UW-Madison alumnus David Perrodin presented at the July 3 Wednesday Night at the Lab (WN@TL) event, delivering a talk on the UW-Madison campus titled, “School safety in America: Rhetoric vs reality.”
Perrodin earned his Ph.D. from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) in 2016.
Perrodin, author of the book “School of errors — rethinking school safety in America,” addresses the ambiguity of school safety plans. What is a “good” school safety plan and what is a “good” school safety drill? Perrodin explains to WN@TL that schools must attempt to interpret and apply these foggy expectations with little oversight and less accountability.
Fortifications, though a common “solution” to the problem, are proving not to be the answer, explains Perrodin. While parents and communities want to “see” security, Perrodin suggests that schools focus more on safety research than on increased fortifications, which are often under-researched and easy to undermine. He tells WN@TL that schools have allowed security vendors to become the experts.
Perrodin pushes his audience to consider rhetoric versus reality of school safety, hoping that schools and communities think past fortifications to develop more holistic security programs.
Watch a recording of Perrodin’s Wednesday Night at the Labe presentation via this YouTube link.