Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

School District 49

First Presenter’s Email Address

lfletcher@d49.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Louis L. Fletcher is the Executive Director of Facilities and Operations for El Paso County Colorado School District 49. He leads transportation, nutrition services, facility maintenance, security deployment, strategic planning, and capital construction managers and directors serving over 28,000 PK-12 Students. Prior to becoming Executive Director, he was the Director of Culture and Services for School District 49; developed and implemented district-wide education, outreach, and training to promote a culture of inclusion, equity, and respect. Prior to coming to District 49, he was the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Webster University’s Denver Metro campus. Previously he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Western Region of Troy University where he was responsible for leading the academic programs offered at 10 campuses in the western United States and Northeast Asia. Dr. Fletcher served as an officer in the United States Air Force for 20 years in locations such as Korea, Greece, France, and Germany; his final assignment was as the founding dean of the Advanced Space Operations School in Colorado Springs. He served in key roles such as Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies (Howard University; an HBCU), Regional Director of Admissions (University of Maryland), Chief of Operations Training (Thule Air Base Greenland), and Instructor at the National Security Space Institute (NSSI) in Colorado Springs.

Second Presenter's Institution

School District 49 (Colorado)

Second Presenter’s Email Address

dwatson@d49.org

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Mr. David Watson has been with District 49 since 2007 and serves as the Director of Safety and Security. His previous background includes 21 years as a police officer and Sheriff’s Deputy (Retired), and as a Staff Sergeant in the Colorado Army National Guard. He attended Colorado Technical University and Rio Salado Community College. Mr. Watson is passionate about school safety and is on the Officer’s Board as the secretary for the Colorado Association of School Safety Law Enforcement Officers (CASSLEO) and is an active advocate for school safety procedures both in the Pike’s Peak region, as well as statewide.

Location

Session Two

Strand #1

Hands: Safety & Violence Prevention

Strand #2

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

The proposal relates to "Safety & Violence Prevention" because the techniques for conflict de-escalation are essential to restoring an environment where non-violent issue resolution is possible. The dysregulation of school staff, students, and even school boards following the pandemic is well-documented; therefore, it is imperative that skills to defuse escalating situations that eroded during the pandemic be relearned as best practice in school districts. Conflict de-escalation can be utilized between peers, with students, during parent-teacher conferences, and in public forums with the community. This skill could be incorporated into a multi-tiered support system that may begin with a teacher starting the de-escalation process in the classroom with the potential to remain procedurally consistent if a security element has to respond to a student situation that escalated beyond the teacher's control. The proposal relates to "Mental & Physical Health" because conflict creates stress, which is physiologically manifested by the excretion of the 'fight or flight' stress hormone, cortisol. Sustained conflict leads to excessive cortisol in an individual's system, which could manifest as anxiety, depression, memory and concentration problems, problems with digestion, trouble sleeping, and/or weight gain. There is no social or interpersonal situation that does not have the potential to produce conflict, so it is important to cultivate de-escalation skills as a countermeasure to allowing people to live in constantly stressful circumstances. This presentation is geared to help people recognize the precursors to conflict, manage their reactions, and work toward reestablishing an environment where civil negotiation can happen.

Brief Program Description

The Executive Director of Facilities and Operations and the Director of Safety and Security for a Colorado School district with 28,000 students will share tools, techniques, and experiences with conflict resolution. The presenters will outline the recognizable precursors to conflict, the importance of the individual's initial reaction, and provide tools to facilitate de-escalation. This interactive presentation provides relevant tools to de-escalate conflicts between peers, supervisors and subordinates, teachers and students, teachers and parents, school security officers and students, superintendents and board members, and school districts and community members.

Summary

Conflict de-escalation and resolution techniques are evidence-based approaches to restoring civility to dysregulated instructional, work-based, and community-facing situations. The aftermath of the pandemic is marked by dysregulation between K-12 colleagues, within K-12 classrooms, and in school district board meetings nationally. Polarization over issues like wearing masks and receiving vaccinations as well as missed opportunities for student socialization are all likely suspects for the post-pandemic spike in conflict. If we are yelling at each other, we cannot work together to achieve the mission of educating students in the nation's public education institutions. Defusing escalating situations can be achieved through the implementation of systematic approaches that allow individuals to recognize the emergence of conflict, manage their response to the initial conflict, and employ tools to either resolve the conflict or hand off the conflict to a more capable negotiator. The presenters will introduce the concept of the conflict triangle to identify the relationship between observable behavior and the underlying interests of individuals involved in conflicts. The presenters will outline the basic ways individuals typically address conflict and establish a restorative framework for resolving conflict. Finally, the presenters will provide the participants with evidence-based tools the participants can use to resolve conflict on a daily basis. Conflicts have always existed in classrooms and school districts, but a period of social isolation has eroded individual ability to de-escalate conflict. The presentation is intended to refresh and refurbish the skills of individuals who had them in the past and to introduce new skills to individuals who were never equipped to defuse escalating situations.

Evidence

Conflict management is the tactic employed in response to perceived struggles in social circumstances (Rahim, Magner, Antonioni & Rahman, 2001). The conceptual scheme for classifying the modes for handling interpersonal incompatibilities was originally launched by Blake and Mouton (1964). Blake and Mouton's dual concerns theory proposed that people share two prime motivations for interpersonal conflict: the desire to realize one's own goals (concern for production) versus the desire to meet interpersonal relationships (concern for people). The mixture of the two concerns ends in the introduction of five discrete strategies smoothing, problem-solving, compromising, withdrawing, and forcing (Blake & Mouton, 1964).

Aasheim M., Drugli M.-B., Reedtz C., Handegard B. H., Martinussen M. (2018). Change in teacher-student relationships and parent involvement after implementation of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management programme in a regular Norwegian school setting. British Educational Research Journal, 44(6), 1064–1083. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3479

Baker J. A. (2006). Contributions of teacher-child relationships to positive school adjustment during elementary school. Journal of School Psychology, 44(3), 211–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2006.02.002

Dyrbye, L.N.; Thomas, M.R.; Shanafelt, T.D. Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Acad. Med. 2006, 81, 354–373.

Anyon Y., Gregory A., Stone S., Farrar J., McQueen J., Downing B., . . . Simmons J. (2016). Restorative interventions and school discipline sanctions in a large urban school district. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1663-1697.

Hawes MT, Szenczy AK, Klein DN, Hajcak G, Nelson BD (2021) Increases in depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Med. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720005358

Thomas K. W. Conflict and conflict management In Dunnette M. (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1975

Learning Objective 1

The participants will be able to recognize the precursors to conflict.

Learning Objective 2

The participants will understand how to use conflict de-escalation tools to defuse tense situations.

Learning Objective 3

The participants will understand when removing themselves from the conflict and/or inviting a neutral third-party to mediate the conflict is appropriate.

Keyword Descriptors

Conflict Resolution, Dysregulation, Restorative Practices, Conflict Management, Mediation

Presentation Year

2024

Start Date

3-4-2024 11:30 AM

End Date

3-4-2024 1:00 PM

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Mar 4th, 11:30 AM Mar 4th, 1:00 PM

Defusing Escalating Situations

Session Two

The Executive Director of Facilities and Operations and the Director of Safety and Security for a Colorado School district with 28,000 students will share tools, techniques, and experiences with conflict resolution. The presenters will outline the recognizable precursors to conflict, the importance of the individual's initial reaction, and provide tools to facilitate de-escalation. This interactive presentation provides relevant tools to de-escalate conflicts between peers, supervisors and subordinates, teachers and students, teachers and parents, school security officers and students, superintendents and board members, and school districts and community members.