Ever had one of those days where you’ve looked at so much material, read so many words, considered so many people’s points of view, that you thought your head would just explode? Ever see the motion picture “Scanners” ? (I rest my case)
As you probably know, Prism Safety tries to focus on three areas all the time: Home Safety, Workplace Safety, and Community Safety. Last Friday there we were, minding our own business trying to prepare the June Newsletter for publication and distribution, when we received an email from one of our certified Safety Directors overseas. They had not responded to some emails we’d sent, but that happens, and we’d not been overly concerned. The reason had been that the Director had been abducted and held hostage for 10 days, was now vacating the country where they were working, and would be in touch when relocation was complete.
Um…
Now, back to the Newsletter process for a moment… There had been debate between two Topics we take the Emergency Response Topic first for June, and then do the Security Focus in July. That had been Plan “A”. Before the email.
Bringing us to Plan “B”.
So, from then until now, we’ve been preparing not only the June Newsletter, but also a comprehensive Report on Threat Assessment for the public. You’d be amazed at how much material has been generated worldwide between assassination, targetted violence, school shootings, and judicial and public spaces. HOWVER, equally, there is not that much for normal workplaces and private spaces except for some excellent OSHA material focusing on the Health Care and Retail sectors.
Research led us back to self-defense and personal protection, which brought us again to a truly fine resource on line from Michael Loftus, Sr. at www.Crime-Safety-Security.com . Really excellent materials and good links to other resources. You’ll see his site on our Blog Roll to the right.
At the same time, considering the issues of safety for school aged children, we have run across another WordPress Blog that is just fascinating and may interest you at www.FreeRangeKids.com. Free Range Kids seems to be a parenting movement for reducing “hypervigilance” on the part of parents, and for empowering their children to do more things on their own. Prism Safety is neither advocating nor condemning the view, but we’re just bringing it to your attention and consideration.
About Statistics: One really important element to note is that news stories always sensationalize the grotesque. It goes without saying that Prism Safety is first and foremost concerned with… um… well, “Safety”. Home, school, community, workplace… Safety. However, especially with regard to children and schools, the headlines do our schools a disservice. All the statistics, all the reports, all agree that the odds of a child dying from violence in a school is astronomically less than just riding in an automobile.
Bottom line: Every situation is different. Risk is defined by environment, behaviors, preparation, and interactions. You always have to consider risks and make your plans individually. But we thought you would enjoy looking at some of the diversity of safety view out there.
My head feels much better now. Perhaps from “sharing the load”. Stay Safe… Dr. G.
The SafeHouse 