School of Errors

School of Errors establishes another voice in the discussion of how to promote safe schools.  It challenges the unchecked expansion of school fortification and questions the realized benefit of inter-agency collaboration during a sentinel event.  This book offers an alternative to traumatizing simulations by providing clear options for improving school safety by the empirically-proven effective measures of leakage detection (preventive) and sensemaking (reactive). School of Errors restores the scientific method to school safety and clears a path through the media rhetoric fogging this vital topic.

Dr. David Perrodin’s School of Errors allows readers inside the mind of an expert educator, a national resource in school safety research, and a compelling story teller. Perrodin lays out a guide for considering safety that prioritizes data-driven research over rhetoric, student learning over unnecessary fear, and wisdom over bumper sticker solutions. At least one person on every school board should have read this book before weighing another district safety decision. This is essential reading for school leaders, but worth the time for anyone interested in the larger national dialogue around safety. His gift as a writer is to connect the particulars of school safety to the larger realities of human existence, history, and patterns that only a gifted expert can show us., In every field there is that one man who is led by facts and truth rather than fads or group thinking. When it comes to school safety, David Perrodin is that man, and his book School of Errors reveals why., A brave demonstration of speaking truth to power “School of Errors” rips the lid off the billion-dollar school safety industry. Using real-world examples of successful responses in desperate situations, David contrasts the expensive window dressings pitched to panicked parents, with the inexpensive and effective approaches proven to actually work. Read this book before you let your school waste another precious dollar on meaningless safety ‘theater.’, Over the last 20 years, in the wake of unthinkable school shootings, school safety has propelled itself to priority number one for school leaders. A priority that has not had the thoughtful support of understanding what we need to do to address the simple question, “What if?” A question with an endless number of scenarios which we honestly struggle to reasonably counter. We spend countless amounts of resources of time and money to fortify our schools and train our staff. Yet intuitively we sense we are somehow possibly missing the boat. David allows us a moment to step back and thoughtfully reconsider the landscape before us., Dr. David Perrodin gives the reader a contrarian view on the current school security establishment. The emphasis is placed more on the individual for timely action than it does bollard fencing. Perrodin’s School of Errors puts you in the front row of active shooter crime scenes. What is needed and how to survive them.

David Perrodin, PhD, promotes a safety initiative of taking action before a disaster strikes. He is an author, educator, researcher, professor, expert witness, consultant, host of The Safety Doc Podcast, and bicyclist. David received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he researched high stakes safety decisions in education, health care and military. He has presented on PBS and wrote and directed a film about school safety with Pulitzer Prize winner David Obst. Dr. Perrodin has a passion for helping schools and companies design and implement safety instruction and threat reporting tools that are accessible to students with special needs.