Everyone in our community believes the safety and security of our children is important. We meet 3 people keeping our children safe from school shootings. Learn about the programs that keep our school staff informed during an incident. Hear how this system prevented the escalation of an incident here in Roswell. 

Thank you Roswell Independent School District for allowing us to have Kristen Salyards Community Schools District Lead, Ana Romero School Resource Officer, and LJ Harrell the Safe School Liaison with us on this episode.

Episode Highlights 

1:10 -  Meet the Roswell Independent School District Security Team

2:00 - Is there a difference between safety and security?

4:30 - Safe School Act - What changed after the Stoneman Douglass school shooting

6:00 - How this changed our community

7:00 - Security Triad - Staff Training, Building Design, and Law Enforcement Response 

8:30 - What the resource officer program looks like in Roswell

9:45 - Natasha details how Ana used the system to de-escalate a gun situation in Roswell

11:15 - Ana explains her point of view during the incident

14:30 - Today’s police response time and how training has changed since Columbine

15:30 - A L I C E - Alert,  Lockdown, Inform Counter and Evacuate

16:30 - What happens when an alert goes out

18:30 - What the team structure looks like during these events

19:00 - Kristen explains to how the system allows staff to stay in touch

21:00 - Communication provides calm and reduces concerns 

24:30 - Security features being installed in schools

27:00 - Classroom kits to that allow teachers to keep their rooms secure

30:45 - Natasha points how staff are positively impacted by these changes

33:00 - 9 out of 10 parents surveyed have a lot of anxiety about school shootings 

34:00 - The empowerment that comes with participation in your own survival

36:00 - What we now know about why school shootings are taking place and it’s not bullying

39:00 - Relaxing the role the media plays in the motivation and the changes that need to be made. 

41:00 - Changing the way young people see law enforcement

43:30 - LJ shares how a resource officers are also protectors, and mentors

44:30 - The probability of being in a school shooting

47:00 - Why each member of the team does this work. 

 51:00 - How this alert system has comforted the community

We invited Shelley Repp from the New Mexico Dream Center in Albuquerque  to discuss the Human Trafficking epidemic. She speaks to the services they provide to homeless youth, and how the cycle of trafficking begins. This episode also covers how to look out for the children in your life and the situational awareness you need as an adult in real life and online to keep yourself safe. 

Episode Highlights 

1:53 - How the Dream Center supports homeless youth in Albuquerque 

3:00 - Shelley Repp shares the first time she met a teen being trafficked

5:00 - Services you didn’t realize were needed for these young people

6:00 - Targeting where trafficking is happening

8:15 - Challenges for homeless youth & how the Dream Center serves them

10:00 - How people can access the center and expanding availability

12:00 - The most used personal care support services 

15:00 - Homelessness goes beyond couch surfing

17:00 - Early prevention services can help prevent trafficking of children

19:00 - An example of a teen girl to share the cycle of trafficking 

25:00 - How traffickers create dependency & commodify victims

27:30 - Forced criminality keeps victims from getting help

30:00 - What happens when a trafficking victim receives positive support

32:00 - The demand to purchase sex with young people

37:00 - Increased trafficking during the pandemic 

39:30 - Popular media normalizing incest and sex with young people

40:00 - Videogame chats & preparing your children for interacting on the internet

43:00 - Healthy family relationships & vulnerable moments

45:00 - What predators are looking for in victims 

47:30 - Shelley gives an example she observed of adults qualifying with teens

51:00 - Parenting kids through vulnerable phases 

53:00 - Detective Beto shares her experience 

56:00 - Changing the way we move through this world to be safe

58:00 - Where politeness stops and boundaries begin

1:00:00 - How can we as individuals protect ourselves

1:03:30 - Solidifying situational awareness & looking out for each other

Learn more about the work Shelley and her team are doing at the Dream Center by at their website NM Dream Center.

Links To References

New Mexico Dream Center - https://www.nmdreamcenter.org/

Chaves County CASA has a long-standing relationship with Assistance Dogs of The West. This non-profit organization builds successful working partnerships between facilities, handlers, and justice facility dogs at CASA and many other justice facilities. Linda Milanese, the CEO, and President, alongside Jill Felice, Founder, and Executive VP, join the team at CASA to share the process of selecting justice facility dogs and handlers. They also provide several examples of places ADW dogs create positive outcomes for those that interact with them. 

Learn more about Assistance Dogs Of The West on their wesbite here: https://assistancedogsofthewest.org/

Episode Highlights 

1:00 - Meet Linda and Jill from Assistance Dogs Of The West 

4:00 - Focusing on placing facility and peer support dogs

5:30 - The mission and purpose of putting dogs in facilities

7:30 - Determining temperament of justice facility dogs

10:30 - Identifying and placing dogs in the best jobs 

12:15 - Linda shares a bit about the scientists and science behind breeding and training

14:00 - Finding the right temperament 

 15:00 - The role genetics and history play in breeding dogs

18:00 - Jill gives an example of mannerisms in a family line

19:45 - What happens to a justice facility dog when the handler or agency needs to change

22:00 - Pairing the person and the dog together

24:00 - Training handlers to meet the justice facility dogs' needs

27:30 - What happens when a handler and dog are not an ideal team

 30:00 - Owner self-training for training companion and service dogs

32:00 - The difference between a justice facility dog and a therapy dog

34:00 - How a variety of dogs supported the Uvalde school shooting families

35:00 - Using aberrant conditioning vs. punishment 

38:00 - Pulse Night Club shooting victims supported by facility dogs 

42:15 - Assistance Dogs of the West stance on punishment training

44:45 - Why it hurts people experiencing trauma to interact with punishment training

50:00 - Cute dog stories Jill and Linda have seen in the field 

54:00 - Kevin's hope for receiving a justice facility dog in the future

Learn more about our guests: 

LINDA MILANESI - President/CEO, Assistance Dogs of the West

In 2006, Linda Milanesi began her career with Assistance Dogs of the West when she apprenticed to become an instructor/trainer in the school programs. She served as Vice President of the ADW board until 2011, when she was named ADW’s Executive Director. Linda oversees a whole-systems team approach for ADW. She supervises and manages policy and procedure, advocacy, board relations, finance, development and grant-writing. She is responsible for creating and nurturing donor and foundation relations and earned income projects. She is a lead in developing the Facility Dog programs including Courthouse, Crisis Response and Peer Support canines. She regularly presents nationally, and statewide on the benefits of utilizing highly-skilled canines in partnership with professionals in the
investigation and prosecution of crime and the mitigation of the trauma associated with the
process—both for victims and first responders. She produces the annual graduation ceremony
celebrating the dogs that have been successfully trained for client placements and facility placements.  Prior to Santa Fe, she lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and worked in Philadelphia and New York City.

JILL FELICE - Founder/Senior Vice President, Assistance Dogs of the West

Assistance Dogs of the West (ADW) Founder and Senior Vice President Jill Felice
graduated from Bergen University in 1994 and founded ADW in 1995 placing dogs for
people with mobility disabilities and medical conditions. In 2006, Jill began breeding and
training dogs specifically for work with victims of crime. In 2014, she placed the first
Crisis Response Canines in the Office of Special Victims Assistance at FBI headquarters,
where the dogs are part of a rapid deployment team for mass causality incidents. Very
specialized breeding for health and temperament is at the forefront of the ADW canines
in training, ensuring the qualities necessary for Courthouse Facility, Peer Support and
Crisis Response Canines. Jill is a proponent of relationship-based training techniques,
which utilize positive reinforcement, to build positive working partnerships between
handlers and their working dogs. Jill oversees the trainers, puppy whelping, client
interviews and final client-dog matches.