School Safety Training
Michael Dorn has written an excellent blog on how certain forms of school safety training is costing some school districts a lot of money. In the state of Iowa, one insurance company has received numerous Workman's Compensation claims of nearly $300,000 in the last year and a half. That's a rate of $200,000 a year, and do not count any follow-up visits, physical therapy, surgeries or other medical expenses for these injuries. Nor does the figure count costs associated with lost work time, substitutes and other administrative costs.
School Safety Training Analysis
Any time there is a process that causes this many injuries, the first question that should come to mind is, what is being done wrong? On one hand, it would seem that the training is being conducted improperly, as participants are incurring injuries. On the other hand, what are the schools doing to ensure the safety of their personnel during this training?Schools cannot assume that trainers and/or consultants know what they are doing. They should take steps to monitor the training being given, and should stop any practice that could lead to injury. A good training company will enumerate possible risks, and provide steps to mitigate against accidents and injury.
This applies even when law enforcement officers are conducting the training. There are risks in their training they accept because of their job description, and because of the level of training and mental and physical conditioning they have acquired that educators do not have. Therefore educators should have more protection during training, not less.
Just as it is not prudent to jump right into a full-scale exercise, it is not prudent to jump right into Close Quarter Combat (CQC) training. With this many people being injured, both the training and the schools should look at how they are doing things.
Preparing for Active Shooters, a small likelihood versus other risks to schools, does not require serious injury to accomplish.
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