New School Crisis Instructors Trained

Four new professional crisis management instructors trained last week, to help the Putnam Schools deal with growth in the district.

Special Education Supervisor Sheri Roberson said the school system employees will train other faculty how to manage students in a state of crisis. Roberson said the special education department is growing each year so they need more people to be able to train the rest of the staff.

“It’s a constant, so we cycle people through and then as you bring new people in that’s a three-day training on new people,” Roberson said. “So that’s pulling them to have to do those trainings so, so that you have more people to spread those trainings among throughout the year.”

Roberson said the goal of training more instructors is to improve safety and security for both students and staff. She said the instructors will mostly be training special education teachers, but some general education teachers will also be trained in buildings with a smaller amount of programming.

“Anytime a student is in crisis, you want to ensure that that student is safe,” Roberson said. “That they are not eloping from the building, that if they are hitting their head on the floor or if they’re hitting their head on the wall, or if they’re – that the other children in the room are safe, that you are at all times keeping that student in a safe state.”

Roberson said the four employees were certified as instructors by the Professional Crisis Management Association (PCMA) when the course finished Friday. She said the school system will have a total of nine instructors after the training.

“We’re hoping to add more, but there is a cost, plus then it is pretty strenuous when you’re doing it,” Roberson said. “So you have to find the right people who want to do the training.”

Roberson said their instructors have to be re-certified with PCMA each year to maintain their status and the rest of the staff have to be re-trained annually by one of the instructors.