Kids Laugh During Shooter Drills—Teachers Speak Out (Full)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah (00:00):
Still rolling out the complete 2025 episodes, one a day.

Alex (00:04):
Welcome to Solving America’s Problems.
A middle-school teacher just toldthe nation that her sixth-graders
laugh and joke during active-shooterdrills because they’ve never
been taught how to handle fear.
Another educator admitted she almosthad a panic attack watching them goof
off, knowing exactly what silencewould mean if it ever turned real.

(00:27):
Then a third veteran teacher revealedshe’s ready to ditch her computer-science
gig tomorrow if the principal will justlet her teach health class again—because
these kids cry the second a codingpuzzle gets hard and nobody ever
showed them how to breathe through it.
Jerremy and Dave sat down with threefrontline teachers who’ve clocked almost

(00:48):
a century in classrooms combined, and whatspilled out wasn’t another gun debate.
It was something rawer.

Jerremy Newsome (00:56):
The people want to know, what are we talking about today?

Dave Conley (01:00):
In this episode of Solving America's Problems, we're tackling the
complex issue of school safety fromthose who know it best, our educators.
Today we'll be joined bythree amazing teachers.
Eric Stenlake, a seasoned educator Withexpertise in brain health and youth
psychology, We'll also hear from JenniferWeathers, A middle school teacher with a

(01:20):
strong emphasis on the role of family andteaching coping skills and communications.
And finally, Daniel Lysett joins us,a passionate advocate for community
support in schools who have spent overthree decades teaching and developing
social emotional skills in children.
And that's coming up next on SolvingAmerica's Problems, School Safety, From
the Front Lines with Eric Stenlake,Jennifer Weathers, and Daniel Lysett.

listeners from around the entire world.
Welcome to today's special episodeof solving America's problems,
where we dive into one of the mostchallenging issues facing our society
as Americans, which is school shootings.
It's a topic that is Discussed in myopinion far too ill frequently But

(02:09):
most importantly it is something thatevery single person is affected by when
they see hear or read of this incidenthappening and as future president the
number one focus for me is educationalreform, but most importantly, ensuring
that there's never a school shootingever again in this beautiful country.

(02:32):
And it starts with having amazingindividuals come together and
having discussions about it.
So let me introduce three of our guests.
We have Eric and Eric has beenan educator since 1996, bringing
a wealth of experience acrossvarious educational settings.

(02:53):
Including work with at riskyouth, public school students
and private school environment.
His career spans roles as aclassroom teacher, athletic
coach, and athletic director.
joining us is Jennifer Weathers . AndJennifer is a dedicated educator with

(03:14):
over 20 years experience also acrossmultiple disciplines, including health,
PE, media, and computer science coding.
Currently, she teaches sixthgrade computer science.
At Fruita Middle School in Coloradowith a career spanning diverse
educational settings and studentneeds from high crime gang impacted

(03:34):
schools to middle class districts.
Jennifer has witnessed the complexissues facing today's students.
Jennifer is so happy to have you here.
And we also have Danielle and Danielleis a seasoned educator with 30 years
of experience working across diverseteaching roles, including elementary.
Preschool education or career asfocused on supporting young parents,

(03:57):
children involved in challenginghome environments and those dealing
with issues related to gang violence.
I also like to call her Dannybecause Danny is someone that's very
near and dear to my heart and is aabsolutely incredible human being.
So with the five of us here today,joining with us as well as my producer
and co host Dave Conley, and I'm thehost, Jeremy Alexander Newsom, and we're

(04:19):
working on really solving this problem.
So I'm gonna start with.
a very open ended question for our panel.
Whoever wants to begin to speak can godo that, and then we will start diving
into some of the directional questions ina very fun and free flowing conversation
that is going to address this problem.

(04:39):
So the open question, based onyour experience, how have attitudes
and preparedness around schoolsafety evolved Over the years,
or have they evolved at all?
Let's go there.

do you think, Eric?

Eric Stenlake (04:56):
Just right off the bat.
Yeah, we do a lot of preparedness.
Sure.
We're doing drills.
We're doing situational awareness.
We're trying to get into the space thatin the event of an emergency happening
that we default to our training.
You go to anybody in lawenforcement, military.
The number one thing is with theirtraining is that they do it so they

(05:16):
don't have to think about it and andthat it just happens automatically.
The attitude on that with staff andstudents is, wow, this is where we are.
This is what we have to do.
We need to do this all thetime, every couple of months to
make sure that we're prepared.

(05:38):
Where does that leave us?
as a school community.

No, that feeling.
Do you think it's, is that, is it fear?
Is it frustration?
Is it annoyance?
Is it an understanding ofwhy they have to do it?

Yeah, I think kids and staff, are definitely
understand the why behind it.
Is there fear going into that?
Absolutely.
Do the kids not take it serious?
Absolutely.
And they get into laughing and jokingand goofing as a coping mechanism.
And the adults are going, youneed to take this seriously.
You, you gotta be quiet.

(06:12):
You have to do this.
You have to do that.
Because if this was real holy moly, right?
And so I think for the kids, mentalsurvival through these training
episodes they will go into a spaceof where they can find comfort.
Yeah.
Boy, I'd love to, you

jennifer, what are you noticing being a current teacher?

JennWXS-1 (06:34):
In my particular school I don't think we, I don't think we
practiced the lockdowns enough as Iwas telling Mr. Conley last night.
I know that we have a crisis interventionteam, but as of right now I don't
even know I know what I would do in mysituation in my classroom and where I

(06:54):
would go, but as an overall team, sofar, none of that has been discussed
and I don't know if it's because maybe.
It could be the town that we'rein where there's not a lot of like
crime and violence and everybody'sjust complacent and comfortable.
Know that it doesn't make mefeel comfortable that we aren't

(07:16):
practicing our lockdowns more.
I know we have a lockdown,we have lockdown chills two
times a year and that's it.

Sure.

JennWXS-1 (07:25):
And the times that we've had those lockdown drills, I've been
at the school for three years now.
It's just Mr. Stein, like I said, mykids don't take it serious and I one
time almost had a panic attack becausemy kids weren't taking it serious.
And I stood there in the middle ofthe room and I was thinking to myself.
If this was a real situation and thesekids aren't taking it serious, what

(07:49):
am I going to do to get them quiet?
And my mind just started racing.
Like, how do I get them out, out of here?
What am I going to do to get them quiet?
What am I going to doto take them seriously?
And it really upset me.
It was really upsetting that theyweren't taking it that serious.

To Eric's point, it is awful that we even have to do it, but at
the same time, I think there is relevancyto it, like you're saying, and the fact
that we even have to have this discussiontruthfully is probably appalling because
I'm sure you all have either heardor are aware of this, but the amount.

(08:28):
That this has even occurredis really appalling, right?
So in 2023, there were 346 schoolshooting incidents across the country.
So that's averaging one incident, per day.
And then as of September 2023, therehave been nine there have been 50 school
shootings in the United States that year.

(08:49):
So up until about a year ago.

JennWXS-1 (08:52):
Yeah,
sorry.

yeah no, exactly.
Huge numbers.

JennWXS-1 (08:56):
yeah, I looked up some statistics as well, and you're right
on the money, the statistics that Ilooked up, because I was just curious.
So far, I know you said September,but the statistics that I saw
was 58 school shootings inthe U. S. so far just in 2024.

Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
And it's, it is as scary asa faculty, it's scary as a
teacher is scary as a parent.
Just the entire aspectof it is terrifying.
And so from beginning to dive into it,Danny, I'd love to hear your perspective.
Do you feel that this is a gunissue or is this a mental health

(09:33):
issue or is this another issuethat we aren't addressing at all?

Danielle (09:37):
You know me so well.
I gotta tell you, as I hear allof you guys talking about this.
And we're talking about a schoolwhich is a place right a place
a location, and it sounds to me.
As you're saying, we're goingto have to deal with this.
I think maybe we're looking at it alittle bit differently, where maybe we

(09:59):
need to start teaching the children,the school the people themselves, right?
How to deal with, you were saying, Eric.
How kids deal with it, theywould laugh and giggle.
And, they show that if we could,when it's not in such a high flight
fight or flight kind of a thing,teach the children how to cope the

(10:23):
coping skills, the coping mechanismsthat we could use daily to help them.
Along with right, keeping theschool protected for sure.
But I think it's go it goes hand inhand for sure that if we teach them,
this is the reason why we're doing this.
And this is how you can deal withit internally, along with external.

(10:49):
And then And Jen said,like her school system.
So we're dealing with differentschool systems, big places, small
places, people that don't think it'sgoing to happen to their school.
Oh, but guess what happened.
Then all of a sudden, it's your school.
You just never know, but that'ssomebody smart told me you plan for

(11:11):
the worst and you hope for the best.
And that's primarily the way I view it.
And all of that is right.
But I think we have to dealwith the kids themselves.
To help with this.

Yeah I know it's a beautiful piece because at some
stage when you're dealing with.
school shootings, you weredealing with stopping it.
And again, it's always been my perspectiveand it will be part of my platform that I
think going at it from a gun perspective.
Is too divisive.
Number one.

(11:46):
Number two, it creates too much animosity.
Number three, it splits peopleinto too many different directions.
But number four, it starts toremove our actual purpose, right?
It removes the purpose of,all right, take guns aside.
Imagine they didn't exist.
How do we protect our Children becauseit could be guns, it could be cars, it

(12:08):
could be drugs, it can be knives, thetool and the instrument doesn't matter.
If someone wants to cause harm, then whatreally matters is how do we simply protect
the Children and how do we make them safe?
Not only feel safe, but to your point,know how to cope internally if and when
something happens, because regards tothe trauma or the traumatic experience,

(12:28):
we all know as adults that we haveto learn how to internalize, to heal,
to move on, to cope, to understand.
And if we start ingraining that andproviding those directional steps to
children, it's earlier and having moreconversations about that, then we start
healing the problem from the inside out.
Eric, I'd love to hear yourstand, your stake on that.

just ended with that healing from the inside out.
It's my fascination, my goal, my desireas a teen and family coach besides
what I do in the space of educationand working with teens and families
and helping kids to get to some ofthese places of self realization, self
understanding, self emotional and mentalregulation of thoughts and feelings.

(13:15):
I think that we really do need to addressthis at a very deep level within the
school systems in America because ifwe do not, this is going to continue
to be a problem because we can, welook, we can look at silos of issues.
You've got guns, you have this, youhave that, you've got mental health,
you've got past family traumas.
We could unpack all of thesedifferent areas, right?

(13:38):
And if we keep passing by on some ofthese real at the heart issues of what's
going on with our youth from the littleson up through the high school kids
and that we're not addressing those.
And we're not facing what thoseare with them, not alone, that we
are facing these with them, that we

(14:00):
are supporting them
in whatever it is they're dealingwith, from social, socioeconomic,
to bullying, to whatever thesethings that they're going through.
If we can collaborate on this as anissue and begin to target them at a
younger age, I think we're going to seethat pendulum swing back the other way.
If you will, on what our kids are goingthrough and it doesn't matter if it's

(14:24):
a it's if it's a high affluent, highincome area or a low income area that
doesn't matter when we can take thetime to show them that we love and care
that we're there to support is not aboutinstruction is not about standards.
It's not about some of these thingsthat seem to be the prevalent forefront

(14:45):
that it's about them as human beings.
And how do we help them be thebest humans they can possibly be?
We're going to turn this around.

Jennifer, I'd love to know your perspective on the
mental health piece for the, for ourchildren specifically on that topic.

JennWXS-1 (14:59):
I think, just like Mr. Steinlich said, this is
a very multifaceted approach.
There are several differentaspects to this, but.
The biggest one that I've I hit homeon is the mental health aspect of it
because what I see and what I dislikeand I don't understand it is why is

(15:23):
especially at the school I'm at now, whyis health not being taught in 6th, grade?
I don't even know here.
I need to look into it.
I don't even think it'staught in 5th grade.
And I don't understand that becauseI think a lot of these issues, mental
health wise, like coping skills, emotionalintelligence, behavior, behavioral

(15:45):
intelligence coping skills, all thatcan be touched and talked about and
dealt with, I think, in health class.
And I just don't understand why thataspect is being taken out of schools
and why it's not being taught.
I know they touch on it in elementarysome, like my stepdaughter she's in sixth

(16:06):
grade, but she didn't have help last year.
She doesn't have help this year andshe won't in seventh and eighth grade.

Wow.

JennWXS-1 (16:14):
I just find it important and I don't understand why health.
Is being dropped and whyit's being taken out.
The other aspect is I read in anarticle yesterday is that even
though the help is being taken outbecause of funding issues, they're
throwing that health aspect off on.

(16:36):
Like social studies teachers or scienceteachers and trying to get them to, add
that help aspect into their classes andit's overwhelming those teachers because
they're having to pull in all theseother aspects to teach and it's just,
It's a struggle for those teachers.
And that's another reason why Ihave 41 kids in eight classes.

(17:02):
Every single class because we areshort and an exploratory teacher,
we are short a health teacher,

wow.
And that's, I'm justtrying to put myself in.
Your shoes and probably theteachers all across America.
I'm sure feeling overworked and alot of the policies that probably
end up preventing this as well.
Like to your point would also requiresome restructuring of teachers,

(17:32):
either addition adding more teachersor some type of change, some type of
implementation, because I would love that.
I would love all your perspective on this.
Thank you so much.
One of my beliefs addressing eithermental health or just communication
is I do feel that children right nowages six to 16 across the United States

(17:56):
and most likely even across the world.
Not only experienced COVID and had thenegative associations of, quarantines
and so forth, so on and so forth.
The ostracizing and the political issuesthat it's caused from that, but just
having a class called communicationwhere you sit these kids, you take

(18:18):
the phones down, take the iPads downand have them in a, I don't know.
I'm viewing as a circle, right?
You're sitting around the campfire.
And you're just having conversations.
Hey, what's your mom?
How's she doing?
What is your mom's name?
What's your last name?
What's your middle name?
How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Tell me about you as aperson having communications.

(18:38):
What do you think you're, whatdo you think God looks like?
Tell me what you think heaven ishaving religious conversations,
having conversations, Because for tworeasons, the way I see it, most of
these school shootings, especiallythe large, what would be called mass
school shootings, very often happen fromchildren who are bullied, ostracized,

(19:00):
made fun of, don't feel connected.
They feel obvious.
Anger, animosity, frustration.
And my take on this is that probably couldhave been changed or redirected or brought
to light or understood that at some stage,it's okay to feel that way if classes
were designed and programs were instilledto just have conversation between kids.

(19:27):
Is that a crazy viewpointthan L or am I just.
Is that, is this doable?

Danielle (19:32):
Know what we're all in this, all this together and we're like, Jodi,
you are, Jeremy, you are right on target.
If we could get these kids to startcommunicating, to understand that
there's feelings behind those wordsthat they say that it's just not the

(19:54):
awkwardness that they share sometimesof saying hi in the hallway, that
they keep their, heads down, right?
Some even the kids keeptheir mask on still, right?
They just don't know how tolook at somebody's eye or smile.

(20:15):
They feel that awkwardnessand yes, let's start a class.
Let's
start like that.
Something simple, right?
But then again, Jen says we're addingmore to for the teachers and the
teachers, God bless every single oneof them because now they're not just

(20:39):
the teacher that teaches education.
They're the moms in some cases,the dads in some cases, the
sometimes babysitters that have to
stay after school becausethey're not picked up.
They're the confidants.
They are the, they're the magical workers.
Same with the police officersthat work at the school system.

(21:02):
I think they are heroes to us asparents, as teachers, as administrators.
We need to give them Some kind ofsupport to I really feel that because
that's another part of this trianglethat we really need to set up of the

(21:22):
students of the kids of school, thecommunity, being the police department
right to keep it safe, keep our kids inour administrators and teachers safe.
We all have to be on the same page,and even if they could do the health
issue part of it, I don't know,but wouldn't that be awesome if

(21:45):
we could implement something likethat along with like breath work,
something Simple, like in the morningwhen you have your what do you have,
Jen, in the morning you have your,I don't know, is it, you say stuff
that their announcements, that you
have a one minutemeditation, one minute mental

JennWXS-1 (22:08):
And

Danielle (22:09):
Awareness.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just to get them back because sometimestheir life, their school is a safe haven.
Some
of them, that's where their paniccomes in is when they come into school.
Each child is so different.
But if we give them time to acclimateto forget about what was home
focus on at school or vice versa.

(22:32):
Maybe that's something thatwe can work with and get.
That the teachers, the policedepartment and everybody right on
the same page along with the kids.
Yeah.

yeah, Janet hit us with a magic pill.
Just daydream with us for a momentas a teacher right now, so that
you also can see both, you can benot only rewarded in the sense of
children happy schedule is easier.
How would you current as ateacher right now, if we're
dreaming design the perfect day?

(23:05):
For you and your students,so for teachers and the kids?

JennWXS-1 (23:10):
I personally I have a degree in health and P. E. and exercise science.
And that's what I started out in was help.
And I was, I was even thinkingabout going back Monday and talking
to my principal and be like.
I can teach health.
We need it.
And if you can find a computerscience teacher to stick in my place,
stick me back in health because Ithink that these kids, they need it.

(23:35):
The kids in my computerscience class right now.
It's if they can't even cope, if theyhad a, if they have a really hard
time solving a coding lesson, they
Down and cry and I would,my, my perfect day would.
Start out in my health class and, wetaught a lot of coping skills and mental

(23:57):
health skills and breathing skillsand life skills in health class and
it would just make my day if I could,I would love to go back to health and
help these kids learn how to cope onlyhave maybe 25 kids a class, but I don't
know right now if that's possible.
I'd have to look into it.

(24:19):
But my perfect day would the kids comein and, we have a moment of silence
and I teach them life skills andcommunication skills, how to put their
phone down and have a true conversationwith somebody instead of being so
attached to their phone all the time.

Okay.
You have my vote of approval on that one.
I for sure.
And Eric, thanks for being in agreement.
I see you over thereclapping, which is awesome.
To tell me what resonatedpowerfully with you.
My.

I am so aligned with what Jen was saying.
Holy smokes.
Because right now I am writingcurriculum, neuroscience neuropsychology
curriculum and brain health curriculum.
That is going to be going out to theschools and the 25, 26 school year
through the neuro encoding Institute.
And I want the kids to know what I know.
I want the kids to know how to be able toself manage themselves so that when they

(25:14):
walk on campus, there is no anxiety, thereis no fear of the unknown, that there
is no depressed feeling of things thathappened yesterday, that they're coming
into a learning environment, safe, secure,capable, curious ready to take on what
needs to be done that day for themselves.
And that they leave and they go home andthey're like, yeah, today was a good day.

(25:37):
And that repeats every day over and overagain because they Are at a high level of
emotional intelligence as jim was sayingthey're at a high level of self management
self control That these issues that we'vehad and seen in the past are continuing
to deal with day after day that aredriving educators out of their poor mind.

(25:59):
I used to have a beautiful headof hair, but I'm bald now because
I pulled all my hair out, right?
Because I got these giantknuckleheads in there that just
don't understand or have troublefocusing and being in the classroom.
In that regard, and this is that way forthem to be not just functionable, but
thriving in a school learning environment.

JennWXS-1 (26:21):
Yeah, because they're not

Yeah I think back to Jen, when you said like health class
and your background and your degreeagain, my version of this world.
Has because the school system failedme to the extent of I could have been
and done so much better and learnso much faster and had so much more

(26:44):
ability and access if it was available.
And what I mean by that is I believeprobably fifth grade to, senior year kids
should be doing some type of physicalactivity for a minimum of two hours a day.
Because I do not as a, I'm not a doctorat all, but I think that the vast majority

(27:08):
of mental health is directly proportionalto how much we're making kids be still
be quiet, sit down, not do anything,not talk like you need to be talking,
yelling, screaming, run around being wild.
Being crazy and not takinga pill because you're seven.
You don't have ADHD.

(27:28):
You're seven, right?
Like my three year old, like I'mnot going to get my three year old
medicine ever to calm him down.
The kid is literally an actual tornado.
He's a human tornado.
So was I. So I want that brilliance.
I want that energy and thatshouldn't be contained.
But again, When children learn, justlike probably I would say adults, we

(27:49):
learn our best when we're at a peakstate of excitement, energy, vitality.
We feel better.
We feel healthier.
We've moved.
We've created naturally ourdopamine, our serotonin, right?
We've been outside potentiallyif it's the right weather.
And we just feel excited about life.
And in those moments, childcan learn so much better.

(28:12):
And you all know that they canlearn so much faster as well.
And so we don't have to repeatthe same thing over and over.
We can tell them one thing one time,and they can get it, especially
if they're in the right state.
And it'll stick a lot quickerbecause of the neuroplasticity of
the repent, the repetition, thestate that they're learning in.
The happiness, their calmness, theiralertedness, and then when they get

(28:33):
home, they might are probably a muchless spastic and rambunctious because
they're so tired because they've beenrunning and playing in PE for hours at
a time before they learned something.
Maybe that's just a dream world.
Is that a dream world, Danny?
Is that possible?

Danielle (28:52):
No, it's not a dream world.
It's a world that we can make happen.
I'm sure great people coming together justlike this getting some great ideas going.
And I believe we can do this.
I really do.

Eric, you said you were going to release some curriculum.
How tell us more about that.
Number one.
And then number two, tellus how hard is it to change
curriculums in certain schools?

Yeah so I said a couple minutes ago that I'm also a
a life coach for teens and families.
So I hold a license throughthe Neuroencoding Institute
with Dr. Joseph McClendon.
And I hold a brain health license throughthe Amen Clinics with Dr. Daniel Amen.
So I'm taking what I've learned thereand putting that into curriculum

(29:37):
based on a very simple poem.
As I think, so I feel.
As I feel, so I do.
As I do, so I have.
And having that be the foundationof understanding that everything
we do starts with a thought.
From that thought and thatfeeling, we turn that into action.

(29:59):
And like you're saying yourson is the human tornado.
High creativity, right?
His prefrontal cortex isabsolute fire, low evaluation.
So it seems like a great idea.
Let's go do this.
And then, Oh, maybe that wasn'tsuch a great idea, but he is on
fire and running and running.

(30:19):
And right now is we get to thatend of looking at what we have and
saying, wow, did this work out?
Yes or no.
And why?
And going back and understandingthat I can simply pause and think
about why that thought is there.
Why that feeling is there.
How can I recognize that?
How can I change that to understandwhat I need to do differently to,

(30:43):
to pursue and push my own success?
Thanks.
And then how that goes into theclassroom of having those curious
and crucial conversations withthose kids that, just curious.
I'm checking in with you today.
Are you going to do any work today?
I'm just, it's Wednesday and I noticedyou haven't done anything all week.
Are you going to engage at all this week?

(31:05):
Nah, Mr. S I'm good, bro.
Okay.
And are you going to get theresults that you want with this?
Oh, but we've got to have, we've gotto start having these conversations.
We've got to start having theplace of which we can go into.
And Jen was saying, having this be a partof the curriculum of which it doesn't

(31:28):
matter what class we're in, I can talkthe language of this neuropsychology
and brain health in whatever class,whatever situation, whatever moment.
I'm using this language all the timewith the kids all the time and they
understand it and they know it ithelps to bring them back into their

(31:49):
center Into their peace their calmtheir love their joy their happiness
And they understand how to be in theirpresence And not worry about things from
the past and not things the depressionthe anxiety of the future of things that
they can't control That they can controlthem and in that moment in that situation.
They have the power to make You choiceand change for them that's going to help

(32:14):
drive that behavior for their success.

Danielle (32:16):
Eric how old is this curriculum fixed for the, what's
the age group that the curriculum,

Great question.
I am designing this for age 11 to 18.

Danielle (32:30):
we
need some young curriculum too.

JennWXS-1 (32:32):
good.

That's my, this is my starting point.
We'll bring it down asyoung as preschool pre K.

Love that Dave.

What I'm wondering is there was a before and there's an after.
There was a time before Columbineand Uvalde and Parkland.
There was a time before daily shootings.
Shooters are boys.
They're young boys in their teens.

(33:02):
What happened to them?
What's going on?

JennWXS-1 (33:06):
Look at the divorce rate to families and that little boy not having
a true mentor and leader in his life.
Where he just feels lost, and thenyou also have social media, which is.
I will never understandputting a smartphone.
In the hands of a nine or a 10 yearold, they don't need a smartphone,

(33:30):
but they all have access to socialmedia and it's all in their faces.
And so I think, like I said before, Ithink this is a multifaceted approach and
there are a lot of puzzle pieces to it.
And with those little boys, I knowdivorce rate has gone up in families and.

(33:51):
They just don't have a true leaderor a mentor to somebody to guide them
along with all these other things,they're going on in their lives.

Yeah.
It's Random statistic, but I thinkit's 85 percent of individuals in jail
and prison have one thing in commonand it has nothing to do with social
economic, has nothing to do with therace, has nothing to do with religion.
It's did they have a dad,

JennWXS-1 (34:18):
yes,

It's if you do not have a dad, you're 85 percent
likely to go to jail or prison.
According to the current statistics,it was like that to your point.
There are obviously so many puzzle pieces.
I'm very happy that we have reallyquite similar feelings and perspectives
on the internal portion of how tosolve this problem, how to solve

(34:44):
this issue that America faces.
I think we all can agree that there'sabsolutely some level of mental
health, mental clarity, communicableskills, And the healing capacity of
an individual through trauma so thatthey don't have to express their
anger and frustration in this way.

(35:05):
Semi colon.
However, when they do feel thisway, what do you think we should
start doing if that ever happens?
And so should every schoolbe outfitted with something?
Do teachers all carry guns?
Do we have, Armed securityguards, every single school.
Let's start just thinking through in theevent that we do whatever, and there is

(35:30):
still something, maybe it's not a child.
Maybe it's an adult.
Maybe it's someone who justwants to do harm at this stage.
What should we do orwhat are your opinions?
And we'll just have these, thosefun conversations because that's all
also some level of importance becausethere are, when's the last time
you heard of a shooting at a policestation or a community firehouse?

(35:52):
It doesn't happen.
So Eric, what's your take?

Yeah boy, oh boy, that's a that's a big one I think what's coming
to me on this one is that for the last 14years, I've had the privilege of working
for a company called Franklin Covey anddoing professional development workshops
for teachers all over the U. S. And Ican honestly, as you were saying that, it
was popping up in my mind, the schools ofwhich I walked up and went, yeah, okay.

(36:22):
Why?
Because I saw how hard it would be toenter this campus, and other places that
I go to, I go, my word, gosh, the schoolI work at, it's what's up next to an
elementary school, it's completely open.
There's a park at the otherend of campus, public park.
There's a ball field publicpark on this side of campus.

(36:43):
It's completely wide open.
I think we can look at that.
I've been in New York City and walkinginto schools and there's a police
officer sitting there checking IDs.
Fully armed and thereforethere for the school.
There I've seen thegamut across the country.
And yeah, what is the solution on that?

(37:04):
What makes sense to pour in billionsand billions of dollars to build new
schools, to have them be fortifiedif you will, that they're non, non,
you can't get into them becausethey're like closed institutions.
I don't know.
That's such a great loaded question.
Jeremy,

It is it's a big one.
Jennifer what do you think initiallyin right now would make you feel
safe from, again, let's just sayfrom a physical standpoint, the no
longer internal compass of the child,but now the actual school itself.

JennWXS-1 (37:38):
what would make me feel safe inside of the school that I'm in?

Oh, not specifically, but just as a teacher from the teacher's
perspective, what are current protocolsand, or what do you think could be added?
Two schools for overall safety.

JennWXS-1 (37:56):
I know the school that I used to work at when I first started teaching
the small town in South Georgia we hadthat school locked down like Fort Knox.
When you came in the front door, youactually had to go through 2 set of doors
and those 2 sets of doors were unlocked.
by button at the front desk.
And then when you walked in thatsecond set of doors, you actually

(38:19):
had to go through a metal detector.
We had I would say at leastsix resource officers there.
And they were always roaming the hallways.
You could always like I personallyhad a walkie talkie in that school.
So if anything ever happened I couldalways get in touch with a resource
officer through my walkie talkie.

(38:41):
And so I felt very safe.
And even some visitors whenthey came in, they were not
allowed to roam the hallways.
They were escorted towherever they had to go.
They had to show a driver's license andthen we had to print them off a pass and
all the exit doors to the school all theway around the school were always locked

(39:03):
and checked by the resource officers.
I felt really safe at that

Yeah.

JennWXS-1 (39:10):
There were outside cameras.
There, there were probably in thatentire school about 60, 60, 70 cameras.
parking lot, outside,inside, every single hallway.
And and I don't feel unsafeat the school that I'm at now.
We don't even have half as much securityas the first school that I worked at.

(39:35):
We have only have two resource officersand no metal detectors, but I don't feel
unsafe at the school that I'm at now.
But what concerns me Is that becausethere's not a lot of violence in that
town and nothing bad has ever reallyhappened, which worries me because right

(39:56):
when you think something's not goingto happen the very next day, you got
somebody walking up on campus with a gun.
It can happen at any point in time.
That's something to think about to

Yeah.
Now, what do you think?

Danielle (40:10):
Cool.
Schools are buildings, right?
And if you have the experts comethrough, because every school,
like Jen was saying, and Eric,every school does it differently.
I don't know if it's a criteria that youhave to meet so many different things.

(40:31):
That you can implement into schools.
I know they have a money or some ofthem even get grants that help them
with making those things happen, right?
The metal detectors and thecameras I, and some look into it.
And some, like you say, they're littlecommunities and they think they're safe.

(40:54):
I

yeah it's, there, there's a very interesting blend, right?
It's a blend of, you use the term,jim Fort Knox, it's definitely a blend
of as much security as we can have.
And being unique and creative andour thoughts around that, having
probably, hopefully some type ofgovernment intervention slash the

(41:17):
government awareness that, hey, thisneeds to be a number one concern.
We need budgetary creationsfor this protocol.
And then also the blend of notmaking it feel scary or extremely
secure, like a prison or a jailfor the children that go there.

(41:39):
And there it's a unique,it is unique blend.
And so we've had conversations in the pastwith incredible men that have military
background or have security background.
And right now there's a lot that'shappening with some schools.
Where it's focused on LIDAR detection.
It's focused on the perimeter beingcontrolled and and monitored by not

(42:06):
necessarily artificial intelligence,but robotics in the future.
We even have that.
We even heard the word drones thrownaround where I was like, Oh my goodness.
That is.
I didn't even know that was,even in my field of awareness
that it's wait a minute, schoolscan also be protected by drones.
Of course, terrifying again, to eventhink that we need to think about that,

(42:29):
but to the point of there, there doesneed to be some type of installation and
probably every school in the country.
Where you have at your disposal,something that is a standard.
You mentioned walkie talkie, Jen, imagineyou hit a button and all of the glass

(42:50):
and the entire school either becomesopaque or someone can't see into it.
It becomes fog or there's some typeof metal shield that just drops
on every single window instantlywhere the schools become outfitted
with the ability to be armorized orbecome a lot more safe instantly.
And that is public schools, potentiallyprivate schools, potentially charter

(43:14):
schools, some unique standard whereit does provide more security.
If it's not police officers thatare there did you call them?
What are they called?
Resource officers.

JennWXS-1 (43:25):
resource officers, school resource officers.

So as a school resource officer, if it's not a school resource
officer, potentially we began workingmore with our servicemen and women
after the, after they retire fromone of the armed forces, you have a
retired armed forces, officer that gets.
Awarded or rewarded to work at aschool and one of their professions

(43:51):
and jobs for a period of time is tokeep the overall public safety of that
school is their top concern as well.
All things that we can openly thinkabout, but there are certainly
solutions because I am sure thereare a lot of schools that do not have
that level of security and capacity.

JennWXS-1 (44:09):
It's funny you said that because about the military aspect
because my, I'll never forget him, myprincipal of the first school that I
worked at was a retired army colonel andhe just, he, I worked really close with
him and he had a plan for everythingand that school it involved a lot of

(44:30):
drugs, a lot of gangs, but that was onething about that school I didn't feel
safe because, I didn't feel unsafe.
Because of him, becausehe had plans set in place.
And that's one of the things thathe did, like in our staff meetings,
he would go over those plans withus and, it's like you use in trading
sometime, Jeremy, if, and then, andthat's what he would do in meetings.

(44:54):
If this happens, thenwe're going to do this.

Yeah having the having the teacher preparedness which has me
wanting to follow up more, Eric, onwhat you said earlier, and I apologize
for not remembering the exact term,but you said that you worked with.
teachers to help them in something.
Tell us a little bit more about that.

that's within the scope of leadership and culture development.

Sure, sure.
But even in that specific aspect, thatmeans that you are doing the outreach
to help teachers outside of school.
They're getting poured intofrom outside resource, AKA
you and the program around it.
But even to that degree, do youfeel like it can be something.
Something more securitizationimplementation from a teaching

(45:43):
standpoint from an outside resourceas well, like a military professional.

Yeah.
I think it's a great it'sa great discussion point.
And I think there's definitelya possibility for that.
Is it as a way for the campus tobe more secured is to have those.
Those people on campus, where theycome from through what agency that
they're coming from that's going tobe the question of the school resource

(46:09):
officers are, is it a military contract?
Is it a law enforcement contract?
Something of that nature though,which in our school, we've got,
we get, two or three people on ourcampus based on the size and numbers
that we have of kids and staff.
How that plays out, I definitely see thatwould definitely be beneficial because I
can tell you right now, our school, themiddle school that I'm at, they we split

(46:32):
a resource officer between, I think.
They've got three or four schools.
So who knows where in South OrangeCounty they are at the given time
that anything should happen becausethey're not going to be there.
And we're going to be, we're goingto be on our own left to get as many
kids inside as quickly as we can.

(46:53):
And that's actually the conversationthat some of the teachers are having
of we're going to do the best we can.
And what we can't do, it'sjust out of our control.

Yeah,

wondering, so how do you, so my, I think my sister teaches in a post
Columbine school and the design of thatis it's weird walking in because there's
I don't think there's any corners in theentire place and the doors are different.
How do you all balance, not freakingout the kids with these drills and

(47:24):
the environment the fortress thatyou want to protect these kids in and
the cathedral that you want them in.

it's gonna be a fine balancing act.
Yeah, it will be.
It'll be a fine balancing act.
And I think ultimately, if me, whenI went to school, this wasn't, there
was no police officers at my school.
And that was a career day, policeofficer would come in and you get
to meet with the police officer.

(47:54):
But I think having children be verycomfortable having discussions with
the resource officers or the militaryprofessionals that are on campus, having
them come up, having them put their handon the gun that's in the holster or that's
unarmed, or that is there for a safetyinstruction so that they don't see this

(48:18):
person as an entirely separate entity,but someone that is there for their
safety, someone that there, they can havea conversation with someone that they're
not terrified of, that they can knowthat they're there for their protection.
And just having those conversations withthem, I think also will make it from a
child's standpoint, make them feel safer.

(48:40):
And.
Make them feel loved and seen.
What do you think,

Danielle (48:46):
that's such a, that's such a great idea of putting the armed forces
and giving them the opportunity tohelp out or however you said it, it
was perfect because I think they comeback and sometimes they don't feel as
though they had the purpose, right?
It will give the kids, too, anopportunity to get close to those people.

(49:12):
And a lot of the Actually are like inthe parking lot or the football games.
So that's another opportunity thatthey I could see is where that
would be a perfect way of usingthe armed forces in the community.

Yeah that's a great point.
And Dave has mentioned that in aprevious podcast episode where a lot
of the times when we think of schoolshootings, we really do think of the.
The initial thought that will strikemost parents is the covenant school
in national Tennessee or the parkland,like the big, scary mass shootings,
multiple people and it's terrifying.

(49:54):
But the vast majority of theschool shootings are also and more
obviously single incidences whereit could be a violence related.
Like you said, it can be inthe parking lot, it can be at
a football game where it's not.
It's more of a revenge, angrytactic Dave, versus a Everyone's

(50:17):
just no, it's just me and you.
I don't really like you very much.
So I want to make sure that you feel pain.

Yeah.
So the difference between a disagreementbetween when, between a couple of
folks and it's outside the schooland the mass shootings that we see.
So there's like this hidden one that wedon't see and then, the headline grabber.

But the ones that you, the ones that we don't see,
to circumvent or to re circumventwhat you mentioned earlier, this.
This is like we have a, we haveit pretty much nailed down the
archetype for who is going to bebringing a gun to school to use it.
so Dave, do you feel there should be somelevel of more focus on that archetype?

(50:59):
Whereas we don't specifically need to betraining or berating, 13 year old girls.
But we need to be focusing on the13 year old to 16 year old boys and
have them start conflict resolution.

A hundred percent.
And that goes back to the firstquestion I had for the group here, and
I heard, yeah, so totally social media.
I've heard lacking a mentorand like we're medicalizing our
kids to really high degrees.
There's a lot of medication that'sgoing into these schools that, that
before and after I'm still stuck on.

(51:34):
Like, where is the, before we, beforeI think about solutions, I really
want to hear more about the problem,internationally this isn't happening even
in, in countries that have lots of guns.
This isn't happening and theyhave social media, right?
There is a problem with guns ina sense that like the kids are
getting the guns from somewhere.

(51:55):
But like what else is going on?
Like I feel like we're missingsomething and it feels like there's
a crisis in boys, in young men.
And I
see you nodding, Jen, what, what'swhat's on your mind for these young boys?
Yeah.
Because you see, you allsee them early too, And,

JennWXS-1 (52:11):
I totally agree.
It's, I keep going back to multifacetedand I don't want to get all stray away
from the topic, but there's just so manyaspects of this that need to be dealt
with from mental health to family to.

(52:31):
Divorce rates, and the food that weeat, to how much is actually being put
on teachers these days by the state.
Because I can tell you right now,and I think that's also a big part
of it too, I do more paperworkthan I actually do teaching.

Wow.

JennWXS-1 (52:57):
with that paperwork goes back to, I don't know if Danielle, if
you and Eric have noticed this, but Ihave more kids this year on medication
with an IEP or a 504 plan than I caneven count on my fingers and toes.

(53:19):
And so it hit me the otherday at the emails that I get.
For the IEPs and the 504s.
And I know in one particular class,I have I have 41 kids per class,
but in this particular class, I have20 kids that are on medications.

(53:39):
They have an IEP and they havea 504, and I have to find a way
to accommodate all these kids.
And I'm just ready to pullmy hair out because I can't
rearrange every single kid.
I can't put every single one ofthose kids at the front of the class.
I

Yeah.
And tell me Jen, so you canremind me what is IEP and 504?

JennWXS-1 (54:03):
An IEP 504 is like special accommodations for the child depending
on the severity of what they have.
They could have a learning disability
Yeah.
A lot of kids I have to move to thefront of the room so that they can
focus on the teacher or whatever.
A lot of kids, I have tofind a place for them to go.

(54:25):
So it's not loud so that they can focus.
And I'm sitting here thinking tomyself, I have 41 kids in a class.
It's going to be loud.
How do I accommodate this kid?
And then you have to do all this paperworkand you have to go to all these meetings.
And I just I'm upset becauseI don't feel like I have time.

(54:48):
And then my planningperiods are cut short.
So I don't really feel like Ihave time to teach because I'm
just doing paperwork all the time.

Yeah.

Danielle (54:58):
when you have that many students that have the IEP do you get a helper

JennWXS-1 (55:04):
I knew you were going to ask that.
I was just, I went to an in service lastweek and I was asked that last week.
And no, I do not have anyassistance whatsoever.

well, and you're being asked to do everything.
You're being asked to do kind ofeverything, but teaching, right?
Like you're asked to be a stand in parent.
You're asked to be a disciplinarian.
You're asked to now bea, a protector, right?
You're dealing with, post COVID kidsthat are already behind your like
all of those things are happening.
Then you have paperwork on top of it.

(55:38):
I, I think about what we ask oflike our emergency personnel, what
we ask of our police officers.
It's like anything, butwhat they were hired to do.
Like you were hired tobe a teacher, right?

Yeah.
That is wild.
When you're saying like paperwork,I just didn't imagine the
ignorance is bliss part of me is.
I just thought that someone woulddo that for you because that's not
your job, but nope, apparently not.

JennWXS-1 (56:08):
Yeah, we do more paperwork than anything and to
circumvent back on Dave's question.
I think, other governments, othercountries, obviously their education
system is way different thanours and I think it's a lot less.
Paperwork involved possibly.

(56:28):
I, it's something I would have toresearch and look into, but our education
system is just, it's really suffering.

Yeah.
Yeah.
I think a lot of it has to dowith America's military spending.
Just from the fact like that'sour number one, that's our
number by all by a long shot.
Like it's not even close.
America's defense spending is our number.
Like we are the, Militaryindustrial complex.
Our smallest military is biggerthan every single military in

(56:58):
the world, almost combined.
The U S annually spends.
We do spend a lot on education, bothfederal and state levels totaling, let's
call it 800 billion in recent years.
But for fiscal year 2024,the department of education
requested a 90 billion budget.
And I think with that 90billion, where is it going?

(57:21):
What is it being used for?
Can't, can we do more?
90 billion.
Yes.
That absolutely sounds like a lot,but when we, it is Eric, you're
shaking your head, like, why doyou not feel like it's a lot?

no I don't feel it's a lot.
I don't feel it's enough because when youbreak that number down on the allotment
per student that each district gets.
It's dollars a day
to that the district is spending for thatone child in terms of supplies and books
and care for that child and, to Jen'spoint, maybe in her district they need

(57:57):
the funds elsewhere and so they're notgoing to have a one on one student or
they're not going to have a case carrierthat has, 10 IEP kids on it that they
can float from class to class and helpthe kids with accommodations and, and
while they're expecting, the rest of usto do that openly and to take the time to
teach the class and do everything else.

(58:18):
This is why we're stressedout and burned out.
But yeah, no I firmly believethat budget has to increase.
It has to increase.
We've got it.
We've got to put more money intoteacher pay teacher retention.
We've got to put more money intoper capita how much we spend on each
student to ensure that the teachersthat we have enough of supplies and

(58:42):
trainings and things that we needin order to give these kids the best
education experience that they deserve.

Where, so where is the money going in the sense
that like school budgets are.
The number one expense for most statesbut usually by a long shot and, I know
in talking to some teachers are like wegot a lot of administrators, but like,
where, like, where is this money going?

(59:10):
If it's not getting to the teachers,it's not getting to the supplies.
It's not getting to the student.
Where is it?
And okay, let me ask it another way.
Where would you put it?
Like I hear teacher pay and teacher, andI'm also hearing from Jen, you need a lot
more teachers, but where else would youput this to benefit the kids the most?

Danielle (59:29):
After school programs, I think that would be a great thing
to add to the curriculum of childrenor even before school, because a lot
of parents are leaving kids are bythemselves early in the morning when
thoughts of whatever happens, right?
We're still talkingabout school shootings.

(59:51):
If you had a big brother,big sister program.
Something that the kids would feelcomfortable coming in early or
staying in over at over school.

Jerremy Newsome (01:00:04):
Keep this in mind though, Dave, that a lot of the funding that
you're referring to for state budgetsalso is considered or grouped into the
higher education and Pell grants as well.
So not all of it is going youasked Eric, where's it going?
And he's bro, I haveno, like the hands up.
I don't know.

Dave Conley (01:00:23):
Like, where is it?

So it's in a garage
somewhere being lit on fire.

Eric Stenlake (01:00:29):
Right.

Yeah, a lot of that is individual states going to, the grants
and Pell grants and scholarships forhigh school students into colleges.
So keeping that in mind, that'sa whole different conversation
for an entirely different
podcast.

yeah.

Cause that one's a big one.
And that's obviously one, again, mymain focus is reform because Eric
and Jen I really truly do feel likeyou were speaking to my heart and
my overall mission of why I am doingwhat I'm doing is because I truly
believe we either need more teachers.
But I think if we do restructure theschools in the way that my vision has

(01:01:16):
us doing it, where you have a lot morerunning around P. E. health time, a
lot better food, and you have the bestteachers who are paid significantly
more are able to instruct many morekids at one particular time on one

(01:01:36):
particular subject and you are not madeto teach the kids to memorize something.
You are teaching the kid the point oflearning that particular thing and the
point of studying it and understandingit and seeing it at different levels.
And you're teaching creativethinking versus topics.
And if you have less teachers,potentially teaching more kids, but

(01:01:59):
those teachers are supported muchbetter and also have higher pay.
That to me probably begins to instillbecause I, you don't have to make.
A face did, but I'm sure there are someteachers that don't want to be there.
And there are some teachers that dowant to be there and the ones that do

(01:02:22):
like you and the ones that truly lovethe mission and the purpose behind what
you do, giving those teachers, thoseadditional rewards, not only monetarily.
But the rewards of teachingthings that you want to teach

(01:02:42):
that inspires you as well, right?
Wow that's pretty wild.
Cause that, that, that

hey, Eric.
What role, and this might go aroundthe panel here what role today can
communities and parents what can theydo today to get involved and to make
for safer environments at schools?

For a safer environment.
I thought you were going to say,what can I do to get involved?
And I'm like, oh, they can go inand they can read to the kids.
And then when they get them to school,the parents go, great, you're on your own.
Good luck.
Goodbye.
And they don't do anything.
And same with high school.
Parents aren't involved unlessyour kids are in sports.
To help with the safety end of that.
I don't know about you guys.

(01:03:28):
Danny and Jen, we'vegot campus supervisors.
These are minimum wage paid positionsof which they patrol the campus.
They are unarmed.
There's nothing they help out the office.
They go get kids out of rooms when kidsare misbehaving, things of that nature.
Is there a way to get theminvolved in the safety?

(01:03:49):
Can they advocate?
Can parents stand up and say, listen,we're looking at our campuses and
we need to be proactive on this.
We need to take measures.
Proactive measures, we want tosee what the game plan is here.
What's your plan a, your plan B,your plan C, your contingency plans.
Could they be involved in that?
We were talking earlier about military.
Can we have somebody come in from.

(01:04:11):
1st responders and say, we're goingto put together contingency plans.
I know for us, if we're outside andthey say lockdown, it's a scatter.
It's like cockroacheswhen the lights come on.
These kids don't know where to run to andthey just start going all over the place.
They know they have to get to a room,but now they're in fight and flight.
Or some kids going into freeze and numb.

(01:04:32):
And they don't know what to do.
So maybe there's some better waysto look at contingency plans and
build a better system around that.

Jen, I think you mentioned, it's okay, what is our plan, right?
It's there's gotta be a communicationsplan somewhere with Family, right?
And like, where, where are the parents inasking for, the, what's the safety plan?
How do you keep my kids safe?
I think is like my numberone question, right?

JennWXS-1 (01:04:58):
That's, now that is one thing that I can say good about the
school that I'm at now is on all ofour committees that we have, which the
crisis team is one of our committees.
We are required to have a parent come in.
And be on each one of thosecommittees, we have to have a parent.

(01:05:20):
And I think it's alsorequired that we have.
Somebody from the community, so itcould be police officer on the team.
Maybe somebody from the community,or, the local rec center on
the health and wellness team.
We have to have somebodythat is a requirement.
So we do have that parent involvementat the school now, and it was also

(01:05:45):
that way at the last school that I was,that I worked at in North Carolina.
And so I can say that aboutmy school is that we do have
a lot of parent involvement.

Danielle (01:05:56):
Do you see a
lot of

JennWXS-1 (01:05:57):
even

though?

JennWXS-1 (01:05:59):
ma'am

Jen, do you see a lot of difference when the parents are involved
with the students and the teachers?
Do you see a big difference with the kids?

JennWXS-1 (01:06:10):
this particular school.
I do.
Yes.
And at the last school, I did.
We even have parents that have gottencertified to be substitute teachers.
So I would say yes.
Now, at the very first school thatI worked at, because it was a low
socioeconomic school and it was, verygame driven, a lot of drugs and stuff.

(01:06:32):
I would have definitely said no.
We weren't required to bringpeople in from the community or
parents in from the community.
And I think the school would havebeen better if we had done that.
And the kids.
But the other aspect of the firstschool that I worked at is the,
we had retired Air Force threeretired Air Force guys that came

(01:06:56):
in and they ran our JROTC program.
And so that helped massivelywith our kids at that school.
That was huge.
That was the biggest program thatwe had, and majority of those
kids all went off to the military.
That was pretty big in that school.

(01:07:18):
It was it was very effective, and I thinkalso because my principal was a retired
army colonel, so he was big on military.
He was big on structure.
And the other thing that heimplemented into the school that
was very successful is with thekids going through the ROTC program.
Is they could go through a pilotprogram where they actually learned

(01:07:42):
how to fly a plane, a real plane.
And they had a simul a flightsimulator in the ROTC room.
And I was there 15 years.
And in that 15 years, I thinkwe had at least 12 kids that
learned how to fly a plane.
And they got their pilot's license bythe time they were in fourth grade.

(01:08:04):
Feels pretty cool.

You're going to start getting into the thing that, that I
also could see implementation of veryeasily in our school system which is some
level of martial art training for bothmen and women to the extent of, and it
might be a little bit personally biased.
But let's just call it jujitsu.

(01:08:25):
And, Brazilian jujitsu is very muchthe art of, first of all, inner
connectivity, interconnectedness,because you are right in that person.
There's no more personal space it's gone.
So now the awkwardness getsremoved from the situation.
And then number two.
It teaches every man and woman thatyou're going to lose at some point.

(01:08:50):
And so it's an egocrusher, which is awesome.
One of the best moments of my adultdad life was seeing my 13 year old son,
Gabriel get tapped out by a girl at aat a tournament and he started crying
because he lost and I was like, Heyman, You tried and he got zero trophy.

(01:09:11):
There was no, Hey, you still nothing.
It was like, you lost buddy.
Like this girl beat you.
He thought he was going tobeat her, but she was better.
And that's the other third partis that it is a skill that truly
doesn't embark on strength.
So where it's not a male dominatedsport, because it is a technique

(01:09:32):
And speed and ability and agilitysport where the strongest person
very rarely wins, actually.
So saying all that to say causeI can talk about jujitsu forever.
I think having some form of sport that'snot football for our boys, for our girls,

(01:09:53):
for individuals to understand what itmeans to Lose for what it means to be
an act out in an aggressive stance.
and still lose, have the ability tounderstand and talk and feel and know how
to work out solutions, know how to workout problems, know that the vast majority

(01:10:16):
of mil marshallee are trained individuals.
The fighting propensitydecreases dramatically.
Like the amount of times I was in afight as a teenage boy was weekly.
And then as I started doing more and moremartial arts, I started realizing very
quickly that I didn't know how to fight.

(01:10:37):
And that there were people inthe world who knew much more
than me in this particular realm.
And I love to practice and I love themartial art of that inner knowing,
that inner peace, that calmness, thatstillness, and after going through
that, the anger, if you will, therage monster that probably lives in

(01:11:00):
almost all teenagers, but definitelyteenage boys starts to dissipate.
Because you also havean outlet to act it out.
But at the same time, you alsoare aware that there is different
levels to the game and that you'renot the coolest person in town.
So that's just a, an implementationpiece where I just think really

(01:11:21):
restructuring so much of our schools.
Does allow for mental health,physical health, awareness,
happiness, peace, joy, prosperity.
Danny, you mentioned breath work.
You guys mentioned meditation.
Jennifer, you mentioned silence, a momentof silence where shoot, not a minute.

(01:11:44):
Let's try an hour.
An hour of silence is challengingfor most adults, right?
You mentioned the word life coach area.
Like I'm a life coach as well.
I work with men and women of all ages onmany different pieces, but the aspect of
just sitting in silence and listening towhatever you want to listen to whatever
intelligence or universal or God energythat you need to tap into just to listen,

(01:12:08):
because in silence, we hear the most.
And teaching and implementing that.
You do this and you start solvinga lot of the root issues that cause
potentially aggression at the house.
You start solving a lot of the problemsthat face the the family unit, I believe.

(01:12:31):
I'm sorry.
I think it does eventually translate.
Wait, what do you think, Eric?

Yeah, absolutely.
And I think we have a lot of those bigconnections in activity, in action.
And so by being in the sports andbeing involved in that high action
I know for me when I'm out, whenI'm on my runs I, I love getting
to that place of that runner's highand boy, do I have the clarity that
just comes over and the thoughts.

(01:12:56):
And I'm like, wow, here it comes.
Let's open it up here.
Let's bring these ideas,bring these thoughts.
And I think that would be greatfor the kids to experience.
In terms of the family unit, really,how do we level the playing field?
Because I think we have families ofall different dynamics, all different
constructs, and how do we level theplaying field so that, and it's not

(01:13:20):
that everybody's getting chovy, butthat kids are getting opportunity.
And I think that's the goldenticket to me right here.
How do we get
these kids opportunity to put them infront of the I'm going to reject you.
I'm going to go into the ROTC, orlike we have here we have the Young
Marines here in Southern California.

(01:13:42):
We got that group because we'reright here by Camp Pendleton.
What do we have that we can open up asopportunity for kids to be involved?
That's, that I think is, even if my homelife is horrible, And I don't want to
go home at the end of the school day.
What outlet do I have?

(01:14:02):
What
can I do with now all this built up energy
that I need to do somethingconstructive with?

So if I totally agree and if those.
Programs are requirements in school,
Right?
If the ROTC is a requirement forschool and the leaders of ROTC, I
don't even know if I would do well inan ROTC right now, like the pushups,
the sit ups, the paying attention,the sitting still the, obviously the

(01:14:32):
no phones, the being able to listen.
On demand essentially, right?
If that was not an option andespecially it wasn't a paid option,
but it really was a requirement, Eric,do you feel that if everyone had the
opportunity, yes, but essentially themandatory requirement to go through
that, does that begin to allow morepeople to experience that opportunity?

(01:14:53):
Okay.

Yeah, I believe it does.
When you look back at whereeducation was and what was offered.
Throughout the course of the schoolday, home mech, shop wood shop,
all of these things I remember kidsbeing in ROTC in, in high school.
And that was only a couple years ago.
And absolutely.
And where can we help get them involved?
Because they are going to thrive,they're going to have those

(01:15:16):
kids that thrive in the ROTC.
That's just what they needed.
And then these kids aregoing to thrive over here.
This is just what they needed.
And they're going to learn the softskills and they're going to learn the
management, self management, and beable to tap into their their greatness
and their empowerment in those spaces.
And I think that's the why behindthe importance of creating this

(01:15:38):
opportunity space for them.

JennWXS-1 (01:15:40):
But I think that also goes back.
Eric and Danielle already touched on it.
That goes back to our statewith them cutting our cut.
That's why teachers are quitting.
You're cutting our money.
We're not being funded enough.
Eric said it himself.
And then Danielle we becauseour funds are being cut.
We don't have those afterschool programs.

(01:16:02):
How freaking cool would it be?
Like you said, jujitsu.
If we had the funding, we had theafterschool program and you could bring in
somebody from a local YMCA or rec centeror something to teach that jujitsu to
keep the kids off the street, to help themmentally, physically, emotionally, because

(01:16:24):
I'm sure jujitsu touches on all of that.
I think that would be wonderful ifmore schools had programming like
that, but we're just, that's the otherreason why teachers are quitting,
mental burnout and they don't feelsupported and they're not being paid.

Sure.
Yes.
Yes.
I'm with you.
100%. I agree.
And I know, and I've always knownthat is one of the main challenges
that not only face the schools, butjust face what's going on in the
schools is the budgetary constraint.
Because again, we, I'm going to continueto pour in more time, energy, and effort

(01:17:01):
into understanding where some of thismoney is going, because realistically.
I have heard from so many individualsthat are on in schools now, like you
three, we don't have the money for it.
Like the school doesn't have the money.
The schools are always cutting budgets.

(01:17:25):
And I remember probably what, five yearsago that there was a nationwide budget cut
and that nationwide budget cut essentiallyaffected drama, music, and art.
I was like, let's teach more scienceand literature, which everyone hates.
Not really, but cause the schoolsays, I'm talking about failing
me when I was in fourth grade, Ihad an amazing history teacher.

(01:17:50):
And this history teacher madeeverything come alive for me.
It was Mr.
Potter.
He made everything come alive.
It was so fantastic.
And he was just the best history teacher.
And I loved history because of him.
And I still love history to this day.
And I walked up to him one day in classand I was like, Mr. Potter, I want to
be a history teacher just like you.

(01:18:10):
And he went, Oh, you don't.
And I was like, yeah, I do.
And he goes, no, you don't.
I was like, why?
He goes, you're notgoing to make any money.
And I never heard that before.
I thought teachers were like loaded.
And so I asked him, I'min fourth grade, right?
I was like how much do you make?
And he said 39, 000 a year.

(01:18:33):
Now, granted, when I was in fourthgrade, that was 1436 but 39, 000 for
any age, any profession at reallyany point pre 1930, isn't great.
That's a low number.
And I even knew it then I was like, Ohyeah, it's not that much money, dude.

(01:18:54):
Like 39, 000 is not a lot.
And then he went through all of his, dailyroutines and that he was spending, he was
working 60 hours a week every single week.
And then his summer break, he waslike, During my summer break, like
everyone thinks that we have asuper long, amazing summer break.
He goes, our summer break is really?
Like ultimately two and ahalf weeks because you have

(01:19:17):
the closing of everything.
You have the reopening of everything.
You got the planning for everything.
The moving of everything.
It's we think That's a society that, Oh,dude, teachers get three months a year.
They get all these vacations.
It's bro, that's when they'redoing all of the tests.
That's when they're doing all the grading.
That's when they're doingprobably all the paperwork.
We, and I would love to pay teachers more.

would love it too.

JennWXS-1 (01:19:39):
That

many teachers that take it right out of their pocket.
They just have no, that's what they love.
They love that and for themto do what they need to do.
I was one that took it rightout of my pocket, right?
Because I wanted to make surethat they had what they needed.
So yeah,

JennWXS-1 (01:19:58):
I pay for so much stuff out of my pocket because there's
just not enough money to go around.
But, talking about budget, thatwas 1 of the school that I was
at last year was an 8, 9 school.
It was just 8th and 9th grade.
And that's 1 of the reasons why thatschool they, that was a scary time.
We got called into a staffmeeting around Christmas.

(01:20:20):
And walking into that staff meetingand we saw the superintendent walked
in, we knew something was wrong.
And he walked up into the staffmeeting and he said, we hate to
tell you this, but this wholeentire staff has just gotten fired.
We were like, what?
And he was like, yeah, basicallyhe's this school will be closed
at the end of the school year.
And you all have got to go out andfind new jobs because we don't have the

(01:20:42):
budget to support this school anymore.
Yeah.

wild.
David, do you truly feel that thereis the ability for this country to
properly pay for our school system?

Yeah, everything's a choice, right?
Everything is a choice.
And I'm going back to, like,where's this money going?
That's the, when it, it's notmaking it to the teachers.
No teacher should have tobe paying for anything.
And teachers need to teach, right?
So that's going to mean, staffing it.
That's going to mean adequate pay.
That's going to mean retention.
That means.

(01:21:14):
All of that money needs to start there.
The teachers are the ones that areactually with our kids day in and day out.
So I, there's no other choice, right?
That there are choices thataren't that is is the problem.

Yeah.
Can one of you three, five minutes orless, can you teach me and Dave on the
hierarchy of a school in the sense of,so you mentioned the superintendent.
I don't know exactly whatthat means, but ultimately.
The board of education, like whereis all the administrative costs going

and it's different in different states, right?

JennWXS-1 (01:21:52):
Yeah.

Or is it about the same?
I don't know.

I think maybe even different in different school systems, school district.

really even different school districts will be different.
Okay.
So who who is the principal, does theprincipal make a lot of choices and
decisions around the budget of the school?

Yeah I'll hop in.
Yeah, principals do get to do that.
There is a trickle down to the teachers.
They can ask for things.
There's.
They could be told we've gotthis amount in the budget.
It could go to there's aperson that deals with budgets.
I'm going by my school.
There's a person that dealsjust with budgets and can say
how much each teacher can get.

(01:22:33):
There's overhead and all that stuffthat gets put into that pot if you will.
From the principal, you've got thecourse of the hierarchy of the district.
Ours is quite large and I know all theway up to the top of the superintendent,
I know his salary is somewhere around350, 000 400, 000 a year to be the

(01:22:56):
super and then we have how manyassistant supers who are all paid?
And then you have department headsat the DO and they all get paid
and then they have assistance.
And so when you're looking at the levelsof the multiple levels that come down
to a school that finally trickled downto, and this is what I said before,

(01:23:20):
this is why our kids are only allocated,what, five, 7 a day and it's up to
us to say, get yourselves to school.
And we don't say it's so that wecan collect your ADA, because if
you're not in your seat by, nineo'clock, we're not going to be able
to claim full ADA for you and get thefunding for your warm butt in a seat.

(01:23:41):
Don't get me started.
Holy moly.

Wow.

JennWXS-1 (01:23:45):
the other reason why our, that school was closed last
year is because of what Eric said.
We didn't have the kids in the seat.
We didn't have the butts in the seat.
That was another 1 of the reasonswhy the school was closed and
that's another reason why.
I have 41 students and 8 classes.

Because the school gets rewarded for more kids.

JennWXS-1 (01:24:13):
But it's in the seat

whoa.
Wow.

JennWXS-1 (01:24:17):
and

that's the wrong, that's the wrong incentive.
That's
No.

The education is the transportation now being budgeted
with the school and with like yousaid that there's less students.
So did they cut busing?
Really?

Yeah.
We're in the the pretty heavily populated.
We have a couple of buses thatcome because they are bringing
low income students from aparticular area to the school.
Otherwise I drove my kids to school everyday from kindergarten through till they
started driving somewhere in high school.
And if you wanted topay for a bus, it was.

(01:25:00):
I think it's up to almost athousand dollars a year now if
you want your kids to ride a bus.

JennWXS-1 (01:25:05):
I think that,

bonkers.

JennWXS-1 (01:25:08):
yeah, I think that's tied in with, the busing is tied in with
the superintendent and like his budgetsthat he has to manage a district level.

Yeah.
It's fascinating to see the web of the thechanges and the tweaks and the adjustments
that are at least available because.
It also seems to me that theproblem is, and we all know, right?
Extremely multifaceted, but thereare also probably pretty easy tweaks

(01:25:42):
and adjustments that haven't reallybeen focused on by an administration
especially a government administration.
And so again, that's my whole purposeand campaign is to change the educational
system, to re to reinvigorate it,to transform it, to transcend it,
to elevate it, to shift it to where.
There's more opportunities.
There's more money, there's more safety.

(01:26:03):
And in the in the awareness of ifwe, as a country start shifting to
that as our primary concern, I'vetalked to every single parent every
parent I've ever talked to is anagreement that the education system
hasn't truly undergone scrutiny.

(01:26:27):
And a change and arevitalization in a long time.
And so it does, it justseems, it seems crazy.
Yeah.
It seems interesting to me.
And the reason it seems interesting isbecause again, just from the standpoint
of superintendents, the the S the schoolboard, you obviously have a school

(01:26:50):
districts, district superintendents, stateboard of education, state superintendent,
commissioner of education, statedepartment of education, U S department
of education, like the hierarchy is And sofor someone to care so deeply about this.
I think is probably the only way itchanges and you have to get almost

(01:27:12):
like this union level of strikingwhere it is everyone gets behind a
central mission to create this shift.
And the shift will be dramatic.
It needs to be dramatic.
But at the same time,it's probably pretty easy.

(01:27:34):
if it is easy as, let's findways to use our tax dollars more
appropriately, so that teachers getpaid more, police officers get paid
more, first responders get paid more.
Those cohesive units begin to worktogether to keep everyone more
safe from a community standpoint.

(01:27:57):
And the schools themselves are a placethat is To Dave's point, fortified,
but also beautiful and friendly andexciting and inviting and luxurious
and enticing and a wonderful place tolearn because the teachers are happy.
The students are happy.
And there's never a school shootingever again especially a mass shooting.

(01:28:21):
And I think just having not onlyconversations like this, but having
people that come together to know thatit's a problem and to start inciting
the change is extremely important.
And the last 10 or 20 minutes, I thinkone of those changes that we haven't
talked about in depth or really discussedat length, but has been mentioned

(01:28:46):
by all three of you is the food.

JennWXS-1 (01:28:49):
Oh,

Now,

for those just listening, we just had an entire group of
people just start shaking their head.
We're like, Oh, my God.

What is happening here with the food gin?
Why the verbal
disgust?

JennWXS-1 (01:29:03):
it's just God awful.
It's awful.
I know my three step girlsthey refuse to eat at school.
It's just that bad.
It's, I don't even know where to start.
Eric and Danielle might, but I don't evenknow where to begin on school nutrition.
It is just horrid.

All right, Eric, teach us

I'm coming from the brain health perspective, if I may.
And my lord have mercy, when you look atthe list of ingredients that are on the
back of those packages, that those kidsare going out for break time and eating
this breakfast cookie, With all theseartificial preservatives and colorings and

(01:29:45):
this and that and then they get more atlunch and then they get more and yeah, and
now they got their bag of this and they'reeating that and they're drinking Cokes And
we're wondering why they can't sit still.
We're wondering why they don'thave the ability to comprehend,
to intake and solidify into memorycontent that's being put in front

(01:30:06):
of them because they're putting intotheir bodies, neural disruptors,

JennWXS-1 (01:30:09):
Process garbage.

process, garbage, oils, seed oils, all these things
that are neural disruptors.
So the eat this, they come in after break.
Or lunch and they're just,heads are spinning around like
this and they're so off kilter.
And then I'm supposed to help teachthem something that's going to take
brain power and concentration andfocus and energy to put into that.

(01:30:34):
Or the kids aren't eating like Jenwas saying, so now they're, they don't
have fuel in their tank, so they can'tdrive their vehicle and they come
into class and they're near sleepingbecause they don't have anything,
haven't put anything in their bodies.
And they have a few of themselves

what was the term?
Neuro neural

neuro disruptors, so
just disrupting the neuralconnections in the brain.

So are there certain foods that do that more
than others to your awareness?

Yes.
So anything with the artificial flavoringsand colorings, the dyes, the yellow, reds,
blues, all of those things, speed oils,for sure your sunflower, your staff flower
all of those palm oils seed oils that arein the foods and the preservatives that
are there to keep that food from rotting.

(01:31:24):
Preservatives that are on thepackaging all of that is a contributor.

So Jennifer, do you, you're, I'm assuming you're
allowed to bring in your own foodand you just eat your own food.
Can you walk us throughwhat that looks like from a
nutritional standpoint for you?
Do you interact with any ofthe school lunches or is that
something that you do on your own?

JennWXS-1 (01:31:47):
The kids can bring in their own lunch and I do see majority of
the kids bringing in their own lunch.
It's just like Eric said,I was about to chime in.
I don't even know if our lunch staff even.
If they cook lunch, I'm very surprised.
I know they don't cook breakfast.
I know everything at breakfasttime is packaged in plastic.

(01:32:12):
Everything.
They go through and they get, Iknow they get one thing of whatever
they put out and every single thingthat they put out is in packaging.
We have a snack

COVID,

JennWXS-1 (01:32:24):
ma'am.

let's start with COVID.
And then it
just kept on going.

JennWXS-1 (01:32:28):
I don't, even at my last school in North Carolina, it was the same way.
And I was at that school throughoutall of COVID and they were doing a
packaged foods at breakfast time,like package, like little pancakes
and packaged, sausage links and.
And there are even the frustrating thing.

(01:32:50):
It's like there are even microwavesin the lunchroom for the kids to use
if they want to heat up their food.
so I don't I bring my ownlunch to school as well.
So

Is it is it is it free to eat lunch at school?

JennWXS-1 (01:33:06):
Yes, it is free.

Okay.

JennWXS-1 (01:33:08):
Yes.

Gotcha.

JennWXS-1 (01:33:10):
my school it is.

Sure what about you, Danny?
Like in your thoughts on thefood, how much we all know
that it's extremely important.
We've all heard that thegut is the second brain.
So to Eric standpoint, like if you'reputting food in there, that's not
terrific, you're probably you'reif your second brain isn't awesome,
your first brain probably sucks.
So now you have two brains.
You're like, ah, I don't like this.

(01:33:33):
Where do where does someone startwith better nutrition, Danny?

This is something that I do know that parents are excited
because the kids get a breakfast nowand a lunch and it's free, right?
That lets them understand thatthey think their child is getting
something healthy for their body.
That is not always the truth, asthese guys have talked about Eric?

(01:34:00):
It fills their belly, but that'sprimarily where it stops, right?
It doesn't heal their brain.
It doesn't it doesn't heal their body.
It fills it, right?
Makes it comfort food.
But then, Like Jen was saying,all these IEPs, all these special

(01:34:23):
things, everybody on medicine.
We are feeding our children.
Why are we doing this?
Feeding our childrenall these drugs, right?
All these uppers, all this sugar, right?
And then all of a sudden,oh, I've got an ADHD child.
Oh, you think?
Let's put a pill on that too.

JennWXS-1 (01:34:43):
Let's mandate it with a pill.

yeah.
Yeah, understanding that the school feelas though they're doing a service for
the children, giving them their meal.
But in reality, that we have to understandthat we have to start giving the children,
substance something that is going to fueland help their body, not just to fill it.

JennWXS-1 (01:35:09):
The other thing that I have heard when it comes to the lunchroom
staff is, They they have parametersfrom the state where they have to
provide certain things, whether thekid picks it up and eats it or not.
And a lot of things that, the parametersand a lot of things that they're having
to provide, the kids, Won't eat it andthey and but they're forced to have to

(01:35:35):
put it on their plate, according to thestate, even though the kid won't eat it.
So then you've got all of these thingsthat the kids won't eat that are going
in the trash every single day, likebananas, apples and I could go on and on.
And I remember at the school.
I was at North Carolina.

(01:35:56):
It's like when I would be on morningduty, I would look and I was sitting
here thinking, there are 60 apples,fresh apples in this trash can, because
you're forcing that child out of stateparameters to put that stuff on their
plate and they're not going to eat it.
And this all goes in the trash.

Because it's tied to what?
Money.

JennWXS-1 (01:36:18):
But

Everything that goes on that plate is a piece of money.
And so they're basing thatmoney off of this ridiculous
thing called the food pyramid.
One of the most, nonsensical,

There's no way they still teach the food pyramid dude.

JennWXS-1 (01:36:33):
unfortunately, yes, they do.

one.
The wrong one.

the wrong one.
We know because we're in a spaceof which we're, we understand why
the food pyramid doesn't work, butthey are putting things on our kids
plates based on the food pyramid.

Fascinating.
Fascinating.
Wow.
Yeah.
You're, you did the money symbol, right?
For the listeners, likeeverything is tied to money.
One of my mentors, Jesse Itzler.
Has openly asked the CEO of Kellogg's todo an interview because many of the the

(01:37:13):
cereals are labeled as heart healthy.
And Jesse Itzler is please.
Tell me how you put that labelon your box and he's offered 100,
000 cash just for the interviewand he's not even a podcaster.
He just cares about his kids just likeevery other parent in the world and

(01:37:37):
he knows and he's done the researchand he's looked up the ingredients.
He goes, these are notheart healthy at all.
And, Kellogg's general mills, it's avery long list, but the vast majority.
Of cereals that we put out inschools or maybe even hotel
boardrooms where, you know, anyone'seating those aren't healthy.

(01:38:01):
We're even remotely, right?
We're talking 36 to 48 grams of sugarper serving, which is like three Cokes.
It is unimaginable amount of sugar.
And there's been so many studies.
That I'm aware of that sugar and cocaine.

(01:38:22):
Are so closely related, right?
They're so closely related and it'salmost identical as far as the receptors
to the brain and actually what happens.
And there are some scientists andgut health experts and biome experts
that have said sugar is as bad.

(01:38:43):
And if we don't start realizingthat soon, we're going to
continue the poison in our nation.
Wow.

JennWXS-1 (01:38:49):
The

A hundred percent.
That addiction is housed in thesame pleasure center in the brain.
So whether I'm eating high amountsof sugar and I need more and more,
or I'm going after cocaine or methor whatever else, it's the same,
it's the same area of the brain.

Wow.
Wow.

Need to start farms at school, right?
So we can start growing our vegetables andour fruit and have the kids learn how to
do it, dig in the dirt, learn all theseskills, and then turn around and eat them,

yeah, sure.

Thing is about this.
This whole discussion is about schoolsafety and We've covered a lot and
what I'm trying to figure out is what'sgoing what's, what's going right in
because, you don't have the time, wedon't have the money, we, we're not
teaching the skills needed because wedon't have the teachers there's we're
feeding them garbage, we're, all of theseThings are, there's a lot to fix here.

(01:39:45):
So what's going right.
What do we need to be doing more of that?
We're already doing.
If anything, what do you think, Eric?

Listen, I'm going to speak for the teachers that I know
they're the most beautiful souls and thebeautiful hearts of people I've ever met.
And we're in it for that reason.
To bless the lives of others.
To help kids get love, see love,and experience love that maybe
they don't ever get at home orfrom other areas of their lives.

(01:40:16):
And to freely be there to support kids.
And it's not, to me, it's not about.
The curriculum that's important, but it'smore important for me to stay in that
heart of service and love for these kids.
And and that's the space that I knowI'm in and as well as my colleagues,

jen, anything to add?

JennWXS-1 (01:40:38):
I totally agree with him.
I think, I've been in 4 differentschool systems and the education
family, I still keep in touch with,a lot of those teachers that I worked
with in the past school systems,especially my 1st school system.
Because it was like my 2nd family.

(01:40:59):
And I can honestly say, like Eric, thatthe teachers that have decided to stay.
And that are in it and they pullmoney out of their own pockets.
They are truly there to love andcare for those kids that you, look
at me, I've been in it 20 years.

(01:41:19):
And so I pull from mypocket every single day.
If a kid, I have kids coming up to meleft and right, can I borrow a dollar?
And I'm like, yeah here's a dollar.
Or school supplies.
And so we're truly in it becausewe love and care for the kids
and we want to be there for them.

And that's what's going which thank you as well.
That's always been a professionthat's been near and dear to my heart
because Danny knows this, I back tothe fourth grade, I always wanted
to be a teacher, always wanted tobe a history teacher specifically.
And I didn't even realize untilthree years ago that I actually
am technically a history teacher.

(01:41:57):
I just teach the historyof the financial markets.
And I teach individuals howthe financial markets work.
And I teach specifically mostly adults,but I have taught kids and I have seen how
fast and quickly they learn and can learn.
And what is going right is that weare, and we do have the greatest talent

(01:42:18):
pool to choose from because we're inthe greatest country in the world.
And the greatest country in the worldhave the greatest problems in the world.
You can't be in a position of greatnessand not have the most eyes and the most
fingers pointed at you So to get politicalfor a moment have any three of you?
Spent time Learning or readingor hearing more about kennedy

(01:42:41):
his make America healthy again.
Is that something that any ofyou either support or believe
will actually come to fruition?
Eric looks like a knife for you.

JennWXS-1 (01:42:51):
Go ahead.

I was gonna, I was gonna say personally, I have not read
it or seen it, but just hearing thosewords to make America healthy again.
A hundred percent.

Exactly.
If anybody would jump onthat bandwagon, right?
Yes, support it for sure.

Yeah that's, that's something that he's he was campaigning for
and I, again, I just think it's a, it'san important aspect to, to focus on this
is this being one of those large pieces.
Because in his, what was the term,Dave, his decommencement speech,

(01:43:30):
where he's steps down as running forpresident and gives his allegiance
essentially in support to Trump.
He said that the food that we'reeating is killing this country.
And he goes, that's somethingthat we need to address.
We need to fix.
And I'm just happy to know that it'sin the upper levels of government.

(01:43:52):
There are definitely peoplethat are aware of this.
Cause also Kennedy jr. Is like everyother politician, 60 plus white dude,
but at least the guy is jacked and isn'thealthy and can do like 10 pull ups, at
least we have that because that's alsothe thing that we need in leadership
is we can't only have people that sayit's important, but we can't And they

(01:44:12):
have none of the, what you would callphysical characteristics of health and
regardless of what side of the aisleanyone stands on, I think we can all
agree that the majority of our past.
Presidential candidates, nomineesor specifically presidents.
But many of the other aspects ofgovernment, we are not focused on

(01:44:37):
having health as a big priority becauseto begin to wrap up, I fully do agree
that as we focus on health, physicalhealth, mental health, you at the
core will begin changing the internalcomposition of the American populace.
And when you start focusing on theinternal core of the American populace,

(01:44:59):
you then start working on the absolute.
Almost mandatory construction of what theAmerican future is built on, which is the
education, the educational system and thehealth and well being of our Children.
And so when you make that the obviousdistinctive priority, then you have

(01:45:19):
to then say, how do we not onlymake our nation healthy, but how do
we keep all of our Children safe?
And then you start now focusingon changing and reinvigorating
the educational system.
Mhm.
Which goes back to the point of the entirediscussion, which was really eye opening.
I just want to say thank all threeof you for giving us your valuable

(01:45:40):
time, all of your education.
Combined, you're all almost at ahundred years of educational background
and of knowledge and of resources.
And as one child that did make itout of the education system to know
how valuable our teachers are, thankyou for all the lives that you did

(01:46:01):
impact, the ones that never told you.
Because they might not have known how totell you they might not have known that
you were valuable and it might have takenthem to be a 25 year old man to say, wow,
that 4th grade teacher really did changeand impact my life and gave me such a
beautiful shift of what's possible taking.

(01:46:22):
Taking a portion of education that mostpeople generally would deem as boring
and put his energy and time and passioninto it to invigorate someone that is
going to run for president of how brokenhis face was when he told me of how
much money he made and how poor he felt.

(01:46:44):
And I just want to say.
From one person to teachers that arehere, the really the healers that
are here, the caregivers that arehere, the parents that are here.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you, Jeremy.

JennWXS-1 (01:47:01):
Thank you, Jeremy.

Absolutely.
Love and blessings.
Thank you for being on the podcast.
Thank you so much forlistening to this podcast.
Thank you for being a part.
of solving America's problems.
We are focusing and dealing with oneof the most egregious problems and
that is helping and elevating andchanging and shifting the educational

(01:47:22):
system to educational reform.
And most importantly, in this episode, wedealt with how to stop school shootings.
Danny, Jennifer, Eric, it was a pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time.

Okay.
Alright, so what did you learn?

What what did I learn?
I learned that this is probably goingto be the focus of so many of our
episodes, Dave, because it seems like.
When we continue to talk to moreand more individuals that are in
and around the educational system.
We have, we've had military expertsthat focus on prevention in schools.

(01:48:02):
Then you have teachers.
That are saying is a budget issue.
There's going to be so much to unpackhere and to really find out the initial
problem, potentially the Genesis,potentially the root problem that we can
start addressing, knowing exactly whatit is it going to require a lot more

(01:48:23):
deep diving, which I'm excited about.
That's obviously the point of thisentire podcast, but most importantly,
I'm also excited because it seems like.
When we find that problem that we trulydirectly specifically solved, there will
be an incredible domino and ripple effectthat a lot of people will get behind and
champion and really see to the forefront.

(01:48:45):
Yes.

man I learned, we, it came up over and over again as this
is multifaceted like this, and thisis where I'm hearing it from you
too, is it's like there's a lot here.
And I also, that came back toour first conversation on this as
we're talking about bulletproofdesks and robots and drones.
Come on, no way.

(01:49:10):
I, that's, there's already no money.
And if we're saying we're going to bemaking these fortresses with, I don't know
where that money's going to come from.
Now I hear you.
It sounds like quick, a quick fix.
And, it's oh, our schools willbe safe if we just get some
robot dogs that will be trolling.
And I'm like, oh, come on.

(01:49:31):
We're feeding our kids garbage.
There's no after school classes, divorce,lack of mentors, money's not making it
to the kids, we're over medicalizingthe kids just not having enough
teachers, all, so many things, right?
And there's, no, nowonder we have a crisis.
We're making our kids crazy.

I think if we are to truly create an actual real
tangible solution, it does startwith conversations like this.
It starts with listeners.
Like you, it starts with you allsharing your thoughts, your opinions,
your feelings, and your feedback.
If you want to be a guest on this show, ifyou want to be someone that helps us with

(01:50:17):
your insights and with your thoughts, makesure you contact us and reach out so that
we can hear your voice and make sure thatyou are also part of this conversation
because we are solving America's problems.
Thank you for listening.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

The Joe Rogan Experience

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Kids Laugh During Shooter Drills—Teachers Speak Out (Full)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

The Joe Rogan Experience

Stuff You Should Know

All Episodes

Kids Laugh During Shooter Drills—Teachers Speak Out (Full)

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang