Filipino teachers fill in the gaps at LAUSD - LA Times.

Good read. What is sad is so many of the schools in the inner cities have such poor graduation rates. The one I did my student teaching at was 40%.

Labels: School Safety, Schools

The Economist mentioned the $20 Million Dollar lawsuit as did a Washington Post Editorial, so I went looking for it. How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million They were explaining why a school in Florida called the police - Kindergarten Girl Handcuffed, Arrested At Fla. School

Scary. And add in mainstreaming when not appropriate and without enough resources...

Labels: School Safety, Schools

The LA Times had an article about the gun threat at my daughter's school. The article had a few more details, such as the Principal decided to have some police cars at the front of the school, which supposedly scared (who had heard the rumors) some parents when they went to drop off their children. I drop my daughter on the side of the school so I did not see this. And the Principal was taking calls to 10:30PM that night.

My 2 cents - reactive was not the right decision. Plus, when I called at 7PM that morning, I was told there would only be the regular security on campus.

Labels: School Safety

More on the gun threat at my daughter' school.

Boring day and nothing happened at her school. About 2/3rds of the school did not show up on Friday. My guess is the school lost $70,000 in state funding due to the absences. About 10:30AM that morning there an E-Mail broadcast to parents about the threat.

What happened was some person who was turning 18 mentioned they could now legally buy a gun, which started the entire rumor. Thursday night at a wrestling match the local sheriff was questioning people about the rumor and the Student Government, whom was setting up for a rally the next day was told the rally had been canceled. My guess is since the people who are part of the student government are popular and talkative, the rumors spread quickly. From an ethnic viewpoint the majority of those who showed up to school were Asian. One class she had that was mixed, only Asian students showed up. Seniors were also more likely not to show up than Freshmen. I am not sure what this means.

At this age, rumors spread like crazy and are challenging to deal with. Even in a workplace rumors are a challenge to deal with. I remember one work place that I worked briefly, that even had signs not to believe rumors.

In an article, Rumor and Gossip Research by Ralph L. Rosnow and Eric K. Foster they write of the law of rumors, where the strength of the rumor is related to it's importance (R) and the ambiguity (how certain is it). There is also a social network component that needs to be added to this, when for example with my daughter she got multiple phone calls on the subject which reinforced the strength of the rumor. The fact the rally was canceled showed how serious the school was taking the rumor to the students. The school administration, my guess, saw this as a safety issue, on having so many students crowded in the gym and if a balloon popped the possible panic could result in injury. The fact there was sheriff's investigating the rumor also reinforced the possibility of it. Plus the famous incidents such as Virginia Tech and Columbine.

How I analyzed the decision should my daughter go to school was:
1. Likelihood of something happening at the school. Low based on my gut feel for the school compared to others ones I have been at.
2. Low since the rumor was so widespread I believed this would deter anyone even thinking of such an act.
3. The huge potential for this to be a rumor (high). The US has over 16 Million Students in High School and the number of on campus shootings, vs. schools in the US.

So the decision was my daughter went to school because I judged the risk to be low.

I would have appreciated if the school had been better communication from the school and they had increased the number of security at the campus. The school administration had a hard decision to make and I am sure were worried about increasing the level of concern in the community by broadcasting a message about this. Unfortunately they missed ability of the rumor to spread quickly through the student population letting the students shape the perception of what would the potential risk. In the corporate world when dealing with damage control it's better to let out the news yourself, than have others do it for you and be in a reactive mode. Johnson and Johnson with the Tylenol scandal is a classic on how to deal with emergencies that had the potential of destroying the companies reputation. Classic case on what to do in Public Relations.

Labels: School Safety

At my daughter's school there was a rumor about a gun today being in the locker room. My daughter got four or five phone calls from her friends last night. I called the school before school started, and they said it was a rumor that had been investigated by them and the Sheriff Department, and that they had their normal security (I asked if they had extra).

I still noticed that a lot of students did not go to school today because of the rumor which made dropping her off easy. A friend did not have their child go to school today and was unhappy the school did not use their automatic system to alert parents and check all the lockers last night. They did cancel an assembly today and for PE had all the students walk as a group to the gym.

I am not sure the Principal had many good alternatives. My opinion is the Principal and whom ever else made the decision did not know the power of the rumor network, and is paying for that by having many students miss school today (which reduces funding, because the school gets paid, say $34 per day per student. So if 1000 students miss school, about 1/3rd of the school which looking at the parking lot makes sense, that is $34,000 the school is out).

Labels: School Safety, Schools