Protect Our Kids: a novel program bringing hemorrhage control to schools

Background Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Hartford Consensus produced the Stop the Bleed program to train bystanders in hemorrhage control. In our region, the police bureau delivers critical incident training to public schools, offering instruction in responding to violent or dangerous situations. Until now, widespread training in hemorrhage control has been lacking. Our group developed, implemented and evaluated a novel program integrating hemorrhage control into critical incident training for school staff in order to blunt the impact of mass casualty events on children. Methods The staff of 25 elementary and middle schools attended a 90-minute course incorporating Stop the Bleed into the critical incident training curriculum, delivered on-site by police officers, nurses and doctors over a three-day period. The joint program was named Protect Our Kids. At the conclusion of the course, hemorrhage control kits and educational materials were provided and a four-question survey to assess the quality of training using a ten-point Likert scale was completed by participants and trainers. Results One thousand eighteen educators underwent training. A majority were teachers (78.2%), followed by para-educators (5.8%), counselors (4.4%) and principals (2%). Widely covered by local and state media, the Protect Our Kids program was rated as excellent and effective by a majority of trainees and all trainers rated the program as excellent. Conclusions Through collaboration between trauma centers, police and school systems, a large-scale training program for hemorrhage control and critical incident response can be effectively delivered to schools.

Protect Our Kids: A Novel Program Bringing Hemorrhage Control to Schools

Background: Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Hartford Consensus produced the Stop the Bleed program to train bystanders in hemorrhage control. In our region, the police bureau delivers critical incident training to public schools, offering instruction in responding to violent or dangerous situations. Until now, widespread training in hemorrhage control has been lacking. Our group developed, implemented and evaluated a novel program integrating hemorrhage control into critical incident training for school staff in order to blunt the impact of mass casualty events on children.Methods: The staff of 25 elementary and middle schools attended a 90-minute course incorporating Stop the Bleed into the critical incident training curriculum, delivered on-site by police officers, nurses and doctors over a three-day period. The joint program was named Protect Our Kids. At the conclusion of the course, hemorrhage control kits and educational materials were provided and a four-question survey to assess the quality of training using a ten-point Likert scale was completed by participants and trainers. Results: 1018 educators underwent training. A majority were teachers (78.2%), followed by para-educators (5.8%), counselors (4.4%) and principals (2%). Widely covered by local and state media, the Protect Our Kids program was rated as excellent and effective by a majority of trainees and all trainers rated the program as excellent. Conclusions: Through collaboration between trauma centers, police and school systems, a large-scale training program for hemorrhage control and critical incident response can be effectively delivered to schools.

Immunity to Environmental Crime, Harm and Violence: An Ongoing Pandemic and a Possible Narrative Vaccine

As of June 2020, there have been at least 2,540 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, on December 14, 2012. Some have suggested that the repeated trauma of these massacres has created a collective “emotional numbness,” lessening our empathy. This article asks whether a similar phenomenon is occurring with respect to environmental crime and harm. It considers whether we have developed “compassion fatigue” regarding environmental violence and contemplates a “workout regimen” for empathy for Gaia’s suffering. In so doing, it seeks to engage with emerging work in the penumbra of narrative criminology and green cultural criminology.

Book Review: The Schoolroom: A Social History of Teaching and Learning

Dale Allen Gyure’s The Schoolroom: A Social History of Teaching and Learning takes an in-depth look at how the structure of schools has changed over the course of American history, starting from Colonial America to the twenty-first century. After its well laid out table of contents, there is a helpful timeline, chronicling major developments in United States education history starting in 1635 with the opening of Boston Latin Grammar School and going up to 2016 with the Sandy Hook Elementary School and the new era of school design (xv-xix). It also includes a helpful glossary that defines specific terms, such as different building plans, types of schools, and educational theories. Throughout the chapters, words found in the glossary are in bold.

Critical Events and Attitude Change: Support for Gun Control After Mass Shootings

When and to what extent do crises and significant events induce changes in political attitudes? Theories of public opinion and policymaking predict that major events restructure public opinion and pry open new political opportunities. We examine the effect of major events on support for public policies in the context of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in December 2012 using a nationally representative panel survey of US adults. Across both cross-sectional and within-subject analyses, we find no evidence that Americans granted greater support for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting. Our null findings persist across a range of political and demographic groups. We also find no evidence of attitude polarization as a result of Sandy Hook. Our results suggest that elite polarization in a particular issue area leads citizens to employ motivated reasoning when interpreting critical events, thereby reducing the capacity for attitude change. Our findings have important implications for identifying the conditions under which major events affect support for public policies and create political opportunities for policy change.

The Terrorist Attacks and the Human Live Birth Sex Ratio: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Aim: The live birth sex ratio is defined as male/total births (M/F). Terrorist attacks have been associated with a transient decline in M/F 3–5 months later with an excess of male losses in ongoing pregnancies. The early 21st century is replete with religious/politically instigated attacks. This study estimated the pooled effect size between exposure to attacks and M/F. Registration number CRD42016041220. Methods: PubMed and Scopus were searched for ecological studies that evaluated the relationship between terrorist attacks from 1/1/2000 to 16/6/2016 and M/F. An overall pooled odds ratio (OR) for the main outcome was generated using the generic inverse variance method. Results: Five studies were included: 2011 Norway attacks; 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; 2001 September 11 attacks; 2004 Madrid and 2005 London bombings. OR at 0.97 95% CI (0.94–1.00) (I2 = 63%) showed a small statistically significant 3% decline in the odds (p = 0.03) of having a male live birth 3–5 months later. For lone wolf attacks there was a 10% reduction, OR 0.90 95% CI (0.86–0.95) (p = 0.0001). Conclusion: Terrorist (especially lone wolf) attacks were significantly associated with reduced odds of having a live male birth. Pregnancy loss remains an important Public Health challenge. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses considering other calamities are warranted.

Public Opinion About Gun Control Post–Sandy Hook

I use data from a national public opinion poll conducted 4 months after the mass shooting of teachers and students in Sandy Hook Elementary School to analyze the content and predictors of public opinion about gun control and gun control politics. I find that a slim majority of Americans favors a semiautomatic weapon ban and proposals to make gun control laws stricter, and a large majority supports a federal background check law. Consistent with previous research, I also find that both instrumental concerns and cultural beliefs are significantly related to people’s opinions about gun control, but the strongest, most consistent predictors of people’s gun control preferences are their political beliefs and affiliations. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the national gun control debate.

Revolutionary Education: Fostering Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Imagination Across The Mainstream Curriculum. Interdisciplinary Inquiry

If fostering emotional intelligence and empathic imagination and solving ethical dilemmas were discussed openly and taught methodically in K-12 mainstream (“typical”) classrooms, would we need metal detectors at the inner city schools’ entrances, and would we need special anti-bullying programs, which intend to correct bullying culture, rather than build a new one, based on kindness, openness, and consideration for others?Will we learn lessons from the Columbine High School and the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacres, and radically change educational system, to incorporate empathic imagination and emotional intelligence into mainstream K-12 curriculum – as a mandatory discipline – instead of leaving this important part of learning and character formatting only to the special education sphere?This symposium represents a collaborative effort of four educators from various disciplines who crossed boundaries to emphasize and foster emotional intelligence and empathic imagination throughout the K-12 curriculum.The following are the parts of the proposed multidisciplinary panel:– multidisciplinary approach to revolutionary education, or paradigm shift towards fostering emotional intelligence and empathic imagination across the mainstream curriculum;– Descartes’ error, the triune brain, and neurobiology of emotional intelligence;– changing our consciousness: imagining the emotional experience of the other;– teaching social skills and play therapy in schools: report from the trenches of special education;– examining cultural artifacts, tools for personal, emotional, and academic development;– growing kind kids: mindfulness and the whole-brained child;– Emotional Imprint™ at the street squash: ‘If you talk, you don’t kill.’Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.