Security & SROs

Schools have a duty to protect students and maintain a safe educational environment.  A decade ago, teachers and school administrators were the primary people intervening in school disciplinary matters like minor schoolhouse skirmishes, schoolchildren fighting in the corridors, sassing a teacher or skipping class.  In recent years, at least some of the responsibility for intervening in common school disciplinary matters like property destruction, school fights, bullying, classroom disruptions or simply leaving class unattended has shifted to school resource officers and law enforcement.

Duty to Train and HWC Training

With the advent of the increased use of school resource officers and law enforcement, officers are beginning to see the need for intervention methods and training more suited to a student population .

The training officers and law enforcement receive is higher on the use of force spectrum than is required for most schoolhouse skirmishes or disciplinary matters.  For instance if a six year old student is dancing on the table, it would be more appropriate to lift the student off of the table and escort her to an administrative office, than to put the student in handcuffs and transport her to the nearest precinct.

Courts have held that schools, and law enforcement, have a duty to train staff/officers to handle foreseeable circumstances.  It is foreseeable that children will lose their tempers and may engage in inappropriate behavior like fighting and throwing objects.  There is a duty to train staff including officers how to manage these foreseeable situations in a way that is both effective and appropriate.

The Handle With Care Program is designed to train professionals and officers on safely managing behaviorally challenged or out of control students (and adults), including those with disruptive, aggressive and self-destructive behaviors. The program teaches officers to develop and use their management and relationship skills to reduce tension, and create and maintain a calm and safe environment for all. This verbal de-escalation and physical intervention program includes a patented restraint technique that is designed to be effective, safe and require fewer officers to safely manage a crisis than other restraint training programs.

The goals of Handle With Care are:

• Create and maintain safer school environments.
• Decrease need for physical restraint through preventative actions.
• Minimize injuries to children, adolescents, students, staff through the use of prompt, skillful and appropriate intervention (including physical restraint when necessary)
• Create an environment of physical and psychological safety conducive to learning
• Enable Officers and staff to calibrate their intervention in a way that is appropriate to the person and behavior being presented.
• HWC’s Small Child Program: We have the only program offering training specifically tailored to pre-school and early elementary school students.

HANDLE WITH CARE TEACHES:

• Verbal intervention and de-escalation
• Personal Defense: Defense of self and others (3rd person saves and youths engaging in self harm)
• Physical Restraint: standing, seated and floor
• Escort/Transport
• Handcuffing (where applicable)
• Special Interventions: breaking up fights, pregnant females, medical or other orthopedic or health restrictions, wheel chairs, various medical conditions, special needs children, managing smaller/larger youth, seclusion and time-out.

HWC allows Officers to calibrate their intervention for students ranging from Prek – K12 in a manner that is least restrictive, least injurious, and most appropriate.

The upper levels of HWC training bridges therapeutic behavior management and traditional law enforcement training including:

• Higher on the continuum personal defense and defense of others techniques not taught in HWC.
• Higher on the continuum techniques for breaking up fights
• Non-lethal weapon disarms
• Additional restraint and control techniques not taught in HWC for i.e. larger students
• Handcuffing techniques off of these additional restraint and control techniques
• Additional escort techniques not taught in HWC i.e. for larger students

HWC has been extensively evaluated by leading forensic (forensic pathologists) experts, state policy makers, chief medical examiners, law enforcement, schools, doctors, nurses, paraprofessionals, licensed social workers, teachers, principals, superintendents, state approval boards in Juvenile Justice, Education, Human and Family Services.  HWC has also been reviewed by Dr. Michael Baden, formerly the chief medical examiner for NYS and arguably the foremost forensic (pathologist) authority in the United States.

HWC’s proprietary holding method, the Primary Restraint Technique^®  or PRT^® is patented for its safeguards to prevent positional asphyxia. These safeguards are additionally designed to prevent any other type of medical emergency.

HWC OFFERS TWO TRAINING OPTIONS:

• On-Site Training: HWC sends a trainer to you
• Seminar Training:  Your facility sends people to one of our seminars

For a school brochure, click the link below.  For a law enforcement brochure click here.