I am not a history person at all. Because I felt like I needed to find my identity and I joined the Asian Students Association like, it was literally grasping at anything that could help me feel like I had some sort of identity.   Gabriel: [00:06:40] That's such a powerful point in thinking about how much seeing your culture and identity reflected throughout your educational experience would matter. Even though it was absent, it causes us to want to explore and like you said, grasp for spaces where we can connect with people who share that identity and share that culture. So, part of our conversation here today is really to unpack the landscape of public education and thinking about how API educators aren't largely represented, depending on what state or local or part of the country you're from. But, Yan, I wanted to ask you, from your perspective as an API educator and a union leader with perspective across the state, but also nationally, why do you think there are so few API educators in the workforce?   Yan Yii: [00:07:35] Well, I think part of that, especially in the East Asian culture, is built into our culture, right? It's this idea of is being a teacher a good enough job? I mean, I know when I came home from college and said i'm going into education that was my junior year of college I had already said that I was going to be a psychologist and all of a sudden I came home and I said I'm gonna be a teacher. And no one was upset that I wanted to be a teacher, but they were like, “Are you sure that's the journey for you? Are you sure that's where you want to be? Do you know how much a teacher makes? Is that a good enough job for you?” But like I said, I've always loved education. I think it's the perfect job for me. I think these, it's one of those professions that you're kind of born into. But I don't think it's celebrated among many cultures. Particularly like my Chinese parents, they didn't deter me from being a teacher, but they did say, “Is this the right path for you? Because we don't want to have to worry about you.” But I think also when you don't see yourself reflected in the field when you don't see other AAPI teachers or people working in education, that it makes you feel like there's not a place for you. And it's always about that sense of belonging. Even when I've seen other educators come into the field, if they don't feel like they have someone they can connect with, or, you know. You're facing microaggressions every single day and believe me, I have seen microaggressions in my community where I work, and I have been there for 14 years. And they're never, I would like to believe they're not, they don't come from malintent, but it feels that way sometimes. And I think that when you feel like an island, it becomes very difficult for people to stay in the profession.   Gabriel: [00:09:15] Can definitely relate to that portion. Just again, that whole idea that we need to have representation in part so we can see ourselves in those roles. And the question that you ask, is being a teacher a quote, good enough job? And that narrative playing out in perhaps immigrant family experiences with the whole idea of migrating to the United States is to try to climb this ladder of socioeconomic elevation in some way. I wanted to also ask Estella, since you know, our co host here is a classroom educator out in California. Do you feel like there's a strong representation of API educators throughout the West Coast in California? Or how is the perception of API representation out there in your spaces?   Estella: [00:10:10] In my observations I would say definitely not enough, especially as a PI educator, as a Samoan educator, definitely not enough. Part of the reason why I chose to become an educator, and I feel like there's a list of reasons why I chose education as my profession, and I agree with Yan it is definitely like a calling, right? Like folks who choose this, this is a lifestyle. And it's far more than just a job or a career and so there are so many reasons why I chose to be a teacher. But one reason why I chose specifically to make sure that I came back home to teach aside from my great aunt saying to me right before she passed away, I was the first in my family to go to college. First to finish and my aunt before she passed, she said, “You know, all of that will do no good if you stay in your ivory tower.” After hearing her say that and then losing her, I was very much committed to making sure that I came back home to teach. Early on in my career when I was younger or still in school, I was always feeling like, you know, I want to, I want to travel and teach. I'm going to go, I want to go to Japan. I want to go to Switzerland. I want to go to all these places and teach. And after my aunt said that, I was like, why? Why would I, why would I do that? I need to go home and teach. I need to go back to South Central to South LA and teach and so I ended up coming back to the South Bay to teach because I had assumed that this was going to be a place where I could teach Black and Samoan kids just like me. Because I had never had a Samoan teacher. I had never had a PI teacher ever in my life and I did have Black teachers and that's only because my parents were very deliberate in sending me to a Black school in South LA, for elementary school. But the experience changed in public high school and so I was committed to coming back home to be in a space where I knew I would see Tongan kids, Samoan kids, Fijian kids and then when I got here, my second year teaching and I was like, where, where are my peoples? Where is everybody? Like, I know that when I was a kid, this was because my mom went to Gardena High School. I just knew like growing up, I saw Samoans all over the place and suddenly there were none at the school that I was teaching at. And in my years teaching in the South Bay, I taught in the South Bay for six, nearly seven years. It was a continuous decline of enrollment of PI students. There's a whole host of reasons. One reason, right off the bat, and it goes to everything that Yan has already said, there was no sense of belonging. Or cultural understanding of any of those students in addition, or similarly, there's a continual decline of Black families in our schools in this area. And I'm not saying that the decline has anything to do with, like, the influx or rise of other populations. I think it needs to be pinned squarely on the fact that PI Students are not receiving the support, academic supports they need, or the social emotional supports they need. There is research to show that there is a push out of PI girls and Black girls. They are more likely to be suspended or expelled and pushed out of our schools. In addition, if the boys are not playing football, there's not a lot of support or welcoming or belonging created for those students and definitely no teachers who can connect to them on, on a cultural level or literally speak the language and there's probably a great deal of linguistic needs that aren't being met. They might speak English, but if their first language was Samoan they probably need a lot more EL supports that we don't have programs built for. And so students are leaving, parents are opting for private education or other places where they should go. So I think, I don't know how to name it, but there has to be a correlation with the student population and the number of educators that are also in the space. I'm here to teach students who, you know, I assume or imagine probably going through very similar things I went through as a kid, and there's no one here for me to teach. You know what I mean? Like, like what I set out to accomplish, I don't know that I will be able to.   Gabriel: [00:14:47] Stella, there were two things from what you just shared that are resonating for me. First, the push out of PI and Black students in schools. I think it's important to note that when we think about API: Asian and Pacific Islanders that we perceive this group of people or group of students as a monolith. And when you disaggregate the data, Even though the perception is that API as an aggregate is more highly educated, has higher socioeconomic status, et cetera, et cetera, that when you disaggregate the data, it's important to understand what the impact is on the various communities that exist within that umbrella of API. The other thing you said Estella, about coming back and it being a calling to connect with students that you reflect and reflect you and your cultural identity. That resonated with me when I was teaching in the classroom in Bergenfield, New Jersey. It was one of the largest Filipino populations in New Jersey. Jersey City, I think is the highest Filipino population, but part of my experience there and being able to connect with Filipino students and families. It made that passion grow even more. So part of what I wanted to ask Yan and Estella both is. If we have listeners listening to this podcast right now, say young API folks that are thinking about their calling and exploring their direction in their future, what about teaching inspires passion for you that would make it attractive for API folks listening to this podcast, be inspired to consider choosing this as a direction in their life's path.   Yan Yii: [00:16:40] I think one of the things that really resonates with me as an educator and the reason why I love it so much, you know, I've been back and forth with my involvement in my local union and the fact that it takes me away from my classroom, it's the connections that I make with my students. That, I think that's the most important thing to me, like, how I connect with my students, how I can support them, whether it's through, you know, a few years ago I started a fifth grade, like, show choir. Might have been a little bit Glee inspired, but, you know, it's the fact that my students were willing to give up their recess once a week to come sing with me and dance with me. And, art club after school, they're willing to give up their time, but it's that making those connections with the students and then having those students come back and say, you really changed my life. When I first started teaching, I had a student who was probably the most happy go lucky child I'd ever seen. And she wrote to me years later and said, “You saved my life. Like I was in such a hard place,” and this is, I'm talking about a nine year old child, when she was in my class and she said, “I was in such a bad place and my home life was not good. And, and you made me feel loved.” And that's what we're supposed to do as educators. We're supposed to make our students feel loved. And I think especially when I talk about this in terms of Asian Pacific Islander identity, when you don't feel that connection to your classroom and you don't feel like your teacher sees that part of you, because you know, I hear educators say a lot, “Oh, I, I don't see color.” And I'm always like, but when you don't see color, it's the danger of a single story, right? You're only seeing one part of your student, you're seeing the academics of that student. But, you know, I remember a few years ago, one of the big things I've always done in my classroom is celebrate Lunar New Year, because it's a huge celebration for my family. I wanted to share that with my students, and you know, two boys in one of my coworker's class had said, they were so excited to share about their culture and what they do at home. And she's like, well, then that was great. And I said, yes, it was. But what about the other 179 days? We can't just celebrate them for one day a year, or one month a year. We can't just say, okay, Black History Month and we're done. We have to celebrate our students all year long. And we need to change the curriculum. You know, we talk about decolonizing curriculum. I am purposeful in the books that I choose to use in my classroom because yes, I can teach Number the Stars for the 600th time, or maybe I can decide to use a book that reflects my students. And, you know, that's why I started my year off with Seedfolk, because I wanted to talk about what cultures coming together looked like, and you know, one of my students immediately said, he's like, “Wow, I could see myself in that book.” And that's what I want to hear from my students. I can see myself in that book. And it's not the same whitewashed characters over and over and over again, because my students are gaining nothing from that. And it's, it's trying to make that relevant throughout the entire school and not just my classroom. But making that connection with my students I would say is what makes my job worth getting up for every single day.   Estella: [00:19:37] It is not lost on me that this is what episode four and nearly every guest we have had on this show, every single one of us have said that an important part of our journey was cultural or ethnic studies. At some point in our life, probably undergrad, graduate school, we made a very conscious choice to seek it out and go after it. And it was crucial to our becoming who we are, right? We've had professors, educators, social workers on the show, and every single person has stated that cultural studies was somewhere in their journey. So that's not lost on me that you said earlier that, you know, that was an important part also of your journey. Even though you're not, you're like history [blows a raspberry], but [laughs] it was still an important part of becoming who you are as an educator and a leader. And I wanted to just call that out. You also mentioned how important it was to find a place of belonging, and I guess I struggle with actually encouraging young people to become educators, in part because I don't know that the profession itself serves us the way it should. Right? Like, as a union leader, as a educator, as a Black woman, as a PI woman, I don't know that our field has figured out how to take care of us the way it should and I don't, I feel guilty, I guess, pushing young people to move into education. And that bothers me, right? Because the other, the flip side of that is we're having this conversation: How do we get more educators in classrooms? And I'm struggling because I know we need more API representation in the field. But then I'm like, do I want to do that to people I care about? Because this profession does not lend itself to self care. We are not taught in our training programs how to create collectives or community you know, to survive our field. We don't have open and honest conversations through that credentialing program about how we survive in this field you know. How do we deal with a lot of us are empaths, right? Like we are in this and we lead with our hearts. And when you're dealing with your trauma and then a whole host of secondhand trauma. I didn't take a class on that. You know [laughs] how to deal with your own emotions and carrying the weight of everything your kids are going through and you're trying to, you know, help them as best as you can, while also dealing with your own. There was nothing to prepare me for that part of this, this industry. And I think that those of us who this is our calling we just put our heads down and we fight through and we push as hard as we can to show up, to continue to show up for our kids. But oftentimes it is absolutely at our detriment. We are self sacrificing martyrs more times than I think we should be. I'm just being honest, I'm not saying I plan on walking away from my classroom anytime soon, but I just wanted to, to state that. I definitely agree that the biggest thing that keeps me inspired or in the classroom is the relationships with students. The amount of times they, I mean, I teach high school, I'm secondary, so I've got ninth through twelfth graders, and every single grade level is its own special brand of hilarious. And I just love, I love those moments in between the lesson. I love the moment where they absolutely take charge of the lesson. I love moments where students are, you know, correcting and calling me out because I know learning is happening. I know that they, something has been ignited and lit and they're questioning and they're being curious and they're pushing back and they're thinking critically. So I welcome all of those moments and those are the best moments that keep me in the classroom and similar stories when kids come back or write me messages like miss, you know, I just, you know, thank you or I can't wait for my younger sibling to be in your class or, you know, whatever the case may be, those are definitely the things that keep you in the classroom or keep you willing to keep coming back. Even though the profession does not look out for us or protect us or take care of us. Virtual teaching, if nothing else, has pointed out how bad these silos have gotten. Because during this virtual teaching, and I don't know about other folks, but my experience has been I feel absolutely disconnected from colleagues. I could go a whole week without ever talking to another colleague. And it's just me and students logging into Zoom and logging out. And so this has sort of made those silos even worse in some cases. But what I was thinking about when you were talking is there's an added layer of culture. Like, if we're having conversations about intersectionality that I think teachers of color deal with, that API teachers deal with, that other teachers may not fully understand and those microaggressions that you talk about, sometimes I don't even like using the word microaggression because I, like you said, I feel like nah that was just aggressive, bro like you, you didn't have to say what you said, the way you said it. It wasn't, there was nothing micro about that. That was just straight up aggression. Cause like you, just unnecessary. And so there's this added layer of like cultural and I guess this and I feel like I'm talking to circles now, but this goes back to feeling like the profession doesn't take care of us. And there's an added layer to that for Black teachers for Latinx teachers for API teachers. And so not only do we then burden the responsibility or we shoulder the burden of having to show up for every single kid who looks like us and sharing those experiences as first generation Americans and immigrant students, but we also then have the extra task of showing up for all the educators across the field who also share in, you know, why I had to go all the way to college just to figure out who I am and what my calling is and find a place where I could be and exist and belong.   Yan Yii: [00:26:17] I just wanted to say, you know, I think that the demand of educators because I'm mentoring a brand new teacher this year. She's literally a one year teacher And she was made for this, right? Like, she was made to be an educator, but there are times where I'm like, you probably shouldn't do this. Like, if there's still time for you to get out, I've already put too many years into this. You know, I think back, you know, when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, and then the next day when my students came to school, they said, “What are you going to do to protect me?” So, so all of a sudden, and my fifth graders are 10 years old. All of a sudden, I'm not just your teacher now. Now I'm your protector. That is my job to sacrifice myself, and I would willingly do it for any of my students. To protect them. And then on top of it, now we're in a pandemic and we're learning in person. So, you know, I'm, I'm going to be 100 percent honest. I was exposed at school and I'm under isolation right now. Thankfully tested negative, but this is another layer that students have to deal with. And as students that now they're worried that they're going to one get us sick. And if we get sick, you know, there's another layer of trauma and I feel like everywhere I turn, there's more trauma and more administrators telling us, you should take care of yourself, but also I'm going to give you new curriculum. I'm going to give you this, this and this to do, but I'm not gonna take anything off your plate, but also take care of yourself. And I want to be able to tell new teachers it will change because let's be honest, public education has been a pendulum. It goes to the extreme, and then it comes back because someone goes, Whoa, what are we doing? But I think there's a lot of pressure on educators constantly to do the right thing and then to always put their students first. And you're right, we end up sacrificing ourselves and our, our mental health and our well being for our students. How many teachers, you know, who probably have taken home like a student who doesn't have a home or is spending their own money to buy students lunches or, or buy students clothes or whatever else they need to do, whatever else they need to do for their students. And we give and we give and we give, especially, you know, anytime we can, and I don't ever want to not do that. But when you think about a brand new educator coming in, you go, you still have time, like, and it's a terrible, terrible way to feel. But, one of the things that, you know, we started an Asian mentorship program this, last year, and honestly, it's been a breath of fresh air to not be alone and we went from 12 people last year to 40 people this year. And it's been like, wow, there are other people who are going through the same thing I'm going through and there are other people seeing what I'm seeing and on top of it being an educator of color, you have people, especially in your first three years of education that will doubt your abilities in the job because you probably got it because of the color of your skin, at least in their opinion. Right? And you're fighting, like, if I didn't have a super ethnic sounding name, if I could, if I could have hidden that, I would have, because I wanted people to know that I did it on my merit and not because of the color of my skin. That I didn't get this job because I'm Asian, but I got this job because I'm a good educator and I got to keep this job because I'm a good educator, not because of affirmative action. And there are so many different layers that we have to deal with as educators of color on top of everything else we're already dealing with.   Estella: [00:29:45] After the shooting in Florida at…   Yan Yii: [00:29:48] Stoneman Douglas.   Estella: [00:29:50] Yes. Yeah, there you go. Stoneman Douglas. Thank you. After that shooting, I remember at our school, it was my 10th graders were doing, you know, school shooter drills or having conversations about what to do if there's a school shooter on campus. And my students, I remember their response was very similar. Like, what do we do, miss? And them being very vocal about like, I don't trust teachers, miss. Like who's going to take a bullet for me, miss? And when I thought about it, I was like, hold up. There's not one teacher on campus. And then students stopped and thought, and they're like, well, I mean, I guess I'm coming to this room and we can figure it out together. And I had to have an conversation with students about like, now that I'm a mother and a wife. My perspective has changed, right? Like my first year of teaching, maybe it would have been, you know, and I can't say what I would do in a terrible moment like that, but you know, I know that my first year teaching my attitude was probably more like I will do whatever to protect my students. I took an oath, right? I'm going to protect my students. And after having my daughter, I had a conversation with another educator, you know, we're talking about. What do we do in, in events like a school shooting? And she said to me, “I know that you are willing to take care of your students. We, we know that no one is questioning that you are a good educator, but your responsibility now is different because you have a child to make it home to.” And that cut real deep and hit different. And I, [long pause, tearing up] I questioned whether or not I could stay in the profession and how much longer I could stay in the profession. If what we had to deal with was going to continue to bombings, shootings, pandemics, I have a child to make it home to and a husband to take care of. And I don't know how much more, you know, folks expect. For us to be willing to sacrifice and watching the conversations online about open up schools, go back to schools. Teachers are whining. Teachers are this, that, and the other. When just nine months ago, it was, “Oh my God, I never knew how much you guys do in the classroom every day.” And then to suddenly like this quick shift to just go back to the classroom. It doesn't instill me with a whole lot of faith. And I honestly don't know where I was going. I was just thinking about what you said about, you know, the bombing and having that conversation with kids. And while I know that students need to feel and know that we're going to take care of them, I definitely had a conversation with students. An honest conversation. And I said, I don't, I don't know. I know that I'm, I will do everything that I can. And if this is the room that you feel safe coming to, this is the room you need to be at. And I've practiced with students, like, you know, we've had large fights where the school gets shut down and we go under lockdown and I've gone outside and just yanked kids into my room as quickly as I can. As soon as that lockdown sound goes on. And we've practiced, like we've had conversations like, “Miss, we gon bust that window out. We'll make a rope ladder,” like whatever it is, like we've had those conversations and I just hate that we have to have those conversations. Like, I really hate that that's normal now.   Gabriel: [00:33:49] The amount of pressure that educators are feeling, especially in this moment, being the nurturers, caregivers, and now being asked to be the protectors. The overwhelming workload, the self sacrifice physically, mentally, emotionally, and as Yan mentioned, in some cases, financially, even dealing with the Eurocentric curriculum, in some ways is a form of emotional violence. That we as educators are expected to perpetuate onto our students and that it takes its own toll. In addition to the quote, microaggressions that are really aggressions, there's a lot and what I also heard from you both is that it's really the relationships with the students, with some colleagues, with creating communities of affinity spaces, where you can share some experiences, cultural identity, and as Yan was describing that mentorship program, building those relationships internally. Those are the things that keep the weight on this scale as even as it can be to keep you connected and committed, at least in this moment.   Swati Rayasam: [00:35:14] You're tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online at kpfa.org. Coming up is the song “Depressure” by Nu Nasa, off of the Khamsa music project.   MUSIC   That was the song “Depressure” by Nu Nasa, off of the Khamsa music project. And now back to the ConShifts podcast.   Gabriel: [00:38:52] So, Yan, just a question I had for you, being involved in union leadership in your local, state, and national level, specifically in the spaces that lean into cultural affinity. And address racial inequity within the union spaces, having that space, platform, experience network in what ways, what drew you to that for what reason do you now serve in leadership roles in that way? And, what would you say to folks that are currently API educators, but not as involved in their union at the current moment? What would you say to those folks?   Yan Yii: [00:39:32] So I took a class a few years ago, maybe like two years ago on how to not burn out. And I was like, wouldn't there be irony if I burned out while taking this class on how to not burn out. But it's things that you're passionate about will never burn you out. They'll, they'll energize you to do more work. Right. You know, I have a painting here and I think it's a Gabriel Tanglao quote. We rise by lifting others. I painted it a few years ago. And it's always, I'm always searching because basically how I got involved was somebody said, “Hey, you'd be really good as a building rep.” And then a few years later, they were like, “You should step into the role of secretary.” And then it was, “You should consider running for union president.” And I became the NEAA pick because you Gabe you told me “You should try this out.” And I said, well, okay, I'll give it a shot, right? Because part of union work is about identifying other leaders and we rise by lifting others, right? It's not about the power grab. It's not about staying in power. You know, one of the big things I pushed in my local is we need term limits because a healthy union has turnover. There's a reason why we only have eight years allowed for a president, right? You can, you can serve a total of two terms because if someone has more than two terms, they tend to go, you know, like, what is it? Absolute power corrupts. And, you know, we want to avoid that and, I'm less concerned about, um, corruption in teacher unions than I am about complacency. If the same person is in charge for 20 years, great, because then they will always do the work. But guess what? That person is going to retire at some point. You know, I've been union president for four years now, and I'm stepping down at the end of this year, because I think it's time for someone else to step up. And I think that, you know, this is not a top down, it's a bottom up. Like, we have to all work together. And we are all part of the union. So it drives me absolutely insane when someone says, “But what is the union doing for me?” And I turn around and say, “You're the union. We are all the union.” Like it can't, you can't just look at me and think that I'm going to do things for you because I am your spokesperson as your president, not your dictator. It's not my job to make these decisions. In fact, I try to step back as much as possible to allow decisions to be made by the membership versus made by me. And I think, you know, I remember being in Dallas, I want to say four or five years ago, and we were in a very, very large room for a very small group of people. I want to say there were maybe four people and one of them was a friend who was not Asian that I dragged into the room with me so that she could also be there. And then my first RA at the, for NEA, we had a small room of people. And when we were in Minnesota. And even when we were in Houston, we didn't have enough chairs. It was the most exciting thing in the world to me. Our group has gotten so large. They put us in a small room and we didn't have enough chairs. And you feel comfortable. Like, I love the term we use in APIC, Ohana, like family. We're family together. Like it is our APIC family. Like we're small, but, but we're mighty, right? Like we want to have that voice and we want to fight for what's right for not just us, but for, for everyone. And I think, you know, I've, I've managed to do that in my role serving 6 years on EMAC and it was, you know, like most recently we had conversations about how to decolonize curriculum throughout Massachusetts and, you know, like the idea that I'm one person what can I do? I can change what I'm choosing to teach in my classroom with a little teacher autonomy. I can choose to not only read whitewashed curriculum. I can find a paired text of this is what happened during this time in history. I can focus my readings during Black history month on different people instead of just Martin Luther King. Not that that's not important, but why are we only getting one perspective? There are so many historical Black figures. And if we're not pushing that, are we waiting for our students to push for it? Because they might not know too, because they've never been exposed to it. And I do think we live in a time where kids are pushing more and more and more against whitewashed curriculum, but we as educators have to do our job too. And it's making that connection with each other and not feeling so alone in that journey.   Gabriel: [00:43:57] Yeah, nah, we definitely started the conversation around how union leadership creates spaces. And part of what you kind of illustrated through that is it's an opportunity to lift up more people, more educators, specifically more API educators into spaces to learn with each other and grow with each other. Specifically with the decolonizing curriculum conversation, I remember that you and I had a chance to collaborate in some spaces around decolonizing curriculum, and it was through the union space that we connected even Estella and I connected through the union spaces. So that's a place to find the community of folks. That you know, are doing that critical work. So I loved your response. I wanted to also just talk more broadly about the educator pipeline for API folks. Do you have any thoughts on ways that we can expand this API educator pipeline? And if you wanted to integrate some of the work that you're doing with your mentorship program into that conversation. So part one, how do we attract more educators into the profession and workforce? Part two, how do we continue to support those educators throughout their professional journey?   Yan Yii: [00:45:18] So I'm going to start with part two, because I feel like part two has to happen in order for part one to happen, right? I think we need to work on retaining educators, particularly AAPI educators, because coming into the profession, and then we don't feel supported and people will leave. And I think part of this is helping people to not feel like an island, but also making people feel like there's a sense of belonging in the field. Because if everyone is constantly looking at you like you don't belong, then you're not going to stay. Unless you have a lot of fight in you, which many of us do [laughs] but when everything is working against you and there's so much pressure on you already. Not having a sense of belonging is really going to drive you from the profession. Now, once we build up that, you know, like, and what I love about this mentorship program, and I know you're using the word pipeline, and we started with that term, and we pulled away from it because we feel like it tends to have a negative connotation. When I hear the word pipeline, I think school to prison pipeline. Right? So we had changed it to a mentorship program because really, you know, especially this year we've talked about it. It's not just the veterans mentoring newer teachers or even aspiring educators. It's that we all have so much to learn from each other, regardless of where we are. My mentee at my school, she and I talk every single day, and she's constantly showing me new things, and I've been an educator for 14 more years than she has. And it's this idea that it's a group of, like, this is a learning experience for everybody, not just the person who is brand new, and it's not just me as a veteran who has something to offer. Now, in terms of getting more people to come into the profession, particularly more AAPI educators, one, it's seeing us in the field. Seeing themselves reflected in the field. Two, I think it's changing the narrative about the respect this job deserves. You know, Estella said it before we live in a time where 6 months ago you said everybody loves teachers. Right? And then all of a sudden we became enemy number one. And that was really hard for me to stomach as a union leader and as an educator. I know, you know, I was personally attacked on my personal Facebook because of some of the union work I was doing and trying to advocate for the safety of my educators. And someone has said, it sounds like you don't really want to be in the classroom. Maybe you should consider a change of profession. And I was like, first of all, this is my personal Facebook. Second of all, I had your child in fifth grade, so I know you know what a good educator I am. And if you remembered what a good educator I was, you would know that I care more about these students than I do about my own safety sometimes. So maybe we should take a step back and think about what we're saying before we start attacking educators. But it's having that connection and being able to support them and changing that narrative. But I also think it's not, it's not like, you know, right now we were like, okay, we're going to find AAPI students in college who are already in education. Well, guess what? There aren't very many of them. Like, we need to get to you before that. We need to get to them in high school. We need to get to them in middle school and elementary school, we need to dig as deep as we can. And part of that digging is going to be reflecting ourselves in the education field. I think if you don't see yourself there and you don't see that as a possibility and if people are constantly telling you, don't be a teacher, it's not worth it, or you won't make enough money or those who can do, and those who can't teach. Like all of those feelings, that's what prevents people from being, becoming educators. And I will say this as, as much as my Chinese mom complained about me becoming a teacher when she talks to my aunties she's always like, “And my daughter is doing this in her classroom and you should see the pictures of her classroom. And then she's always saying to my nieces and nephews, you should listen to your auntie, she's a teacher. She knows what she's doing.” Right. So like that always makes me feel a little bit better because for years I was like, did I choose the right profession? I think when I turned 30, I was like, okay, this is it. Am I going to stay here? Because I'm investing in my retirement now. Or am I going to consider changing my career and honestly, I can't see myself doing anything else.   Estella: [00:49:40] I had the same thought at 30. [Laughs] Am I in it or, or am I going somewhere else? And my dad was the same way with, you know, “Are you sure? Teaching?” Also, I was a double major in theater. It was Black studies and theater. And I knew I was going into education and I don't know what it is about Nigerian parents, but it's “Theater? You're going to be a clown for the rest of your life?” Like that's, that was the thought process. Like excuse m?. But, I wonder how much of that, because it's come up in previous episodes and, and Gabe, you mentioned too about, you know, the need of immigrant children to push and push and push and do great in school and speak, you know, in Nigerian family “speak the King's English” is what we say. And I wonder how much of that. is just a product of assimilation or trying to align with whiteness. And so, I mean, I hate it. Kind of makes my skin crawl. And you know, and then of course that imposter syndrome, it just looms. It just like nags and looms. And I don't know what to do with those, those feelings or thoughts because I know first gen kids are gonna deal with that I don't, like, I don't know how to help kids move past that, honestly, because it's not something I've ever learned to fully cope with, move past, or deal with. Every time I think I'm in my stride and I've dealt with those emotions, again, I'm still feeling like, did I do enough? Is this good enough? But then, like you said, then I hear my dad go, “Oh, well, my daughter, blah, blah, blah.” And I'm like, really dad? Cause when I told you I switched my major, you, you show that that is not what you said. But anyway, you mentioned like our API spaces is like Ohana. And one thought that I'm having. You know, and thinking about how we make sure that we've got safe affinity spaces for API educators and our union is definitely one of those spaces with our ethnic caucuses at the state level and the national level. There definitely is still some area for growth within our affinity spaces along the lines of generational issues, but also in the ways in which anti- blackness or racism creeps in, right? Like I think that there is, and I don't know how to define it, segment it, weed it out, but there's definitely a generational difference between, I'd say, you know, teachers who are currently within their, like, first 10 years to our educators who, you know, they're 20 plus year veterans. We don't necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to cultural ethnic issues. And part of that might be because our education, once we found those cultural spaces of belonging in college, I imagine probably looked very different for some of our elders in the profession. And so I think our level of race or critical race consciousness is not in the same place and so I think there needs to be a level of some just personal reflective work on the individual level, but also as a collective, like as an Ohana, like we need to have some of these really hard conversations together and continuously, so that we can move forward towards solidifying some sort of collective identity. I think that there's probably far more API educators out there in the field that may not yet identify as API because they may be in a different place in their cultural identity work. They might be in a very different place. Because whoever named us API, right, like they fit a whole bunch of nationalities and cultures into one category. Whole different groups of people, islands, like nation states, bunched up into this API term. And so there might be a whole bunch of folks out there that's like “API. What's an API?” when that's probably technically where they would belong if they knew what box to click on, you know what I mean? And so I think part of our work is defining who we are and then like [laughs] doing the marketing work to make sure educators in the field know. Hey, this is your affinity space over here. We've got your back. Your Ohana is right here. If you, you know, come on over, join us, take a seat. And, and then we can continue to do that reflective work, transformation work.   Gabriel: [00:54:24] As we close today, I'd love to ask you, what is one thing that gives you hope in this moment where hope may be hard to find?   Yan Yii: [00:54:34] I think one of the things that makes me hopeful is that at my very last class of 2020, it was December 22nd, I asked my students, what is one thing you are thankful for, from this past year? And they were like, “The fact that I can come to your class,” like come to school. Like I had kids who wanted to be in school, whatever capacity we were going to do this, they wanted to be there. And that meant the world to me, the connections we've made. And you know, one of the things, even, even being in hybrid, You know, I worry every day about the impact of that. But I see how close my cohort A is to themselves, like, and I see how close my cohort B is, and I do a lot of work where, you know, the students, like, I teach synchronously all day long, so the student, they, they are constantly working with each other and the bond that they have as a class. I think that's what makes me really hopeful. And, you know, in terms of being a API educator, the thing that makes me the most hopeful is that we tripled in size in our mentorship program that we're out there. And we just have to find, like you, you have to dig a lot, because especially in Massachusetts, many of our AAPI educators are actually not, in the same union. They're part of the AFT and not the NEA because they're part of Boston Public, which is the largest local we have. And some of us are literally islands alone in Western, in a small, small rural town in Western Massachusetts, but the fact that they found us and they said, this is, this is, this is where I feel like I'm connecting. Like it's the connections that we're making that I think allow me to be hopeful.   Estella: [00:56:11] Fa'afetai Tleilava. Thank you for listening.   Gabriel: [00:56:13] Salamat. Thank you for listening.   Estella: [00:56:14] We want to thank our special guest, Yan one more time for rapping with us tonight. We appreciate you.   Gabriel: [00:56:19] Continental Shifts Podcast can be found on Pod Beam, apple, Spotify, Google, and Stitcher.   Estella: [00:56:26] Be sure to like and subscribe on YouTube for archived footage and grab some merch on our site Gabriel: [00:56:31] and join our mailing list for updates at conshiftspodcast.com. That's C-O-N-S-H-I-F-T S podcast. com and follow us at con underscore shifts on all social media platforms.   Estella: [00:56:49] Dope educators wayfinding the past, present, and future.   Gabriel: [00:56:53] Keep rocking with us fam. We're going to make continental shifts through dialogue, with love, all together.   Estella: [00:56:58] Fa'afetai Thanks again. Tōfā, deuces.   Gabriel: [00:57:02] Peace. One love.   Swati Rayasam: [00:57:08] Please check out our website, kpfa.org backslash program backslash apex express. To find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. Apex express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Paige Chung, Jalena Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Kiki Rivera, Nate Tan, Hien Ngyuen, Cheryl Truong, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support and have a great night. The post APEX Express – 6.6.24 Continental Shift-API Educator Pipeline appeared first on KPFA.

I'm honored to have Deb Del Vecchio-Scully back. Deb is a wealth of information for new and seasoned trauma therapists, alike. In this interview Deb shares about her experience delivering trauma treatment in the wake of school shootings and then goes into depth about what that treatment actually looks like. Deb has focused her career on helping clients heal from trauma and educating therapists about all aspects of trauma, particularly the impact of communal trauma such as school shootings. Because too many do not recognize or identify their symptoms as being trauma, Deb has devoted her professional work to engaging professionals and clients in better understanding the impact of trauma. Deb uses a holistic approach focusing on the brain and body's reaction to trauma, while using EMDR therapy, Neurofeedback, Attachment focused therapy, Yoga Therapy, Therapeutic Aromatherapy and a relational approach to healing. She discovered an intensive model of therapy exponentially increases the benefits and results of trauma therapy, particularly with first responders and recent traumatic events.Her work with traumatized communities includes survivors of the 9-11 terrorist attack, the Sandy Hook School Shooting and educating and supporting therapists in the Greater Florida area including those in the Orlando area following the Orlando Pulse shooting and the Parkland area following the Stoneman Douglas school shooting. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, she has provided consultation and education throughout the USA and the world. She has worked extensively with First Responders (police, fire, and public safety) and their spouses. Early in her career she was employed as a Police & Fire Dispatcher and is intimately aware of the culture which impacts all first responders. She has successfully engaged those who may have resisted treatment including law enforcement who responded to the 9-11 terrorist attack and Sandy Hook school shooting.Blending EMDR, Neurofeedback and Biofeedback, Attachment with Yoga Therapy, she strives to treat the whole person in a warm, compassionate manner.In This EpisodeDeb's LinkedInDeb's website---What's new with The Trauma Therapist Project!The Trauma 5: gold nuggets from my 700+ interviewsThe Trauma Therapist Newsletter: a monthly resource of information and inspiration dedicated to trauma therapists.

03:19 Colorado disqualifies Trump from ballot 14:11 Texas allows cops to arrest illegal border crossing suspects 18:50 SUV doing donuts rolls over with people hanging on the side on video 24:07 Officer shot during deadly chase 28:48 Coward deputy claims defense in Stoneman Douglas shooting 34:02 Man who shot two deputies sentenced to secure mental health prison 41:16 City raises maximum hiring age to 50 for new recruits LEO Round Table (law enforcement talk show) Season 8, Episode 227 (2,111) filmed on 12/20/23 1. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-supreme-court-disqualifies-trump-2024-ballot https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-remain-colorado-ballot-judge-rejects-14th-amendment-challenge-eligibility 2. https://www.rvmnews.com/2023/12/texas-governor-approves-law-allowing-police-to-arrest-illegals-for-border-crossings/ 3. https://www.lawofficer.com/shocking-video-shows-suv-rollover-people-hanging-out-windows-colorado-springs/ 4. https://rumble.com/v4256ak-us-park-police-bodycam-video-of-chase-turned-deadly-shooting-officer-wounde.html 5. https://www.police1.com/lawsuit/fla-deputy-sued-over-failure-to-act-in-parkland-shooting-claims-he-had-no-legal-duty-to-confront-gunman 6. https://rumble.com/v425fro-man-charged-with-shooting-2-frederick-police-officers-sentenced-to-secure-m.html 7. https://www.police1.com/police-recruiting/cleveland-pd-to-raise-hiring-age-cap-from-40-to-50 Show Panelists and Personalities: Chip DeBlock (Host and retired police detective) Bret Bartlett (retired police Captain) Related Events, Organizations and Books: Retired DEA Agent Robert Mazur's works: Interview of Bryan Cranston about him playing Agent Robert Mazur in THE INFILTRATOR film https://vimeo.com/channels/1021727 Trailer for the new book, THE BETRAYAL https://www.robertmazur.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-Betrayal-trailer-reMix2.mp4 Everything on Robert Mazur https://www.robertmazur.com/ The Wounded Blue - Lt. Randy Sutton's charity https://thewoundedblue.org/ Rescuing 911: The Fight For America's Safety - by Lt. Randy Sutton (Pre-Order) https://rescuing911.org/ Books by panelist and retired Lt. Randy Sutton: https://www.amazon.com/Randy-Sutton/e/B001IR1MQU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share They're Lying: The Media, The Left, and The Death of George Floyd - by Liz Collin (Lt. Bob Kroll's wife) https://thelieexposed.com/ Lt. Col. Dave Grossman - Books, Newsletter, Presentations, Shop, Sheepdogs https://grossmanontruth.com/ Sheriff David Clarke - Videos, Commentary, Podcast, Shop, Newsletter https://americassheriff.com/ Content Partners: Red Voice Media - Real News, Real Reporting https://www.redvoicemedia.com/shows/leo/ ThisIsButter - One of the BEST law enforcement video channels https://rumble.com/user/ThisIsButter The Free Press - LEO Round Table is in their Cops and Crimes section 5 days a week https://www.tampafp.com/ https://www.tampafp.com/category/cops-and-crime/ Video Show Schedule On All Outlets: http://leoroundtable.com/home/syndication/ Syndicated Radio Schedule: http://leoroundtable.com/radio/syndicated-radio-stations/ Sponsors: Galls - Proud to serve America's public safety professionals https://www.galls.com/leo Bang Energy - Energy drinks and products https://bangenergy.com/ The International Firearm Specialist Academy - The New Standard for Firearm Knowledge https://www.gunlearn.com/ MyMedicare.live - save money in Medicare insurance options from the experts http://www.mymedicare.live/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leoroundtable/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leoroundtable/support

AJC CEO Ted Deutch joins us to discuss the significance of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting at the Tree of Life and its aftermath, the anniversary, and what it means to Jews around the world after the October 7 attack on Israel, when once again Jews were murdered just for being Jewish. In the final episode of the Remembering Pittsburgh series, Ted reflects on what being Jewish in the United States feels like at this moment, and how the Jewish community is uniting to overcome yet another challenge. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Ted Deutch Show Notes: Listen: Remembering Pittsburgh Part 1: Behind the Scenes at the Reimagined Tree of Life Remembering Pittsburgh Part 2: What the Family of Tree of Life Victim Joyce Fienberg Wants You to Know About Her Legacy Remembering Pittsburgh Part 3: How the #ShowUpForShabbat Campaign Drew Global Solidarity Amid Tragedy Take Action: Urge Congress to Stand Against Rising Antisemitism Music credits: Hevenu Shalom - Violin Heart Fire Tree (Violin Version) - Axletree Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and review us on Apple Podcasts. Episode Transcript: Manya Brachear Pashman: This month, AJC set out to mark the five-year anniversary of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting at the Tree of Life with a series of episodes exploring this turning point for the American Jewish community. Our first installment aired October 5. Two days later, the Jewish people faced another unprecedented deadly antisemitic attack, this time in Israel. Synagogues stepped up security and families tamped down their fears to take their children to Hebrew school or attend Shabbat services. In the second episode of our series, we sat down with Howard and Marnie Fienberg, who paid tribute to their mother Joyce. In the third installment, we looked back at how the horror drew people to solidarity.  For this closing episode of the series, I sat down with AJC CEO Ted Deutch, who served as a congressman at the time of the Tree of Life massacre. We discussed this anniversary and its parallels to the October 7 attack on Israel, when once again Jews were murdered just for being Jewish. Manya Brachear Pashman: Ted, where were you on the morning of October 27, 2018 when you heard about the Tree of Life?    Ted Deutch: I was a congressman who represented Parkland, where the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas took place. And the morning of Tree of Life, I spoke to a group of high school students from all around South Florida, who participated in a program about how they can become leaders in the community. I spoke with them about what had happened a few months before in Parkland, and what I had seen from high school students in Parkland and how they responded and how you stand up to violence and try to stop it and how you respond to evil and how important it is to use the power that you have as young people. That was literally what I was doing right before I walked out of the Florida Atlantic University auditorium and saw my phone start to buzz with news of Tree of Life. Everything that I had said to the students in the discussion, that really difficult conversation we had with these students who shared with me their fears of violence, their fears of going to school–those fears hit home really hard for me and for the Jewish community.  Manya Brachear Pashman: Did you view this as a significant turning point for the Jewish community in America or worldwide? Ted Deutch: This was something that we dealt with in Europe, we feared, we stood AJC's stood with the Jewish community across Europe as they, as they were attacked over years. I was a member of Congress when we had vigils with the ambassadors from European countries, in memory of lives lost, Jewish lives lost as a result of antisemitic attacks. And here, that morning is a turning point for all of us in the Jewish community, and how we respond, how we view the threat of antisemitism now as a deadly threat to the Jewish community in America, and for the rest of America to see another example of what happens when antisemitism, hatred are running rampant and where it can lead and how dangerous it is. Manya Brachear Pashman: From your vantage point as a congressman, what shifted on Capitol Hill, if anything, after October 27? Ted Deutch: Well, I was a member of Congress, but I focused so much of my work on the Jewish community. And we had started a Bipartisan Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in response to what happened in Europe. We never could have imagined something like that happening in our own country, especially in this place. I mean, this is the most idyllic, suburban, lovely neighborhood. I mean, it is, as everyone knows, it is literally Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, right? He lives just a stone's throw from Tree of Life. And so our work became that much more urgent. And we immediately refocused our efforts and those of us who were committed to fighting antisemitism, to ways that we could ensure the security of the Jewish community, and we immediately started looking at ways to find additional funding for security and and we dug deep into FBI reporting and research into what else is out there and what else they're tracking and what the fears are. And, unfortunately, whether in Congress, now at AJC, that hasn't stopped since. Manya Brachear Pashman: Did the members of Congress who are not Jewish respond differently? Ted Deutch: There was real support, and support not just for me and my fellow Jewish members, but for the Jewish community overall. Lots of members of Congress, most, know the Jewish community, many of them have Jewish communities they focus on in their own districts, sometimes large, sometimes very small. But the security concerns became real for every one of them – whether they had a large thousand-family congregation in a major city or a tiny synagogue somewhere in a remote part of the country, everyone felt it, everyone was put on edge, and every member of Congress felt an obligation to respond to that. I just remember having conversations with colleagues who were people of faith, who went to church. They were so struck by the fact that they came and went every Sunday, walked into their churches, doors were wide open. And the contrast to synagogues where you really need to be committed in so many places to get in so many places to go to synagogue, because you have to go through security, and sometimes you have to check in with the police, and in some places, you have to go through metal detectors. That really, really hit them and I think continues to, especially now. Every time something happens in Israel, we see a need for greater security at home. In the aftermath of the horrific attack by Hamas. It's affected Jews, obviously in Israel and around the world and how we view Israel, but we all fear for what could happen in the United States. Manya Brachear Pashman: You left your job on Capitol Hill and became CEO of AJC just last year. I'm curious whether the horror in Pittsburgh so soon after the Parkland shooting was an inflection point for you and your path? Ted Deutch: I wasn't thinking about leaving Congress. But when a friend reached out and asked if I'd be interested in being considered for the AJC job, I started reflecting upon the issues that I worked on, and what I had been through. And this fits into a very specific part of that thinking it was. It was the whole series of what happened, the shooting at Stoneman Douglas, and the impact that that had on the community. Then almost in immediate succession, quick succession, this horrific shooting at Tree of Life. First, there was the trauma in our own community, then there was the real trauma in the broader Jewish community. And then, not that they're directly related, but on January 6, when I was sitting in my office with the lights off, and my electronics silenced as the Capitol Police told us to do, and I was sitting in a dark cubicle in our staff office … watching what was happening in the Capitol and listening as people ran by my office and not knowing who they are. Everything was, everyone was so concerned about violence that day and my first thought that day was how grateful I was that I had just moved into this new office and had not yet had an opportunity to hang my mezuzah. And, right, so where does this fit in? I didn't decide to come to AJC because of some series of traumatic events. But just in terms of a turning point for me, what happened at Tree of Life and how that informed the remainder of my time and I was in Congress and the way I thought about my work, and, and then those fears on January 6, and realizing again, how at risk I felt even in the U.S. Capitol as a Jew. I suppose there is probably a straight line that I didn't see that started that day that led me to where I am now. Manya Brachear Pashman: So, you've been here a year now. How have these events shaped your work since you arrived? Ted Deutch: AJC's is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people in Israel, and to advance democratic values. If we go back to Tree of Life, and think about what's transpired since and the rise in antisemitism as we saw it around the country, and on social media, and the many ways that the community has felt at risk.  The week I started, Kanye West went on his antisemitic rampage on social media on Twitter. The Jewish community is not well if antisemitism is running rampant. So it's why we worked so hard with the White House, it's why we encouraged them to create a national strategy. It's why we brought in special envoys from around the world to meet with the White House to help inform the process. It's why we celebrated the release of the National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism and put together, really devoted a large part of our resources over the past six months, helping to implement the national strategy. And it's why we continue across the country here to look for ways to engage further in fighting antisemitism. By strengthening the relationships we have with others–it's why we're doing so much more in our intergroup work and interreligious work.  I just recently visited a new Hindu temple in New Jersey, I think it's the largest, certainly the largest in the United States, one the largest in the world. And it was really meaningful to spend the afternoon with leaders of the Hindu community who, who very much recognize that in many ways our fates in America are intertwined.  Manya Brachear Pashman: So in our first episode of this series, our producer Atara Lakritz and I went on the last tour of the Tree of Life building. You also walked through the building back in June, before many of the artifacts had been removed. Would you mind reflecting on that experience? Ted Deutch: When I walked up to the synagogue, I couldn't help but think of my synagogue where I grew up on the other side of Pennsylvania in a lovely community, like Pittsburgh. I was struck that, forget that this was a synagogue, I really couldn't stop thinking that it was inconceivable that that kind of horrible tragedy could happen in a community like that.  And walking through the synagogue and seeing the site where hatred, and antisemitism, and manifestations, the worst manifestations of antisemitism were brought to this lovely place, in this wonderful synagogue. It was overwhelming to think about what was happening that Shabbat and the fear and terror that people felt as that was happening. That was number one. Secondly, I walked into the main auditorium where they were gathering all of the things that hadn't yet been taken away to be used in the museum and the memorial that's going to be constructed, that haven't been given back to families.  There were lots of things that are just not identified, they don't have families to return them to. And to see tallaisim and tefillin and all kinds of items that are used for Jewish rituals and Jewish customs just sitting on this table where they didn't know what they were going to do with them because the synagogue that existed there, the life that existed there, that simple, wonderful community, that was gone. It was gone.  That community will never be the same. And I think for our community, for the Jewish community, we're really never gonna be the same after what happened there. Manya Brachear Pashman: You were telling me before we started this conversation that they gave you something during your visit. Ted Deutch: As I walked through, and they saw how moved I was by this massive display. They came over and made such a kind gesture to me. And of all of the gifts that I've received in all of my travels, as a member of Congress, and now as CEO of AJC, I don't think there's anything that's as meaningful as the tefillin that they gave me. I don't know, obviously, I don't know whose it was. And it may well have been someone that was a synagogue member years and years ago. But the connection that I felt at that moment to that community at Tree of Life and the connection that I felt thinking about, not just Tree of Life, but tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout our history.  And knowing that I was going to return to New York, I was going to have the opportunity to join the Jewish community around the world in overcoming these tragedies, and making sure the world understands why these kinds of attacks will never, they'll never work, they'll never, they'll never defeat the Jewish community. As we endure this really challenging time now in Israel, I've been thinking the same thing. We've gone through a lot in our history, and we've constantly, constantly overcome, and have grown and have learned and have continued to enrich the world. As Tree of Life rebuilds and will help shape a national and international conversation for years to come about fighting antisemitism. And as we continue to do our work and as Jews around the country and around the world go through whatever security measures they have to to go to synagogue and to drop their kids at day school and Hebrew school and for people to show up for programs at the JCC, there is a defiance that I felt at that moment that is perhaps the most important thing I took away from that day. Because it was awful. But I'm not going to dwell on how terrible it was. We're going to think about every way we can to honor the memories of the lives that were taken, and to strengthen the Jewish people in their memory as we go forward. Manya Brachear Pashman: We planned this series and invited you to speak before the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel and the war with Hamas that has unfolded since. At first we wondered whether we should even proceed with this series. How could we focus on anything other than Israel at this moment? Of course, the parallels between the Tree of Life and October 7th are all too stark– Jews are once again being targeted simply because they are Jewish. Can you share your thoughts on this difficult moment for the Jewish people? Ted Deutch: That sense of unease that all of us felt when we heard that story, like how could that possibly happen in the United States, really, it's an unease and fear that we feel when we've watched what's happened in Israel and when a horrific and brutal and barbaric attack takes place against our family, our brothers and sisters in Israel, we feel that here, and especially when it was, it was unthinkable what happened with this Hamas attack. Just as somebody shooting up a synagogue was unthinkable in America, it again, it puts us on edge, and it makes us redouble our efforts. Not just to fight antisemitism, but to really bring the community together. What I've really been proud of since this terrible time in Israel began is the way that AJC has responded, not just in putting out meaningful information to help people get the facts and get through this, and to fight back against lies. But the way that we've really worked to bring the community together.  There are 16 million Jews in the world, out of eight and a half billion people we need to stick together. Moments like Tree of Life remind us of that, and what's been happening in Israel absolutely reminds us of that. That informs so much of what AJC does, and has done in response to Tree of Life and certainly is doing in response to the current situation.

If you're in or around the Parkland area you probably got notice of street closings near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and helicopters in the air. The civil trials are well underway and there are re-creations of the shootings happening for auditory evidence. 

Special Guest: Jacob J. Tanenbaum. What are the main causes of gun violence? Is it justifiable to infringe on certain rights to ensure greater public safety? In this episode, Aya and Josh are joined by Jacob, Josh's close friend and writing partner, to discuss the epidemic of gun violence in the United States and the critical issues relating to it, including gun control, access to firearms, the difference between active, mass, and school shootings, mental illness, Alex Jones, gun violence in the United States vs. the rest of the world, the influence of violent media (movies, videogames) in connection to gun violence, infamous shootings in the U.S. (Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Stoneman Douglas, Virginia Tech, Uvalde, Buffalo and Vegas shootings), the controversial AR-15, common sense gun laws, self-defense, the Supreme Court, and the role of news media in inspiring copycat killers.

Todd Fitz-Gerald, Head Baseball Coach, Stoneman-Douglas

This episode discusses being grateful and reminding yourself to not take things for granted. A recent race in honor of one of the victims of the Stoneman Douglas shooting brings back memories of a sad day. I briefly spoke with Corey & Darius from Black Men Run and Black Girls Run about the race, the shooting, and their run groups. I also share my experience witnessing what happened the day of the shooting. Check Out The Run Groups: Black Men Run & Black Girls Run To Support The Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund: Click Here To Support The Show: Patreon Intro & Outro Produced By: Awwyeah Background Music: Chill Noons by Kronicle --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themileyourein/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://realcrime.net/2022/10/28/what-does-the-parkland-verdict-mean-for-the-death-penalty/ Sources: Parkland school shooter spared from execution for killing 17 Parkland school shooting jury spares gunman death penalty in 2018 massacre Jury rejects death sentence for Stoneman Douglas school shooter in all 17 murders Florida jury recommends life in prison for Parkland school shooter A jury recommends life in prison for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz Parkland shooter gets life in prison for deadliest US high school massacre After Parkland shooter gets life verdict, what's next for the death penalty in Florida? Does the Parkland shooter's life sentence set a precedent for future killers? An expert explains My commentary on the Parkland videos: https://realcrime.net/2018/08/15/parkland-shooters-videos-attack/ Contact Trench: https://realcrime.net/contact/ Intro Music: “Death and Axes” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/trenchreynolds or https://twitter.com/RealCrimeNet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realcrimenet IG: https://www.instagram.com/trenchreynolds/ Merch: https://www.mooshuandme.com/collections/realcrime-net Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trenchreynolds PayPal: https://paypal.me/trenchreynolds --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/realcrimestories/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/realcrimestories/support

This week on SA Voices From the Field we interviewed Dr. Scott Peska, Dr. Katie L. Treadwell, Dr. Joseph Pickering about their recent article in NASPA's Leadership Exchange magazine about Concealed Carry on Campus. Dr. Scott Peska serves as the Assistant Vice President of Student Services and Alumni Relations at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, IL  where he oversees a number of Student Development departments, serves as the Chair of the Campus Assessment Team, and is a Deputy Title IX Officer.  Dr. Peska previously worked at Northern Illinois University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Illinois State University.    In NASPA, Dr. Peska is actively part of the Campus Safety and Violence Prevention Knowledge Community, specifically with the Enough is Enough campaign against violence. He serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice and has previously served as the Region IV-E Public Policy Division Representative, Region IV-E Community College Division Representative, and a member of the 2017 Annual Conference Planning Committee.  Dr. Katie L. Treadwell researches and writes extensively about the aftermath of university crises and the subsequent experiences of campus first responders. Katie developed her professional identity in higher education through roles in Oklahoma City, Waco, Texas, and New York City, three cities deeply altered by terrorism and the aftermath of disaster. Inspired by her own experience with campus and community tragedy, Katie primarily researches the personal experiences of higher education administrators who encounter high-profile campus disasters. Her research portfolio includes in-depth investigations of intentional violence, terrorism, natural disasters, and accidents that forever change a campus community. Katie's work appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, About Campus, and other higher education publications. She frequently consults with campus leaders on issues of preventing violence and improving campus safety. In collaboration with higher education leaders across the country, Katie co-edited Crisis, Compassion, and Resiliency in Student Affairs. Katie currently serves as Assistant Vice Provost for Student Affairs at the University of Kansas, as well as chair of the NASPA Campus Safety and Violence Prevention Knowledge Community. Dr. Joseph Pickering is a student affairs professional with 15 years of experience in the field. His ongoing research portfolio focuses on the impact of concealed carry legislation on Texas universities and colleges, particularly campus leaders' and law enforcement perspectives. Dr. Pickering is a triple Gator, graduating with his B.A. in History, Masters in Student Personnel in Higher Education, and his Doctorate in Higher Education Administration, where his research focused on the impact of concealed carry legislation in the state of Texas. Dr. Pickering comes from a family of Law Enforcement officers, his grandfather helped start the police department at Rutgers University, his father served as a Military Police Officer and a police officer. Dr. Pickering is also an alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the site of a tragic 2018 Valentine's Day shooting. Dr. Pickering remains connected with students and fellow alumni from Stoneman Douglas and continues to support a variety of efforts to help schools and institutions learn from and better prepare for mass casualty/safety incidents. Please subscribe to SA Voices from the Field on your favorite podcasting device and share the podcast with other student affairs colleagues!

With so many scary things happening in the world today, it's easy to understand why kids are struggling with anxiety. On this episode, Dr. Amy and Teri interview licensed mental health counselor, Stacie Boyar, LMHC, MS Ed, who shares tips and specific strategies for managing anxiety. She's uniquely qualified to give advice on this topic as a therapist in Parkland, FL who worked with teens from the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting. We talk about effective therapies for anxiety like CBT and EMDR and also learn at-home breathing and grounding techniques that we AND our kids can use whenever we're feeling stressed or anxious about anything at all. Join us for this fantastic conversation with the author of You're Not the Boss of Me, a book for teens on conquering anxiety. Find us at BrainyMoms.co and on social media @TheBrainyMomsLearn more from our guest, Stacie Boyar, at Namastacie.netDownload Stacie's guided grounding and breathing exercises at https://anchor.fm/stacie34 

• Ann Rohmer looks into the issue of making our schools safe. As the nation continues to mourn the horrific shooting at a Texas elementary school last week, one advocate is in Albany this week pushing for legislation to make schools safer. Lori Alhadeff, the mother of a student killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida in 2018 is hoping to get Alyssa's Law passed in New York.  If it does, schools in New York would be equipped with at least one panic button in cases of emergencies like an active shooter.  Her daughter Alyssa was one of the 17 people who was killed at Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida in February of 2018. • Glynn Perkins speaks with York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween and the reaction to Ottawa's move to ban handgun sales with the new firearms control bill. • Kevin Frankish reminds us that this month the focus is on speeding and aggressive driving; and the CAA “SLOWDOWN PLEASE” sign campaign.   • Ann Rohmer speaks with ER doctor and best selling author Dr. Daniel Kalla.   • Tina Cortese is with award winning investigative journalist & broadcast producer Mary Garofalo;  her latest project is "The Ken & Barbie Killers", a documentary about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka; this Sunday at 9pm on HLN • Jim Lang discusses the Canadian Open. Tt's back and starts on June 6th at the St. George's Golf & Country Club in Toronto

On this episode of ‘Grab A Glass', DT contemplates traveling alone, dissects the commitment to pride & ignorance in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, and shares some perspective on separating art from artist.

This week we head over to Cary, NC to talk to coaches at the National High School Invitational. This is an annual event that USA Baseball hosts, bringing in some of the best high school teams in the nation. The USA Baseball staff does a phenomenal job with the event. It is amazing the type of talent we have all over the country at the high school level. Congrats to Todd Fitz-Gerald and Stoneman Douglas High School for taking home the title this year. In this episode we talked to Orange Lutheran’s Eric Borba, Regis Jesuit’s Matt Darr, Stoneman Douglas’ Todd Fitz-Gerald, St. Johns Country Day’s Tom Lucas, DH Conley’s Jason Mills, Bishop Vero’s Casey Scott, The First Academy’s Scott Grove and Hamilton’s Mike Woods. The ABCA Podcast is presented by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time, specializing in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, bp screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more.

Nathan Rode and Shooter Hunt review the 2022 NHSI, from Stoneman Douglas' championship run to Dylan Lesko's lights-out performance. David Seifert joins them to catch up on the last couple weeks of the college scene, including a look at some college prospects who have climbed draft boards so far.

Bridging the gap through music, Bree Gordon joins the podcast today to discuss her experiences with music therapy, trauma informed care, and how to recognize what your body is telling you.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co . And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:How we stop living in survival modeShowing up even when you don't know your next stepYour body will tell you what's going onThe connection of traumaBeing trauma informed The heart of the Mindful Mentor PodcastSitting and listening to othersEpisode References/Links:Mindful Mentor PodcastIG @mindfulmentorbreeFB @mindfulmentorbreeWebsite mindfulbree.comEmail: info@mindfulmentorbree.comNon-Profit: House of LovezillionairesThe Gift of FearThe Body Keeps the Score ... by Dr. Bessel van der KolkGuest Bio:Bree is an experienced speaker on trauma and connection. She has worked with dozens of universities, non-profit organizations and for profit businesses from around the United States including the University of Miami, the Alzheimer's Association and the Stoneman Douglas community in Parkland, Florida. Bree has been featured in multiple national media platforms including NPR, BroadwayWorld and VeryWell. She also hosts a weekly podcast, The Mindful Mentor, focused on building a culture of self-awareness and empathy. With a degree and board certification in Music Therapy and 13 years experience working in medical and community settings, Bree is highly respected for her clinical work as well as her success in creating jobs in the field of creative arts therapies. Bree has served as the co-owner and Director of Creative Arts Therapies of the Palm Beaches since 2012, staffing and developing clinical music and art therapy programs for over 100 organizations throughout South Florida.  OPC Flashcards:OPC Flashcards are on AmazonOPC Flashcards are on our site  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.  ResourcesWatch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable Pilates Social MediaInstagramFacebookTik TokLinkedIn Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00  Hello, Be It Till You See It, listener. What's up babe? How are you? Ah, I can't wait for you to talk like hear this woman's words. And then I have homework for you, I want you to go listen to her Mindful Mentor podcast and listen to the episode we were on in the binge out. She's really an amazing, unique person. And, you know, definitely a be it till you see it like person, didn't even know she's beening until she see it, saw it until she was but um, it's there's some great tips in here. And also we talked a lot about the trauma informed and activating and how words and sounds and things can be activating. And so I definitely, I'm excited for you to kind of hear that because I think we talked about trauma, we talk about trauma informed, but sometimes don't always know what that means. So, I hope that this really helps give you some more information. She also gave some great resources for those who are interested in being a little bit more trauma informed in your careers because there's different trauma informed trainings for different industries. And so definitely check that out. There's some great books that she talked about. I have read - The Body Keeps a Score, I'm gonna reread it actually, because I read it so long ago. I think it's time for a reread. Anyways, I'm gonna let Bree tell you who she is, and really dive into how she got to where she is. But I just want to say, just a huge thank you for you being here with your earbuds and on your walk, taking the time to let other people share their stories with you and inspire you. And one thing a little spoiler alert in there is that like it's not easy, right? It's not easy what you're doing. It's not even, it's not even easy to say, "Yeah, you don't have to turn on this podcast right now." That's actually a choice. It's hard to do. Like you're, you're weighing the options of what other things you should be doing or binging out on. Or maybe you should be doing an extra hour of work. And so I just want to say thank you for making a choice to get a little dose of inspiration and hear a tip on how you can be it till you see it. So without further ado, I found out that she's a fellow Scott woman like myself, (Lesley laughs) right before we went on. So my team had to edit out a little pre intro intro. But here she is Bree Gordon.Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guests will bring Bold, Executable, Intrinsic and Targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Alright, Be It listeners. I have Bree Gordon here. She is a fellow Scottish family member, although I don't know maybe related somehow. We just discovered this five seconds ago that we're both Scottish. Um, anyways, Bree and I met because I put myself out there and I said, "I want to do a podcast swap." And I think it's important that you hear that because I could have totally been rejected, I could have totally heard crickets. And she's like, "Hey, I want to do that with you. And I only have 7pm, Eastern Time. (Lesley laughs) And we'll get into that." So Bree, welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast. Please tell everyone who you are. And also maybe why we only can talk at 7pm on a Tuesday.Bree Gordon 3:41  Happy to cover all those things. First of all, thank you so much Lesley for having me on for reaching out. That is just how all this beauty is getting created right now. I feel like since we are getting back into the real world, I guess. But after coming out of a year and a half or close to two years of having to make connections in a new way like social media. I appreciate so much that you did reach out. For those with exceptional hearing, you may be already able to identify why the 7pm Eastern Standard Time is my talk time. That is the beautiful vocal jazz stylings of my seven month old that you hear in the background. So just going to go ahead and call that out for the beginning. But again, so thankful to be here. Again, my name is Bree Gordon, hence the Scottish connection we were able to tell with our last names there. I am a few different things. I am a Board Certified Music Therapist by day I guess as they say. I am a mother as we covered. I am a podcaster as well, public speaker and I have in the last two years started developing ... a new LLC that helps with wellness programs as well. So my background as a Board Certified Music Therapist, and working in medical music therapy for the last 13 years, has just connected me to the realization, one, what I already knew is that music truly is not to be cliche, but truly is a universal language that can connect all of us. But in also working with so many different people from such different walks of life, different cultures, languages, ages, all the things that could divide us been able to find so many things that connect us, and so many commonalities within the human experience, which is why I have kind of expanded my view not just from music therapy, but just to wellness in general, specifically, recovering from trauma. So, I am located in South Florida, originally from Toronto, Canada, grew up in upstate New York ... (Lesley: Oh, my goodness) move down to South Florida, basically just moving on and down that East Coast, you know. (Lesley laughs) Moving on down, that's not how the song goes. Lesley Logan 5:55  ... to go all the way down to the East side, right? You're on the East side. (Lesley laughs) (Bree: Through the East side) Oh, my gosh. (Bree: Exactly) So you know, what I love about meeting so many guests is, and maybe it's just because like attracts like, but no one is just doing like one thing. Like there's a couple of things that we're doing. I think it's because like no one is just anything. What, but I think we have to go into music therapy for trauma. Can you explain kind of what that even what does a day in that look like? And how did you get started doing that? Like, did you know that you wanted to be when you grew up?Bree Gordon 6:27  No... Well, there's a couple ways to answer that. I knew that I wanted to do something in music. And I knew that I was not called to be a teacher in this life. (Bree laughs) So that forced me to kind of explore other options. So back up, all the way to being a young kiddo. My mom and I moved to the States, when I was three, my mom worked as a CNA in a nursing home. And being a single parent, and I was only I am an only child, there was not always a lot of childcare options. So like days that I didn't have, you know, daycare or school, I'd be going to work with mom. And so mom tells me I don't have clear memories of this exactly. But being in the forum of the nursing home as a three year old, holding court and (Lesley laughs) just singing in my little heart out. And I remember my grandma took me to a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof. And I'll just be honest, I come from where I grew up in New York, you know, it was a part Scottish part Dutch, like group Dutch Reformed and everybody around me was a Dutch farmer. And everybody looks the same and talk the same and worship the same. And so Fiddler on the Roof was a very odd choice for the local high school to do but it was my first Broadway show. And I remember looking at it and saying, "I want that. I want to do what they're doing. I want to be that free on a stage. I want to step into a new role and be a new person." At like five, I (Lesley: Yeah) was just like connected with that. So we had these home videos of me doing if I were rich man in my front yard, like (Lesley laughs) this is how I would entertain. Well, I didn't realize truly that this was such an exceptional experience to be so comfortable with people outside of your generation, outside of your own life experience until later in life. So when I started to look up options for careers in music, and realize music therapy was one of them. I had been working for my mom and my mom was working in homecare private home duty at the time, so would help her out. So I knew I wanted to help people and I knew I want to be in music. So I went to school for music therapy and everybody wanted to be with the kids. Everyone wanted to do early education, you know, sit on the floor with the kids and play music and I did not again feel called to that. So I didn't realize how special it was that I already knew how to bridge this gap between myself and someone different than me through music. So, I started doing all the senior placements and I did like geriatric psych psychology, locked unit, hospice care all these things, eventually ended up moving to South Florida for an internship in hospice care, and worked in that field for seven years. And then went into private practice and started working in Oncology and with seniors with alzheimer's, dementia, all these things. Fast forward to 2018 when we had the tragic shooting here in Parkland (Lesley: Yeah) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And, so I volunteered my time and got a team together to join our art therapists in the area to just create a space for (Lesley: Yeah) this community. They had like two, 10 days to two weeks off of school. So for the students, the parents, siblings, all that to come and have a space to just be, to just create, to feel safe, to feel supported. And out of that I was hired to work with the students for the next few years. So I've done a lot of programming. Through that work ...Lesley Logan 9:50  That's ... I'm so sorry to interrupt. (Bree: Yeah) That's interesting because I was looking over your bio, and I'm like, "How did you end up with trauma?" And it's because trauma happened in your like backyard.Bree Gordon 10:01  Literally. I mean, people say that right? It's our backyard. This was before we even knew what was going on. My staff was calling me, "Hey, I can't get to the site, the roads are blocked, I see all these flashing lights, I see all these media vans, I see helicopters. I can't get to, you know, the afterschool program for kiddos with on the autism spectrum that's just down the road." So before we even knew what had happened, before we would turn on the television, (Lesley: Yeah) I'm getting you know, calls from my staff, "There's something's big going on. I can't get to work." So once I started doing this work and studying more about trauma informed music therapy, and basically what that means is that trauma informed is a lens in which you treat through. So knowing that sounds that images, that references, that things can be activating. And I purposely use activating instead of triggering, because I work so much with gun violence survivors, we try to avoid any language, I... again just want to mention the seven month old in the background ... (Lesley laughs) just in case you missed the top of this podcast, that's what's happening in the background. (Lesley laughs) And so anything that you are bringing in which music lyrics can be very activating, right? The sounds of drums being (Lesley: Yeah) hidden or activating, so having that lens in the education before walking into a room is really important. So through that work, I realized, well, I've been doing that all along. My seniors in hospice care and my memory care groups, are World War II, (Lesley: Yeah) you know, active war, active duty ward veterans, Holocaust survivors, again, I live in South Florida, we have the largest amount of hospice, (I'm sorry) Holocaust survivors in our community, then I think anywhere other than New York City, for the United States. I work in addiction recovery, a lot of early childhood or adverse childhood experiences, that are traumatic that they have survived. So this whole time in my career, I really have been focused on working with individuals who survived a trauma. Well, not only that, but then expand the worldview even further, which has led me into my newer project of The Mindful Mentor is, that's all of us. (Lesley: Yeah) That's not just someone I'm going to meet in a medical setting, that is all of us. And with COVID, we have all experienced collective trauma.Lesley Logan 12:22  Oh, I mean, that's and that's interesting thing I have, I have my therapist coming into my fitness business coaching group. At the time that we're recording this, it's like in two weeks. So when you hear this, everyone will have happened. But the reason I'm bringing her in this time is to actually talk about how we have to stop living in survival mode, because COVID caused every business owner, cause every person to go into survival mode, that's a great mode. But it's like a fifth gear, you're not supposed to live in it, like it's not good. On the engine, it's not good on the mechanic. It's not good, right? Like you would never do that your car. But I see all these business owners, I see all these women, especially like in this survival mode. And that is also traumatic to like, it's you, you just don't see things happening in the same way that they are when you're in that mode versus when you're not in that mode. So I have her coming in. But you're you made this excellent point that we've had this collective trauma. And I guess, like, I'm ... for the first time doing a training that is a trauma informed training, it's a trauma informed breathwork training. It's actually really interesting for me, because, you know, you hear these things, you can be activating towards people, or using the word that's commonly used, like you could trigger someone. And it makes a lot of people go, "Well, then what do I do and how do I do this? And then how do I act?" And then it's like, "Oh, how do I be it till I see it? If I, like good actually accidently do this?" And so it's like, how, how do you, you know, you went into the space in 2018. Without really like, it's like you had ever worked with a situation like that in the past? So how did you do that? And how, and like, is there any, maybe there's a way we can all like, learn something through your experience? When when it comes to like, how do you act in a place that you don't know how to act or how to do or how to heal?Bree Gordon 14:06  That's, that's a really great question. And actually, so fitting to your show that I didn't even think about beforehand, because truly, that's what I was doing. I didn't even know I've never heard of trauma informed at that point, to be honest with you. So, I was being it till I saw it, and that in that moment. And what that led to was actually partnering up eventually with our music therapist, who's been working with the children in Sandy Hook, and then Connecticut. And then we were able to give trainings at our national conferences. But before I got to that point where I'm helping others, I'm thinking, "Gosh, this is totally," and again, at the moment, I really did think fresh and new and I've never done anything like this before. So I had to just show up, right? First of all, I had to know if I was the right person, if I truly could not handle this. It was there was a transference issue, meaning that there was something coming up that was too strong within myself, that I was not able to be present for the students, then I needed to find another therapist that could do that. So there is a point where you're not always going to be the best fit for every situation ... (Lesley: Right) But and this one, it did feel comfortable for me to be involved in. I was able to set not set aside my feelings, but just kind of honor what it was coming up in me and then address that in the appropriate place, which meant going to trauma informed therapy for myself, honestly, to be aware of what was coming up with me. Working in this, is is heavy, right? These are students who have survived an extremely traumatic event, they are wanting to walk through it with you through song lyric, through a discussion, whatever way that comes up through music, whatever way it is. And as the therapist you need to know how to be present, first and foremost, and second, know how to handle what's coming up for you. So I was really fortunate that I had a team of therapists that I worked with. So we were meeting for supervision like one to two hours every day, that was a total luxury. I've never had that anywhere else in my career, that I had that much time built into a contractor, to a salary that I can debrief and process. So ...Lesley Logan 16:13  So you yourself, were going to a session to debrief and process what your day was like. Bree Gordon 16:20  Right. So when we were doing what started as a summer camp. So we're working with the students like 30 hours a week through the summer. The summer camp started in June, the shooting happened in February. (Lesley: Yeah) So this was, this was not PTSD. This was T, (Lesley: Yeah) capital T happening in the moment. So all of us therapists would get together at the end of the day and would process through. And then by the end of those six weeks, I started to realize that I was the only one of them not in therapy for myself. So then I went to get that additional work done. And I'll tell you what, it's amazing, be it till you see it kind of show up again, being present first and foremost, being supported, knowing that you have a support network around you. But then you really do you have to be accountable for that. Because for me, second summer, third summer comes around, I get to the end of the summer, and I'm just not feeling good. And and this was I started out this is a pattern every time I get to the end of the summer, my back is totally out of whack. I think we talked about this on (Lesley: Yeah) my show too, your body will let you know (Lesley: Yeah) what's up. Right? So, I had thought, "Well, I went to therapy and I talked about this. I process to this. I'm good." (Lesley: Yeah) Right? ...Lesley Logan 17:33  I feel like anyone listens like, "Oh, yeah, I've been there." And like, "I did that I already. Checked, checked" (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 17:37  I did ... No, no, I took care of that, like I already did that. So not feeling good, not feeling good. Suddenly, I'm like walking with a cane. Not not terribly normal for someone in their early 30s. I go into see a doctor, and they said, "Where you in a car accident? You have three herniated discs." (Lesley: What?) I'm like, "Nope, I hosted or I lead a trauma camp." And I didn't get any help for myself through it. And now this is my third year doing it. So I know better, right? But I have to stay accountable for it. So I'm not sure, I feel like that does kind of lead into the be it till you see it because clearly I am not it yet. I'm still learning (Lesley: Yeah) so gotta show up and constantly keep learning freeze up, the advocating freeze up, listening to your body. And the when you are doing that you are becoming what those students need. You are becoming what that community needs because you are also taking care of yourself.Lesley Logan 18:32  Yeah. Well, and I think like, you know, because I always say like, "Take messy action." It doesn't mean like be irrational or erratic or crazy, unplanned like, it sounds like you had never done this before. But you actually did the work to go, "Am I the right person for this? Is my team, the right people for this?" What do we have to do to get through this, we can support them and not actually make it worse for them? But then you also just did it. And and and then you learned while doing to the end of the summer, you're like, "Wow, learn something about myself. I have to add one more thing to this list of things to do." And I think I think a lot of people get stuck on that because if they don't know, the roadmap, they don't know all the parts, they haven't seen all the way through, then they don't actually get started. And especially with something like this. Like, I do think a lot of people have seen something bad happens in their community or they're like, "Oh my gosh, I want to know how to I want to help but I don't know how to help." And I guess like, you know you in that moment, there was something in your head that was like, "I think we can help here." And I guess do do is it something you can pinpoint or is it just a feeling?Bree Gordon 19:37  It's a good question, because I like I started this conversation saying, "I didn't want to work with kids." Right? (Lesley: Yeah) (Lesley laughs) (Lesley: You also had a kid ...) I didn't know at the time ... (Lesley: Yeah) What what an absolute joy of having a child could be. Now I know. But at the ... I just I want to work with my seniors the rest of my life. I just I love working with, you know, neurodegenerative diseases, which sounds like a really weird thing to say. But I do, I love bringing joy and feelings of success and positivity and accomplishment to those that have cognitive decline. So this was an opportunity that I was like actively seeking ever before. And I would usually refer it out to other people in the community that I thought would be better fits. I almost wonder if it was a strong personal connection. I'm a trauma survivor, as a child myself. Part of that is complicated grief, losing my dad at a young age, it wasn't to anything violent as this would be. But I believe that there is a connection within trauma, (Lesley: Yeah) that if you have experienced something you have experienced, especially as a child, the feeling of being completely out of control of the world happening around you. (Lesley: Yeah) And just this constant yearning for grounding. (Lesley: Yeah) And for a strengthened a sense of self and for connection and identified with all of those things. Now, obviously, I'm not going to say have been through what those kids have been through, I haven't. But I could connect with that feeling of needing those things. So I do think it was something in myself and again, I go back to listening to yourself, (Lesley: Listening to your ... ) listening to your body, your mind, your heart, your intuition, your gut. It's I mean, I don't know about everybody here. I don't know everyone's gut intimately, obviously. (Lesley and Bree laughs) But mine has led me to some amazing opportunities that on paper, I would have said no to.Lesley Logan 21:44  Oh, I mean, you're there's this great book called The Gift of Fear. It is who is it, who is it -Gavin de Becker. And actually, just because the world is so small, I actually taught a woman how to teach Pilates who might be listening to this podcast whose husband worked works with Gavin de Becker's company, it's a security firm, and he was in trauma when he was a child. And he, his life experience led him to actually be able to see and understand when people are actively going to do what they threatened to do, or when they're just a little bit off. Right? Or a lot off, but not actually going to act on it. So he's worked with the FBI and the CIA, all the things, right. And he has a security firm. He wrote a book called The Gift of Fear. And his whole thing is, every single one of us, our gut is telling us what is happening? Do we feel safe in this moment? Is this person a good person? Should we trust this person? Like it literally is, it has these receptors. It so amazing, but our brain is like, "Oh, you're being judgmental or you don't know like, he seems like a really nice person. He's got nice clothes on, like, all these things." Oh, you know, all this stuff and our logic, our brain is like, trying to talk us out of out of our gut is saying, but like, logic will fail you most of the time where your gut is pretty on and it's not and it's okay to go with that. So the book is really dense and it's really interesting. And I highly recommend it, especially my ladies listening to this because it really is informative as far as like, what it means to be like protective of yourself, and also like a little over protective, like, "What it does that mean?" Right? And then you also made me think of the book like, "What Happened to You?" which is a some amazing research they've done on trauma on like, infants, you know, we think that babies don't have memories before three o'clock, three o'clock, three, three years old, three o'clock, before ... 3pm. They have no ... (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 23:31   My baby did not to remember any of this becuase here it's still 2:30 ... (Lesley: Yeah) (Lesley laughs) So, it's fine.Lesley Logan 23:35  3 years old, but the reality is, is that they have found and they study people long enough to know that if even under in three, your first three months, you've had something traumatic, it really does affect, you're life. Bree Gordon 23:45  Your birth experience (Lesley: Oh) is traumatic. (Lesley: Yeah) I mean, it's ... in addition to all this other stuff, I'm working through an online training and play therapy. And it's neuro relational, child centered play therapy, and a lot of it is on trauma. And the memories that they find these children even reenacting, like their birth experience, even at four or five years old. (Lesley: Whoa) Yeah, there was one story in the training where one of the child came in the room. And one of the things about play therapy, particularly this model. Is you don't intervene. I mean, you have to keep it safe in the room, but you're not guiding the play. It's truly the child is expressing themselves through the place, you don't want to really parameters around it. And so this child found in like a beanbag chair, an opening in just a small hole and found their way into the beanbag chair, and then became very emotional upon interacting or, sorry, playing out, coming out of the beanbag chair. And what she realized when talking to the parent was that there was a traumatic birth experience. Now this is like a four or five year old ...Lesley Logan 24:54  That's so crazy, that's amazing and crazy. It's like ...Bree Gordon 24:56  It's incredible, right? (Lesley: Yeah) And I don't think I'll ever forget that story because you know, as a clinician, but now also, as a parent, I'm thinking you can go crazy thinking about, "Are you gonna remember this. Did I just ruin you?" Like, "How much am I going to pay for therapy for this?" (Lesley laughs)Lesley Logan 25:10  You know, I think I think today's parents who are very aware of therapy are very much aware of like, "Oh my God, how much is this bill gonna cost? Like, I just help them." Whereas like I don't know. You and I are a lot the same age. Like, "I don't think our parents worry about therapy. I'm being honest." (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 25:25  The first time, my stepson came home and he won't listen to this. So we're fine. But he comes home. And, and I nursing my baby. And you know, he's 18. Right? And the poor kid, didn't ask for any of this, he's super sweet. He's like our babysitter, extraordinary and they have the best relationship. But he walks in the house, and I'm just like, "I can't even afford what I'm gonna have to pay for this later in life. I'm so sorry. (Lesley laughs) Like, this is (Lesley: Yeah) just your life now. We just (Lesley: Yeah) my boobs out. I apologize." (Lesley and Bree laughs)Lesley Logan 25:52  Oh, you know, what I do find though, it's like, men with like, younger siblings or sisters are a lot easier around women as they're older women who, especially if they end up marrying a woman, I think everything's a little less weird, (Lesley laughs) more normal. So, I think it's, you know, I think it's good for him. (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 26:09  For the sensitive that comes along with it, for sure.Lesley Logan 26:11  Yeah. But also, you know, like, it's, um, I, when I see people freak out, this has nothing to do this podcast ... But like, some of the angry anger fights me the most, is when I see those people who get upset at someone breastfeeding in public. But then they're the same due to oogle and I'll go over girl wearing a too low cut of a top. And it's like, I just, I'm really starting to I'm really confused. You don't like it when they're out? But you do, like ... (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 26:36  Also, did you just not get cow's milk in your coffee, cafe latte, (Lesley: Yeah) whatever. I mean, like, I know, and I didn't get it until I was in this experience. I was just kind of like, "Oh, whatever. I didn't really have an opinion about it." And I'm like, "No, this is actually the most (Lesley: Yeah) natural normal thing." Anyway that's a whole other podcast. Lesley Logan 26:51  ... whole another another thing. So okay, I want to talk a bit about, I want to definitely get into what led you into your own podcast, but before then, for people who are intrigued by trauma, trauma therapy, being trauma informed? Is it as easy as googling like trauma informed trainings near me? Or (Lesley laughs) is there like, is there a book list or a site or place on your site where people can get this information? I just want to make sure that people who are intrigued by being trauma informed, because it does, it does. It is freeing when you actually understand it a bit more than when you just hear like, "Oh, your actions could trigger something or activate something." (Bree: Right) Like, you know, especially for the ... let me just explain we Pilates instructors listen to this a lot. And they touch people. (Bree: Yeah) And when they hear (Bree: Yeah) like, "Oh, make sure you don't, you could, if you don't touch .." If you touch them in a class that wasn't expecting it that could be activating or triggering. Like, it makes them go, "Am I allowed to touch? I'm allowed to do?" And I I have found in doing this trauma informed training, even though it's a breathwork training, that I have a lot more since I have awareness around it, I also have a little bit more freedom. I'm like, "What is acceptable and what isn't? And how do you work with that?" And so where can people go who are intrigued by this and ready to learn more?Bree Gordon 28:01  For sure. First of all, awareness and informed implies curiosity. Right? And the best place to begin your curiosity is just asking your patient or your client, "Are you comfortable with this? How does this make you feel? Can I do this?" I think I am going to give you some great resources in addition to that, but really, each person is unique, their trauma experience is unique, they're going to have different responses to it. So I would say treating as a very individualistic experience, is is just a great way to start before you can read the books and do the trainings and all of that. As far as books go - The Absolute Bible on Trauma Informed Care is the Body Keeps the Score ... by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, the Dutch Dutch name ... (Lesley laughs) fabulous resource, if you're going back to Heritage's today, (Lesley: Yeah) that is just a great place to start. And it it connects to so much of what you've already been talking about with the focus on touch and on breath. And on knowing your own body because it's true, it is stored just in my and that's why I tell you my story about herniating the discs in my back because I could go and like I said, I've traveled all over the country talking about this. And yet that is still happening to me. So we can read all the resources in the world being aware of your own body because it's true that our body does keep the score of what we have experienced, what our emotions have experiences, what we physically experienced, psychologically, all of that. (Lesley: Yeah) Beyond that for trainings, I would say to look into something specific to whatever your industry is. So there's not going to be like a one stop shop for trauma informed. So for myself, we have a training for music therapy, for Pilates, like you mentioned, there's a training for breathwork, things like that, even if you're in the corporate world. I've seen that there are corporate training for being an employer that is trauma informed, which I think is brillant. (Lesley: Wow, that's amazing) I love that. Yes. So even if you're just in the you're not in a helper profession or therapy or anything like that, as a professional, but you're in the corporate world, financial marketing, whatever that looks like, I think marketing actually isn't a great area to be trauma and perfect. (Lesley laughs) (Lesley: Yeah, I think so) Right? Just think about your messaging and what you're actually promoting. And well, how to do it, how the best way to do it in a sensitive way. So but like I said, just for getting started today for make, making one trauma informed decision today, after you stop listening to this podcast, if there's someone in your circle, a family, friend, community member, client, patient, whatever it is, that you have that concern with, that you think that they might be activated in a way, ask them, (Lesley: Yeah) you know, talk to them. Find out from them personally, and I'll be willing to bet just making that step of that awareness and curiosity and, and compassion to to connect with them. You're already going to start bridging that gap, (Lesley: Yeah) without taking it even a step further.Lesley Logan 31:02  I agree. I think that's, you know, and also, something that is easier to do. Not easy. But is it as easy as that is like, if people are talking about how they're feeling, you can also just listen. You don't have to actually like, you don't have to agree, you don't have to ask, you have to say, "I see that in you as well." You don't have to, like you could just like if they can just, they can just talk and you can just sit there with your eyes open and hold the space. And then you can can ask them, "Do you need more time?" And if they're like, "Yeah," then they can keep going. If they don't, they'll go, "Okay." And then you can, you can also just move you can keep going, right? So I think like people are like, "Oh, I have to have a conversation with them." And, and one of the things that we're doing is like, being a feeler and like, it's kind of amazing when you just let someone talk about how they're feeling. And then you don't say anything. And then we ask if they want to pop out question, which is like, "What's your favorite color or whatever?" And, you know, like, it kind of brings it back. But it's kind of amazing like, if you just let people feel what they're feeling. It doesn't keep, it doesn't have to keep going. The feeling can have its moment and it can pass like a cloud, you know, not that it's over. But there's some interesting things with that. I think we can all learn like little bits, until because you know, everyone has their own thing. And I think a lot of people listening are to be all or nothing. It doesn't mean you have to go all the way today. But you can start with curiosity and asking, and I love that tip. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so you have a podcast - Mindful Mentor? (Bree: Yeah) I've been on it, y'all. It was a frickin' great conversation. So you're gonna go listen to that.Bree Gordon 32:29  You're awesome. (Lesley laughs) Yes, yes, yes, you are. Let me just say, we're not going to say, "We invite you." No, you have to (Lesley: Yeah) go because Lesley you're incredible. And you just, you brought so much... just clever wisdom. I don't know if you've ever been told you have clever wisdom before. But that is how I walk away from this, I just, I felt renewed as an interviewer even just talking to you, and just as a person. So I just want to thank you and honor you again for your gifts you gave to The Mindful Mentor, because everyone who listens will be blessed by that. Thank you.Lesley Logan 33:00  Well, words of affirmations, my love language and clever wisdom is going in the next bio. So (Lesley laughs) (Bree: Done) we're gonna, (Bree: Yeah) we're gonna put that in there. I'm always looking for new, new words to go in there. So what made you start a podcast? Because as someone who started one, it is a lot of work, that (Bree: Yeah) you maybe are like, "I talk, I do lives all the time. Just gonna do this." And then you're like, "Wow, there's there's some steps in here." (Lesley laughs) (Bree: Yup) So (Bree: Yeah), what made you start it and what are you excited about with it right now?Bree Gordon 33:29  Yeah, thank you. So my background was in live radio, which I started as kind of a marketing arm of my creative arts therapy practice, which is Creative Arts Therapies, the Palm Beaches. And so we staff and develop music and art therapy programs for medical and educational and community based programs. So we were kind of using the radio show as a way to interview different individuals in the community, but also outside in the national, sometimes even international people to call in and interview about creative approaches to healthcare and to education. So (Lesley: That's so cool) anyone who had kind of, yeah, was really neat, a different like, out of the box idea of how to reach people, because as we talked about everybody is is individual. So sometimes programs that are so structured, aren't going to meet everyone's needs. So I did that for several years, and I loved it. But then I kind of wanted the experience of trying to do something a little bit more flexible on my own and trying to produce it myself. And so that's that's the journey I'm in now. And it is a lot of work, I will say that but it's doable. I have do not have any kind of formal audio tech training. I'm just smart enough to know when to delegate things (Lesley and Bree laughs) to other people, the things that I cannot do. I love interviewing, I love putting out content. So I just I kind of took a break from it for a little while, and then I'm going to go back to a point that I made earlier. So the work that I did was Stoneman Douglas. Like I said that kind of have renewed my energy as far as seeking out opportunities to do trauma informed work. So I reached out to a community here close to, like I said, I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida. So one of the communities here, Riviera Beach has an extremely high rates of gun violence, and especially a lot of young individuals dying from gun violence. So it's not a community that's been rocked by a school shooting, it's a community that's rocked by every time they leave school and walk home. (Lesley: Yeah) And that that is a persistent daily fear. So I kind of reached out to the community there. And I've made some incredible friends from that, that I just, I just can't even tell you how these women have blessed my life. But somehow I just divine intervention ended up in the lives of these women who are leading this impact this intervention for young women and young men to be supported in environments so that they know they have other options, that they they don't have to feel the pressures to go into gang life (Lesley: Yeah) or into drugs or if they're survivors of violence, survivors of sexual trauma that they have some who believe them,who will listen to them and to break these generational ties into just build up and just breathe life into this community. I can't say enough about it's House of Loveillionaires, if you want to check out a nonprofit doing that work. And the vision on Sabrina ...Lesley Logan 36:22  Can you say it again? House of Lovezillionaires? ... (Bree: ah, close Loveillionaires) Loveillionaires. Oh, I love that.Bree Gordon 36:30  So Sabrina Harris is the executive director of that nonprofit, and she got a calling, you know, from from God, that's her faith, that said, "Build a house with a million rooms, you know, for people to just love on them." And so she started this nonprofit, she's a licensed mental health counselor, they do a lot of community outreach programs. So, I met with them a few times, and, you know, did some programs together for for the women in that community. And as we're sitting in this room, and I was the only white person in this room, and so they trust me and bring me into (Lesley: Right) their community. I didn't live there, to trust that I had good intentions that I was going to stick around. But it wasn't just going to say, "Hey, I want to help" and then take off, (Lesley: Right) I felt the warmth of that. And then hearing everyone's experience, I again, could connect it to so much that I had experienced as a child, not the same. I know that I didn't have the same situation. And I was also very aware of certain privileges that I had because of my skin color in that moment. But some of the things that they were sharing, I could connect to, and I'll never forget sitting in this room having a conversation on couches, just kind of fireside chat style, and thinking, "These are stories that need to be (Lesley: Told. Yeah) elevated in the community, these these need to be told." And not only the stories need to be told, but the stories of empathy of how people are responding to each other throughout this, how they are aware of it themselves. Because it's one thing to experience something, but to never share it, to never acknowledge it in yourself to let it just sit. And hey, again, spoiler alert, that's what's gonna affect your body. Right? (Lesley: Yeah) And then when you share it, it's like a lifeline, you toss out for someone else to say, "I really needed to hear that. I'm going through that too." And that's how that community and empathy grows as well. So yeah, I just I wanted to take the work that I've been doing, which made me aware of my my life, really, and all the things (Lesley: Yeah) that I had kind of shoved down and not been (Lesley: Yeah) acknowledging for myself. And because I think it took being in a moment where I was with individuals that if you had taken a snapshot, you would see all the differences, quite honestly, if you had really dug in, you would see all the things that connected us.Lesley Logan 38:50  Oh, that is so beautiful. And I think that has, I think that's really a lot of moments. I think, like, face value, it's like, how are these people all together, but like, if you go on the deeper scale of like, cellular level of experiences and emotions, there's so much that actually does bring us together and in listening to each other, it has so much healing, you know, opportunities and, and without that, then there's really no way that you can do anything that's next. Right? Like as you I mean, we all know like, if ... I mean we go to Cambodia, a lot people are shocked by like how family members can treat their children or have their children do different things. And it's like, when you don't know how you're eating your next meal. You're not actually thinking about the, the elevating of your child. You're not like if the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, (Bree: It's just gonna say yeah) it is a real thing. And so when people you know, I had a client who is frustrated with like some crime in her area, and I'm like, "You have to understand, if they don't feel that their needs are being met on a very basic level. They're not seeing the other people as anything other than an opportunity for them to survive."And I think that like, it is so important for us to, to understand that but I think it's really beautiful, how you let your your curiosity and your gut and also your willingness to listen and be empathetic to others kind of guide you into what's going to be next for you. And I, it's really beautiful. I've learned ... I've learned so many things in this conversation and I, I want to have more of them, I hope that people are as inspired as I am to be like, wow, you don't, you don't have to be the most expert person to just be in the room and sit down and like, listen, just and be there.Bree Gordon 40:34  And I think another point to mention, too, and I think anyone who's committed to this idea of be it till you see it is aware of it on some level. But that doesn't make this easy (Lesley laughs). Like it was not easy or comfortable for me to be in a room. Again, I look different than everyone else in the room, I'm an outsider in the community, I'm coming in to say I want to help with something that I really have never truly experienced myself. And then in the middle of that, I'm feeling all of these things about myself (Lesley: Right) and my own personal trauma. And the easy thing would have been to run out of that room, never addressed what came up for me and really removed myself from that community. So I became acutely aware of the fact that I had more work to do on me, so that I could show up for others. And there was a choice there. And that's kind of my new like mission with The Mindful Mentor that I'm promoting a lot is that everything we do is a choice. (Lesley: Yeah) These are all just dots, we have to make one choice to connect the dots, and bad choices or dots too, right. So it really determines what image we're going to create from one choice to the other. And so it's not always the easy choice to show up in that way. And to show up as your authentic self. It does require some work, but it's worth it. (Lesley: Yeah) So worth it.Lesley Logan 41:59  It's so beautiful. We're gonna find out how we can listen to your podcast and find out more about you?Bree Gordon 42:05  Yeah, absolutely. The Mindful Mentor, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, or everywhere that you like to listen to your podcasts. And check me out on Instagram @mindfulmentorbree or on Facebook at The Mindful Mentor. Website is mindfulbree.com. Yes, (Lesley: Yeah) that's correct. (Lesley and Bree laughs) And then email is info@mindfulmentorbree.comLesley Logan 42:27  Amazing, amazing the team we'll put that all in the show notes. It's like really easy click and and just let her know, takeaways and how this felt or just what it brought up for you. What you know, I love that you brought up, it's not easy to be it till you see it. I also think it's not like I think a lot of people could hear your story and think, "Wow, that's gonna be so rewarding to work with people like that and help them do this." But also like, it's really heavy. And and, you know, it's not like you go home every day with a badge that goes, "I helped people today," you know. (Bree: Can I have a cookie now? I helped people today.) Yeah, so um, so I just want to say thank you for being someone who does that. There are people like you in this world who are doing that is amazing work. And it is very necessary because I think so many things that we're all going through is because of trauma unattended, unseen, un untaking care of and I don't know I mean, maybe that's the wrong choice words. I don't know that it gets taken care of, it just becomes something that you understand in your body. And so you can handle ...Bree Gordon 43:33  Learn how to cope with it. Yeah, exactly, build that resiliency.Lesley Logan 43:36  Yeah, yeah. So anyways, okay. I ask everybody how, what are some be it till you see it tips to prioritize yourself? So (Bree: Yeah) how, like, what do you think it can be one, it could be three, whatever your, what's come up for you?Bree Gordon 43:50  Absolutely. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind for me, and I'm just going to stop at one because it's it's a big one. It's a big one is figure out what lies and this is going to be trauma specific. That's a lot of what we talked about (Lesley: Yeah) today. If you are someone who has experienced a trauma, big T, little T, it's yours. It's your experience. You don't have to compare it to anybody else's. Figure out what your life looks like on the other side of that. This is going to do a couple things for you. Right? It's going to allow you to expand your worldview of not just there's a mountain right in front of me, I'm standing at the base of it. I don't know how to get to the top. I want you to imagine what is on the other side of it before you even take that first step to get over it because you will, you absolutely will and all of that will come in between but just figuring out what life looks like on the other side of that for you. What are you... you can call it whatever you want. You'd like New Year's resolutions you can call it that. Your goals, your aspirations, whatever that looks like for you, but you just have to imagine, it's not that the trauma doesn't exist. But with that, with experience in my life, what does life look like on the other side of it? And then you'll have that encouragement to move through it, to grow through it, because you will, you will get through it, you will go through it. But it's a little less motivating. We can't see how beautiful and sweet life is, once we get to the other side.Lesley Logan 45:22  Oh, I think that's so beautiful because it's true. I mean, like, it makes me, I mean I also think like goals, visions, everything. Like, if you can't picture what it's going to be like, it's really hard to go through the hard stuff, because (Bree: Yeah) you're like, "When (Bree: What's the point?) is this gonna end? What (Bree: Right) is the point? Why am I doing this? It was easier just to live through the other way." You know, and it is like going through big T, little T trauma or just going through any goal in general. It's not easy. I don't know who (Bree: Yeah) told you is going to be but it's not. And then you know, but if you know what sweetness is at the end, as you mentioned, it does, it does give you a little bit more drive, it gives you a little bit more incentive, a little bit more reason to take that next step. Yeah.Bree Gordon 46:07  And it gives you that that downward slope on the other side of the mountain, the easier side, right. Like, otherwise, you're just still climbing and it's exhausting and it's hard. And part of that climb is involved for sure. But we want to see, we want to see what that that other side when that dreams in sight looks like.Lesley Logan 46:24  So beautiful. Bree, thank you so much for being here and sharing your words and your journey. I think it's really inspiring. I'm, yeah, I, amazing. And everyone please listen to The Mindful Mentor podcast. Um, you can, you can start with our episode. So you know, you know the voices, (Bree: Yeah) but then binge out because (Bree: A great initiation) I think you're gonna learn. Yeah, I think you're gonna, I think you're going to be inspired by so many. So grateful for you being here. And I'm grateful for everyone who's listening because because of you podcasters like Bree and I exist, like if no one's listening. We kind of are just talking ... (Lesley laughs)Bree Gordon 46:58  We just talk to each other and listen to it and repeat.Lesley Logan 47:00  It's like long phone call. (Lesley laughs) Very formal phone call. Anyways, I am so grateful for you. Please do us a favor, screenshot this. Tag us with your takeaways. Tag us with what inspirations came out of this. And you know, even if you just text it to a friend who needs to hear this has had curiosity in that way that is also amazing. But we do love seeing your takeaways, what, what landed for you, and until next time, Be It Till You See It.That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review. And follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the @be_it_pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others BE IT TILL YOU SEE IT. Have an awesome day!'Be It Till You See It' is a production of 'As The Crows Fly Media'.Brad Crowell 47:58  It's written produced, filmed and recorded by your host Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell. Our Associate Producer is Amanda Frattarelli.Lesley Logan 48:09  Kevin Perez at Disenyo handles all of our audio editing.Brad Crowell 48:13  Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 48:22  Special thanks to our designer Jaira Mandal for creating all of our visuals (which you can't see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all video each week so you can.Brad Crowell 48:34  And to Angelina Herico for transcribing each of our episodes so you can find them on our website. And, finally to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.Transcribed by https://otter.aiSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Todd Fitz-Gerald - Stoneman Douglas High School   Bio Current HC Stoneman Douglas HS (FL) Stoneman Douglas ended a historic 2021 season being ranked the #1 HS team in the nation by Perfect Game (#2 Baseball America)  2021 National Head Coach of the Year (his 3rd time, 2016 & 2008) 2021 Florida State Coach of the Year (2nd time) 2021 Florida state champion2nd state championship in 6 years 3rd FL state championship #1 in the country Former HC at American HeritageFlorida state champion (2008) 2008 All USA COY Overall record of 446-119, .789 winning percentage His teams have been in the top 50 in the country 12 years in his 20 years as HC 32 players have been drafted into professional baseball Man of integrity, high character, and teaches life lessons Notes More interactions with kids, more patience since the school shooting Let assistant coaches coach, so he can float around and talk to each position Don't ever feel like you have to call me to come back to practice. You are always welcome Open door policy - promote guys as much as possible Sports are the best thing to bring people together Tragedy to triumph You need to have luck Baseball is a game that teaches you perseverance, failure, tough, level headed So many life lessons Toy drive for Joe Dimaggio hospital Rizzo walk for cancer Hang lights for foster kids Far major things in life than winning and losing games Want players to be the best version of yourself and don't be anything different My resume is because of the players who have played for me INAM - Its Not About Me  QAB - write down their at bat and grade itA or F Result Pitch, count, tendency chart Won't tolerate after striking out and not giving love to other teammates. Being a bad teammate 20 minute meeting prior to practice to go over game night before Just because it is not D1 does not mean you are not a Dude! What is the best fit for you??! Decisions needs to be made on more than just baseball - school, baseball, academics, social, distance, etc Do you have a list of questions to ask coaches when recruiting? Chart and intersquad to be competitiveNot just result - hard 90? You getting out of the box? You standing on 2 when you pop up? 4.3 seconds or less on the infield to make a play Intense at practice, relax at games - don't make me coach you today!!! You have competed all week.   The only team that can beat us is us! Competitive Pitchers Get outs! Control the running game There is a lot more than throwing the ball 60'6” Control emotion, stay in the moment, know you are the best guy on the mound Challenge period - all hitters around turtle, guy on the mound, runner at 2B, defense, 1 outGuys who have not done well in certain things well Pitching and defense win championships, offense wins games We will eliminate the inner third and look outside and over the plate and take advantage of mistakes Some years we bunt, some years we don't! Try not to coach the first 4-5 innings I don't want to coach on game days In the fall everyone has the green lightHow are you going to know if you don't go?? I don't want them to rely on coaches to make decisions and then we will talk about it Its the only thing in life you can fail and be considered great Allow yourself to be successful, stop pouting Its not about you! Athletics roll the school system, and starts with the football team to have a good yearGood AD Administration support Booster club - all fundraising is ran through own booster clubBanners, hit a thon, dinner with a pro Bring excitement to the programWall of fame Facility upgrade - fences and windscreen Cover the batting cages Clubhouse I want them to go off to college and BE READY!!! They are college ready is the best compliment I can get! 954-295-6878 fitzyt17@gmail.com    

This week we're talking about the deadliest school shooting to happen in the US, join us as we go over the details of this case and the new details that have recently come up.

En otras noticias: Arrestado sospechoso del asesinato de un menor de 14 años hace dos semanas en Palm Beach.Estados Unidos aumenta medidas de precaución entre viajeros para prevenir la propagación de la variante Omicron.American Airlines reanudó sus vuelos diarios a La Habana desde el aeropuerto internacional de Miami. En esta temporada los ladrones no solo están robando paquetes que quedan en las entradas, sino que también se están robando las decoraciones navideñas. 

The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting happened on February 14, 2018 when 19 year old Nikolas Cruz walked into the school and opened fire into multiple class rooms. The trial for this case is happening next week so I wanted to give y'all a timeline of the events and share more information on this case.

We absolutely recommend checking out Ana Luisa ❤️https://shop.analuisa.com/diversWe LOVE them, their pieces start at $39, enter code DIVERS to get 10% off #analuisanyJoin us for the last episode of Series 3 where we dive into the case of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.Our contact details are:Twitter/Instagram - crime_divers_podFacebook - Crime Divers PodcastEmail - crime_divers_pod@outlook.comYouTube - CrimeDivers PodcastTikTok - crimediverspodcastIf you would like to support the show financially you can find us here:https://www.patreon.com/CrimeDivershttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/crimediversOr head to the Goodpods app and leave us a tip!Thanks for listening!

This episode we had a great conversation with Emily Evan Rae about her documentary Stop The Bleed about the Stoneman Douglas shooting. Her exceptional film tells the story of the victims and their families in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting.

The latest episode of What's Your Limp is easily our most emotional episode yet. Fred Guttenberg is a gun safety activist - but more than that, he's a father who lost his daughter to gun violence. Fred's daughter, Jaime, was one of 17 victims of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Fred lost his daughter just months after losing his brother to cancer, as a result of his service on 9/11. Now Fred is directly tied to two of the greatest tragedies in our nation's history. And he is using his pain, grief and suffering to educate others and to fight for real change - in an attempt to prevent others from having to endure what he has.To learn more about Fred's activism, visit https://fredguttenberg.com.

In this episode of The Forum Podcast, Zaylore Stout (Zaylore Stout & Associates, LLC) and Jim Potts (Potts & Associates) explore domestic terrorism, how DEI professionals can recognize potential threats, and practical ways to implement situational awareness. The world is changing. Communication and technology are bringing our shores closer together. The internet presents an opportunity for violent extremist to reach out all over the world to present their ideologies to anyone willing to listen. Individuals, including children and young adults, are being radicalized which in turn, translates into domestic terrorism. The Oklahoma Bombing, Columbine, Pulse Nightclub, Stoneman Douglas, the US Capitol, mall shootings and places of faith being attacked are all examples of historical events that will be addressed along with statistics while highlighting the detrimental impact of women v. men and hate groups (by state) on workplaces across the country. Understanding why people lash out violently in the workplace is the first step HR and D&I professionals can take towards mitigating risk factors that may materialize in the workplace. Learning Outcomes Identify eight factors giving rise to domestic terrorism in the workplace Conduct your own site assessment for potential risk factors Develop and execute a federally mandated workplace security plan --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fwi/support

In this weeks episode, we dive into the horrendous crime of Dena Schlosser as well as the tragic story of the deadliest school shooting in historyBuy us a coffee https://ko-fi.com/bestservedcoldBuy our merch https://www.teepublic.com/user/best-served-coldNOTE; Our episodes regularly contain discussions of violence, sexual and physical assault. If this content raises any concerns for you or someone you know, please reach out to some of the following organisations:https://www.beyondblue.org.au/https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/find-help/domestic-violence-hotlines/https://www.lifeline.org.au/

In 2018, survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, FL, recounted their real-time reactions to the tragedy and gave their takes on what can be done about America's gun violence problem. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Sheldon talks about his goal of running a 1:50 in 800m by the end of the season, being a deep threat on the football field and a premier 800m runner, Sheldon also talks about what colleges can expect of him as they attempt to recruit him! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theathletesgrindby5starathltcs/support

Intro: (Cue intro music) Hey everyone, welcome back to What a week!, I'm your host, Olivia Lee, here to deliver your weekly dose of the news. Let's get started!In Local News:  https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/02/mayor-ted-wheeler-supports-creating-7-member-portland-police-team-to-respond-to-shootings-around-the-clock.html Last Friday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said that he supports creating a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Portland police team to respond to shootings, pursue immediate investigations and help process crime scene evidence. He stated in a press release quote “I am committed to doing everything I can to provide the necessary resources for this work,”  Wheeler's remarks come more than a month after Police Chief Chuck Lovell proposed such a team in response to an alarming spike in shootings in Portland. The seven-member team would be led by a sergeant with four officers and two detectives and would be on call to respond around-the-clock to shooting scenes.  The city of Portland recorded 55 homicides in the year of 2020 alone, the highest number in 26 years. Forty-one of those resulted from gun violence, according to the Police Bureau. As of last Friday, police have recorded 108 shootings, with 28 people hit and six gun-related killings so far this year. In-state news: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/us/oregon-decriminalize-drugs-is-law-trnd/index.html https://apnews.com/article/oregon-decriminalize-drug-possession-6843f93c3d55212e0ffbdd8b93be9196https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5bkey/possession-of-all-drugs-is-decriminalized-in-oregon-starting-todayOregon has become the first state in the nation to officially decriminalize the possession and personal use of all drugs. Measure 110 passed in november of 2020, with 55.8% of the vote, but officially went into effect last Monday. The initiative also expands access to addiction assistance and other health services, offering aid to those who need it instead of arresting and jailing people for drugs.  Anyone found in the possession of small quantities of drugs will face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. The possession of larger amounts could result in a misdemeanor charge. The measure however does not make it legal to produce and sell drugs in Oregon.  The Oregon Criminal Justice Association estimates decriminalization will result in a 95 percent decrease in the racial disparity in low-level drug arrests in the state. In a statement made last Monday, Drug Policy Alliance executive director Kassandra Frederique said quote "Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen, setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization," In National News: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/jeff-bezos-stepping-down-amazon-ceo-jassyLast week, Amazon founder, Jeff bezos, stepped down from his position as Amazon CEO. Bezos, who founded the multinational technology company 27 years ago, announced that he will now become the executive chairman of the Amazon board and will focus on “new” products and early Amazon initiatives. Bezos states quote, “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions,” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55940542https://www.vice.com/en/topic/marjorie-taylor-greene Last week, the US House of Representatives voted to expel Republican congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Green, from two committees over provocative remarks she made before being elected last November. Eleven Republicans joined the Democrats to pass the motion by 230-199. Greene has promoted baseless QAnon conspiracy theories, mocked Parkland shooting survivors, and endorsed violence against Democrats. Before the vote, she said she regretted her views, which included claims that the Stoneman Douglas high school shooting and 9/11 were staged.  So what does this vote mean for the Georgia rep? According to BBC news, it means Greene won't be able to take up her place on the education and budget committees. This would limit her ability to shape policy as most legislation goes through a committee before reaching the House floor. Committee positions can determine the influence of individual lawmakers in their party. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/07/uk-coronavirus-strain-doubling-in-the-us-every-10-days-study-finds.htmlIn Covid related news, the mutated coronavirus strain first identified in the United Kingdom remains at low levels in the United states, but according to a study published by researchers last week, the mutation is doubling its reach approximately every 10 days, posing a great future threat and wave of uncertainty.In International News:  https://www.npr.org/2021/02/07/965097259/tens-of-thousands-rally-in-myanmar-protesting-military-coupTens of thousands of protesters rallied in Myanmar this past Sunday demanding an end to the military coup  and release of their de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained alongside other elected officials in last week's military takeover. Protesters carried banners reading "Respect our vote," the BBC reports, which is a  reference to a landslide victory by Suu Kyi's party in the Nov. 8 election. Military leaders justified their coup (koo), claiming that the vote was fraudulent. One demonstrator, quoted by the BBC, called Suu Kyi  "our true leader." Lastly here is the wildcard news for the week:https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2021-super-bowl-score-tom-brady-wins-seventh-ring-as-buccaneers-dominate-chiefs-and-patrick-mahomes/live/On Sunday night, the  2021 superbowl champions were revealed as being none other than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team's victory exceeded expectations and made all kinds of history Sunday night at Raymond James stadium in Tampa, Florida. In a dominating game against the Kansas City Chiefs with a final score of 31-9, the Buccaneers became the first team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Their renown quarterback, Tom Brady, secured his 7th superbowl ring of his career, by far the most of any player in NFL history. Tom Brady's seven rings are more than any other NFL franchise has won in its existence. The superbowl win is Tampa Bay's second in franchise history and first since 2002. Closing:  Well that wraps up What a Week! Stay safe and see you guys next week. 

Subscribe for more Videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/PlantationSDAChurchTV Samantha Grady is Collin & Dawn's guest for Episode 9 of My Testimony. In this episode, Samantha shares how the #MSD shooting changed Samantha's life forever and reveals how God works even in a devastating tragedy. My Testimony give you a peek inside how God is changing Plantation SDA Church's members lives. Each episode is packed with Biblical truth and arms you with tools to enable you to witness. You'll learn more about God's love, mercy and power. You'll see how God has answered prayers, provided help in times of great need. Members also share how it's possible to increase your faith in God and why you'll want to spend eternity with God. Tags: #psdatv #MyTestimony #MSD #SamanthaGrady #shooting #school #StonemanDouglas #faith #trust #witnessing #love #mercy #rest #peace #prayer #answers #victory #hope #faith #power For more information on Plantation SDA Church, please visit us at http://www.plantationsda.tv. Church Copyright License (CCLI)License Number: 1659090 CCLI Stream LicenseLicense Number: CSPL079645Support the show: https://adventistgiving.org/#/org/ANTBMV/envelope/startSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Subscribe for more Videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/PlantationSDAChurchTV Samantha Grady is Collin & Dawn's guest for Episode 9 of My Testimony.  In this episode, Samantha shares how the #MSD shooting changed Samantha's life forever and reveals how God works even in a devastating tragedy. My Testimony give you a peek inside how God is changing Plantation SDA Church's members lives.  Each episode is packed with Biblical truth and arms you with tools to enable you to witness.  You'll learn more about God's love, mercy and power.  You'll see how God has answered prayers, provided help in times of great need. Members also share how it's possible to increase your faith in God and why you'll want to spend eternity with God. Tags: #psdatv #MyTestimony #MSD #SamanthaGrady #shooting #school #StonemanDouglas #faith #trust  #witnessing #love #mercy #rest #peace #prayer #answers #victory #hope #faith #power For more information on Plantation SDA Church, please visit us at http://www.plantationsda.tv. Church Copyright License (CCLI) License Number: 1659090 CCLI Stream License License Number: CSPL079645 Support the show: https://adventistgiving.org/#/org/ANTBMV/envelope/start See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Ian Black is one of America's most popular stand-up comics. His new book is "A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son." He and Josh discuss progressivism, toxic masculinity, and riding moose. Plus, a Szeps election rant.

What a Creep: Alex Jones “Conspiracy Creep” (Season 8, Episode 5) Alex Jones has been called "the most paranoid man in America" by Rolling Stone and the "king of conspiracy" by CNN. “The Alex Jones Show” has approximately 2 million weekly listeners and is nationally syndicated on about 60 radio stations. He also founded InfoWars.com and PrisonPlanet.com.  Alex Jones is a massive creep who has claimed that the Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas massacres were staged, vaccines cause autism, illegal immigrants vote for Democrats while selling “health supplements” and “survivalist” crap on his garbage show. Sources for this episode include: The Southern Poverty Law Center Rolling Stone Rolling Stone - “Meet Alex Jones” Vox The New York Times The New York Times The Daily Beast CNBC Buzzfeed Buzzfeed Wikipedia Be sure to follow us on social media! But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it! Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Twitter: https://twitter.com/CreepPod @CreepPod Facebook: Join the private group!  Instagram @WhatACreepPodcast Visit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/whatacreep Email: WhatACreepPodcast@gmail.com  We’ve got merch here! https://whatacreeppodcast.threadless.com/# Our website is www.whatacreeppodcast.com  Our logo was created by Claudia Gomez-Rodriguez follow her on Instagram @ClaudInCloud  

Had a great conversation with retired Sheriff Al Pollock regarding his Campaign for Broward Sheriff. We discussed a number of topics such as The Stoneman Douglas shootings, Felons, The Union, Sheriff Gregory Tony and the Future of BSO. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/prosandcons/support

What are characteristics of mass shooters? Can these attacks be prevented? Are they mentally ill? How can we predict these attacks and intervene? Dr. Resnick calls upon his lifetime of work as a Forensic Psychiatrist to give us answers. Specific cases discussed include Columbine, Stoneman Douglas, and Chardon.Host: Dr. Layne Gritti, DOGuest: Dr. Phillip Resnick, MDContact: InsightInPsych@gmail.comIf you're a fan of the show, please leave us a five star review to help others gain more insight into psychiatry.

Guest Bios Show Transcript When a society denies human depravity and sin, the results can be absolutely devastating. And this week on The Roys Report, we'll be exploring what led to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 people. Joining me will be Max Eden, an author and investigator who says the shooter clearly communicated his murderous intent. But instead of expelling him, the school sought to heal him, and to correct the “injustices” that it believed caused his violence. I really hope you can join us for The Roys Report, this Saturday morning at 11 on AM 1160 Hope for Your Life and on Sunday night at 7 on AM 560 The Answer! This Weeks Guests Max Eden . . . is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Before joining MI, he was program manager of the education policy studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. Eden's research interests include early education, school choice, and federal education policy. He was coeditor, with Frederick M. Hess, of The Every Student Succeeds Act: What It Means for Schools, Systems, and States (2017). Eden's work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, such as the Journal of School Choice, Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, National Review, Claremont Review of Books, and The Weekly Standard. He holds a B.A. in history from Yale University. Show Transcript Note: This transcript has been edited slightly for continuity. Segment 1 JULIE ROYS:  Well, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. But according to my guest today, it was also the most preventable. Welcome to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University. I'm Julie Roys. And today, we're examining what led to the school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. That shooting in Parkland, Florida, claimed the lives of 17 people. But my guest today says the shooter was a psychopath with an established pattern of violence and murderous intent. But administrators did nothing to stop him. Why? Well, in part because of career ambition and bad, liberal policies. But more fundamentally, because administrators had a faulty view of both reality and mankind. My guest today is co-author of a new book Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students. This book is already a number-one best-seller on Amazon and it actually doesn't release until Tuesday! But I've been able to read a pre-release copy. And what this book describes is absolutely shocking. When he was just 2 years old, the Parkland shooter—Nicolas Cruz—reportedly tossed a 4-month-old baby into a pool. In pre-K, Cruz had to wear a restrictive harness just to ride the school bus. In middle school, he made a video of himself drowning a cat. In high school, Cruz was constantly talking about guns, a desire to kill, and even to cannibalize other people. He vandalized Stoneman Douglas High School, left death threats, attacked other students, and brought weapons to school. But instead of expelling Cruz, administrators tried to manage his behavior. And instead of arresting him, administrators and police minimized his behavior. Again, the question is why? Why didn't administrators or someone in authority do something? Well, joining me to discuss this is Max Eden. He's the co-author of Why Meadow Died. He's also a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute who's done extensive research on education policy and school discipline. So Max, welcome! It is a pleasure to have you! MAX EDEN:  Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Julie. JULIE ROYS:  So, Max, help us understand this mind-boggling failure that led this school to really ignore all of these red flags and allow this violent man really free reign to wreak havoc there at the school. What happened?  MAX EDEN:  Yes.  It's a big story to tell. So I think it might be good to start with a little bit of what happened with him in middle school—a little bit of what happened with him in high school. Which both cases relate to broader themes and as you said it's kind of a misconception of the notion of man, that is kind of reigning in the way that schools look at kids, right? And in middle school, the student, his behavior was recorded. He was suspended every other day for a calendar year. He was talking about guns and any chance he could get he was threatening students. He was talking to them about skinning animals. Teachers were so scared of him that they eventually said that he can't walk anywhere in school without a security guard next to him. And when that wasn't enough, they called his mom to have his mom walk with him and the security guard in school. This went on for a year, at this level, before they managed to transfer him to a specialized school. And that relates to, you know, the way that schools view disturbed students as having a disability and requiring a whole lot of paperwork to properly and scientifically manage rather than understanding that, you know, there is evil within some young men and some young women. So yeah, we can talk more about that later. The other, kind of starting point is what happened with him in high school, in which case his behavior wasn't recorded. We have security staff; you have teachers saying he was brought to the office all the time. But you don't see a record for him. You have students saying we told administrators that he threatened to kill us. And you don't see a record of that either. You know, the only time he was officially disciplined, in his first semester, was a time when his normal assistant principal was off campus. And then they took him drawing swastikas on lunchroom tables, labeled it vandalism and did nothing further. That relates to this pressure to try to fix the so-called school-to-prison pipeline by lowering suspensions, lowering expulsions, lowering arrests, basically pressuring school administers to show that there are no problems, in reality, by not recording them. And so, every step of the way, there were these decisions that were made that were obviously grossly irresponsible but made perfect sense given the policies and the policies made perfect sense given the kind of ideology that was reigning in the Broward County schools. And is becoming ever more pervasive across American education in general. JULIE ROYS:  Well, yeah, you're right. Reigning in Broward County but the reason we're talking about this is because you would think after something like this happens, administrators would go, “wow this was a big mistake. Let's make sure we're not doing this anywhere in the country.” But it's kind of the exact opposite. This is reigning throughout our schools. And you're right. There's this ideology behind it. And it's one that doesn't recognize evil. It seems to me, it sort of paints evil as not something as we understand it in the Judeo-Christian world view, that it's something that is from the depravity of mankind. Our rebellion against God. That we are fallen creatures. But now evil is something that's sort of a social construct and it's often because of the oppression that we've experienced and so we have these social justice policies that are instituted in the schools. One of them, I understand, this Promise Program actually keeps students in public schools from being reported to police, being arrested for crimes that they should be arrested for. That would have given, Nicolas Cruz, the shooter in Parkland, an arrest warrant so when he went to get a gun, he wouldn't have been able to. But they didn't do that because of this Promise Program. Describe that program—where it comes from and how it was instituted. MAX EDEN:  Yeah, so, I'll start with the program and get to where it comes from and work our way back to the ideology behind it, right? The Promise Program on paper, basically gives students 3 free misdemeanors every single year. So your 4th misdemeanor in a given year, you can then finally talk to the school resource officer. Whether or not the school resource officer does anything is still open. But 3 free misdemeanors a year instead of being introduced to the juvenile justice system. And you go to this alternative education sight for a few days where, you know, nothing really happens. In reality the leader there was a horrifically abusive woman who demeaned her colleagues consistently and was eventually removed. But when you give kids 3 free misdemeanors a year and when you also, you know, on the side literally train principals to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement or refuse to let law enforcement on campus, if they're trying to execute an arrest warrant, then arrests will go down.  And if your view of, you know, your view of men, your view of kids, if you look at these spreadsheets where you see African American students, students who are designated with disabilities, are “disproportionately” disciplined, disproportionately arrested. If when you see that you don't admit that this behavior can have a root in, you know, what is going on within the child, that can have roots in what's going on in the child's home and society around them. Then these disparities become entirely inexplicable in any way other than this must be the school's fault, you know. This must be a product of institutional racism, institutional oppression—that the school and the police are, you know, actively pushing on innocent young men and women. And if you think that, then there should be no cost to dramatically decreasing arrests. But, you know, it's not quite the case. The Promise Program was a national leader in this. It was the diversionary program and then all these other leniency policies around it which are very quickly taken by the Obama Department of Education. Superintendent Arnie Duncan, who was a former colleague of Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie, and he saw oh arrests are going down. This looks great. These disparities are being closed. This is clearly working. And he took this policy and made it into a federal guidance document that basically threatened and coerced school districts across the country saying if you don't follow suit, by trying to get all these numbers down, we will come after you. And we might take away your money. And so the ideology behind it that started as a more a contained thing, you know, used to be just the province of some academics has now become those functionally and also ideologically kind of de rigueur for public school across the country. JULIE ROYS:  So, it is instituted all over and Arnie Duncan,  those of us listening in Chicago where this show originates, know that name. He was very instrumental here in Chicago then goes to the federal government and institutes a lot of these programs.  Again, this was under the Obama Administration. But is it still happening right now? MAX EDEN:  Well, the federal push for it is no longer happening. After the Parkland shooting, the Trump Administration made a School Safety Commission to investigate what went wrong, issue recommendations. One recommendation was to stop pushing these policies at the federal level. So the Department of Education is no longer threatening school districts to implement these policies but that doesn't mean that they're going anywhere.  JULIE ROYS:  Right and they have the same administrators. MAX EDEN:  Oh yeah. The same administrators, the same incentives. I mean, they're going nowhere fast unless parents wake up. JULIE ROYS:  Right. Well again, that's Max Eden, author of Why Meadow died and a senior fellow with The Manhattan Institute.  I'm Julie Roys. You're listening to The Roys Report.  If you'd like to weigh in, the number to call is 312-660-2594.  Segment 2 JULIE ROYS:  Well, was the Parkland School shooting the most preventable mass murder in US history? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And according to my guest today, the shooter who killed 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School last year, had a long history of violent and disturbing behavior. But administrators and police refused to recognize and contain evil—and instead tried to manage and heal it.  Again, joining me today is Max Eden, author of Why Meadow Died, and a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. This book releases on Tuesday and if you'd like to get a copy, I am giving away about 5 copies today. Just go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway and you can enter that giveaway to receive the book. Again, JulieRoys.com/giveaway to get the book Why Meadow Died. Also, you can join our conversation. The number to call:  312-660-2594. Or you can join the discussion online by going to Facebook.com/ReachJulieRoys. Or on Twitter, my handle is @reachjulieroys. Max, I want to, I know we're talking a lot about sort of the below the water line issues; the ideology that leads to these shootings and just ignoring these violent tendencies in people. But I also want to honor the victim. And this is why this book is called Why Meadow Died. Meadow was an 18-year-old student at Stoneman Douglas High School. She lost her life tragically because administrators didn't do what they were supposed to do.  Her father, Andrew, I understand, now has become sort of a crusader, even though he doesn't like that name. But he is really making some changes at the policy level because of what happened to his daughter. Can you tell us a little bit more about Meadow—who she was and how she lost her life in this tragic shooting? MAX EDEN:  Yeah. I mean Meadow was, you know, Andy describes her, my co-author Andrew Pollack, describes her as an all-American girl, you know. A girl who could go off-roading, do ATV's with her brothers one day and, you know, be kind of the super-model, girly girl the next. The kind of girl who whenever there was anybody new at school, she would go up to them and she would introduce herself and talk to them and then try to figure out who would this person like. And how can I introduce this person to a friend and make this person feel welcome, you know. She was, I never got the chance to meet her, but she was both, you know, a beautiful, kind soul but also one who could be, you know, fierce and protective over others. And one thing Andy says with mixed pride—very mixed emotions, you know. She was shot 5 times on the 3rd floor of the school and she crawls across the hallway, sees a Freshman and tries to drape her body over the freshman's body to protect her, only to be shot 4 more times between the two. A gunman who got on campus that day despite the fact that security monitors saw him getting out of the Uber. Recognized him as—that's crazy boy, that's the guy who we thought would shoot up the school. I can see that he's carrying a rifle bag. I don't want to approach him because maybe he has a hand gun but even after I hear large percussion noises coming out of the school, I don't want to call a Code Red. Because I didn't see the weapon and if it's not really, you know, a mass murder going on, I'd be the one to get in trouble if I called for a Code Red. So, you know, in that one incident it's kind of relates to what happened the whole way through. This effort to not, you know, look bad on paper, by the adults, led to these extremely bad decisions all the way through that culminated in the security guard, whose one job is to alert the school to an intruder. Knowing who just came on campus, being pretty sure what was going on and still not being willing to make a call that would have saved her life for fear that he would look bad for doing it. JULIE ROYS:  Yeah. That chapter where you describe the shooting, I mean, you just can't read that chapter and not just be very emotionally affected. I was reading it yesterday. My husband comes in and he's like “What's the matter with you.” And I'm like, “Oh my word.” I mean it's so tragic. And I think the thing that made me the angriest was the actual person on the grounds, on campus, who actually had a gun that day, who was too cowardly to do anything. The one police officer who was there. Right? MAX EDEN:  Yes and more than that. I mean, Scott Peterson, the school Resource Officer, was the one man on campus with a gun. He was taken over to the building in a little golf cart and rather than approach the building, he went to the building next door and remained in place for 48 minutes. And not only did he remain in place, he actually called out, do not approach the 1200 building where it was happening. Stay at least 500 feet away. And maybe in part, because of that warning, maybe not, there were 7 other Broward Sheriff's deputies who arrived on scene while the shooting was still unfolding. And all 7 of them remained outside the building. Not one of the 8 police officers who were on the scene, while there were shots ringing out from within a school, went into that school, you know. The shooter would have had 11 full minutes to himself in a building with 800 students because not one man, sworn to protect the public, decided to step into that building. JULIE ROYS:  Man. And isn't sort of the protocol now that the minute you hear anything, the protocol is you're, policemen, security, everybody is supposed to go and confront the gunman. Yes? MAX EDEN:  Well, in most places yes. I mean, ever since Columbine, the protocol has been if there's a shooting, if there's a school shooting, you don't negotiate, you don't wait outside, you go straight in. But Broward Sheriff, Scott Israel, quite an ideological kind of guy, in many ways, he changed his policy from, his active shooter policy, from the deputies shall go in, to the deputies may go in. So, in this sick way, with these 8 deputies, standing outside the building, thinking to themselves full well, must have been thinking, there are children being murdered right in front of me. The decision to not go in was actually in accordance with the policy set by their boss.  JULIE ROYS:  Unbelievable! And, you know, this Broward County Sheriff, the quote that's in the book is absolutely breathtaking. He had a quote, “We measure our success by the kids we keep out of jail, not by the kids we put in jail.” So you have a Sheriff's Department who, so it's not just schools who led to this failure and this shooting, it was the Sheriff's Department as well. They received, initially I think it, wasn't it reported that they received 23 calls to Nicolas Cruz' home. And they protested and said, no, no, no it wasn't 23. Well then when they when there went more research, and went into the books, we found out they received 45 calls to Cruz' home, none of which resulted in an arrest. Correct? MAX EDEN:  That's correct. And this is, again, you know, to take it below water. This is downstream from the ideology we were talking about earlier right? I mean, I think the Judeo-Christian view of the State's rule of law, is to try to contain evil, and try to maintain order. But this alternative division suggests that, you know, it's the police who are the oppressors and any apparent statistical inequities are a product of police iniquity. And that the police need to be reined in. So when you, you know, when you do that, you think to yourself, well we have to stop arresting kids full stop. That is how we do our jobs as, you know, members of law enforcement by not enforcing our law. Because we view ourselves to be untrustworthy. That's the Sheriff Israel ideology. And I think the most remarkable, you know, concrete manifestation of that in this place, in this case, was a mom called the Broward Sheriff's office. And she said my daughter told me that she saw a post on Instagram, by this individual, saying I am going to get this gun and I'm going to shoot up the school. And the Broward Sheriff's Deputy, Edward Eason, allegedly said to her, well that's protected by the First Amendment.  JULIE ROYS:  Oh, oh, oh! Man! MAX EDEN:  Which, suffice to say, it's not. And then when the mom said well how could we prevent him from getting a gun when he turns 18? And he said well that's protected by the Second.  Which, suffice to say, if he threatened to kill, it's not. But if you're under pressure to not arrest juveniles, you're not going to arrest juveniles. JULIE ROYS:  That is unbelievable. I think that Sheriff's deputy needs to be instructed a little bit that there is something called the clear and present danger with speech. And when there's a clear and present danger, that is not protected. That is one when we say, no, you can't have that speech. I mean, these are death threats. And that wasn't the only one, was it? MAX EDEN:  Oh no, that wasn't the only one. And he threatened to kill several of his classmates while in Stillman Douglas. And they told me, they told, they brought it to the school's attention. Nothing was done. I think, you know, the other maybe most dramatic, jaw-dropping thing for your listeners to understand and again they need to understand, it's just . . . JULIE ROYS:  All right. Hold that thought. Hold that thought, Max. When we come back, we'll get to that jaw-dropping thing that you have to say. Again, the number to call 312-660-2594. I'll get to your calls when I come back. And again, we'll hear more from Max Eden, author of Why Meadow Died and a senior fellow with The Manhattan Institute.  3rd Segment When a society denies the existence of evil, the results can be devastating. Welcome back to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University.  I'm Julie Roys.  And today, we're discussing the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history—and the faulty worldview that led to it. That shooting occurred on February 14, 2018, at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And the shooter—Nikolas Cruz—had a well-documented history of violence, death threats, and an obsession with guns. Yet liberal school administrators refused to acknowledge evil. They refused to acknowledge the depravity of mankind. And as a result, 17 people lost their lives.  Joining me today is Max Eden, co-author of Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students. Our studio lines are open, and you can join our discussion, as well. The number to call is 312-660-2594. Or you can join the online discussion by going to Facebook.com/ReachJulieRoys. And on Twitter, our handle is @ReachJulieRoys. Max, I want to get to a caller who just called. But first, I want to give you an opportunity to, you had a jaw-dropping point of detail that you were going to mention right before the break. So let me give you an opportunity to mention that. MAX EDEN:  Yeah, I mean so, it's the, it's kind of a, there was this one week, the week that he turned 18 years old, he got into this big fight at school. He called a student the N-word, attacked him, several students wrote statements to the administrators saying, you know, “this kid has threatened to kill us, brought knives to school, brought bullets to school. We're so scared of him.” That same week, the mental health authorities were called out 3 times, once to his house, twice to his school, for concerns that he was getting into fights with his mother. That he was trying to kill himself. That he had written “kill” at the top of his notebook because he was getting into a fight with his mom about whether or not he could buy a gun. Not one of those times did the mental health authorities think, “Oh, we need to take a look at this kid. Do we need to take him under observation?” And when faced with all of this, the school administrators didn't think to themselves, “Wow, this kid is dangerous. He needs to be introduced to the juvenile justice system.” What they were operating under was, according to the superintendent, the philosophy that we aren't going to continue to arrest our kids and give them a criminal record. So rather than have him arrested at any point in this week, based on his behavior, they literally said to him, “You are not allowed to bring a backpack to school anymore. And we're going to frisk you every day for fear that you might be carrying a deadly weapon.” So, something is profoundly wrong when adults who we trust with the care of our students can look at a kid and say, “You're too dangerous. We think you're going to bring in a deadly weapon, so we're going to prevent you from having the opportunity, frisk you to make super sure, but heaven forbid we introduce you to the police.” JULIE ROYS: Yeah, well it makes me wonder, what would it take to actually get arrested in Broward County schools when, I mean, this guy did everything you have to do. And we had a caller call in, she's anonymous, wanted to stay anonymous, didn't want to stay on the ine, but she said, “Why is it that we have this rights of one person—Nikolas Cruz—that seems to trump all the rights of all these students within the school as well as the teachers and the faculty, clearly a danger to them. Why is that? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, you know, it's an outgrowth of the ideology, right? I mean, this is, he's labelled as having a disability, right? And you're granted a whole bunch of rights if you have a disability. And nothing in federal law says that those rights need to be weighed against the rights of other students. This becomes extremely problematic when we label students who are deeply emotionally disturbed as having an emotional and behavioral disability. At that point, school administrators have to consider their rights and literally aren't supposed to consider and weigh the rights of other students with them. They need to manage these students with an eye towards their quote-unquote rights. And totally in keeping with all the paperwork burdens to be placed upon them. So, normal human judgment, you know, the decisions that we should be able to trust the adults to make, they can't make. Because we tell them, “you can only consider the rights of the troubled kids. And you have to do everything you're doing through a lens of paperwork and bureaucracy rather than intuition and human judgment.” JULIE ROYS: Right. And to me, if you're going to follow it to its logical conclusion, we just get rid of our entire penal system, right? I mean, why even have it? Right? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, that is, they got quite close to that in the Broward County schools. This wasn't in the book. This came out 2 weeks ago in a poll. The Broward teacher's union polled their teachers. 1287 responded. Out of those teachers, only 3 expected that if a student were to assault a teacher, the student would be arrested. JULIE ROYS: Good grief. MAX EDEN:  Compared to 7 who thought the student would get a treat. JULIE ROYS: Wow. And I have to say that my husband spent his career in the public-school system. He's a retired public-school teacher. And I remember him escorting a student down the hall, and the student attacked him. And that student, that was his last day at the school. He was gone. Immediately. So, I thank God that the school he worked in seemed to acknowledge that this is important. And that these students can't be in there if they're behaving that way. But clearly, not happening in Broward County. And I want to go to this, you know, this idea that these kids have emotional disabilities. It seems to me this flows from this sort of naturalistic worldview where, you know, every child is born into this world with sort of a clean slate. And it just must be these bad influences that make these children turn evil. Because there isn't real evil in their hearts. There couldn't be any true depravity. There couldn't actually be some demonic forces at play in the world. It's all some sort of naturalistic thing. We have to come up with an evolutionary, you know, way of describing this. And yet this kid—Nikolas Cruz—I mean, an adopted kid, goes into this home, as far as we know, it seems like we have a mother who is somewhat of an enabler. And she did allow him to watch violent video games, and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit too. But there doesn't seem to be, other than the fact that his adoptive father died—but he was acting out before then—I mean, can we explain this child's evil behavior? MAX EDEN:  I mean, in my opinion, it was inborn. It was, whether you're of the religious or scientific persuasion, he's born the son of a crack-addict career-criminal mother. His old sister was also a criminal. He throws an infant into a pool when he's 2 years old. There's something in the core of his soul that is, you know, that tends toward evil. But what I write in the book is that, you know, it's not a unique thing. We're supposed to build our institutions to contain our demons. And if he had institutions that were working around him, that would have seen him for what he was and responded to him as what he was, then I think that what was just an inborn, inbred desire to kill and destroy could have been contained. But he only had a mother who was herself kind of a floating atom, disconnected from the community and no religious roots. A school, a mental health system, a police force, all of which were oriented toward the path of least resistance. You know, nobody around him looked at him and thought, “there is something deeply wrong and we need to take an aggressive hand on this.” I feel like if they did, it could have been a . . .  JULIE ROYS: Max, we need to go to break. But when we come back, I want to discuss that more. Was there something demonic going on with this guy? I really do wonder that. Again, you're listening to The Roys Report.  I'm Julie Roys.  We'll be right back after a short break. 4th Segment JULIE ROYS:  Well, did Parkland school shooting victim Meadow Pollack die because school administrators failed to acknowledge the depravity of mankind and the existence of evil? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And today we're talking about what some have called the most preventable school shooting in U.S. history. The shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, claimed the lives of 17 people. But the shooter, who had a violent history, never should have been able to buy guns. And he never should have been placed in the regular school population.  That's according to my guest this morning this morning, Max Eden, co-author of Why Meadow Died—a book on the shooting and policies that led to it. That book releases on Tuesday. If you'd like a copy, just go to, we're giving away several of them, go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway and you can enter to win a copy of this book. We've had an outstanding conversation today. If you missed any part of it, I want to let you know that you can listen to it again. We'll have a podcast up at my website in about an hour after the show ends. So just go to JulieRoys.com. Click on the podcast tab. Also, I also want to let you know that next week, leading apologist, Dr. Michael Brown, will be joining me to answer skeptics' toughest questions about Christianity. You may remember, about a month ago, Hillsong songwriter, Marty Sampson, said that he was losing his faith because he couldn't find answers to questions like, “why would God send anyone to hell?” Or, “Aren't there a lot of contradictions in the Bible?” Well Dr. Brown is someone who has been discussing tough questions like that for the past 40 years. And if you'd like to submit a question for Dr. Brown to answer, just email us at The Roys Report at JulieRoys.com. But returning to our discussion this morning, again joining me is Max Eden. And Max before the break we were talking just shortly and you know, when you talk about this in the general population people kind of look at you like you're a little nuts, if you think that something might have a demonic component. But like you said, this shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had seemed troubled and actually violent from the very beginning. Even as early as two years old and even in Pre-K he was having all sorts of trouble. In kindergarten having all sorts of trouble. What do you think about that? Do you think there was some demonic component that this man needed to be treated by people that understand the spiritual dimension? MAX EDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think there was certainly evil to it. I am somewhat agnostic on the demonic mechanism, but I think, if you're less agnostic than that, there's plenty of evidence to suggest there was something like that at work. I mean, this is a kid who, you know, whenever the word gun was mentioned in middle school, he would light up. And just you know, he would get excited. And when he was sent to a specialized school, he told them, you know, “I had a dream of killing and being covered in blood.” I think this extends beyond, you know, normal psychology. Clearly into the realm of evil. He later, you know, told the police officers that he did what he did because of demon voices that he heard in his head. We have some reason to doubt that because we know that he Googled for ways to appear insane after committing murder. But that, you know, doesn't solve the question. That begs a further question of, you know, what is going on inside a human soul that would Google, “how do I appear insane after killing.” And who would have this clearly expressed desire to kill since a very young age. I mean it goes beyond I think crime, law and order, beyond traditional mental health things, and clearly into the realm of evil. The mechanism of that is somewhat above my pay grade but it is evil. JULIE ROYS:  Well, and didn't Roxanne Duchamp, is that how you pronounce her name?  MAX EDEN: Yeah, yeah, she said, she mentioned when the killer was staying with them, shortly after his mom died, about a month before, that in the evening she would hole up in her room, kind of barricading the door and hearing demon noises coming out from him. So, you know, there's a very strong case. The fact pattern is there for anybody persuaded to it. Personally, I am persuaded to the existence of evil. And demonic possession, it's a mechanism that would fit the facts.  JULIE ROYS:  Yeah, it sure would. I know I was talking about this last night at the dinner table with my husband and my daughter. We have such delightful conversations at dinner time. But, yeah I mean, I couldn't help but be talking about this because you read this book and it's so shocking and it's disturbing. But when I mentioned this, that Roxanne said she slept, you know, heard these demon noises, slept with the door barricaded and with a machete in hand she said. Which I thought that was interesting—she had a machete at home, it's not something most of us have—but anyway. She said my daughter said, “Why didn't they call police?” And I'm like well, you know it happened 45 times and they did absolutely nothing. So, I mean, what do you in that situation? You've got this man living at home with these, you know, terrible impulses. But again, everyone seemed to not know what to do about it. We've explored the demonic a little bit. I also want to talk about these violent video games. And again, this is one of those things, there's a lot of kids out there playing violent video games. For the majority of them, they don't become psychopathic killers as a result. But for some, it seems to have a very bad influence and this guy was pretty much, I mean it sounds like just someone who just played video games all the time, correct? MAX EDEN:  Yes, he and the Newton shooter are very, very similar in this regard. I mean, neither of them had much of a social life beyond online and single player shooting video games. And at his house, his mom, according to a social worker, that whenever he lost at a shooting game that he would become so violent as to punch holes in the wall. She said, you know, my walls are polka dotted from all the spackle I have to use to cover the holes. This kid had no friends, had no, you know, no civil society around him, no religion around him. He went to the school and he played violent video games. And one of his teachers wrote, wrote down, you know, I think this student's a profound danger to himself and others at the school. I don't think he can tell the difference between violent video games and reality. So it's the kind of thing where I think, you know, most kids can play and there will be only a mildly corrupting force. But for it to have this in them, I do think like we've seen enough examples where it seems to really, so profoundly warp their understanding of the world that they end up playing out in real life what they've played out in video games.  JULIE ROYS:  I laugh at the mildly corrupting force yet we seem to be so willing to let it into our homes. The whole violent video game thing, don't even get me started. The other thing—you just touched on this—but when I was reading your book I was like what? And the teacher said when he loses at X-Box he gets violently angry and I'm sitting there asking myself, why is this kid playing X-Box at school? Can you help me understand that?  MAX EDEN:  The teacher recorded his mother saying that.  JULIE ROYS: Oh, his mother's saying that. OK, I must've misread that. MAX EDEN:  The mother, you know, whenever, she didn't know what to do with him because he needed to be on his X-Box and when he wasn't on his X-Box he was upset. And then he would get his X-Box and he lost he would get extra upset. And this is part of the failure and I didn't go into it as much as I could in the book, largely because the woman is dead and there's no further work to be done. But you know, she had no idea what to do. She knew that her son had profound evil around him and she, a few months before her death, told a bank teller, you know, “if something happens to me, you'll know it was Nick.” But she genuinely didn't know what to do. And she didn't have any community, any support, any religious sort of organization around her that could help her deal with the evil that was in her home.  JULIE ROYS:  Right. And that's another aspect of this, too. I think that there's this woman, trying to raise a son by herself. Her husband's passed away, and she has no real family support. She has no faith community. And it used to be in society, those were our backdrops, right? And, I mean, that's what girded people up. And I know, I mean, for myself that it is what, what is my support. But for a lot of people that don't have this and so this elimination of sort of understanding of faith and family and even the support where we have often these students who get in trouble. And instead of the family's sort of, like for me, when I got in trouble as a kid, didn't happen a lot, but if I ever did, I knew full well that my parents weren't going to be backing me up. They're going to be backing the school up and I'd better get in line, right? But it's kind of the opposite right now, isn't it at the schools? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, no, it's flipped. I mean this ideology isn't just in government, it's also, you know, amongst parents. Like, “My kid has rights, what are you doing to my kid? If my kid gets in trouble, it must be your fault.” I mean part of the reason why, you know, a student like him at a school like Stoneman Douglas; very upper middle class, affluent, allegedly a very safe school. Students with “disabilities” kind of had the run of the mill because administrators were worried that a parent might come to the school and, you know, basically sue them or make their life heck for trying to proverbially lay a hand on their kid. I think that, you know, it used to be that schools were kind of an outgrowth of the community's moral order—kind of a further exertion of, you know, the parental influence. But as so many other things in society have inverted or realigned. I think schools are being blamed not only by policy makers, not only by bureaucrats but by parents for any problems that kids experience.  JULIE ROYS:  So, for the people listening right now who are like, I want to do something about this. And I know Andrew Pollack has been just such an incredible force in trying to get things done and policies changed. What can we do? How can we be a part of positive change?  MAX EDEN:  Yeah. So, the thing that parents need to understand is that the story that we tell in this book is about Parkland and about Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But it's not a story that's confined to there. This is a story that's playing out in thousands of schools across America every day because these same policy pressures are at work. You know, heaven forbid it ever again leads to a such an extreme version. But it will and does—every day—lead to violence that goes unaddressed, leads to bullying that is unaddressed. Threats that are allowed to slide by because of this pressure to not take a firm hand. And I think that the first thing parents need to do is to talk to their teachers. And ask them, you know, “Are administrators hiding things? Are they refusing to enforce rules? Is there a student in my kid's classroom who everybody knows shouldn't be there?” And the teachers aren't going to want to speak up because, not to the public as themselves, at least, because they fear retaliation. But they can tell the parents. And if the parents hear this from the teachers, they need to go to the school board members. And they need to say to them, “We know this is what's going on in our kids' schools. Our teachers are too afraid to speak out. This is unacceptable and you need to change these policies.” Because like we talked about earlier, the federal government is no longer pushing it but this kind of bureaucratic apparatus that runs education at a higher level is—the inertia there is going to keep on militating towards it. The only thing that can make schools safer is parents getting informed and involved. And going to their school board members to identify these problems are occurring and to demand that these policies change if they are.  JULIE ROYS:  Well, I so appreciate my daughter Ashley goes to a Christian school and I appreciate that they have a proper worldview.  So, I think they will deal with these sorts of things in that way. But I think it's important for us, like you say, go to your kids, talk to your kids, find out what's happening in the schools. And go to the teachers, go to the administrators, get involved as parents. You know scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. It stuns me how people who are so smart can, in some senses, can be so dumb. To me, that's precisely what led to this Parkland shooting. Administrators and police refusing to see evil as a real thing stemming from the depravity in man's heart and Satan himself. Instead, they viewed it as a social construct or the result of oppression. They sought to manage it or appease it, instead of confront it and contain it. And as a result, Meadow Pollack and 16 other people, were mowed down by a murderous psychopath. What's mind-boggling is that these faulty policies are still in place in many schools. So, appreciate you so much, Max, for writing this book. Thanks for listening today. Again, if you missed any part of this program, just go to JulieRoys.com. You can get the audio there. Thanks so much for listening. Hope you have a great weekend and God bless!   Read more

In this episode I had a deeply moving and powerful conversation with four members of the Parkland community who were impacted by the school shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High School on February 14, 2018. In this conversation MSD students - Danielle Gilbert and Danny Tabares, Adult Chair of March for Our Lives Parkland - Samantha Novick, and community organizer and respected meditation teacher Shelly Tygielski courageously share their experiences of that day and their road to healing. This is one of the most hopeful and inspirational conversations that has taken place on this show (and that I have ever witnessed or been a part of). I hope you enjoy. **This show contains content that some may find to be upsetting, disturbing, or triggering. Please listen at your own discretion. Thank you.**In this episode we explore:Their experiences of Valentine's Day 2018Insights about transforming pain into purposeStaying hopeful when times get toughHow they have found the courage to be compassionate, and to love after experiencing hateThe importance of listening, and healthy debateWhat they've learned about creating conditions that promote healingWhy little acts of kindness are so importantAnd much more. Guest bios - please note these are partial bios. For full bios, show notes, and links to references and resources mentioned in the show please visit www.joshuasteinfeldt.com/episode-29Please share this episode, rate the show, and subscribe by heading to iTunes. Thanks for listening!Danielle Gilbert, StudentDanielle Gilbert is currently a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High School in Parkland, Florida. She has lived in Parkland for her entire life. She was located in one of the classrooms that was shot into on February 14, 2018. She will be attending University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida in the Fall of 2019.  Daniel ("Danny") Tabares, StudentDaniel Tabares is an 18-year old Sophomore at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High School. Danny was a Freshman during the tragic events of February 14, 2018 and experienced, like many others, trauma but he managed to turn that pain into purpose. Originally from Honduras and also part Colombian, Danny has overcome many challenges in his life prior to shooting and has channeled that strength to focus on helping others. He spends a lot of his time volunteering in the organizations that were formed to commemorate and honor the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting. Samantha Novick, Adult Chair of March for Our Lives Parkland, MSD Alumnus Samantha Novick was the Adult Chairperson for March For Our Lives - Parkland which took place on March 24, 2018, a little over a month after the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High School, her alma mater. Sam's mother, Sharon Cutler, is a teacher at Stoneman Douglas and her father is the Vice Mayor of the City of Parkland, the city where she was raised. She is an ASHA certified speech-language pathologist and the owner of Bridge Therapy, located in Coral Springs, Florida.  She is passionate about giving back to her community, ensuring that the memories of the lives lost are preserved and honored, and supports and leads initiatives that contribute to the eradication of hate. Shelly Tygielski, Community Organizer and Mindfulness TeacherAfter spending almost 20 years in Corporate America, Shelly Tygielski turned to teaching “modern-life mindfulness” full-time. For the past decade, Shelly has volunteered as a community organizer in politics, on campaigns, with social justice organizations and on behalf of underserved school districts as well as helping with logistics/organizinSupport the show (https://joshuasteinfeldt.com/donate/)

We remember the Stoneman Douglas shooting from one year ago, and find out what Jen doesn't want for Valentine's day, plus... Ax THROWING!

When Eric Eikenberg graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, he had little idea who Stoneman Douglas was, or that he would be walking in her boot-prints as an activist championing the Florida Everglades. Eikenberg began his position as the CEO of the Everglades Foundation in 2012 and has since been an unapologetic advocate for one of the most distinctly Floridian landmarks. Eikenberg is fluent in Floridian. Whether it's discussing the blue-green algae being discharged from the east and west sides of Lake Okeechobee, the pivotal function of the Everglades in cleaning the water of millions of South Floridians, or the two former Florida Governors that he had the chance to work closely with, Eikenberg seems to have found his calling in Florida. However, when Eric first moved to South Florida from New York, he saw so many Mets, Jets, and Giants colors that he says South Florida was like the sixth borough! On this episode of Fluent in Floridian, SMPR CEO April Salter discusses with Eric Eikenberg the ties he has to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas the advocate. They also dive into the effect of sugarcane production on water quality, the #NowOrNeverglades movement, and the long trek towards a more permanent solution to the issues in Florida's water management.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On February 17, at a gun control rally held in front of the Broward County Courthouse, Stoneman Douglas senior Emma Gonzalez gave an impassioned plea for students to stand up and demand action for her slain classmates after a student went on a shooting rampage on February 14 that killed 17 and wounded 17. The clip was viewed over 3 million times on YouTube. But Gonzalez was just getting started. Along with her schoolmates Alfonso Calderon, Sarah Chadwick, Emma González, David Hogg and Cameron Kasky, she started the organization Never Again MSD with the goal of ending school shootings in the US permanently. With Never Again MSD's first major demonstration, The March For Our Lives happening in Washington, DC and across the country on Saturday, Jesse talks to Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence, about how the Parkland students have changed the political calculus of the gun debate in this country.

On February 17, at a gun control rally held in front of the Broward County Courthouse, Stoneman Douglas senior Emma Gonzalez gave an impassioned plea for students to stand up and demand action for her slain classmates after a student went on a shooting rampage on February 14 that killed 17 and wounded 17. The clip was viewed over 3 million times on YouTube. But Gonzalez was just getting started. Along with her schoolmates Alfonso Calderon, Sarah Chadwick, Emma González, David Hogg and Cameron Kasky, she started the organization Never Again MSD with the goal of ending school shootings in the US permanently. With Never Again MSD's first major demonstration, The March For Our Lives happening in Washington, DC and across the country on Saturday, Jesse talks to Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence, about how the Parkland students have changed the political calculus of the gun debate in this country.

5R22- Today, Ethan and Chris are joined by Manny Navarro, who covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald, to discuss Dwyane Wade's impact on the Miami Heat since his arrival. We discuss Wade's role in the community particularly in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, his veteran tutelage of young players like Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow, his on-court chemistry with Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside, and how Erik Spoelstra has had to juggle the rotation since his return. We close with a look at three potential Miami Heat playoff opponents: the Raptors, Celtics or Cavaliers.

Ubuntu Peoples Podcast, Ep #57--Chucky Brown--Gun Control, Stoneman Douglas HS Shooting, Protecting My Own Spoke to Mr. Chucky Brown a week or so after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas HS in Florida. A retired NBA champion with two teenage daughters, Chucky owns a gun, as a teenager, he learned to shoot from his uncles in South Carolina. He has something to add about gun control and what it really says about America in 2018. Event: https://www.marchforourlives.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida moved the entire nation in a deep and profound way. The tragic events touched many lives, including PGA Tour Professional Nick Thompson, who attended Stoneman Douglas for four years and was born in raised just minutes from there.

There is a discussion about tearing down the Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, FL after the shooting rampage that took 17 lives. Mike wants to know what you think about it... He also has an opinion as well.

Hicimos un programa especial tras tiroteo en secundaria #StonemanDouglas en #Parkland #Florida. Nos acompañan oyentes padres de familia, colegas, colaboradores y muchos mas en este trsite episodio.  #LaGozadera #LosPichyBoys #Miami