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Thread: School Shootings That Weren't

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Default School Shootings That Weren't

    I thought folks might find this article interesting.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018...gs-that-werent


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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    As an evaluator and research advisor I can tell you that, typically, schools resent intrusion. Even if the administration wants someone from outside coming in to do a study, teachers resent doing anything but teach and will sabotage the living daylights out of the project. Passive aggressiveness is an ugly thing.

    I know of several incidents where a student was expelled for doing something like having a paintball gun in the trunk of their car. There's a lot of variation in schools - some schools are diamonds, some schools are stone.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Try being a consultant in business. It works the same way.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfVanZandt View Post
    As an evaluator and research advisor I can tell you that, typically, schools resent intrusion. Even if the administration wants someone from outside coming in to do a study, teachers resent doing anything but teach and will sabotage the living daylights out of the project. Passive aggressiveness is an ugly thing.

    ...
    This is called hitting the nail squarely on the head and driving it home with one swing.

    Alan

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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    Try being a consultant in business. It works the same way.
    Works the same in probably every business. I run across it often.

    On a humorous note (at least to me)..... A friend of mine is a professional shooter (Grand Master in a few categories). One of his side gigs is training others to shoot. He has done training for local, state and federal LEO's. One story he told - he was introducing himself to the three LEO's that he would be training. One of them said - what makes you qualified to train US?

    He said rather than tell you, I'll show you. They all loaded their weapons with simunition. He said that that if any of you get a shot on me before I get one on you I will walk away.

    He did the training. All three had two paint splatters in the middle of their chests, one a third before their first weapon cleared a holster.
    Can't Means Won't

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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    I'm sure it does, Rick. I'm not in the business world, but I see the trials and tribulations of my people here in Denver. My bachelor degree is in organizational and industrial psychology, and we've known what good business practice is since the 50s. Businesses here (and, I guess, everywhere else) are 50 years behind that. I don't know how these people keep their firms going - oh wait....they don't. They just come and go in waves.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    We would often go out to field offices and review their operations in an effort to bring them up to standard. At one office they referred to us as the Eagles from HQ. I asked them what they meant by that and they said we fly in, drop our load and fly back out. So much for wanting our help.

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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    For those that know me, they know that I don't suffer fools lightly. When I was working for the company before I started my own business I went to Dallas, Texas for a few weeks to do some training in a few offices (we had recently acquired them in a purchase) to make sure they understood the way that we did business. On the last day in one office I asked the manager (who was very clearly passive aggressive) if he had any questions about the training he and his staff had received. His response was no, and what makes you thing that after you leave we'll be doing things your way.

    My response - Oh, I have no doubt that you think you are smarter than the company and will completely blow off any, if not all of the training I have given. He sat there looking smugly at me. His smug expression turned kind of glum when I said I had several people that would be stopping by over the next few months every now and then to check on things. I also said that I would be back at some point. When I return I will have your replacement with me. If things are going well I'll open a new location on a different section of Dallas. If not, he will give you a ride home after you clean out your office.

    He seemed to see it my way.
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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    We paid an outfit lots of money to do that. If they had no recommendations ("recommendations" meant "clean it up or no certification"), we got three years off. Mild recommendations gave us two years before they returned. Serious recommendations meant that they would be back in a year to make sure we had fixed things. We had a few suggestions but never got recommendations. When you pay people that kind of money, you don't blow them off.

    I've read several research textbooks that have whole chapters on how to deal with passive aggressive tactics in educational institutions. I would bet that, if I read a text on research in business firms, I'd see the same thing.

    I went to the front office of a school to start an evaluation on a group of students and nobody knew where I was to do the evaluation or which students were to be evaluated. I had the name of a contact. Nobody knew who belonged to the name. So I didn't do the evaluations. Later I found out that the name belonged to the assistant principal.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

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    Senior Member WalkingTree's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by crashdive123 View Post
    He said rather than tell you, I'll show you. They all loaded their weapons with simunition. He said that that if any of you get a shot on me before I get one on you I will walk away.

    He did the training. All three had two paint splatters in the middle of their chests, one a third before their first weapon cleared a holster.
    Ba-blam.


    Quote Originally Posted by crashdive123 View Post
    Oh, I have no doubt that you think you are smarter than the company and will completely blow off any, if not all of the training I have given. He sat there looking smugly at me. His smug expression turned kind of glum when I said I had several people that would be stopping by over the next few months every now and then to check on things. I also said that I would be back at some point. When I return I will have your replacement with me. If things are going well I'll open a new location on a different section of Dallas. If not, he will give you a ride home after you clean out your office.
    Baa-blam.


    Somehow I can relate to this stuff in my own way.


    Quote Originally Posted by WolfVanZandt View Post
    Later I found out that the name belonged to the assistant principal.
    Ok...that there is funny.
    The pessimist complains about the wind;
    The optimist expects it to change;
    The realist adjusts the sails.

    - William Arthur Ward

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