Always be Prepared

Old cliched sayings actually have truth behind them. A couple months ago I was forced to attend 7 hours of SAMA (Satori Alternatives to Managing Aggression) training. Essentially this taught us how to deescalate a potentially explosive situation by identifying with and finding a "win-win" situation with the student. Most of the verbal training was pretty common sense crap, but learning how to take down a dangerous student was pretty exhilarating, if not a bit awkward to practice.

I was in a class full of middle-aged men and women and these techniques required a lot of very in-your-face grabbing and throw downs. When I had to come from behind and slide down a woman's arms to grab her wrist, I just prayed I didn't do anything inappropriate or hurt her. At the time, I never really thought I would realistically use any of these strategies in school, so I ignored the trainer's recommendation to keep practicing the strategies every couple weeks.

A couple days ago, one of our quieter students refused to enter school when his mom dropped him off. my 2 co-workers were checking in students while I was watching the classroom with some other students. Over the radio I heard one of them say that they were "containing" the student in the hallway. Apparently he had been trying to run away and escape, but when the teachers were physically escorting him back to our class he began kicking my coworker's shins and struggling.

After 5 or so minutes, an Administrator got radioed to provide backup and documentation and the student was brought into our class. We rushed the other 2 students in the room to the other room so they would be safe. I was told to take my co-teacher's glasses, walkie, watch, and various other objects and put it in a safe area. He then motioned me over to get the student's feet to assist in the containment since the student was ramming himself into the door and resumed kicking my co-worker's shins. I grabbed the blue padded mat from the wall and set it up next to the student and then my mind went blank.

I couldn't remember whether to grab the kid's shins or his feet. After a couple seconds of deliberation, I grabbed his shins and waited. My co-teacher looked over and told me to grab the ankles, not the shins. I silently called myself an idiot for forgetting; especially with my assistant principal documenting what we were doing. As I steeled myself for my very first real-life containment, I felt a rush of adrenaline but also a sense of fear because my memory was still incredibly fuzzy on the positioning.

We ended up taking the student down quickly but gently and I had the kid's legs in a loose bear hug. For such a little 6th grader, the kid was surprisingly strong. I actually had to use a decent amount of pressure to keep his feet still, and I got rewarded with a jab to my jaw when an unexpected leg jerk caused my elbow to hit myself.

The first 5 minutes were fine because my blood was pumping and any pain was masked by adrenaline. Unfortunately since one of my arms was resting under his legs, there was some crazy blood-constriction going on and I was soon finding myself shifting positions to try and keep from losing circulation. After 20 minutes, my coworker took a break from talking w/ the student and looked at me. He let me know that the proper positioning was having both hands on top of his legs cupping his bottom knee. Once again, I was exposed in my lack of knowledge. I sheepishly thanked him and did what he said.

Well, that position was a bit better, but the pain was no longer caused by blood loss, but cramping in the shoulders and upper back. I had to keep pressure, but make sure to keep loose enough to prevent the student from hurting himself from my weight so my arms were partly lifted to provide room to breath. Altogether, we spent 40 some minutes talking him down until he was calm enough to take his carrel.

The experience left me with the realization that no matter how unlikely we feel like we'll need to show our proficiency in something, if it's even a chance of happening, we need to keep sharp by preparing and honing our skills. That day I felt like the event really challenged me to re-evaluate even how ready I am to share my faith with people. Am I so close w/ him at this moment that I can share with conviction and relevance or is my faith the faded and almost-forgotten faith of the past?