Written By: Robert D. Sollars
Will 2021 be a new year with new beginnings? When it comes to workplace/school violence (WPV/SV), it’s highly unlikely. Promises have been made and promises have been broken by innumerable supposed big shots, media personalities, law enforcement, government, and other talking heads with an agenda…old ways rather than new beginnings.
When it comes to WPV/SV, everyone, literally everyone – even some security professionals – focuses on only one aspect of these violent issues and that’s just plain out-and-out wrong, 150% wrong. Solving one problem with a knee-jerk reaction can’t possibly be expected to solve the problem in either setting. What is needed is simple enough but ignored by nearly everyone involved…even those security professionals tasked with protecting everyone.
It takes a multi-disciplinary approach to stop these events from occurring. A band-aid doesn’t help an ax or chain saw wound on your leg, likewise, putting a band-aid on just one issue within WPV/SV at a time doesn’t work either. As a sidenote…neither do knee-jerk reactions…they waste millions of dollars for a very poor return on investment for the kids, parents, educators, employees, managers, & organizations, and yet no one seems to notice. Why don’t they notice? Simple…they’re assuaging g the fears of everyone by spending money and pandering to the instinct that money can fix everything…which of course it can’t.
That multi-disciplinary approach is something that seems so damned over-whelming & daunting as to say, we’ll deal with it later…like a leaky water pipe in the house.
With the pandemic soon to be on the decline, hopefully, due to the vaccines, in all reality we’ll see a huge increase in the number of workplace/school violence numbers for the year 2021, if you haven’t noticed violent crime is up at an alarming rate – everywhere including small towns. The pent-up aggression of school kids, who for the most part have been cooped up at home, for at least the last 6 – 10 months, “learning…NOT”, domestic violence abusers & the abused locked down together in a house, along with child abuse, and the simple aggression & mental issues people are feeling because of it.
These issues are causing, and will cause the uptick in WPV/SV during this coming year… We could see a double-digit increase in the violence at schools, mainly fistfights, and vandalism, as well as assaults like the one in Fresno, Ca. (a woman stomped on the countertop, threatening employees and other customers because she had no mask on – September 18, 2020, or the shooting in Rockford, IL. December 26, or the bombing in Nashville December 25).
While no one may be hurt except emotionally by a verbal tirade, or a soda thrown in their face, some can have the trauma of having a knife against their throat and being threatened. This trauma can be lifelong in some instances. Then about those who actually get injured or killed while at work or while attending school?
Think of the parents, significant others, children, and others who will be traumatized by the event for hours, days, weeks, or even years in some cases. Do any of us, I do mean any of us…including my own mean & nasty self, have a clue as to the trauma any of those can produce?
My prediction is that 2021 won’t be a new year for new beginnings, except the new beginning of increased violence for a multitude of reasons, including the past election, lockdowns, masks, food shortages to come, and then just plain old-fashioned anger and mentally unstable people that are in the community.
Watch for a series of posts coming soon on the 25 warning signs…spaced over a couple of weeks so as not to inundate you with them.
It happens to Anyone…Any Time… Anywhere… For any Reason
I May Be Blind, but My Vision Is Crystal Clear
Permission to share? Of course, with full attribution.
Copyright 2020 Robert D. Sollars
