SAM Programs Blog

We are so pleased with the turnout for the SAM Program this week we decided to make it extra special by adding 3 additional instructors. This Thursday, March 17, 2011 SAM will have 5 instructors teaching the SAM Program. As each new facet of the Program is introduced, we will have a specialist in that discipline take you through the skills and tactics you need. Your instructors:

Roland Ouellette – Roland is the Director of Training and co-founder of SAM Program. Roland is the author, trainer, and founder of the Management of Aggressive Behavior (MOAB).

Mike Kaselouskas – Mike is a Lieutenant as the University of Hartford responsible for Day Operations. Mike is also a board member of IECLEA.

The SAM Program instructors will also be joined by:

Dennis Jurasz – Dennis retired from law enforcement in 1994 after serving 20 years with the same agency and is currently manager of training for Delta Airlines Global Services Security Division.

Guy Rossi – Guy is a retired Police Sergeant of the Rochester, New York Police Department who specialized in patrol, field training and defensive tactics instruction. Guy’s current focus is assisting with the instruction and on-going development of SAM.

Terry Smith – Terry was most recently in charge of Monadnock training. In this role, he developed and managed courseware, along with establishing curriculum procedures for the Monadnock PR-24, Monadnock Expandable Baton, and Monadnock Defensive Tactics System programs.

You don’t want to miss this very special event: five skilled and experienced trainers providing their expertise within the framework of the SAM Program. If you would like to join us at the University of Hartford please call (954) 255-6300. See program information below. For more information please check out the website using this link: www.samprograms.com/programs/descriptions.php

If you can’t join us this week, please plan on joining us in the late spring and summer for another SAM Program. We will have details out soon. Also, follow us on our blog, www.samprograms.com/wp/, which will provide you current information on SAM as well as local and national events that affect SAM.

Bonnie S. Michelman is a member of the SAM Advisory Board which provides valuable advice and guidance with the mission of SAM — “The Safety You Want. The Training Solution You Need.”

She was recently named to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano. Bonnie, who is the Massachusetts General Hospital Director of Police, Security and Outside Services was one of three newly appointed members of HSAC.

HSAC provides advice and recommendations to the Secretary on matter related to homeland security. The Council comprises leaders from state and local government, first responder communities, the private sector and academia.

Bonnie Michelman has been a very good friend of SAM and helpful in our mission to address school safety. SAM congratulates Bonnie in her important new role with Homeland Security.

Since our email went out a week ago there has been another shooting involving a 22 year old student and his instructor. The student was upset and left the classroom and came back to the classroom with a semi-automatic gun and shot and killed his instructor. Would you have accurately assessed his non-verbal communication? Do you know what to do if you are confronted by an active shooter?

SAM Programs were developed to address this disheartening trend. SAM’s comprehensive curriculum addresses preparedness and prevention, empowering individuals with practical safety skills. These skills will allow an individual to deal with aggressive behavior, bullying, violence and an active shooter.

On March 17, 2011, SAM is holding a one-day Instructor course. The course is being held at the University of Hartford and will be taught by Roland Ouellette (Director of Training, SAM) and Mike Kaselouskas (University of Hartford). The course will provide the necessary skills and training to allow an Instructor to go back to their community and provide training to all those that may confront aggressive behavior.

Unfortunately, aggressive behavior in our schools is only going to get worse. Be prepared to address this trend — sign up today for SAM.

Students and administrators who have acquired skills in non-verbal and verbal communication can reduce physical confrontations by 90%. There are five(5) methods of communication: non-verbal, listening, verbal, reading and writing. Of these five, non-verbal is the most critical to understand. Approximately, 90% of human communication is non-verbal. The angrier people get, the less they focus on words and the more they focus on non-verbal (body language) communication.

Most of us have received an education which puts an emphasis on reading and writing but not on the three highest forms of communication: non-verbal, verbal and listening skills. Some progressive elementary schools are now teaching kids how to be empathic towards other kids given credence to the notion that “how” we communicate with others is important. Clearly, the earlier we learn these skills the greater the opportunity to practise and implement the communication skills.

I have received feedback from many organizations such as hospitals, corporations and law enforcement agencies over the past twenty-five years who have trained their employees in verbal, non-verbal and listening skills. As a result of the training, they report that they have reduced physical confrontations by 60 to 90 percent.

Ultimately, knowing how and when to let an individual to vent, making an empathic statement at the appropriate time, using supportive non-verbal communication, using proper eye communication, initiating proper gestures and/or posture, can quickly calm an angry or agitated individual. In the video below, the reporter takes us through another senseless shooting by a 22 year old student at a Los Angeles vocational school. It is pretty clear from the report that the teacher should have picked up on the non-verbal communication of the student prior to the shooting. It is pretty clear that the student was displaying classic non-verbal communication that should have tipped off the instructor that the student was going to commit some act of violence. Take a look.

Los Angeles School Shooting – SAM Programs

SAM Programs is a training program looking to assist administrators and students with non-verbal skills. SAM also provides a number of skill sets to prepare the potential victim to address aggressive behavior. Please check out the SAM website for a more complete description of the training programs.

SAM Programs

The escalation of aggressive behavior and outright violence in our schools is alarming. Everyone is subject to a certain amount of risk: students, teachers, security and administration. Nationally, teachers are subject to over 400,000 violent crimes a year and students, ages 12 through 18, are subject to over 250,000 crimes a year.

SAM Training was developed to address this disheartening trend. SAM’s comprehensive curriculum addresses preparedness and prevention, empowering individuals with practical safety skills. These skills will allow an individual to deal with aggressive behavior, bullying, violence and an active shooter.

On March 17, 2011, SAM is holding a one-day Instructor course. The course is being held at University of Hartford and will be taught by Roland Ouellette (Director of Training, SAM) and Mike Kaselouskas (University of Hartford). The course will provide the necessary skills and training to allow an Instructor to go back to their community and provide training to all those that may confront aggressive behavior. For more information and details see below.

“He/she didn’t fit the profile.” Don’t let this be your excuse — let SAM (www.samprograms.com) teach you how to be proactive against this alarming trend.

Thank you.

Roland Ouellette
Director of Training
SAM Training, LLC
P.O. Box 970067
Coconut Creek, FL 33097
954-255-6300
www.samprograms.com

Students in middle school, high school and college should learn certain skills to deal with violent situations that they may encounter in their educational community. Over 80% of students will become victims of attempted or completed violent crimes (i.e., murder, robbery, rape, and/or aggravated assault) during their lifetime.

The “Bull’s-eye image” highlights what: 1) students must know (red); 2) students should know (yellow); 3) students may want to know (green).

MUST KNOW (Red):

1. How to mentally prepare themselves so they will respond automatically when confronted with various violent situations.

2. How to manage a situation whereby someone has put a gun or knife to his/her face.

3. What to do when they are in a classroom with an active shooter and there is no ability to escape.

4. How to mange a knife threat when they are cornered and can’t escape.

5. How to escape from a front choke hold.

6. How to escape from a wrist grab when the assailant is trying to pull them into a vehicle or off a jogging trail.

7. How to escape from a rear choke hold.

8. How to escape from a rear bear hug.

9. Understanding the nonverbal signals of assault that is imminent.

10. How to manage bullying.

SHOULD KNOW (Yellow):

1. How to read the non-verbal signals of a person who has decided to assault them.

2. How to read eye communications.

3. How to divert the focus of someone with a gun or knife.

4. How to manage an individual who is yelling or screaming at you.

NICE TO KNOW (Green):

1. Safety rules like: Not walking alone on campus at night.

2. Letting people know where you are going and how your going to get there.

3. Staying out of dark places.

4. Asking security to walk you to your car in a dark parking lot.

5. Keeping your dorm room locked.

6. Looking under and in the back seat of a car before entering.

Let the trainers at SAM teach you these skills so that you are prepared to address the potential risks associated with the BULL’S-EYE.

Over 80% of Americans will become victims of attempted or completed violent crimes (ie, murder, robbery, rape, and/or aggravated assault) during their lifetimes.

About half of this sampling will be victims two or more times (National Crime Prevention Council).

1 in 153 Americans will be murdered (Dr. Henry Lee).

According to the American Association of University Women, 20 to 25 percent of college women are raped during their college studies and 65 percent of these attacks go unreported. I doubt that is the case and if it is, it won’t be long before they are exposed.

2.7 million crimes are committed at or near schools annually.

These statistics tell us that schools should be offering, in addition to Calculus and Earth Science, “Violence 101.”

In training tens of thousands of individuals on how to manage violence in the past 40 years, I have heard countless comments like, “I can’t wait to train my children in what I learned here.”; “My daughter is going to college and I’m petrified she’ll be assaulted.”; or, “Why don’t the schools offer a program like this for students?”.

During one of my training sessions, I had a school principal tell me that we shouldn’t put fear into the minds of students. I asked him, “What would you do if I pulled out a gun, pointed it at your head, and said I’m going to kill you?”. He gave me a blank look — and that blank look told me he was ill prepared to deal with a common occurance happening today in our educational system. His response is no different than most responses I receive to that same question.

We will always have aggressive behavior and violence. There was an extraordinary correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Albert Einstein’s letter to Sigmund Freud, “man has in him the need to hate and destroy.” Freud agreed and added: “Human instinct could be divided into 2 categories, those which seek to destroy and kill and those which seek to preserve and unite.”

Students see violence in movies, on TV, in video games and on-line. I can’t believe that training them on how to manage aggressive and violent confrontations would scare them but rather, I believe they would be grateful. Three hours of training on how to manage violent crimes for students in middle school, high school or college could significantly change our national crime statistics.

Whether schools or parents should be responsible to train young people on how to deal with real life violent situations, is up for discussion. SAM is a program that allows the community to learn the proper techniques when confronted with aggressive or violent behavior. Each community can decide how far down the waterfall they want the training to take place. I strongly believe education for all is better than shielding certain individuals because they haven’t been exposed to the aggressiveness and violence in the world.

It was aired today in the New York metro area that Mayor Bloomberg is continuing with his crusade on non-legitimate gun sales. It was reported on CBS 880 that New York City sent two investigators to Phoenix fifteen days after the Tuscon shootings to buy hand guns. The two investigators informed the seller of the guns that they would probably fail a background check for the two semi-automatic pistols. The seller was OK with their disclosure and sold the guns to the two investigators. Clearly money was more important to the seller than the safety of his fellow citizens.

The availability and access of guns today makes the Active Shooter scenario a real possibility. Although Mayor Bloomberg has made it his mission in his last administration, this issue is not going away anytime soon. Until the Federal government steps in and passes laws with real teeth in them to restrict the sale of guns to non-legitimate buyers, the Active Shooter will be a very real scenario in many educational environments.

Please Note: Image provided by Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

As many of you know, I have been busy setting up a new company titled SAM Training, LLC. We officially launched in November 2010 and I/we have been busy talking about the program and setting up training sessions for 2011.

After selling MOAB Training International, Inc., I decided to create SAM Training to assist the educational community with the bullying and aggressive behavior that has become such a major problem in our kids’ education. Unfortunately, we’ve all heard about the horrific situations at Columbine, Virginia Tech and many others. And because of my training and experience, I know that these situations don’t have to end so tragically. With SAM, I believe we can make a difference and give those in harm’s way the tools to either stop or limit the damage.

I’ve committed my life to safety and the principles behind it. It’s important to me to know kids are safe in school and that their administrators and teachers are trained in the proper techniques to deal with aggressive behavior. Unfortunately, our kids are exposed to more and more violence and many of them face a real threat in their school environments — grade school through graduate school.

Please take this opportunity to visit the SAM Training website (www.samprograms.com) and also spend a couple of minutes on the blog. I have started to write about current events that touch on aggressive behavior in schools and society, so please check out my recent post, “Active Shooter: What to do when you are trapped.”

This program is important to me — please let me know if you think there is a fit with what you are currently doing or possibly in your community.

Thank you,

Roland

Unfortunately, we have all heard about the horrible situations of school violence at Columbine(CO), Virginia Tech(VA), Omaha(NE), Marinette(WI), and yesterday in Gardena(CA). “We’re shocked”, “No one can believe this could happen here”, “This is such a quiet community”, He seemed like such a nice boy”, ” He didn’t fit the profile”. SCHOOLS SHOULD EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED WHEN IT COMES TO SCHOOL VIOLENCE.

“When then” planning vs. “If then” planning is the question to be answered so the proper “path” to preparedness can be put into place. Given the number of situations and the nationwide distribution, the most prudent planning would be a “When then” plan based on the premise that at some point an act of violence is going to happen in your school.

When a gunman is on campus; when someone points a gun at us; when there is random shooting in the classroom — we [administration, student body] will respond this way . . . THIS IS OUR PLAN!. All schools should have a written plan, supported by training and drills, that are understood and available for staff and students in a crisis situation. The training should be reinforced with drills to provide proper physical and mental preparedness so that you don’t “freeze” at the moment of crisis — but instead, let instinct and muscle memory provide the optimal reaction. Give the administration and student body a fighting chance in the face of an active shooter on campus.

Roland Ouellette has over 35 years of experience with law enforcement and aggressive behavioral training. With SAM Training he and his staff are looking to make a difference in the way our schools approach bullying, aggressive behavior and active shooters. Take a look at the SAM website and decide whether or not your school needs instruction to help mitigate aggressive behavior.