[Ous-lp-rp13] EDAD 6020, Response to Answer for Question # 1

[Jessica Orr]

Codie,

After reading your first paragraph, I immediately began to think about how
school safety is most certainly part of a rational system, as you
discussed. Initially, school safety plans are developed without much
teacher input, usually involving a top-down approach that incorporates
state-mandated drills and several rigid, schoolwide procedures, which
categorize the system as a rational one, which you described in your
opening paragraph. Safety plans necessitate being rational; without set
expectations and consistency in implementation, the plan would undoubtedly
fail. With this in mind, though, one may see how a school’s safety system
will likely, and ideally, evolve to include components of both natural and
open systems as well.

To begin, safety plans should grow to incorporate natural components so
that staff members feel safe and that their voices are heard. For example,
last year, my school held an active shooter training; while at first,
teachers and students were simply directed to follow the crisis plan that
was put in place, after the training, teachers were debriefed and given the
opportunity to share feedback with administrators in order to improve the
safety plan. Because the teachers had a voice, they were able to feel
valued, respected, and above all, safe, which are three aspects of a
natural system.

The third type of system, an open system, is critical when devising school
safety plans. As previously mentioned, there are some safety guidelines
that are handed down from the state level, yet there are many local
agencies that can provide vital information to ensure school safety. Again
during my school’s active shooter training, the school partnered with the
Chillicothe Police Department, and the school safety plan was created
through collaboration between school administration and local law
enforcement. At the training, CPD officers entered the school and
participated as both law enforcement and acted in the role of perpetrator,
and during the debriefing, they offered feedback and suggestions for
improvement so that the school safety plan could be revised to be as
thorough as possible. School safety should be the chief priority for
schools, and, as many of our peers have noted, when all three
systems--rational, natural, and open--are integrated seamlessly, the
results are often much more successful than times when only one system is
implemented. While I hope that we never have to implement the school’s
crisis plan in the event of an actual emergency, I feel much more confident
in knowing that administrators, teachers, and outside resources have all
had a part in constructing the plan.

Thank you for your response!

Jessica Orr

On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 9:01 PM, James Ward <gl_jward at seovec.org> wrote:

> When I look around at my district and school as a whole, I can identify
> rational, natural and open/social systems. In a rational system, all
> individuals involved are working towards the same goal without regard to
> the personal interests of its workforce. One area that my school displays a
> rational system is through the safety procedures for fires, tornados and
> lockdown drills. My school has specific guidelines on how teachers are to
> get the students from the areas they are currently at to the safest place
> possible. We as staff members are responsible to these guidelines and are
> to follow them to the best of our abilities because that is what has been
> put in to place by our district and principal.
>
> In regards to a natural system in my school, we have in place reading and
> math committees. These committees, while wanting to see all students grow,
> also have very different goals in mind. The reading and math committees
> were set up this past year by our building principal and building
> leadership team (BLT). The aim of the committees are to bring the
> deficiencies that we observe our kids come to us with, and then coming up
> with ways to address those weaknesses as a group. We are not under the
> thumb of an administrator or the district to do what they feel is best, but
> our committees are given freedom as a group to come up with different
> strategies that we feel are best to help solve the deficiencies we are
> observing.
>
> For me to see an open/social system in action, I believe that I have to
> look no farther than any public school district in the country. The
> districts are given money via tax payer or community businesses to hire the
> needed staff (teachers, cooks, custodians, principals, etc.). Students are
> then brought to us beginning in kindergarten and some as early as
> pre-school. Through standards and curriculum that is given to teachers by
> the school district, teachers are then expected to help the students reach
> their maximum potential until their set graduation date. After graduation
> students are expected to be able to go out and be a productive individual
> to society through the workforce, or advance to college, hopefully
> obtaining a degree, and then coming out as a contributing member to
> society.
>
>
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-- 
Thank you,

*Jessica Orr*
English Teacher
Department Coordinator
Chillicothe High School
Phone: (740) 702-2287, ext. 16231

"You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you
have something to say."
       --F. Scott Fitzgerald
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