Addressing Racial Inequality in Behavior Management Through Behavior Science

I recently received a powerful question from a large school district asking how PCMA’s training solutions address racial inequality and why the PCMA is the best choice in training curricula to move toward that goal.?The simple answer here is that it’s rooted in behavioral science, which eliminates issues associated with racism or any ism because it does not discriminate.?But let me explain a little further.

The Professional Crisis Management Association uses the science of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in all of our curricula.?The reason this is critical in moving toward a more racially equal environment is that ABA uses the standard of observable and measurable behavior before practitioners are allowed to implement potentially intrusive de-escalation or physical holding procedures.?This means that no one can use our Dynamic Holding process unless very specific BEHAVIORAL criteria are met, irrelevant of any other factors about the student or staff members.?

Only Professional Crisis Management uses this specific standard to ensure that there is consistency in physical holding criteria across the board.?Dynamic Holding (TM) may only be used in specific situations where a student engages in continuous aggression, continuous self-injury, and/or continuous high-magnitude destruction.?If these criteria are not met, the physical holding may not occur and other, less intrusive, forms of intervention are used.?This allows the school to focus on dangerous behavior rather than any attributes of the students or staff members involved. Additionally, this assures minimized probability that physical holding will be misused by any particular population and that the behavior displayed justifies all use of physical holding.

Unfortunately, most de-escalation and crisis management systems use the criteria of "danger to self or others" to implement procedures/restraint.?Even when this is written into regulation, this can lead to dangerous overuse and inappropriate use of holding procedures.?Here's why:?Each of us has our own perception of "danger.”??Our past experiences, good and bad, color our perceptions. They can lead to us feeling threatened by one person and not feeling threatened by another, even in situations with the exact same circumstances and behavior, just a different person involved.?This is what can lead to bias in how physical holding or restraint is being used: different students, same behavior, different outcomes.

Avoiding this all comes down to using observable, measurable criteria for the implementation of physical holding to avoid potential biases that may cause someone to feel "threatened" when that may not, in fact, be the case.?When behavioral criteria are used, interventions can be implemented without explicit or implicit bias because the behavioral criteria of continuous aggression, continuous self-injury, and/or continuous high-magnitude destruction are either met or not met, irrelevant to other factors such as race or ethnicity.?This is a major difference between systems, training, and philosophies.

There are, of course, other reasons that make our signature course, Professional Crisis Management, or PCM, a great choice for anyone. First is PCM's emphasis on prevention. Most systems will have a page or two of prevention techniques.?PCM includes over 70 pages of techniques, information, and questions that provide practitioners with the knowledge and tools to set up environments where all individuals can succeed and thrive.?These include knowledge of a student’s culture, neighborhood, family, etc., as well as knowing the student.?For example, how they communicate, non-verbal cues, physical challenges, sensory issues, adaptive equipment, dietary plans, etc. These are the details that help us see any person as the individual they are.?These are the details and information each PCM practitioner and instructor are taught to collect and on which to focus.

PCM's physical holding procedures, Dynamic Holding (TM), are designed to fit together like puzzle pieces with very gradual fading into more and less restrictive procedures dependent on the student's behavior. This provides them with choice, even during a crisis, as procedures are faded within 3 seconds of less resistive behavior.?This leads to the rapid shaping of more cooperative and calm behavior.?Many of our partner schools and agencies see decreases of up to 2/3 in frequency, duration, and intensity over time.?PCM's procedures are designed to use natural body positioning, which minimizes discomfort, and helps to maximize relationships.?Procedures are designed to avoid joints, muscle attachments, or any areas of the body that may cause pain or be perceived as coercive.?PCM uses painless physical holding that is the least coercive physical intervention possible to prevent injury to the student and others in the environment.

But that is our complete crisis management course.?We also offer EveryDay BehaviorTools, which is completely verbal and focuses exclusively on prevention and de-escalation.?It is based on the work of Glenn Latham, The Power of Positive Parenting.??These "tools" include:?Maximizing Relationships, Using Positive Reinforcement, Using a Non-Reactive Response, Using Pivot Praise, Interrupting and Redirecting Behavior, Setting Expectations, and (optional) Using a Written Contract.?These tools have helped thousands of practitioners support tens of thousands of individuals in different settings across the world.?For example, when trained to implement these tools, foster parents were able to double the length of placement for at-risk foster children in their care.?What's great about the EveryDay BehaviorTools is that it lets us meet the student (and others) where they are at and then move forward with them to develop a positive and proactive relationship.

Sources of racism and the challenges associated with it are complex. While our training solutions can't solve all these problems, they certainly can be a part of the solution. Because Professional Crisis Management and the EveryDay BehaviorTools are grounded in the science of human behavior, making them an especially good fit for any school system trying to reduce racial inequality and disproportionality issues.?Moreover, with our 40 years plus of experience, we’ve shaped our approaches so that they can fit seamlessly within any school in a way that other crisis management systems are not able and move toward your goals in a way that other systems are not capable.?For more information, check out crisisintervention.com and email Lisa Schmidt at [email protected] with any questions!

About the Author

Lisa Schmidt is an experienced Human Services Professional and Adjunct Professor with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Microsoft Word, Emergency Management, Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Management, and Software Documentation. Strong education professional with a BS focused in Special Education from Black Hills State University.?She is a Senior Sales Representative at the Professional Crisis Management Association.