Originally Posted by treelizard

I haven't read this whole thread but here's my $.02 anyway... I used to carry weapons everywhere I went until I started teaching. Since it's basically a felony to have so much as a pocket knife within a certain distance of a school, I knew I couldn't carry to work. I also knew that I would be likely to "accidentally" have something on or near my car if I carried at all, so I started carrying more and more infrequently. I guess I felt also like I had to get used to not carrying so I could do it without feeling naked since I feel like the area I work at is the place where I am most likely to get into a physical confrontation. I take many precautions (such as not getting gas near my work and basically just driving straight home) and we have the best security team at my school that I could ask for. So far my biggest issues have been a kid squaring up to me (which I honestly just started laughing and that seemed to disarm him), a lockdown (which was a false alarm as there was nobody inside the school, but I would have been relatively prepared if there were), someone tagging on my vehicle (this person was caught on camera and there were many witnesses some of whom intervened), and most recently a six-person fight. I responded to that by getting help, which basically caused everyone to disperse and then when I got help we figured out who was involved. I was kind of mad at myself for not physically stopping it but I know of very few people who would try to take on six kids on their own, and I am pretty happy with the outcome with what I did do--the fight ended, names were gotten, and there weren't additional people that got hurt.

The crazy thing is that it is ILLEGAL for me to physically touch any student. This includes taking someone's hand to escort them to the door or even putting a hand on their shoulder. The advice I received about preventing violence, breaking up fights, etc. involved wearing running shoes, not allowing anyone to get between you and an exit, getting out of the room and getting a billion dollar umbrella policy to protect from lawsuits, etc. Lots of "do not touch the student under any circumstances." I guess when it comes down to it, I want my students to be safe and running away is safer than engaging. As far as breaking up fights, I feel like it would theoretically be cool and heroic to break up a fight rather than let students cause serious harm to one another, but I would not take it on on my own. Honestly, hepatitis and HIV are two good reasons to stay away from fighting children. Sound callous? Maybe.

Anyway, I know I've been pushing SBGi a lot but this is a great article:
http://www.straightblastgym.com/awareness_vs.htm