Is your child's school prepared for an Arapahoe HS, Sandy Hook, Columbine situation? Check out These Tips to Get Prepared!!!

One of the trainings this year for me and my fellow teachers before the start of the school year was an active shooter training led by the Los Angeles School Police.  In awake of Sandy Hook and several other school shootings, the police department made it a priority to educate teachers and other school personnel on what to do in such a dangerous situation.  If you are a parent like I am, you want to be able to rest assure that your child is safe while at school and away from your presence throughout the day.  While there is no way to guarantee safety, there are ways to make sure your child's school is prepared in case an active shooter is on campus.

1. Figure Out What’s Going On. Build Your Awareness.- 

The more a person knows about what’s going on, the better decisions the person will make.  Knowing the location of the active shooter is key in helping the child's school make a sound decision on what action to take next.

2. Find A Way To Survive.- Studies have shown that people who survived a life-threatening situation all had survival as their focus.  Instead of fearing being hurt, or thinking that you don’t want to die, change your thoughts into the positive and focus on Surviving. 

3. Be Well Trained For Emergencies.- Having occasional drills for the staff to know what to do in an active shooter situation, as strange as that may sound to a more "seasoned" population,  can help better impact everyone. Knowing where the exit and emergency doors are key?

4    4. Don’t Forget That You Can Leave The School.- In times pass, teachers were told that they must stay on campus at all times and cannot take kids off campus without parent permission. It was noted that teachers sometimes try to hide and protect their students in the classroom  in active shooter type situations and become“sitting ducks”. Now the police officers are spreading awareness that if one can, teachers may take the students off campus to a safe location.  Don’t wait for the active shooter to   “accidently” come across you. Leave.

5   5. If all fails, you may have to Fight Back. If you find yourself in the room with an active shooter, don’t be afraid to collectively Fight Back. Yes, I was surprise about this statement too, but police officers say that the victims almost always in a school setting out-number the shooter.  If the shooter is an “Active” shooter the officers advised coming together to throw books, charge the gunman, spread out, do whatever one need. In a case where it is inedible that someone is going to get hurt, fighting back  can possibly decreased the number of injuries.  (i.e. Think about the passengers on the flight to Pennsylvania during 911 when they collectively took down the terrorist.)

All and all, there is no way to guarantee safety if there is an active shooter at your child’s school. I know that everyday I teach my son to be a beacon of love as I hope that he will keep love surrounding him. Perfect love casts out fear.  However, since this isn’t a perfect world, and we cannot ever be completely safe, it is helpful to know what teachers, (like myself) are being taught to protect children. I teach in a high school in South Central, Los Angeles and I know if the day ever comes where there is an active shooter, I pray that my inner-spirit guides me to keep every single child safe. Ultimately, “When in doubt, trust your gut.”  Allow your gut, that infinite intelligence part of you to guide and protect you, your love ones, and your community in a state of emergency.

Shira Dillon is a high school teacher and author of Sex, Drugs, and Other Elephants: How To Deal With Teenage Issues.  A non-fiction book geared toward teenagers, teachers and parents about the honest reality of social issues that teenagers face and how to survive them. Order a book for yourself at amazon.com or purchase some for a gift.  

Click to order Sex, Drugs, and Other Elephants: How to Deal with Teenage Issues

Lockdown 101: What happens during a school lockdown?

I wish I could have signed up for the school lockdown class when I was in college. Now, with the frequency of lockdowns that school's have, teachers, administrators and staff could have actually taken a class about "Lockdowns."  Lockdown 101 would have been in the same category of the class about "How To Write On A Chalk Board" a course that was actually given at my undergraduate Alma mater Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana up until the late 1990's.

My first time experiencing a lockdown situation came in 2005 during what was known as the race riots of Thomas Jefferson High School. I remained silent about this experience for quite some time, but now with events that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as the middle school lock down that was reported today, (3/20/13) in Minnesota, I feel it's time for me to speak out and give a first hand account on my experiences during a lockdown.

When there is a lockdown, it means that no one is allowed to enter or exit their location. If it is during class time, I am to lock my students into the classroom.  If it is during a passing period, I am to usher students into my classroom as quickly as possible and close the door.  These students do not have to be my assigned students. In a lock down situation, there is no such thing as my student or your student. If they are a student of the school, then they are everyones' responsibility.

My understanding of the first lockdown I experienced at Jefferson High School happened as such.  Earlier that day there was an earthquake drill where all of the students spent a great deal of idle time on the football field.  This idleness lasted until lunch.  During lunch, two African-American girls got into a fight. (There's nothing new there.)  During the fight, a Hispanic boy threw a milk carton at the two girls.  Outraged by the disrespect, an African-American football player confronted the Hispanic boy. Now there is an African-American boy and a Hispanic boy fighting and thus a "race riot" was born. The school went into its first ever lockdown.  The 93% of Hispanic students like bulls, charged at the 7% African-American students who were also belligerent in participating in what appeared to be a WWE battle royal.  LAPD were contacted and immediately surrounded the school.  As students staggered back into the classroom, many of them had cuts, and marks over their body.  These marks weren't from fighting one another. They were from the police.  As a result, these were my duties for the remainder of the day during lockdown.

1. Keep students securely in the classroom.  Because many students thought for some odd reason that they were in a race war, keeping them in the classroom was a challenge.  Many students would try to get out from the doors and the windows.  Keeping high school students safely in class when they are eager to go towards danger is not an easy task.

2.  Tend to my students wombs! Lockdown means students cannot go to the nurse.  I had students who eyes were full of mace sprayed by the cops.  I had students who had marks all over their back that were placed there by the cops.  I had to do my best with what was available to console their wombs.

3.  Opportunity Teaching! In crisis situations, students are not likely to do their assigned work, but savvy teachers know how to use the situation to teach other lessons.  In this case, lots of time was spent teaching issues such as racism, diversity, and tolerance. The students learned a lot about one another and I learned a lot about them. 

4. Cafeteria Worker! During the times when lockdowns are for hours and hours, teachers must turn into cafeteria workers.  Authorities would release a select group of teachers to go to the cafeteria and make lunches for every student that's in the classroom.  To go in-depth about the cold rubbery stuff that was suppose to be meat that I had to put on the piece of bread would be material for an entirely new blog post.

The longer the lockdown, the more problems the school staff ran into and the more stressful it became for students.  Now in 2013, it seems like lockdowns are normal and students are less likely to be effected by it.  We even have lock down drills.  But the truth of the matter is that lockdowns are serious issues rather there's a gunman loose on campus, or there is a robbery in the neighborhood.  Any of these reasons, can cause a school to be on lockdown. When that happens, it is best if students have already eaten, completed their assignments, and have used the restroom.  Otherwise at the very least, it can be a very wet and smelly experience!

Shira Dillon is a high school teacher in South, Central Los Angeles. Shira has over 15 years experience working with teenagers and is an expert with helping them and their parents deal with teenage issues. Ms. Dillon is the author of the book Sex, Drugs, and Other Elephants: How To Deal With Teenage Issues that share true stories from the authors life, as well as true stories from teenagers and how they deal with their problems. For more information about the book go to www.heyiwantthatbook.blogspot.com

Like my FB page www.facebook.com/ParentsTeachersandTeens to unite with me to help public education become a better institution of learning. Our children need it!

Stop! Read! Help! It's Your Turn Today!

Welcome to my new blog.!!! My name is Shira Dillon and I am a high school teacher in Los Angeles, CA. This blog will explore the mind and life of teenagers today and help adults better connect with them. Please come by often, add me on google+, or subscirbe so you can receive these bogs by email.

As a high school teacher, I come across students who feels that they are in crisis daily.  Being an educator is a job where I have to think on my feet fast and do whatever it is necessary to keep as many kids on the right path mentally as well as intellectually. 

In today's blog, I have included an assignment I received from a student, and I would like to know how you would handle the situation. I am hoping that today you will accept the challenge and share your expertise and quck thinking with the rest of us by leaving a comment.  If not, as long as you take the time to think about how you would deal with this situation if this was your child, neice, cousin, etc.

For those higher ups that beleive that education is all about teaching for a big test, then they need to think again.  I currently watch the show Blackboard Wars on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and truthfully I'm not fazed by what I see.  In some cases, that school is doing better than many schools I have worked in. One of the major problems with education is that many of the prevelant issues are the ones that are not being dealt with.  For years, these issues have been swept under the rug, and now we are living in a time period where the rug is touching the ceiling.

I believe that it is our duty to do our part, no matter how big or small, to help the young people today deal with their issues, problems, and/or crisis.



Student Journal:

Why did I need it to be born? Why did I need it to come to this world?  I hate my life! So yesterday I went home afterschool and everything was fine until my sister screamed at me b/c she didn’t ask for chili cheese fries, she asked for regular fries and she was screaming in my face telling me that she didn’t ask for chili cheese fries. She told me that she texted me saying regular fries and all this shit and I even showed her the text that she send me it didn’t say nothing about what she said.  Well that happened. So we went to pick up my mom and they called her saying that they send a paper with me that they need to sign.  My mom asked me to hand it to her and I did. It was a paper that has my grade for Algebra and I had a lot of F’s because I don’t do my homework, classwork, or quizzes.  She got mad and she didn’t sign it.  After that she told my sister if she wanted to go to the store with her and my sister said yes. It pissed me off cause she didn’t even asked me.  Well they took forever to come back from the store. I went to bed early like around 7pm and I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed. I was crying and crying and I couldn’t stop b/c I feel like they don’t like me and I felt like leaving the house. And well my mom and sister came and my dad ask them what was wrong with me, that why didn’t I go with them to the store.  My  mom told my dad what was happening and that’s when my dad came in my room and took the covers off me and screaming at me and I got mad and he was like hand my your phone and all this shit.  I hand it him my phone and they left to the living room and my dad was talking all this shit saying, fuck you , that I get him mad and all this shit. I started crying even more.  But before my mom came I started grabbing my neck trying to choke myself.  Because I didn’t want it to be here in the first place, I wanted to kill myself. Well this is what happened to me. I need to talk to someone that would understand me and well right now I’m not talking to my parents.

This is the reason why I started this blog.  This is what goes through the head of many teenagers each and every day. This whole idea of being in denial that its not our child or a teen we know doesn't feel this way may help our conscious temporary. But as the "Elephant in the Room" gets bigger and bigger, it gets harder and harder to pretend that teenagers don't have major problems.

The whole notion of killing herself startled me the most.  When I was in 9th grade there was a classmate of mine who killed herself because she felt that her mom loved her sister more than her. She really killed herself.  All while I was wishing I had a mom period! She was always well dressed, with her hair and nails always done, and yet in her mind, suicide was considered so much that she actually made it hapen.

It is time that we begin to really talk to our teens, and if they cannot talk to their parents then that is where aunts/uncles, cousins, and friends of the family come into place.  It does take a village to raise a child.  Join me and become apart of that village.

Shira Dillon is a high school teacher in South, Central Los Angeles.  Shira has over 15 years experience working with teenagers and is an expert with helping them and their parents deal with teenager issues. Ms. Dillon is the author of the book Sex, Drugs, and Other Elephants: How To Deal With Teenage Issues that true stories from the authors life, as well as true stories from teenagers and how they dealt with their problems.  The book also offer helpful tips and information to help anyone who's ready to expose the elephant in the room.  For more information about the book go to www.heyiwantthatbook.blogspot.com  And don't forget to like my FB page www.facebook.com/ParentsTeachersandTeens to unite with me to help public education become a better institution of learning. Our children need it!