Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International, has traveled worldwide training people to rapidly and efficiently respond to life threatening situations.
Dorn, a former police officer and graduate of the FBI National Academy, will deliver the keynote presentation titled Transportation Security Interaction at a Maine transportation conference later this month.
He will lend his expertise in pattern matching and recognition in order for bus drivers to learn how to examine behavior that’s not normal to the context of the situation for faster detection of unsafe events.
A number of school transportation representatives from around the Pine Tree State, including directors, supervisors and bus drivers, will descend on Sugarloaf Mountain to participate in the annual intensive training on safety.
Bus drivers actively participate in the simulation that Dorn conducts, each given 30 seconds to react to a variety of dangerous situations. Their reactions are then gauged to the expectations previously established.
Working with numerous experts, from law enforcement to mental health officials, Dorn has customized each scenario to teach core concepts of proper emergency response.
The takeaway of this scenario-based approach to training, as Dorn stated, is that “responses are adaptable because it’s dangerous to assume that all situations are the same.”
Dorn has worked with countless school districts around the country to help reassess their safety policies and give them the cost-efficient tools to improve and implement them. “We’re teaching them to fish, not selling them the fish,” said Dorn.
Safe Havens International is a non-profit dedicated to assisting schools and communities in creating a safer world for children and educators.
Dorn has been a presenter at the STN EXPO on multiple occasions, as well as being a previous keynote speaker. The 2015 STN EXPO will be held July 25-28 with the Green Bus Summit on July 29.
