Posted by Allan Measom on Mon, Feb 14, 2011 @ 10:50 AM
Ken Trump is well respected in the school safety business as a national consultant and expert on K-12 school safety, school security, school emergency preparedness and crisis planning. And I can proudly say he's a good friend. Ken has educated administrators and developed plans now used by many in the education field.
I have read few descriptions of what we face dealing with the system in place and fewer who have the guts to tell the story.
Ken bluntly “tells it like it is” when he says, “We not only have some people in powerful positions who think they are above reproach, we also have some people who try to stifle disagreement and the challenging of ideas by slapping the label of “incivility” or “unprofessional” onto those who disagree or challenge practices."
A society of “Sheeple” — Sheep, not People- is something we should never accept. Please take a few minutes and read Ken’s blog.
Why Disagreeing or Challenging an Idea is Not “Incivility”
Ken Trump's blog on K-12 school safety, security, and emergency planning trends, hot topics, and best practices.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Thu, Jan 13, 2011 @ 02:27 PM
Ken Trump's blog on K-12 school safety, security, and emergency planning trends, hot topics, and best practices.
One of our favorite security safety experts on K-12 schools is Ken Trump and he regularly posts some great blogs on the issue at SchoolSecurityBlog.com. More times than not, he sums up what we’re thinking here at Raptor. Trump is a national consultant, speaker, author, blogger, and expert on K-12 school safety, school security, school emergency preparedness and crisis planning.
In one of Trump’s recent blogs, The “Shellacking” of School Safety, he talks about budget cuts and academics shifting the focus and resources from proactive to reactive school safety efforts.
It’s no secret that the national “buzz” right now is all about bullying and civil rights issues. In fact, according to Trump, the U.S. Department of Education’s leadership has proudly announced it will no longer focus on school safety from the perspective of violence, but instead will focus on bullying, school climate, and civility.
Trump says, in his 25-plus years of experience, the result is a “heightened apathy, burnout, and skewed focus in the education community and in skewed federal school safety policy and funding.”
Trump goes on to say that the greatest opportunity for positive change is actually at the local school district level. “School boards and superintendents continue to have the power to make school safety a real, meaningful priority,” says Trump.
Read Trumps blog at SchoolSecurityBlog.com. Let him know what you think. Read through a few of his blogs and subscribe- it’s free and worth your time and effort. We guarantee it.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Mon, Oct 25, 2010 @ 12:39 PM
Cyber bullying is a growing problem, and it’s been magnified in the news recently by this year’s suicide at Rutgers University. Unfortunately, a number of special interest groups are attempting to highjack this issue for their own purposes.
Raptor, as a company involved in school security for almost a decade, has a unique insider’s knowledge of bullying issues.
“Bullying is in schools, on the Internet, in the workplace- it’s everywhere, and it’s been going on for thousands of years,” said Allan Measom, CEO of Raptor Technologies, Inc. “Issues of religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation and just plain strong versus weak are pervasive, and none of it is ever right.”
Cyber bullying is a new version of an age-old form of harassment. It’s instant. It’s more wide-spread. It allows many bullies to remain anonymous. In fact, more than 40 percent of all teenagers with Internet access have been victims of online bullying, according to the National Crime Prevention Council.
It boils down to responsible parenting. Experts say three-quarters of parents are now monitoring their children's text messages and social media as a direct result of bullying and cyber bullying fears.
“It’s up to parents to communicate with their kids and constantly watch what’s going on,” said Measom. “Bullying should not be conveniently labeled as hate crimes. Our kids need to know that we’re also using technology to watch them. Stop producing a watered-down generation of kids who are being taught NOT to stand up for themselves. Stop teaching kids that it’s dangerous to stand up or defend their friends, because adults are telling them it’s dangerous or wrong to fight back.”
Parents have a job to protect their children by teaching them how to defend themselves and how to treat others as they grow into adults.
According to Measom, “A bully preys on weakness, and parents must communicate daily with their children. Read their Facebook and phone texts. Enroll them in a self-defense course, which will help heighten your child’s awareness of others. Teach and set an example for your child to hold his head high and fight back appropriately and when necessary.”
Whether your child is the bully or the victim, it’s up to parents to stay involved and help put a stop to any type of harassment in or out of our schools. This is a life lesson that every human being must take into adulthood.