David Riedman’s Post

Anyone focused on school safety should follow David Riedman. His data and analysis are so valuable for understanding - and preventing - school shootings. I've gotten considerably smarter since following him. (Thank you, David!) Mount Horeb is another sad story in a too-long string of sad stories (and it could have been so much worse...). As David points out, nearly every school shooter leaves signs/cries for help before they act. We just keep missing them. I have to think a solution like Lightspeed Systems Alert could have prevented this. Alert AI could have picked up the searches about Columbine, the social media comments about school violence, the google site posts about his school shooting obsession and suicidality (or views of those posts by other students!). Tip Line could have been a safe way for students to report it. Our Human Review would have called the district immediately and helped them tie all the incidents together. SROs, cameras, metal detectors, active shooter protocols - all these things are important. But they're fallible, they're last line of defense. We have to get better at spotting the signs and acting proactively, long before the gun ends up on campus.

I’m so sick of seeing this shit happen. It’s preventable. There is only one solution for fixing this. And we know what that is. And we have everything that is needed if schools ever want to get serious about mitigating this. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t know that our country wants it fixed. Time for this country, our public school systems, and decision-makers in this country to wake up. Let’s actually give our society and students the education, tools, and training that they need. What you’re going to see happen is politicians or local decision-makers use this as another opportunity to push their agendas and platforms. To turn it into something political. Especially during the current election season. This is not a difficult problem to solve. If anyone’s actually interested in learning how. Let me know.

Five-year-old Tyler used to love going to school until he experienced his first "traditional" lockdown drill. That day, he went home in tears, was plagued by nightmares for weeks, worried about gun violence everywhere he went, and eventually had to enter into therapy. Luckily, Tyler is now doing better. But he isn't alone in his experience. And not all kids have access to the same resources as Tyler. That is why all kids deserve to experience trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate emergency drills in schools, whether for lockdown, fire, or any other potential emergency. And schools need support to make this happen. It's one of the many important things included in the White House Executive Order released on Sept. 26, 2024: "It is time for these agencies to extend their efforts to help schools better design and conduct effective and age- and developmentally appropriate active-shooter drills." https://lnkd.in/gDeZh7Pd https://lnkd.in/g_4Zmq_h #traumainformed #emergencydrills #lockdowndrills #schoolsafety #sammyandfriends #sammythesasquatch #psychologicalsafety

Watch out for ‘leakage’: These are some clues students can look out for to help prevent school violence "Regardless of how students report concerns, those messages should be actively monitored, and the information should go to a school threat assessment team, according to best practice recommendations from the US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center and US Department of Education." #schoolviolencePrevention #SeeSomethingSaySomething #IdentifyTheSigns #schoolsafetymatters #protectourschools https://lnkd.in/dhX6EtUQ

😢Today, my 6th grader’s school went into lockdown. She thought it was a shooting. She and her friends, just 11 yrs old, whispered about what they would do if someone came into their classroom with a gun. She sat terrified, believing her life was in danger. In the end, it was a medical emergency and a lost child that triggered the lockdown. But that was the longest, most gut-wrenching hour of my life. Let me be clear: protecting our children isn’t a political issue—it’s a moral obligation. This doesn’t have to be the reality we accept. This isn’t just something we should chalk up to “how things are” Or “a fact of life” 🤬.We’re traumatized today, but there are families in Georgia, Maryland, and beyond who have lost so much more, families who will never get to hold their children or loved ones again because of real violence. We cannot keep failing them. And before anyone asks if this post is “appropriate for LinkedIn,” you’re asking the wrong question. The right question is: why are we allowing this to be the norm? Why do we paint this as “political”? Why are we allowing our children to live in fear, in classrooms that should be safe? Why are we not doing more to ensure their safety? We can’t afford to be silent on this anymore. It’s time for action. #Georgia #Maryland #ItsTheGuns #MarchForOurLives #BanAssaultRifles #GunReform #ProtectOurKids 📸: @_StillWeRise via Instagram

We talk alot in the #PHOWS on being prepared. This weekends question is how trained are YOUR Parking and Traffic volunteers for an incident, and how will they quickly alert the rest of the campus Faith and Safety team of an incident as the one attached. Not sure of the answer? ASK, and if there is no written plan, make one this week and train! #Safety #Church #Crisis #Communications #Preparedness #NorthTXACP https://lnkd.in/gYUrySm8

In their new Forefront article, April Joy Damian and Jessica McCann from Weitzman Institute discuss how if we’re serious about confronting this public health crisis, we must continue to advance promising programs and policies that have been shown to work at the individual/family, clinical, school and community, and societal levels. "The year 1999 saw 23 school shooting incidents injuring or killing 63 people; those numbers increased to 349 incidents and 249 victims in 2023. The Washington Post estimates that, between Columbine in 1999 and September 2024, more than 383,000 students experienced gun violence at school over a total of 417 shootings. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 25 percent of public school teachers experienced a gun-related lockdown in 2023 because of a gun or suspicion of a gun on school property." Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4dUFJVz

In 2023, 84 lives were tragically lost to domestic violence in Arizona. Since 2009, 1,543 fatalities have been recorded in our state. These numbers reflect the devastating impact of domestic violence, with each person leaving behind loved ones and powerful stories. Our report sheds light on these lives and underscores the need for continued support, system improvements, and legislative action. Read the full report to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gvaJfmjU

https://lnkd.in/gQup_6Ze Every person involved in this needs, and could have, their own “I-HELP ME ALL STARS PLAY WELL FIRST SOPHIA”. That sentence is full of the acronyms so my nursing capstone project remains true, concise, easily understood by grade school staff, parents, students. It has been offered to ALL the entities that educated, were paid to trained me, and qualified me with the certifications that proved I had meet the standards. It has been offered to all Kansas governors since Sam Brownback. Highly paid people ARE manipulated (including lawyers, Judges, and KPERS & KDHE Department Directors, including the Board of Regents, and Kansas businesses that do statewide & international businesses & use nonprofits to balance the profits so they pay very little taxes. It is important to note, THEY need our help to get out of the control of the Dark Web-Deep State that control people in local communities with Veterans & law enforcement personnel with any combination of porn-gambling-drugs-infidelity, alcohol, past history, financial distress… or salaries & profits. The perverse networks have their portal. I am giving Judge Weingart & retired Judge Patton the benefit of the doubt.

Active shooter events, including those in K-12 schools in the USA, continue to occur. In an effort to protect students, faculty, and staff, several states have implemented policies allowing teachers to be armed while on school premises, with more expected to follow suit. A nationwide survey of law enforcement officers was conducted in 2020 to help determine their attitudes about armed teacher policies in the USA. ALERRT Executive Director Dr. Pete Blair reviews the results of the survey, and how it may impact policymakers and school administrators in the future. Read more about it at the Tactical Science Substack, linked here: https://lnkd.in/gCTx2VFu