How pattern matching and recognition can make your buses safer

TOP ROW – Left: As the first line of contact between the school and the community, it is critical that bus drivers remain observant to any sign of danger. Middle: Being prepared to act and having adequate supplies to respond to a variety of emergency situations are critical for bus drivers, who are required to be their own crisis team for the first few minutes of most crisis situations. Right: A positive, cheerful demeanour is a good first start to defusing possible danger and improving communications between the driver, riders and parents.

BOTTOM ROW – Left:The average person would be surprised at the kinds of prohibited activities that the observant driver may notice during a bus route.Second to Left: Many violators assume that drivers are preoccupied with driving and in many cases, even believe that a driver will not notice illicit activity going on in close proximity. Third to Left: Bring prepared for everyday medical emergencies is one of the basic job functions of a bus driver, even though we all hope that most drivers are never forced to face this type of situation. Third to Right: Being alert and observant can help detect danger as well as other issues that come on the bus, including bullying, gang activity, depression and suicidal thoughts. Second to Right: Weapons and other contraband are one of the most basic reasons why drivers should be observant. While finding a gun on a bus or encountering the use of a weapon during a route can be scary, with proper training and alertness most drivers will be able to respond calmly, safely and professionally to a wide variety of incidents. Right: Being alert and observant can improve driver-rider communication, making it more likely that a driver will find out about dangerous situations and other issues that students may experience on the bus, including bullying, gang activity, depression and suicidal thoughts.

By Michael Dorn and Chris Dorn

Can a school bus driver think faster than a computer? In his book Sources of Power – How People Make Decisions, Dr. Gary Klein explains how research conducted by the United States military demonstrated that the human brain can make decisions more effectively and faster than a computer in certain types of life and death situations that require quick evaluations of judgment and nuance. According to Klein, when U.S. combat commanders attempted to use software programs to make decisions in military combat exercises, they were continually beaten by opposing commanders. The human opponents were simply able to make decisions faster and more effectively. We saw a real-life example of this when Angel Perry, a school bus driver in Henryville, Indiana reacted to the sudden appearance of a tornado during her route. Perry likely saved the lives of her riders with the rapid emergency evacuation of her bus as a tornado was bearing down on her. Reviewing the images from the bus’s security camera, you can hear her counting her students while she also gives them commands between counts. This is an impressive example of just how well school bus drivers can perform under extreme conditions.

There is one very important point about Klein’s research that bears specific exploration. His researchers found that the human brain functions rapidly and effectively, but only when it has been properly prepared. So the credit for Angel Perry’s amazing performance should also go to her supervisors and the training that provided what Klein refers to as a “base of knowledge” that she could rapidly apply under such demanding circumstances. One way in which we see this base of knowledge come into play is when people use what is referred to as pattern matching and recognition. This is a technique that can be learned and developed over time and only requires life experience and good judgment to exercise.

Developed in cardiac care units in

Australia, pattern matching and recognition has now long been incorporated into many other fields including: • Military training • Law enforcement • Security procedures • Antiterrorism practices • Dignitary protection

This evidence-based concept has been credited with reducing mortality in cardiac units by as much as 50 per cent by training staff to notice and appropriately act upon slight abnormalities in human behaviour. When nurses in cardiac units in England were provided additional training to help them spot the tangible signs that a patient was about to have a subsequent heart attack, fewer patients died. But when nurses in an Australian cardiac unit were provided with the same type of training, an amazing 50 per cent reduction in patient deaths occurred because of one additional instruction: nurses were told to request a special medical team to respond if they noticed that a patient did not act the same as other patients in similar circumstances based on the nurse’s experience – even when no tangible medical indicators of risk were present.

What we have since learned is that the nurses who had been specifically empowered to listen to their “gut instincts” were actually responding to subtle but observable differences that occur when a patient is in the early stages of distress. When pattern matching and recognition is applied with other types of training, it can enhance the ability of school staff to notice more tangible indicators.

What this means is that school bus drivers using pattern matching and recognition are more likely to detect threats, ranging from a student who is being bullied to a terrorist waiting at a bus stop with a rifle hidden under a long coat. The patterns that emerge can indicate a variety of types of danger other than direct violence. Pattern matching and recognition can improve the ability of school employees to detect a variety of types of risk including: • Bullying • Students at risk for suicide • Gang activity • Drug activity • A person who is carrying a weapon • Trespassing • People who are mentally ill • Medical emergencies

Pattern matching and recognition is extremely valuable in helping school bus drivers and aides to correctly identify a crisis in the first critical seconds. For example, in one Georgia case, a school bus driver noticed a middle-school student getting out a man’s car on a city street near a school. The driver called school district police officers and suggested they check on the man and the girl. Police found that the man had just molested the girl, and, upon searching the vehicle, also recovered a loaded handgun. Once the situation was stabilized, the driver told officers that though the man and girl had not done anything overtly suspicious, based on her day-

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to-day observations over many years of driving a school bus she felt that they did not act like a father and daughter normally would.

This skill set can also be incredibly important in crisis situations. In one tragic incident, a school administrator mistakenly thought a student had simply fainted when she had actually been shot with a small caliber handgun. Misreading the situation resulted in a delay of approximately eight minutes before an ambulance was called. The victim, who was an honour student, died before the ambulance arrived. This example helps us to understand why an immediate response is required for some crisis situations, and how differently things could have turned out if Angel Perry had not been so well prepared to make life and death decisions when faced with a tornado.

Helping drivers understand their own abilities to use pattern matching and recognition can help them more accurately recognize an emergency situation and take appropriate action to gain control of the situation and protect the students. Our experience has been that school bus drivers and support personnel can be effectively trained to spot danger and to make effective decisions under even the most challenging crisis situations. Drivers like Angel Perry have and will continue to amaze us when their organizations take the time to train and empower them to save human lives.

About the Authors: Michael Dorn serves as the executive director of Safe Havens International, a non-profit school safety center. The author of 26 books on school safety, Michael’s work over three decades has taken him to Central America, Mexico, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Michael and his son Chris have keynoted dozens of state, national and international pupil transportation conferences and trains thousands of school bus drivers each year. Michael welcomes reader feedback and can be reached at www.safehavensinternational.org.

Chris Dorn has co-authored five books on school safety and his work has taken him to Mexico, Bolivia, Canada, England, France, Vietnam, South Africa and the Netherlands. Chris has presented at dozens of state pupil transportation conferences as well as multiple School Transportation News and National Association of Pupil Transportation conferences. Chris leads the Safe Havens International Video Production Unit and has produced or assisted with hundreds of school safety-training videos including The First 30 Seconds: School Bus Crisis Scenarios and Safe Passages: School Transportation Security and Emergency Preparedness. Chris can be reached at www.safehavensinternational.org. b