It's Been Said....

Who remembers a TV show in the 1970's called The Brady Bunch? For that matter, does anyone besides me remember the start to The Brady Bunch? It begins by saying "this is a story". The show, for those too young to remember, is about a blended family that includes three boys (sons of the father in the series) and three girls (daughters of the mother in the series). It took place in the 1970's, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some folks don't remember it. Anyway, the show featured a lot of family dynamics going on. Some might even call those family dynamics dysfunctional. Things often got a bit chaotic at times by standards of the time. But the things I remember about the show include how the lessons learned by the children from their individual parents before being blended into The Brady Bunch influenced how they reacted to their new lives as The Brady Bunch. Morals of the stories presented? There was always a happy ending with lessons learned somewhere along ...

Today is the 24th anniversary of "Columbine". It just doesn't seem that long ago when so many lives were irrevocably altered in a manner that a lot of folks have said they just cannot imagine happening to themselves. We'll be seeing a lot of remembrances on a lot of people's social media pages today. That's as it should be. After all, 13 precious lives were taken that day. I usually share some kind of remembrance on this day, as well. This year I'll also focus on a "thank you".  Thank you to everyone engaged in talking about their own experiences and memories of that day. Thank you for doing that no matter how brief you decide to be or how lengthy, no matter how traumatic it might be for you emotionally to share your thoughts and your feelings about what went on that day.....for you. That's something that I believe all too often gets kind of lost in the story that quite literally defined the way in which this particular massacre is presented....

Active Shooter Drills are NOT School Safety!!!! I could write a book on this one, but suffice to say if people (parents especially) want safer schools, they're going to have to invest themselves in the process to get there instead of being passive/aggressive about it. Frankly, I'm tired of people who keep condemning and vilifying active shooter drills while offering nothing as an alternative especially as presented in this article from April 14, 2019: Active shooter drills are scaring kids and may not protect them. Some schools are taking a new approach. Since then, nothing has really changed other than even more subject matter experts, psychologists, and psychiatrists weighing in and saying virtually the same thing.....repeatedly - that active shooter drills are harming kids. Folks, I'm here to tell you there's an entire process involved in designing, developing, and implementing an effective active shooter drill. Too many folks don't use that process, though. And ...