Franklin Schargel’s Blog

I have been honored to have been selected to deliver a workshop on Monday, October 11, 2021. I will be speaking for Wings For Life International, (www.WingsFLI.org) The broadcast will be shown in  all 50 states as well as places outside of the United States. The presentaton will be done on Zoom and will on Facebook as well as posted on the Wings For Life International website.

The mission of Wings For Life is to disrupt the generational cycle of incarceration by providing education to children and adults.  

Topic: “Preventing School Violence” with Franklin P. Schargel

About half of teen students worldwide have experienced some form of school violence. Want to find why and what you can do to help?  Franklin will share what he’s learned about this problem and what can be done to address it.

About the speaker Franklin P. Schargel is an author, motivational speaker, trainer, educator, and traveler. Known worldwide, he works on dropout prevention, school leadership, and with at-risk learners. He was nominated for the Brock International Prize in Education and was selected as one of the World’s Top 30 Education Professionals.

ZOOM: https://zoom.us/j/2663343868

Facebook Live:@WingsForLIFEInternational

America’s Civil War began on April 12,1861 and ended on April 9, 1865. The Civil War pitted Americans against Americans and was the bloodiest war in American history resulting in the death of between 620,000 and 750,000 soldiers. It pitted fathers against sons, brother against brother. It was also a war between the states supporting the federal union and southern states that seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. The Civil War remains the deadliest military conflict in American history and accounts for more American military deaths than all other wars combined until the Vietnam War.

We now appear to be engaged in another ‘war’ – this one is not too civil. It began in late winter 2020 and is called Covid. It has resulted in the illness of 441 million and the deaths of 660,00 (as of September 11^th, 2021). 

Like the Civil war, the Covid ‘war’ pits American against American; Republican against Democrat; Liberal against Conservative; strict interpreters of the Constitution against loose interpreters of the Constitution; vaccinated against unvaccinated. It pits families against one another; friend against friend. 

Rather than using bullets, we are resorting to the use of social media and unscientific remedies to deal with Covid. 

Children are on the front line because a vaccine for them (under the age of 12) has not been developed. As of September 2, since the onset of the pandemic, over 5 million children have tested positive for COVID-19. About 252,000 cases were added the past week, the largest number of child cases in a week since the pandemic began. 

After declining in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially, with over 750,000 cases added between August 5 and September 2. Since the pandemic began, children represented 15.1% of total cumulated cases. For the week ending September 2, children were 26.8% of reported weekly COVID-19 cases.

Like the Civil War of the 1860’s, people insist that the government cannot order them to do what they, the people, do not want to do. That’s anarchy, if people can determine what laws they wish to follow and which they do not . 

Maybe I am missing something but, children cannot go to school unless they are vaccinated against mumps and measles. People cannot fly on an airplane unless they strap themselves in. Seat belts are required in moving vehicles. Why have people chosen to fight over Covid vaccinations but chosen to ignore other government policies?

I don’t get it.

This Tuesday, September 7 will see the return of in-person education of most students, and educators, in most states. But this year, will be a different year for many. Most schools have been closed for the previous year and some children have missed all formalized learning during that time.  Children who would have been in kindergarten or first grade missed being in classrooms. Most states, thanks to Covid and the latest variant they will be wearing masks for their time in schools. They will need to keep their distances, wash their hands, wear their masks. And it will be the responsibility of educators to insure that those directives are followed.

I wish my colleagues, a safe, healthy, and joyful school year.  May you be well, your families, your students, and their families.

To those of you who are accessing my website for the first time.

WELCOME!

I post blogs every week. There are over 1,200 blogs on this website dealing with dropout prevention, bullying, school violence, and the implications of Covid on the learning process. As schools reopen to in-person education, we will have to deal with problems we have never faced before.

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE.

I am a practitioner as well as a writer. I started as a high school classroom teacher, became a school counselor and finally a high school administrator in a Title1 High School where I developed 15 Effective Strategies which successfully lowered the school’s dropout rate, sent over 70% of our first-generation high school graduates to post-secondary school, and increased family engagement by over 70% in 9 months. The strategies have been recognized as Effective Strategies by the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University, the Educational Goals Panel, Auburn University the National Alternative Education Association, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine and BusinessWeek. They can be found on this website.

I have written 13 books deal with dropout prevention. The last, “Who Will Teach The Children?” Recruiting, Retaining and Refreshing Highly Effective Educators” addresses the teacher exodus. It is available through Amazon.

I am currently working on a book entitled, “School Violence Prevention: A Guide  for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors, Parents, and Students” which will be available before the new year.

Take what you need from my website. Share with your friends.

As students return to school for in person learning, they might not know that there are certain things in their control and some things not in their control. All children should be taught what they can control and what they can’t, you might want to turn this into a game or put a poster which spells out their responsibilities. You might want to ask the students for additional items.

Things in My Control:

• My effort
• My mistakes
• My behavior
• The amount of effort I put in
• My words
• My actions
• How I treat others
• Whether or not I follow rules
• How I handle my feelings
• How I take care of myself
• My positive attitude
• How often I smile
• Trying new things
• Asking for help
• Eating nutritious food
• How honest I am.

Things Not in My Control

• What other people do
• What other people say
• Things that happened in the past
• Other people’s choices
• How other people feel
• The weather
• Other people’s mistakes
• Predicting what will happen.
• How long Covid-19 will last
• Upsetting news on the TV
• Other people’s actions

We cannot think it won’t happen here. “Here” is everywhere. 

It was supposed to be a new school year – a fresh start with a new “normal” after being closed for an entire year. Three days into the new school year, school violence occurred in Washington Middle School in Albuquerque, NM when a thirteen-year-old middle school student was shot and killed by another thirteen-year-old. This is having a profound and lasting impact on the school, the community, and our nation as a whole.

Schools are dealing with growing numbers of angry, young people who are disconnected from family, school, and society. The effects of Covid-19 and the closing of schools has exacerbated the already existing child anxiety, stress, and trauma. 

Violence is firmly embedded in America; it is also embedded in America’s schools. No school is immune. School violence has taken place in rural towns, cities, suburbs and on Native American reservations. It has taken place in elementary, middle, high schools and universities.  Some communities were poor, some middle-class or affluent and some were mostly white, others mostly children of color.

Since the school shooting in Columbine, Colorado (April 20, 1999) and continuing through the elementary shooting at Sandy Hook, in Newton Connecticut (December 12, 2014) to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida (February 14, 2018), a variety of government agencies (F.B.I., National Threat Assessment Agency of the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security) have collected data and released a series of reports in an attempt to prevent further violence. Based on my research and reports of these agencies, there are things that schools can do:

• Initiate a no-bullying policy
• Accept “zero tolerance” for threats and violence and provide implementation steps/.
• Develop and deploy a school security plan.
• Implement a conflict resolution curriculum
• Teach anger management techniques
• Actively engage all stakeholders (students, teachers, staff, parents, law enforcement, the business community, Chambers of Commerce)
• Form a Threat Assessment Team.
• Have a Crisis Management Plan developed with the input of students, parents, law enforcement, and the outside community.
• Establish fair, equitable rules, and consequences and enforce them.
• Make the school family-friendly inviting parents and families to get involved.
• Establish student “ambassadors” in classrooms and in the halls to make the school more inviting to new students.
• Establish family “ambassadors” making the school more inviting to parents and community members.
• Establish a school dedicated website to allow students to anonymously report, signs of bullying, and potential signs of violence, etc.
• Train staff to identify and address practical steps of potential school violence.
• Involve the disenfranchised. Provide a voice for everyone.
• Be proactive without being repressive.
• Increase supervision in spots that have been identified as potential sources of school violence (lunchroom, bathrooms, gyms, athletic field, perimeter of school).
• Teach cooperation by assigning projects that require collaboration.
• Take immediate action when violence is observed. All teachers and staff must let students know they care and will not allow anyone to be mistreated.
• Confront bullies. Invite parents or guardians of both those accused of violence and the victims to the school and attempt to resolve the issue expeditiously.
• Invite into the school/district experts on possible causes and what the staff can do to deal with the variety of school violence issues. 
•  Provide protection for victims. This can take the form of developing a buddy system. 
• Develop contingency plans (“If this doesn’t work, we could try….”).

The job of schools is to prevent school violence not to react to it once it has occurred. 

If we have learned anything about dealing with the Covid-19 virus, it is the virus that determines where “it” will go, who “it” affects, when new variant’s will come into play, and we are all at its mercy. Some believe that they can “play” with it, choosing not to wear a mask, being in large crowds, and not washing their hands. 

THEY CANNOT.

The virus makes the rules what we have to live with. Like hurricanes, tornados, floods and other forces of nature, the virus determines its impact on people. We are subject to its whims.

Eight governors (Henry McMaster in South Carolina, Greg Abbott in Texas, Kim Reynolds in Iowa, Spencer Cox in Utah, Brian Kemp in Georgia, Ron DeSantis in Florida, Asa Hutchinson in Arkansas, Doug Ducey in Arizona) have banned the wearing of masks in schools. Each of those states have “high or substantial transmission rates”. 

The feeling of the governors in these eight states is that parents should determine what is best for their children, not the government. These governors insist that the parents have the ability to “opt out” of having their children wear masks.  In all fifty states, it is the government who determines that you must wear a seat belt, imposes speed limits on roads, and that all children must be vaccinated against childhood diseases like mumps and chicken pox. And it is the government of all of these states that determines that all children must attend school – not the parents.

Governor DeSantis has said that he would cut funding for any school system that mandated face masks. At the same time, MSNBC reported (8/6) that there are 135 children in hospitals in Florida suffering from Covid. Texas has more than 142 children in hospitals. Texas and Florida have 1/3 of all Covid-19 cases in the country. Texas has the strictest ban on mask wearing. Governor Abbott has said that mask wearing Is “the time for personal responsibility.” Would the governor concede that wearing seatbelts in a car is a personal responsibility or that children who attend school is a personal or governmental responsibility?

These governors contradict the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which has said that vaccinated individuals should wear a mask indoors even if they are vaccinated.

Forbes Magazine reported (8/4/2021) that the number of Covid cases among children jumped 84% last week. Nineteen (19%) of all cases in the United States were children. One child had to be transported 150 miles from her home because of the lack of a hospital room in Houston, Texas. 

While children between the ages of 12-17 are eligible for the vaccines, children under the age of 12 won’t be eligible for a vaccine until Thanksgiving according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Children under the age of 12 are ineligible to receive the vaccine.

DO NO HARM

should apply to these governors as well as doctors.