Episode Details

Happy Friday!

I sincerely thank you for everything you have done this week to educate our students despite some really rare and harsh distractions. I especially want to thank our security and law enforcement members for leading us through multiple bomb threats earlier this week without incident. Last year, on Wednesday, November 17th, there was a bomb threat made at the high school and there were two major differences in results from last year to this year: one, there was much less communication between students and parents keeping the crowds away; and, two, there was an arrest made.

These positive outcomes happened because of reflection on past performance, learning from mistakes, making corrections, and improving training. We are especially grateful for the smart actions of the MMS office staff. If they had not taken the steps they were trained to take, law enforcement would not have made an arrest as swiftly as they did.

This week’s Wrap-up has some news and updates but I would like to center it around our actions to stay on-mission as a way to deal with all of the distractions taking place now and in the future.

Mission Focused

There is a sentence in our mission statement that says, We exemplify personal accountability by celebrating successes and learning from failures without abandoning purpose. The way we all responded to the bomb threat on Tuesday was better than what we did before because we recognized mistakes or failures. When we recognize our faults in such an important task as dealing with an emergency, we certainly cannot give up and admit that we are not good at it because the consequences of giving up would be very terrible. We do not abandon our purpose because it is so important to others who may depend upon us.

Having a mission also helps us to focus on others instead of ourselves. In many instances of emergency, there is a lot of chaos because people become concerned with their own survival. We depend upon trained professionals who have a specific mission and focus on that mission to help others. They bring order to the chaos and reassure the rest of us that we are safe or show us what to do so we can become safe.

Our professional and personal mission(s) in life and work is how we restore and retain order when there is chaos. When we internalize these reasons for working or living, they help us to guide each other and ourselves toward the safety and comfort that is disrupted when unpredictable emergencies or tragedies take place.

When we are in our normal routines, our professional mission in work helps us build strong professional relationships with those around us. It is important that our relationships with students and colleagues are mission-centered in order to keep an even keel. If our relationships are not mission-centered then they are only established by emotions, and we know how emotions can impact relationships when emergencies arise. When we lose sight of the mission and focus on emotion, we can say and do things that hurt ourselves and each other. So, stay mission-focused.

Cybersecurity

Many of us are aware of computer ransomware and malware attacks that have happened close to home. Our hospital suffered such an attack not long ago and some school districts have, as well. But the latest attack on the Little Rock School District has caused great concern in the state. When the best way out is to pay a quarter of a million dollars to your attacker, which is what LRSD did, the rest of us want to make sure we are not faced with the same problem.

So, starting in the next month and through the school year, Nathan and the tech team will be taking action to make our network more secure. Some things