Crisis Intervention
I participated in a very useful training program today. Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training, which was formerly reserved for SPED teachers, was open to all teachers this year. I would have taken it sooner had I known about it, but my campus administrators have a way of withholding more useful information from teachers. After speaking with one of the trainers today I learned that my administrators should have had me in the training within 30 days of an incident that I was involved in earlier in the year.
I suggest everyone take this type of training their earliest convenience, especially if working with a predominantly high risk student population. The training covers many areas of self defense and how to gain a physical and psychological advantage over students with a potential for violent behavior. What I like best about the training is that they teach how to deescalate a situation before it ever turns violent. They also focus on safe, legal, and nonviolent restraint measures which would have helped me in my situation earlier in the year.
I was baffled by the fact that they do not offer this training to everyone, or even make it mandatory for all teachers. I truly believe that this should be taught in college, and maintained throughout a teacher's career. The way our district has it set up, a teacher becomes certified after two full days of training, and must practice twice monthly to maintain the skills and certification, but it is all voluntary. No one has to take the training unless you are a SPED teacher, and no one is required to maintain their certification throughout the year. If one chooses not to attend their by-weekly training, they just loose their certification. I can't believe that our district doesn't place more emphasis on NCIT.