Safety depends on people

By Jeffrey S. Handelman
Staff Writer

No child falls through the cracks. They are dropped through or shoved through by lazy, emotionally immature adults and unethical professionals.”

That’s what Security Consultant Dale Yeager said on CNN in 1999, and he repeated that statement to open an educational seminar on school safety at NYSSBA’s 88th Annual Convention.

Many school principals lack the kind of management skills or training needed to handle security issues in their schools, Yeager claimed.

He said research shows that 2.7 million crimes are committed at schools annually, and many of those crimes could be prevented through a better understanding of what motivates human nature. Throughout his talk, Yeager repeated the mantra that a well-managed school is a safe school, and that better training for all school personnel is a must. “Untrained personnel cannot be expected to do what trained people do.”

School districts must hold parents accountable for the behavior of their children, he said. Truancy is the root of all disciplinary problems, and is usually the result of dysfunctional homes. Holding parents accountable for truancy will go a long way toward alleviating this troubling issue.

Other statistics cited during the seminar included:

• Teachers are the victims of over 400,000 violent crimes each year.
• Juvenile girls represent the fastest growing segment of violent crime offenders.

Yeager is the president and CEO of Seraph (www.seraph.net), a NYSSBA school services partner that provides school security audits and security related services for districts nationwide.