Latest / Solving America's Problems / What 3 Episodes on School Shootings Actually Taught Us (Full)
Transcript
- 0:00Michael: Day five and we’re not slowing down — whole episode, straight through.
- 0:04Here you go.
- 0:05Alex: Solving America’s Problems – the wrap-up episode nobody saw coming.
- 0:09[short pause]
- 0:11[slow, dead-serious] Jerremy and Dave just spent weeks dissecting school
- 0:14shootings with security experts, frontline teachers, and a mom who
- 0:18turned Parkland into Alyssa’s Law.
- 0:21[quiet intensity] They went in thinking tech, threat assessments,
- 0:25maybe some panic buttons would fix it.
- 0:28[voice drops] They came out realizing the entire system is quietly
- 0:30manufacturing the exact kids most likely to snap – garbage food, zero
- 0:35movement, over-medicated, buried in paperwork, and zero real community.
- 0:41[sharp] The money’s there, the budget’s massive, yet teachers are
- 0:43drowning and kids are simmering.
- 0:47[low, almost whispering] What actually broke in the nineties that turned this
- 0:50into an American epidemic, and why is almost nobody talking about the real root?
- 0:56Jerremy and Dave lay it bare.
- 0:59Jerremy Newsome: Ladies and gentlemen, solving America's
- 1:02problems is already blowing up.
- 1:04Tons of you are reaching out, asking, making statements, getting involved in the
- 1:09comments, telling us what's going right, what's going wrong, and that Is precisely
- 1:14what we want because over the next few years we're going to continue Building a
- 1:19beautiful framework and building block.
- 1:21It's not only a reshape and reform education, but continue to understand
- 1:25truly The solutions to America's problems.
- 1:30America being the greatest country in the world and therefore giving
- 1:34us the greatest problems to solve.
- 1:37And this episode, myself and Dave Conley, we are discussing and
- 1:42going through a reflective period about what we've learned from these
- 1:47episodes about school shootings.
- 1:50After spending time talking to experts, educators, and advocates, Dave and I
- 1:57realized we weren't the same people we were when we started the series.
- 2:02And maybe that's the exact same thing for you as well, our listeners.
- 2:06So today we're hitting pause to reflect, not just on what we
- 2:11learned from our guests, but how these conversations Changed us.
- 2:17Dave Conley: Yeah, we just didn't want to move on to the next topic and be like,
- 2:20okay, we put that in a box, here we go.
- 2:23Next topic.
- 2:23this was school shootings and school safety.
- 2:25We didn't want to just leave it behind knowing that we'll come back to this
- 2:29because it's ongoing and it's big and it's complex and it's simple in a lot of ways.
- 2:33So there a lot of stories here that I know stuck with me, stuck with you.
- 2:37let's take a beat and be like, okay, what was this all about?
- 2:41That's the idea.
- 2:43Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
- 2:43That's the idea because for our listeners, we just want you to all and understand
- 2:46the premise and the reason that we came out with school shootings as really
- 2:51our main priority is because it's just the most egregious thing to me.
- 2:57And again, as my Presidential campaign begins to evolve the focus on educational
- 3:03reform and understanding how massively impactful that is to our nation,
- 3:08to our country, to our citizens.
- 3:10Every parent that I talked to knows it's a problem and every
- 3:14child doesn't like school.
- 3:16But as we continue to progress and understand these things, we
- 3:21really have to just obviously talk about the safety of our schools.
- 3:25And man, in episode one, it was really awesome having Robert and
- 3:31Alonzo being there to just give us some guidance about what's going
- 3:37right in the private sector, right?
- 3:40Robert brought his tech driven perspective.
- 3:44Let's talk in cyber security, AI, advanced school safety technologies,
- 3:50and Alonzo, really being on the ground, providing conversations
- 3:55about real world experiences, things that he's done, sharing practical
- 3:58strategies from his military and security consulting background.
- 4:02Just gave us really a big complex, but also beautiful realization that
- 4:09there are people doing things, how many times you've heard Dave Oh,
- 4:14we should do something about this.
- 4:16Like when people get up in arms about whatever problem is happening, but
- 4:21this is an example that there are people doing something about this
- 4:27One of my goals is to put a big spotlight on that, continue to bring
- 4:31it to the forefront, let people know, see, feel, and understand it so that
- 4:35we can continue to hopefully maybe even put on a pedestal and just get
- 4:38the government more involved as well.
- 4:40So that we can have this collaboration, this cohesion, bring individuals
- 4:44together and start really championing this vision so that there's no more
- 4:49mass school shootings in the country.
- 4:52Dave Conley: 100%.
- 4:53that we started with Robert and Alonzo.
- 4:55It started to frame this from, I think, my bias, which is if we just pour money
- 5:03into threat assessment, which is the human element, and that's where Alonzo was, and
- 5:09if we just pour money into technology, And that really evolved for me over the course
- 5:15of this one because one part that freaked me out was these AI powered camera systems
- 5:21and these gun detection systems and I'm like, oh my God, at one point robot dogs
- 5:28walking around and I'm like, Oh my god, I don't even like going through TSA.
- 5:32I can't imagine sending kids into.
- 5:35I said it a few times in these episodes it's the cathedral versus the prison.
- 5:41And I come back to that.
- 5:43If we have beautiful places, then you're going to act and be beautiful.
- 5:49if you're in a prison, you're going to act like you've done something wrong.
- 5:53Jerremy Newsome: What Robert was sharing some pretty surprising
- 5:56examples about the ball.
- 5:58Remember the rocks like to prevent vehicle attacks?
- 6:01I was like, that seems so easy, all schools having
- 6:05these just boundary locations.
- 6:07These perimeters.
- 6:10Where you're placing rocks.
- 6:11And as he was talking about that, I was also thinking, okay inside those
- 6:14rocks, could you have some type of EMP radar he mentioned LIDAR detective
- 6:22system that just can track weapons.
- 6:26That's all it does
- 6:27Dave Conley: Okay.
- 6:28Jerremy Newsome: being trained or being systematized for that, meaning
- 6:32it can't pick up anything else, but if there is a weapon nearby and alert
- 6:37goes Can it be trained for that?
- 6:40Is there, something that can be placed potentially, Dave, there's something
- 6:43placed in every non military gun, right?
- 6:46Every civilian gun.
- 6:47That's just maybe a microchip or some type of device that this system can detect.
- 6:54Is this what you're thinking when he was talking about that?
- 6:56Or was it just me?
- 6:58Dave Conley: I think what came up a lot, over the course of this, I did start with
- 7:02oh, if we just poured money into it, if we had the, I don't even, I still don't
- 7:06know what digital twin actually means, like he used a lot and I just, in my
- 7:11mind, just dollar signs kept on going off and I'm like okay, sure, rocks are.
- 7:19a cheap solution to prevent somebody from driving into a
- 7:21school, but is that big of a threat?
- 7:23I don't know, man.
- 7:24Sure.
- 7:25Like it doesn't sound like a bad idea and I mean what came up in three in
- 7:33particular was how money is disconnected from the system, how little money actually
- 7:39gets down to where it needs to go.
- 7:41And the people who are making the decisions are being like,
- 7:44yes, of course, put metal detectors in every single school.
- 7:49I'm like does every school need that?
- 7:50And now you've got to keep these systems up to date.
- 7:54You have to have people who are screening students.
- 7:57can you imagine getting a thousand kids through a system every single day?
- 8:01Then you have set up like a TSA system.
- 8:03And I'm like, ah, I don't know.
- 8:05Is that the first place we start or the last place?
- 8:09And it felt like to me that it was the first place.
- 8:12I liked more of where Alonzo was coming from, which had a very
- 8:16human element of what's the threat?
- 8:18Where is the actual threat assessment?
- 8:21Alonzo A: If we're looking at the buildings themselves, we should have a
- 8:25baseline of where these schools are in the sense of a threat assessment, right?
- 8:33We've probably talked about or heard about threat assessments before,
- 8:37but a basic on a basic level.
- 8:40We can look at a threat assessment to see how vulnerable the schools are
- 8:45and just some things we can do across the board to make the school safer
- 8:49with, with the caveat that we're not making the schools feel like a prison.
- 8:54some baseline things we should look at, because that's gonna be a factor that
- 8:57it's okay, we can ramp this up, 1000%.
- 9:01But what are the low hanging fruit things that we can do to
- 9:04make things a little bit better?
- 9:06Dave Conley: And that came back in two and three from me is having a very
- 9:10human centric approach, having a student centric approach, having a teacher
- 9:14centric approach, and really focusing on where you need to put gas on something
- 9:18and where you need to put a break.
- 9:20It was priority seem overall, like the big picture of this priority seem
- 9:26completely mismatched with the actual
- 9:29Jerremy Newsome: and when you're saying two and three, you're meaning
- 9:30episodes two and three just for the listeners and to remind them very
- 9:35quickly, we're going to continue to touch on that in this episode, right?
- 9:37The episode two is the educator's perspective.
- 9:39So we brought three actual educators in who have worked in
- 9:46and around schools as teachers.
- 9:48And then we brought someone In episode three who actually had the unfortunate
- 9:52impact of all this happening.
- 9:55And so we really did our best to come full circle.
- 9:57If you think about it from a, all right, are there people who
- 9:59are working on actual prevention?
- 10:02All right, there are.
- 10:03Cool.
- 10:04Let's talk about that.
- 10:05And then the people who are in the schools, and then someone who's
- 10:08also working to prevent this.
- 10:11the prevention policy, the prevention piece.
- 10:14I love the word that you've just used the human perspective, right?
- 10:18That human centric focus where the big unfortunate, hairy, scary
- 10:25debate that's happening out there on social media is guns, right?
- 10:29Arm them to the teeth or take every gun away.
- 10:33No one should have a gun.
- 10:35Me and you both know that's never going to create a solution.
- 10:40When you are focusing on an amendment, when you're focusing on someone's belief
- 10:46structure, that particular topic, isn't what's going to solve this problem.
- 10:53And most people, the first time I mentioned this
- 10:55podcast and I talk about it.
- 10:57They actually generally do bring up gun violence and again to my point It's like
- 11:02I don't believe that's going to be the solution to an issue because it's too
- 11:07divisive There's too much you make one choice in one direction Someone's gonna
- 11:13a large swath of people are gonna get very angry at you, but there has to be
- 11:18To your perspective, if we begin to make these shifts in schools, if we begin
- 11:25to make these shifts where we really understand extremely well the profile
- 11:32of a child or teenager or young adult who actually commits this heinous crime,
- 11:37and then we begin to work on reverse engineering it, saying what caused that,
- 11:41at what time, Of the century did that begin to happen begin to build up begin
- 11:47to scale up really get some Professional specialists and I know we're working on
- 11:52this but get extreme details on who why?
- 11:57reverse engineer so that in our schools The individuals who are bullied, the
- 12:03individuals who have mental health, the individuals who do not feel like
- 12:07they're being heard or listened to, or the individuals who also feel
- 12:11like they're just not being seen.
- 12:13How can we create a culture where so much more shift is happening towards
- 12:21Conversations in school, openness, gathering more prayer circles, more
- 12:29conversation circles, more discussion circles where we are allowed and open to
- 12:36have conversations that flow conversations that spark interest conversations that
- 12:41allow child to know each other, to feel each other, to understand who each
- 12:45other is from a humanistic standpoint, so that way that they're no longer
- 12:50essentially these frustrated adolescent hormone driven on on loved and uncared
- 12:58for from a community standpoint, right?
- 13:01These children no longer feel like they are by themselves.
- 13:04There's a community.
- 13:06There's a group of individuals.
- 13:07There's a group of schools.
- 13:08There's a group of teachers.
- 13:09There's a group of Parents that are all just coming together to champion
- 13:13them and champion that vision.
- 13:15This is a, to your point, a humanistic standpoint that we can really
- 13:19gather together and start making the impact before it even begins, right?
- 13:23Starting at the root of the issue, which is that internal fear and frustration
- 13:28that at some point explodes into violence.
- 13:31Dave Conley: Yeah.
- 13:31I've been trying to fit it in my head as to all the different
- 13:35aspects that we looked at.
- 13:36And I think of it this way, there's a cause component, like there's
- 13:40a reason that this is happening.
- 13:43And there's a reason why it keeps on going up.
- 13:46And I think we've touched on a lot of those places, particularly when
- 13:49we talked to number two, and then there's this world of prevention.
- 13:54And identification, prevention and identification.
- 13:57It's okay, we have the monitors, we have the technology, we have the threat
- 14:00assessment, and in a sense, in my mind, the bombs already gone off, like we've
- 14:05already primed something and we're building all of these systems around it,
- 14:10what I learned throughout this is that it's not necessarily a quick solution.
- 14:14And then there's this protection element of, okay, don't arm the
- 14:19teachers, do arm the teachers, have the fortresses, there's this world of wow.
- 14:24I think with this very first episode, I'm struggling with what's going on?
- 14:29Can we even define this issue?
- 14:31There was a point where it came up that a school shooting isn't a school
- 14:35shooting isn't a school shooting, and we talk about it as one thing.
- 14:38What gets headlines are the mass shootings where, one student really just goes,
- 14:45crazy and just shoots, something up.
- 14:48And yet school shootings happen every single week.
- 14:51And when talking about threat assessment, these are happening
- 14:55from young boys, right?
- 14:56Like it's, we know that young boys are the ones that are doing this.
- 15:00And we know that it's different between urban and suburban and rural.
- 15:05We know there's this first episode brought it out of Oh, the people who are making
- 15:12the decisions are Seem to be treating it as a simple fix just add magic And
- 15:18yet it's more complicated than that.
- 15:20Don't what do you think?
- 15:22Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
- 15:23And what was nice is at one point when we were talking about the community
- 15:27integration that I was rambling on about there just a few moments ago when
- 15:30you talk about building relationships and creating communication systems
- 15:34that connect everyone involved.
- 15:36And then for our listeners to fast forward for a second to episode three
- 15:39on school shootings where we were having a chat with the wonderful Lori and she
- 15:45was discussing Alyssa's law, right?
- 15:48That formation of a really simple, very easy to implement, let's call it free
- 15:59Dave Conley: right?
- 16:00Jerremy Newsome: of dollars a month.
- 16:02Type of thing where it's okay, that got me excited because then you have
- 16:07boots on the ground individuals.
- 16:09And then someone who has already created something, a communication system, a
- 16:15pulse system that does work and being able to combine these two rapidly where
- 16:21you and I have also the capacity and the capability to connect Robert and Alonzo
- 16:25and Lori and saying, all right, sweet.
- 16:27Hey, here is.
- 16:28Here's Alyssa's Law.
- 16:29Here's this application that is currently up and running that
- 16:32is in almost a dozen states.
- 16:34And blend all of this together and going, alright, we can start chipping away.
- 16:39Here is definitely one thing to, to your point, and Alonzo said this very
- 16:45well, if and when this does happen again in the near future, we can at
- 16:50least prevent anyone from being injured.
- 16:54So if a school shooting happens.
- 16:57In the future and no one gets injured or impacted other than the shooter.
- 17:01That is a step in the right direction.
- 17:04There's a step in the right direction from a standpoint,
- 17:06especially of the mass shootings where numerous people get injured.
- 17:10If it's a gang violence situation, it's a one V one individual.
- 17:14That's obviously always gonna be a little bit harder to protect from a inside
- 17:19the school situation, but ultimately.
- 17:22I do really get excited, Dave, about the fact that we have people
- 17:27that have implemented something.
- 17:29We have people who are working on implementing things and who are planning,
- 17:31and these things can start getting married and getting brought together.
- 17:34And those ripple effects can absolutely create massive change quickly.
- 17:39Dave Conley: You're spot on.
- 17:40It came up in number two all about community.
- 17:43It came up in number three community.
- 17:45and like parents would pay anything to keep their kids safe.
- 17:50That's no doubt.
- 17:52Where do you think the disconnect is on community?
- 17:57And I'm just going to throw it out there There's going to be communities
- 18:00where they're just struggling to get by and they're just struggling to keep
- 18:05food on the table and roof overheads.
- 18:08And so I'm going to guess that involving the community is going to
- 18:12be harder than a wealthy community.
- 18:14so where do you think the policies, where do you think the practices what do you
- 18:18think might work in order to engage?
- 18:21All communities or help communities.
- 18:24Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 18:24That's what got me excited also about episode two when we brought
- 18:27the educators in and the teachers in cause that also got brought up a lot
- 18:32as well that just the word community.
- 18:34But to me a parent who has and had a teenager in school and a child
- 18:42in middle school, what helped the most was just getting notice, right?
- 18:47Having a communication with the community.
- 18:50So crazy example.
- 18:52This did not happen with the school that I was in, but you have all of the teachers,
- 18:57all of the parents and all of the children on a group communication application,
- 19:04call it a Facebook group, call it a WhatsApp group, call it a discord.
- 19:08They didn't have that.
- 19:10What this particular school did have, which they were very
- 19:12good at communication, by the way, very, I truly enjoy them.
- 19:16Every single week I would get an automated obviously updated voicemail
- 19:22phone call ring From the principal.
- 19:24So every week, it was like, hi, I'm I forget the principal's name off the top of
- 19:28my head, but it's hi, I'm XYZ gentlemen.
- 19:30And this is what we're doing this week.
- 19:31And it was a recorded message that he would send out.
- 19:33That was amazing.
- 19:34And they were great with emails and the teachers would email.
- 19:38But again, that's like a one on one that's very less, not a one to many approach.
- 19:44So imagine if all of the parents, teachers, and children get on this
- 19:49group, the children, if they're old enough, obviously, but they get into
- 19:53this group application, if you're just at the teachers and the parents and
- 19:56everyone sees what everyone's doing and we get, Planned ahead of time.
- 20:00Hey, three months from now on Thursday from six to eight,
- 20:05we have a mandatory XYZ.
- 20:07Dave Conley: Yeah.
- 20:08Jerremy Newsome: And they get reminders and they're told
- 20:10and we just get scheduled.
- 20:11And so when, again, I know this is a little bit of a challenge when
- 20:14it comes to planning, but when the school year starts, all the parents,
- 20:18it's mandatory that you come in
- 20:20Dave Conley: Yeah.
- 20:20Jerremy Newsome: for an hour, probably later, early in the
- 20:25morning some time where like you have a different blocks scheduled.
- 20:28You have a morning, you have an afternoon, you have an evening.
- 20:30And this was, again, this was a thing that the other school did
- 20:33that was really great is they had.
- 20:35pretty flexible meeting times for the parents and for the teachers.
- 20:38So you could choose all different times throughout the day because
- 20:40everyone understands, adults work and they have interesting schedules.
- 20:45So you have these different schedules to choose from that you can come in.
- 20:48But again, the thing that wasn't really awesome was just a early
- 20:53planning stage where at the very beginning of the year, all right, cool.
- 20:56Here's the four things that we're going to do.
- 20:57Here's the four times that we're going to do it.
- 20:59Here's the four days.
- 20:59It's very important for you to be here.
- 21:01That didn't truly happen.
- 21:03And it was like, all right, cool.
- 21:06We're having a school cookout and it just made it a little bit more
- 21:10challenging to move stuff around.
- 21:11Obviously I was able to do it, but a lot of parents I talked to had
- 21:16a little bit of a struggle there.
- 21:18Dave Conley: Sure.
- 21:18We've already slipped into a little bit of episode two.
- 21:21Why don't we talk about that in specific?
- 21:23Jerremy Newsome: that's nice.
- 21:24Dave Conley: talking to Eric and Jennifer and Danielle.
- 21:28All on the front line.
- 21:29These are the educators.
- 21:31These are the ones that are working with your kids right now and Even though I
- 21:38have a teacher in my immediate family and I've heard the stories I had no idea.
- 21:44This was like, this was the biggest.
- 21:47Oh, wow.
- 21:48Oh, no.
- 21:49For me.
- 21:50Just the challenges of managing the physical and mental well being of
- 21:55both the students and the teachers.
- 21:57And that so little time, so little money.
- 22:02That is the biggest budget item in most states is education.
- 22:06And as far as I can tell, very little of it is actually getting to the
- 22:10students and getting to the teachers.
- 22:12But yeah, what do you think?
- 22:15Jerremy Newsome: that is, and in future episodes for our listeners, we have some
- 22:19amazing economists, Business owners real estate professionals come in and just
- 22:25talk about budgeting and money and the budget Challenges of this country the
- 22:32debt that we're facing but to that point.
- 22:34Oh my gosh, dude, if that is not a glaring Oversight that I think
- 22:42most parents slash most adults.
- 22:44Yes We feel like we're getting taxed out of the face all the time Already.
- 22:48So there's that because you got to pay, you got to pay taxes on everything.
- 22:51You make money, got to pay taxes on it.
- 22:53You buy something, you got to pay taxes on it.
- 22:54You sell that thing, got to pay the taxes on it.
- 22:57You're already taxed from the money that you get.
- 22:59So you're paying the tax on tax dollars.
- 23:01You own your house.
- 23:02You got to pay like, we already feel like we're getting way overtaxed.
- 23:05And so then people are like, or what are we getting for our taxes?
- 23:08Where's all this money going?
- 23:10We mentioned this in that episode, but the education budget and I'm
- 23:15doing air quotes for my listeners was like the third largest budget
- 23:21in the U S it's it's up there.
- 23:23It's high.
- 23:24However, also fun fact, they have that education budget split out
- 23:28into seven different little sectors.
- 23:30And then each sector is like, Oh, okay, cool.
- 23:32Where's all that money going?
- 23:35And none of the teachers that I've talked to, we're going to talk
- 23:37to more for all of my listeners.
- 23:39And if you want to be a guest on our podcast, regardless of your profession,
- 23:42please reach out because our focus is to connect with you, the beautiful listener.
- 23:46You have a voice, you have an opinion.
- 23:49This podcast is very special and extremely unique because we are
- 23:52not biased in our political views.
- 23:54We are simply here to solve America's problems and we realize that it takes
- 24:00awareness, it takes diversity, it takes different ideas, it takes different
- 24:03beliefs, different backgrounds, different religions to all come
- 24:06together and just really understand, think and know what could be a
- 24:10awesome solution to a big problem.
- 24:12So that being stated, where's the money going?
- 24:16No teacher feels like they're getting enough.
- 24:18Dave Conley: So
- 24:19Jerremy Newsome: Most parents are aware that teachers aren't getting enough.
- 24:22We already know they're overworked and underpaid.
- 24:25Fix that, dude.
- 24:26Dave Conley: we are in, I'll call it terminal bureaucracy.
- 24:30Our schools, no.
- 24:32Nobody believes that Particularly these teachers it is like what
- 24:38we're doing now is not working.
- 24:41Here's some realities from this and some highlights jennifer said she had a panic
- 24:48attack during these drills that they
- 24:50Jerremy Newsome: Huh.
- 24:51Dave Conley: because They the kids don't take it seriously And what are
- 24:56they going to do to just keep them quiet during one of these things?
- 24:59And so there's this theoretical safety Plan in place and protocols, but it
- 25:05doesn't seem to be working at all in real life Then they talked about Jennifer again
- 25:11was like look I got 41 students per class and I didn't even know what these words
- 25:17were until she described them 20 IEPs and 504 s which are these accommodations
- 25:23that they have to do for every single student And this is what she said.
- 25:29I don't really feel like I have time to teach because I'm just
- 25:32doing paperwork all the time.
- 25:36Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 25:36Dave Conley: Eric revealed that multiple schools often share
- 25:39a single resource officer, underscoring serious security gaps.
- 25:43He said, we're going to be on our own, left to get as many
- 25:46kids inside as quickly as we can.
- 25:49Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 25:50Wild.
- 25:51Dave Conley: Come on.
- 25:52On, these are so glaring.
- 25:54this is terminal bureaucracy.
- 25:56we have principals, we have assistant principals, we have vice principals, we
- 25:59have all of this administration, all this overhead, and we have, Teachers that are
- 26:06struggling to just get by during the day.
- 26:09Oh, remember the food discussion?
- 26:11Jerremy Newsome: Oh boy.
- 26:12Oh yeah, I remember the food discussion.
- 26:14Ha.
- 26:15Yeah.
- 26:16Here's a cool part for our listeners out there.
- 26:18Would any one of you go to a school lunch and then snack
- 26:21on a delicious school lunch?
- 26:24You're laughing because we already know the answer is no.
- 26:27I would instantly go into a carb overload.
- 26:30Whereas to the point where if the parents aren't eating it, why would the kids?
- 26:34if the kids don't like it and it's not healthy, I mean that's a whole other very
- 26:40potential topic that we bring in and maybe some health discussions about America
- 26:44being healthy because it's all going to revert back to our education system.
- 26:50That's what I want people to understand is vast majority.
- 26:54So when you're talking about healthcare.
- 26:55which is really sick care when you're talking about all of us getting on
- 27:00a global or a universal policy and everyone's paying for everything.
- 27:05listen, America becomes much more healthy through a whole array
- 27:11of topics, but one of them just being how do we start in school?
- 27:14What do we actually eat in school?
- 27:15I brought school lunches because my mom back then.
- 27:19Knew
- 27:19Dave Conley: Cause it was garbage.
- 27:20Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, and to her point I sold everything in the lunchbox so that I
- 27:25could make some money and I didn't really ever eat lunch, but beyond the topic.
- 27:30But yes the administrative overload and the amount of Money that gets poured
- 27:38into the top line to the midline to the bottom line should absolutely be
- 27:43looked at Because if we're going to overhaul the education system, I think
- 27:48it should be a profitable endeavor.
- 27:50Profitable to the point where it's not losing money in the sense that everyone
- 27:54that's paying for it feels like they're actually getting a return on it.
- 27:58Return being smart, healthy, vibrant, excited children
- 28:04that are also extremely safe.
- 28:06That would be the return and I think if any parent really truly feels like they're
- 28:10getting that they're not going to have an Issue making that investment towards
- 28:13the future But I think we were looking at in that episode some of the salaries for
- 28:18superintendents and the people that are a little bit higher above the principle.
- 28:22And it was like, I need to quit what I'm doing and become a
- 28:27superintendent like mid strong, six figures, 300, 200, 400 K a year for
- 28:35Dave Conley: We should definitely ensure that the only meals they
- 28:38have come from a school cafeteria.
- 28:40Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 28:40Agreed.
- 28:41Yep.
- 28:42Big start.
- 28:42Dave Conley: were you as surprised or shocked as I was that Phys ed
- 28:46and getting kids out there and like burning off some of this energy
- 28:51and health classes and any kind of mental, mental wellbeing out the door.
- 28:57So much, not even afterschool curricular activities.
- 29:00I remember Alonzo from the first episode saying, Hey, we don't wrestle anymore.
- 29:03Like we don't, we're not like, we're not burning this off.
- 29:06I know.
- 29:07I remember you talking about why aren't we having like martial
- 29:09arts and self defense and what's.
- 29:12Were you surprised?
- 29:13I was super shocked.
- 29:14It's oh, wow.
- 29:15What are schools doing now?
- 29:16If Like basic physical stuff is out the window.
- 29:20Jerremy Newsome: Out the window.
- 29:20And I think the shift.
- 29:23Again, from arts and from music and from creation.
- 29:28I think someone at some stage, whoever that was, or whoever the
- 29:31policy makers were, Oh, let's just make them really smart.
- 29:36Math, history, science, reading, and let's just shove that into their face.
- 29:42All the time.
- 29:43I was like here's the thing.
- 29:46That's not how people learn.
- 29:47you create emotion through motion, and as you move, the
- 29:54movements create memories, right?
- 29:56Most people's favorite memories in life is probably where
- 30:01some emotion was beautifully involved, and that emotion likely.
- 30:06stemmed from some level of motion.
- 30:09So meaning to the point of our children, including the
- 30:13adults, like how do we learn?
- 30:15You do not learn by sitting sedentary in a chair facing one
- 30:20individual for many hours at a time.
- 30:24Every single day repeating the exact same context information without knowing
- 30:27why you're being taught it without understanding what's really truly being
- 30:31taught the premise and the depth behind it there needs to be tons and tons of
- 30:35engagement There are some private schools that are doing this There are some charter
- 30:40schools that are doing this but from a public school standpoint It's like we
- 30:45need to move these kids are seven, right?
- 30:52They need to run my three and a half year old when he's feeling
- 30:56healthy, which is not today.
- 30:57I can hear him crying and the listeners can't hear him that the
- 30:59kid, he has a little bit of a fever.
- 31:01And anyway when he's feeling healthy, the guy will run like four miles
- 31:04a day and I'm not exaggerating.
- 31:05Just he'll run around the house.
- 31:07So run around the kitchen nonstop and I got to chase him and that's what he wants.
- 31:12He wants to play tag, but that's three.
- 31:15Or he's going to run more when he's seven, 10 and nine, we
- 31:19Dave Conley: where did he learn this?
- 31:20Mr. Iron man.
- 31:21Jerremy Newsome: I don't know.
- 31:22I'm going to blame his mom.
- 31:24He definitely has restless leg syndrome like I do for sure.
- 31:27But the beauty is, man, we got to move these kids.
- 31:29We've got like the Fizz Ed again, in my opinion, if I had a magic
- 31:34wand and I'm waving this tomorrow.
- 31:36We're getting these kids outside or in a gym, like as a collective group
- 31:42doing martial arts, pushups, yoga, breathwork, breathing exercises,
- 31:48two, three hours a day, minimum.
- 31:51Dave Conley: I will tell you, my biggest learning from this episode two
- 31:54is this, it's garbage in, garbage out.
- 31:57Our kids are, under resourced all the way around.
- 32:02They are not getting good enough sleep.
- 32:04They're not moving.
- 32:05they're not getting any support for their mental well being.
- 32:09Their teachers are stressed out and overworked.
- 32:13the kids don't have after school programs or creative outlets.
- 32:18I don't think it's a stretch to say that we are causing our own problem.
- 32:21we are creating more and more kids that are stressed, depressed,
- 32:26and they're going to act out in completely unpredictable ways.
- 32:29Am I saying that we're creating school shooters?
- 32:31No.
- 32:32But we're not helping.
- 32:34Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 32:34That's a big, bold statement, man, but not helping in that, My whole goal and
- 32:39mission is to prevent, at the same stage, when children have extreme anxiety,
- 32:48fear and misunderstandings about who they are, their identity, where do we
- 32:55really feel like that starts right?
- 32:57Where do we feel like that begins?
- 32:59It's just an awareness piece.
- 33:01It's an awareness of who you are.
- 33:04That's a very strong aspect as well, because individuals that are going to
- 33:09feel the most depressed, frustrated, anxious, worried, right in certain
- 33:14negative emotions, are those that don't have a very strong individual identity.
- 33:20And again, just from that point, are we helping or hurting that right now
- 33:24with some policies and some beliefs and some discussions in certain states
- 33:27where we are letting children make too many blatantly destructive decisions?
- 33:35Like we're letting 13 year olds and 10 year olds dictate what's being done
- 33:40and what they feel and who they are we're listening to the imaginations
- 33:45of teenagers that are still growing their mind that obviously see
- 33:48things differently than adults do.
- 33:50And so what I mean by that is, we all realize how amazing children
- 33:55are and how creative and intelligent they are, but we can't let their
- 34:01decisions dictate their life.
- 34:04for example, and this is a joke, but not really.
- 34:07This morning I was like Jason, what do you want for breakfast?
- 34:09And he said poop.
- 34:10He wanted poop for breakfast.
- 34:12I was like, all right, cool.
- 34:12Hey, three and a half.
- 34:14The kid knows exactly what he wants for breakfast.
- 34:17Family, we have to realize that we really have to care and understand.
- 34:24Obviously, emotions are complex.
- 34:26As we go through school, the school needs to be something that provides
- 34:31so much acceleration, momentum, inspiration, courage, happiness.
- 34:37And we're all adults.
- 34:39So the adults have to sit down and go, How do I, as an adult, feel courage,
- 34:43inspiration, motivation, happiness?
- 34:46Who, with what music, doing what motions, what makes me depressed?
- 34:50Slouching, breathing slowly, breathing shallow, slouching over,
- 34:58pulling your shoulders down, not expressing yourself, being quiet
- 35:02and not thinking and not breathing and not being aware and not moving.
- 35:07Those are elements that create depression and sadness extremely often.
- 35:14And so when you combine from the adult perspective, all of these aspects
- 35:18that are absolutely going to create certain Emotions, negative emotions.
- 35:25As adults, we know what creates positive emotions and we realize
- 35:29that we need more motion in schools.
- 35:35we're trying to medicate our children to slow them down, right?
- 35:39We're giving them legal methamphetamines.
- 35:41Which is Adderall.
- 35:43Like you, I think you'd probably be extremely surprised, Dave.
- 35:46I don't have the stat in front of me and I'm sure we can GPT it or
- 35:49something, but the amount of children that are on Adderall is wild.
- 35:56And it comes from this ADHD.
- 35:58Or a d. D, dude, that is to me personally, so bizarre.
- 36:06If there's anyone that has a DD, it's me, right?
- 36:08Like I'm sure, but I would never label myself that way because I'm like, who?
- 36:13Whatever.
- 36:14I think a lot.
- 36:15My brain's shift focus a lot.
- 36:17I ramble a lot.
- 36:18I get on tangents a lot.
- 36:18I get on rabbit trails a lot.
- 36:20Cool.
- 36:21Figure out ways to bring it back to reality.
- 36:23Figure out ways to pull and reign it in.
- 36:26Without medicating me and that is just something that is just so
- 36:30wildly bizarre man that we just automatically fix The energy and
- 36:36exuberance of youth through medication
- 36:39Dave Conley: Yeah.
- 36:40Jerremy Newsome: wild.
- 36:41Dave Conley: Oof.
- 36:42So I think the theme kept on coming back to simple versus complex, right?
- 36:49Yeah.
- 36:49Yeah.
- 36:50And, a pill is easy, it doesn't require any systemic anything, and
- 36:57it's like a one on one where every kid's going to benefit from a really
- 37:03beautiful, amazing environment.
- 37:05They'll thrive, right?
- 37:06Like as a kid that much different than a golden retriever.
- 37:09It's like water them, feed them, play with them.
- 37:12They're damn happy to see you give them an enriched environment
- 37:15and they're going to thrive.
- 37:16And the simple thing.
- 37:18comes out of okay, just Medicaid them.
- 37:20And because we're unwilling to fund or do the things that really fix this,
- 37:27which is to do all of those things, which is to give the rich environment
- 37:31to have afterschool programs to have support for kids that are in economic or
- 37:38distress, to have, All of that available.
- 37:42And at the same time, the teachers are doing everything.
- 37:46They are our front lines and the bureaucracy is killing them when
- 37:52they are our eyes and our ears.
- 37:55They are probably the first person sometimes.
- 37:58in these families to really notice that something's off with a kid.
- 38:03And that's going to be so much better than any behavioral profile or social
- 38:08media technology or anything else.
- 38:11It's going to be the teacher that knows the kids the best being
- 38:14like, oh, something's wrong.
- 38:16And this teacher, and this kid needs some help.
- 38:18Extra support somewhere.
- 38:20And I am just frustrated with this is going to be a future episode when we come
- 38:29back to this in school and school safety.
- 38:32I need to know where this money is actually going because I don't get it.
- 38:36It's like it's not going where it needs it.
- 38:39Here was the quote.
- 38:40Let me see if I can find it.
- 38:41The quote from the brilliant Jennifer Weathers, we don't have the money for it.
- 38:46Like the school doesn't have the money.
- 38:50The schools are always cutting budgets.
- 38:54Come on.
- 38:54Jerremy Newsome: The word is always they are they're all like how there is zero
- 38:59I could pick any school in the country walk up to any staff member and go.
- 39:03Hey, do you guys You Get budget surpluses Are you getting tons of money?
- 39:09Do you have all the money that you feel that you need that we're
- 39:11talking public schools here?
- 39:12Do you feel like you have tons of money?
- 39:14Like you just have all of it and you are ready to rock and
- 39:16roll You have so much supplies.
- 39:19You have so much help.
- 39:20You have so much assistance.
- 39:21Like you got everything you need.
- 39:23I'm absolutely not going to get strong confirmation on that
- 39:28statement or that question, right?
- 39:29It's just not going to happen.
- 39:31Always getting budget cuts, dude.
- 39:33So what you said?
- 39:34Yeah.
- 39:36Dave Conley: So when I think about the priorities of like safety in
- 39:39schools and coming back to episode one, I hear about the robot dogs and
- 39:45the digital twins and I get it right.
- 39:48Like to me, that's the Adderall pill.
- 39:50That's Oh, if we just did that, that will solve it.
- 39:54And to some extent, sure, right?
- 39:56It might.
- 39:57I'm sure fewer school shootings happen at schools with metal
- 40:02detectors and plenty of security.
- 40:04I get it.
- 40:05That sounds great.
- 40:07But what came up in this episode two with the educators is, They aren't
- 40:11getting any of the money for the funding.
- 40:13So I want to spend money on technology that frees up these teachers
- 40:19because they are our eyes and ears.
- 40:20They are the ones on the front lines.
- 40:22if they're spending all of their time doing administrative tasks,
- 40:25these IEPs and 504s and all of that, then they're not teaching and
- 40:30they're not paying any attention.
- 40:32I want to put technology there.
- 40:33You said it yourself.
- 40:33you were connected to the community when you got these.
- 40:37automatic emails, these automatic texts, and being all, so like it, it creates some
- 40:42community, it creates some involvement, and that's where I'm spending money.
- 40:47Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
- 40:47Agreed.
- 40:48No, I totally agree with you.
- 40:49That is from a technology standpoint, right?
- 40:52Oh, AI is going to help so many people.
- 40:53Let's help these teachers, right?
- 40:55Let's get them to, let's help them grade tests, shoot
- 41:01messages out, track individuals.
- 41:03I say track their students attendance, where, why, when, who, like we can
- 41:10easily put in some of these systems.
- 41:12And to your point I truly believe that we're happy to spend money there.
- 41:15One of the things I would love to do is just find a way almost across the board
- 41:18to pay teachers much more, but to also really understand who is in charge.
- 41:25Why can't teachers be in control of what they're teaching?
- 41:29Why can't we give them, Some level of, okay here's your free reign.
- 41:34You have the class.
- 41:36Let's allow you to understand you're going to be building this.
- 41:41You can do this.
- 41:41You can provide, you can instruct, you can teach.
- 41:44And then there's obviously levels of governance and oversight, right?
- 41:46Principals vice principals, but I'm excited to get.
- 41:50In the future superintendents
- 41:52Dave Conley: we got, yeah,
- 41:53Jerremy Newsome: Ask them questions.
- 41:54What are you doing?
- 41:55Where is the money going?
- 41:56Where do you get paid?
- 41:57what do you do all day?
- 41:58School board members, right?
- 42:00We gotta start diving into this
- 42:02Dave Conley: we have to because, like that's where the rubber meets the road.
- 42:05I'm just guessing that for a lot of places that there is political pressure
- 42:11that's put on the people who are actually making the decisions, the administrators
- 42:16and the school boards, right?
- 42:17They are elected or they have, strong special interests or they
- 42:21have Parents who are putting pressure there and then that top down
- 42:28approach filters to everybody else.
- 42:30What I heard with episode two in particular and somewhat with three
- 42:34with talking to Lori, is that we don't have a teacher centric approach and we
- 42:40barely have a student centric approach.
- 42:43So the people who are actually having to deal with this get everything
- 42:47put upon them And aren't being listened to as far as I can tell
- 42:51Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 42:52Yep.
- 42:52They're not.
- 42:53And I'm sure the teachers would go on strike if they could, right?
- 42:59If they could, meaning they know going on strike already is going to
- 43:02create massive economic concerns.
- 43:05Kids aren't going to be able to go to school.
- 43:07What are they going to be doing all day?
- 43:09But also, the truth is, Dave, most teachers don't have that heart.
- 43:12They don't have the heart for, pay me more, I want a bunch of money.
- 43:16They really do start.
- 43:18I would say statistic I'm making up right now.
- 43:2185 plus percent of teachers have the heart that they want
- 43:25to teach because they love it.
- 43:27They get motivated and inspired by, and I'm speaking from the heart of a teacher.
- 43:32When I teach someone something that they did not know, and I helped them
- 43:35understand it and see it and just practice it and then begin to implement it.
- 43:40That brings me so much joy.
- 43:42my day and week and month becomes brighter, becomes more
- 43:47excited, becomes more purposeful.
- 43:49I feel more alive.
- 43:50I feel happier on all fronts when I'm living my purpose, which is to truly
- 43:55provide mentally liberating education.
- 43:58So for other, go ahead.
- 44:00Dave Conley: The reason that teachers are teaching you said
- 44:03it they're passionate about it
- 44:05We are getting extremely passionate people and that's amazing.
- 44:09And I think that's the bailing wire and tape that we have on this.
- 44:12And it seems like it's just on the edge of disaster or maybe
- 44:16it's already off the cliff.
- 44:17I don't know, but all I know is that the money's not getting to the right
- 44:20place because there's an enormous amount of money and it's going somewhere.
- 44:25Where is it?
- 44:25Jerremy Newsome: Exactly.
- 44:26It's going somewhere.
- 44:27Where is it?
- 44:27That's going to be a great topic.
- 44:30Dave Conley: Yeah, go ahead.
- 44:31Jerremy Newsome: if we're talking about, we've had a great discussion in general
- 44:35over episode one, episode two, and then episode three from tragedy to action.
- 44:42With Lori, who just had so much bravery, so much power, so much dedication to
- 44:48saying, listen, what happened to me, let's just work on preventing this.
- 44:53Let's work on creating structures in place so that this does not happen
- 44:59again, turning a mess into a message.
- 45:02And she is.
- 45:04Doing so much advocacy work.
- 45:07And it's really inspiring that she is creating change implementation right now.
- 45:11She's making it happen.
- 45:13So her losing her daughter on February 14th, Valentine's day, 2018, it
- 45:18was very moving and she was just recounting what occurred on that
- 45:22day and then allowing herself and allowing her strength to go, all right.
- 45:30I lost my daughter.
- 45:31And it was a very moving episode for us to work on,
- 45:36Dave Conley: Oh, for sure.
- 45:37It wrapped up this series really nicely for me because what I heard was, yeah,
- 45:43there's absolutely technical solutions out there and they're not that expensive.
- 45:47In fact, Alyssa's law has a panic button and she said it, look, government
- 45:51offices, courtrooms, banks, like all of these places have panic buttons.
- 45:56Like it's ludicrous that the place that we send our kids to
- 45:59doesn't have a panic button.
- 46:00That's.
- 46:01bonkers.
- 46:02And she was like, it's as simple as loading it onto a teacher's phone.
- 46:08And I'm like, Oh my God, come on.
- 46:09It's an app,
- 46:10Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 46:11Dave Conley: So they're very approachable technical solution.
- 46:14And then it was all about community.
- 46:16Like she lived through this.
- 46:18And so they have the moss clubs, which is engaging the students.
- 46:22They have the community action stuff.
- 46:24All of those changes and Alyssa's law, that had been passed in a bunch of States.
- 46:28I don't know.
- 46:29It really brought together episode one, which had, technology and had really
- 46:34looking at profiling and then episode two, which is okay, we've got these.
- 46:38These students that are in this rough place and this teachers in this
- 46:42rough place and then episode three was like, okay, Hey, we hear you.
- 46:45Here are some things.
- 46:46And I'm like, Oh, okay.
- 46:48That sounds pretty good to me.
- 46:49What, like, where, what did you, what were your thoughts on it?
- 46:53Jerremy Newsome: My thoughts were, I loved that she not only demonstrated swift
- 47:00change is possible when there is political will and having the private sector do so
- 47:09much of this lift and get a lot of this.
- 47:13In motion, I think just brings awareness to certain people and to certain
- 47:18political parties where it's like, all right, let's start creating some change
- 47:21because I'm very happy that it happened.
- 47:25Obviously, me and you are extremely excited for these changes to
- 47:28be ratified radically quickly.
- 47:33And although I still feel like there's gonna be tons and tons of very molasses
- 47:39like legislation that gets passed, it will require individuals like Lori, like
- 47:44me and you, like our listeners to step up and go, we know this is a problem.
- 47:48Let's keep chipping away.
- 47:50Let's keep having discussions, which we're going to have plenty
- 47:52of future discussions because this podcast is going nowhere other than.
- 47:56farther, faster, and deeper to learn, to create solutions, to understand
- 48:03some of the problems more, to realize that both you and I know very little
- 48:09about the ginormous complexities that is the machine of America, but also
- 48:14understanding every problem written down is already halfway solved.
- 48:19So to begin to just simply say that there are possibilities, there are shifts, there
- 48:26are changes, and one person can create not only a difference but an impact.
- 48:32Lori literally showed us that, Dave.
- 48:33She literally, physically, metaphorically created true change and true impact.
- 48:41In seven states with numerous schools adopting Alyssa's law and the app
- 48:46that you mentioned Seems so simple.
- 48:50So it's a quick fast solution where it's hey, This doesn't require a lot of taxes.
- 48:54This is dozens of dollars a year for individuals.
- 48:58This is something that should happen quickly.
- 49:00Dave Conley: A hundred percent.
- 49:02I don't know.
- 49:02yeah the work that Lori's organization does is a no brainer and her story and
- 49:08story of Alyssa, really hit home with me I think we have these discussions
- 49:12about politics about, whatever the issue is, whether it's school shootings
- 49:17or health or debt bringing really personal impactful stories to things
- 49:22really moves the needle for people when you can start feeling somebody
- 49:26else's pain You're like, oh, okay.
- 49:29I get it.
- 49:30You don't have to show me any statistics about how weird things are but when you
- 49:35tell me the story about this personal tragedy it really moved the bar.
- 49:39she said it over and over again, which is that she is making systemic change through
- 49:46the tragedy of losing her daughter.
- 49:48I'm like, ah, I got to remember that.
- 49:50I think our audience needs to think about this if you want things to move
- 49:55then connect with somebody's heart.
- 49:58Jerremy Newsome: Correct.
- 49:59Cause that's where the change happens.
- 50:01When we dig into the emotions, when we understand who's impacted, how
- 50:05they're impacted, how frequently, that's the thing that surprised both
- 50:10of us, as we looked into some of the statistics for school shootings.
- 50:16You said a few times, the ones that most shock us obviously are the huge
- 50:21ones, the mass shootings that are just so diabolical, but there are
- 50:27also so many small ones that occur.
- 50:30Where it's one, two, three people potentially gang violence or just
- 50:34someone very upset at one other person.
- 50:37And the fact that it happens again, not someone getting beat up.
- 50:41like a 1975 high school film where two people just fight it out.
- 50:45Like we probably all want to resolve our issues as a teenager.
- 50:49Just go fight it out, dude.
- 50:51But bringing a gun into school and solving the issue that way for
- 50:57that particular individual is just obviously extremely ludicrous.
- 51:01So what I see, man, is that there are changes that are being made.
- 51:08And for our listeners, it's a topic that's going to continue to become more
- 51:12and more large, more and more wide as we continue to just go down the issue,
- 51:19have conversations with people, knowing that it's a problem and knowing also
- 51:23that it is solvable and can at least be decreased dramatically, right?
- 51:29The amount of school shootings.
- 51:31have increased so abhorrently over the last decade that it's truly mind
- 51:38blowing, mind altering, emotionally shifting, where you gotta go, there
- 51:42has to be something done about this.
- 51:44Yeah.
- 51:46Dave Conley: And I know I brought it up a bunch of times,
- 51:47which is okay, what happened?
- 51:48It seemed like Columbine really kicked this off in the late nineties.
- 51:53And then it's just, it's been a wildfire.
- 51:55I'm like, okay what's going on?
- 51:58You like I don't know.
- 51:59Like I've, we haven't dug into that cause enough for me.
- 52:03I heard a lot of things that we can do, but it's Yeah.
- 52:06What happened in the nineties, man?
- 52:07what's going on?
- 52:08So I don't know.
- 52:09Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 52:10Dave Conley: We,
- 52:11Jerremy Newsome: that there needs to be more research on it, but to your point,
- 52:14something happened and the word obviously got thrown around a bunch of social media.
- 52:18And I think a lot of us as adults know that comparison is the thief of joy.
- 52:21And so we know that's happening, but it's not like we're going
- 52:24to get rid of social media.
- 52:25It's not like we're going to get rid of phones.
- 52:28That's not going to happen.
- 52:29But is there a way to work out those discussions, work out those
- 52:34conversations, let children know that it's okay to have conversations your
- 52:37peers, about how they're feeling or why they're posting or why they said
- 52:41this, and just be more open about it.
- 52:42And just, again, to your point, have conversations, have communication
- 52:46and let that healing take place.
- 52:47Let teachers, counselors, guidance, counselors.
- 52:51Individuals that have the skills to just sit down and moderate some of this inside
- 52:58of schools to allow healing to occur.
- 53:01But yes, there has been and was some megalithic shift that occurred in the U.
- 53:08S. specifically.
- 53:09Dave Conley: Like the rest of the world has the internet and they
- 53:11didn't have an uptick and all of this.
- 53:13so I don't know.
- 53:14there's something in there, like maybe it's a little bit of a lot of things.
- 53:17Maybe it's,
- 53:18Jerremy Newsome: yeah,
- 53:19Dave Conley: in our food.
- 53:20Jerremy Newsome: But it's something.
- 53:20Dave Conley: it's any one thing I'm not going to say it's the internet.
- 53:23I'm not going to say it's social media.
- 53:24I'm not going to say it's any of this, but it might be a lot of different things.
- 53:27It's like something happened.
- 53:29I, at least in the research, it didn't seem again, guns weren't
- 53:33the thing or the accessibility of guns, because actually that's been
- 53:37about the same all these years.
- 53:39So I was like, man, what happened at Columbine?
- 53:42I'm like, when I was growing up a million years ago, it's like
- 53:45they blamed music on everything.
- 53:47It's like listening To rap music, which was really launching in the late
- 53:5180s and early 90s, actually it was Tipper Gore, Al Gore's wife, who really
- 53:55spearheaded this whole thing about putting warning labels on all the albums
- 54:00and the cassettes CDs, and at least for me and my friends, that marked the
- 54:05albums that we wanted to listen to.
- 54:06It's Oh, good.
- 54:07It's got a sticker on it.
- 54:08Let's go.
- 54:09Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
- 54:09The parental advisory sticker.
- 54:11Dave Conley: Yeah.
- 54:12Jerremy Newsome: Quick fact check though, Dave it was 2 million
- 54:15years ago that you were in school.
- 54:18Dave Conley: 2 million years ago.
- 54:21Jerremy Newsome: That's the birth of, I would probably just say more
- 54:26freedom of speech as well, right?
- 54:29Where you are allowed to say whatever you want as an artist and you can
- 54:34create that and you can publish that.
- 54:35And the more grotesque it is to your point, the more it
- 54:41probably attracts the youth and.
- 54:44There's also all the people that did listen to NWA and Eminem
- 54:50and Marilyn Manson that like
- 54:52Dave Conley: best
- 54:53Jerremy Newsome: Korn and Slipknot that did not do anything negative as well.
- 54:56Dave Conley: right.
- 54:57Jerremy Newsome: Percent of all those listeners.
- 55:00It's a very interesting piece.
- 55:01And I think the fun topic also in future episodes really just will be
- 55:06that mental health awareness, right?
- 55:08if we can find maybe a profiler for the FBI and say the individual that
- 55:13undergoes and performs as a mass school shooting, what did happen to them?
- 55:19And how do we prevent it?
- 55:20How do we lessen the likelihood that happens to a child, whatever it is?
- 55:26And that is, I think, probably going to be a very strong root concern and root
- 55:32cause for how we do make proper shifts and proper impact so that this doesn't occur.
- 55:37Dave Conley: one key thing, what I didn't know before this that I know now that
- 55:44came up in all episodes was community.
- 55:48And if we're looking at a root cause.
- 55:53There is something about community, like we are probably more connected
- 55:58than we ever have been in humanity and yet we're feeling more alone.
- 56:03We see that actually in other areas and this came up in
- 56:07episodes 1, which is community.
- 56:09Things get better with community.
- 56:12Jerremy Newsome: Huh.
- 56:12Dave Conley: future I definitely want to understand like where the money's
- 56:15going and all that other stuff.
- 56:17There, That's great.
- 56:18And there's a rich chocolatey center at the middle of this which is
- 56:22something to do about community.
- 56:25That seems to be, the lack of community or, pretending we have community when we
- 56:29don't, or something's been lost there.
- 56:33Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
- 56:34And I think probably a very valid argument would be.
- 56:39Parents got to work more dog.
- 56:41Like we've got to work two jobs to pay for things.
- 56:45The carton of eggs over here where I live, no joke is 11 and 68 cents before taxes.
- 56:50Dave Conley: It's a dollar a piece.
- 56:52Jerremy Newsome: A dollar an egg dog.
- 56:54When I was
- 56:55Dave Conley: Oof.
- 56:56Jerremy Newsome: I sold a carton of eggs for a dollar.
- 56:58That's the exact opposite.
- 57:00So that's the thing is like the parents got to work so much.
- 57:02It's really hard for us to get away.
- 57:04It's hard for us to create the community.
- 57:05It's a challenge for us to actually break away from the.
- 57:11day to day grind to actually be there and to spend time as a community.
- 57:16And so that's obviously the challenge too.
- 57:18So to that point, I think also that solution lies in education reform
- 57:24because all parents were once children.
- 57:27Fun fact, biology, hashtag science.
- 57:30And when we understand that.
- 57:33We go, yep, we were all once kids and we now know what we learned in school.
- 57:37If schools begin to also just simply discuss financial literacy every
- 57:44day, there can be a wealth and a prosperity shift in this country
- 57:49where people are investing more.
- 57:51They are spending a little bit less, or at least they understand how to spend less.
- 57:55They understand how to create surplus.
- 57:57They understand the assets and liabilities.
- 57:59They know how to invest in and what to invest in.
- 58:01They understand that mindset.
- 58:03They understand the entrepreneurial mindset.
- 58:04They understand different saving vehicles and different retirement
- 58:08vehicles and how early one can start.
- 58:10Oh my gosh.
- 58:12Just knowing some of those components, knowing how the stock
- 58:14market works, knowing how to make Wise or wiser investments
- 58:19decisions that are more beautiful for the longevity of a portfolio.
- 58:23Those are things that can be discussed.
- 58:25And again, even if the teachers specifically do not know themselves,
- 58:29which I think is really oftentimes the case, that's where I do believe that
- 58:33a lot of the education reform is going to come down to having a one to many
- 58:39approach where what was That one really popular workout that took everyone by
- 58:44storm, like in the early 2000s that you would put on a DVD and people
- 58:48would work out Yeah, let's say P90X.
- 58:51Sure.
- 58:52So let's say an example of every gym, every school in the country
- 58:56has to play P90X or their version, and everyone's working out
- 59:01simultaneously for a good hour.
- 59:03And again, you adapt that level of intricacy and that level of
- 59:07education to also potentially science or history and financial literacy.
- 59:13The reason I was making that example is you can have a one to many
- 59:17approach versus one teacher to 30 kids or 40 kids where they feel
- 59:21overwhelmed and they feel worried.
- 59:22Now you have the best of the best.
- 59:25Someone teaching speaking voice lessons, piano lessons, body language.
- 59:33financial literacy, history, science, Bill Nye, the science guy, right?
- 59:37You create this.
- 59:39This is one of the best teachers on earth teaching about this particular subject.
- 59:43They teach that particular subject.
- 59:45The teachers are there learning with the kids.
- 59:48They're there understanding and helping and being a guidance and being a control.
- 59:52And after the taping or the giant class exercises over, then they all
- 59:57come together and have conversations about what went right, what was cool,
- 1:00:01what was unique, what stood out.
- 1:00:03What I'm saying is there are shifts that can easily be made where you put the best
- 1:00:08of the best in front of our children.
- 1:00:10We allow our teachers to do an incredible job, to have more space, to
- 1:00:15have more flexibility, to have time to think, to plan to create, to schedule.
- 1:00:20And when you make these prioritizations.
- 1:00:23That also does allow the community to become more involved because if the
- 1:00:26teachers are able to plan more and give a lot more notice to parents and
- 1:00:33really plan and dictate and create and prioritize, that's how that community
- 1:00:37can easily become more involved, especially in communities that presently
- 1:00:40don't have much of an involvement.
- 1:00:42Dave Conley: I love that.
- 1:00:43let me also I'm sure we've had people who've listened to the series and
- 1:00:47they might be freaked out, they might be inspired, whatever it is.
- 1:00:52Based on what we learned, as we sat through all of these with amazing people,
- 1:00:58What are steps that our audience can take today, or this week, or this month,
- 1:01:04or this year, that you think will move the bar for safety in school shootings?
- 1:01:11Jerremy Newsome: I think one of the big steps is get on
- 1:01:13podcasts and talk about it.
- 1:01:16The mainstream media, mainstream news I heard a statistic last night.
- 1:01:22the average news station has a hundred thousand views weekly, which is small.
- 1:01:30the people that are now being viewed the most are influencers, social
- 1:01:34media influencers, podcasters, people with voices, people that
- 1:01:38spend time to do the research.
- 1:01:40As parents, as teachers, as community members, go get on those shows.
- 1:01:44Get on this show right here, Solving America's Problems.
- 1:01:48Come on and voice your ideas, your beliefs, what you believe the changes that
- 1:01:53could or should easily be implemented.
- 1:01:56Bring those to people that are making waves in the solution arena.
- 1:02:01Also, I would think that the best thing you can do is have, Parents have
- 1:02:06conversations with these teachers.
- 1:02:08maybe call them on the phone, maybe schedule a sit down where you can
- 1:02:11come in, be a part of the classroom for, I don't know, 17 minutes.
- 1:02:15Come in early one day on your day off, spend time to really care and see
- 1:02:20the struggles of the teachers, talk to them, have conversations, because
- 1:02:24the conversations are what's missing.
- 1:02:26The conversations between parents.
- 1:02:28And the teachers, parents, and the school staff, parents, and the
- 1:02:31school administration, but parents and the kids, and the teachers,
- 1:02:35kids, and the school administration.
- 1:02:36These are conversations that are lacking
- 1:02:38Dave Conley: I that's the number one for me.
- 1:02:40If somebody is passionate about this topic and school safety, go talk to
- 1:02:45your kids teachers and just ask them.
- 1:02:48Hey, how do you feel about this?
- 1:02:50What do you think needs to be done?
- 1:02:52What would make this easier for you?
- 1:02:54And just listen to them.
- 1:02:56And then that will develop the action plan because I know that it's
- 1:03:00going to be different from school to school from urban, suburban or rural.
- 1:03:05I know it's going to be different from state to state and community to community.
- 1:03:08And so when you start getting curious, like me that's the moment
- 1:03:12where action leads to change.
- 1:03:16Jerremy Newsome: yeah, absolutely.
- 1:03:17And to that point, if you are a listener, thank you so much.
- 1:03:22If you've worked in policy or advocacy.
- 1:03:25Come tell us what barriers you have faced from getting some of these solutions
- 1:03:29that we've mentioned implemented.
- 1:03:30we want to hear from you, right?
- 1:03:32Hop on this podcast.
- 1:03:34Let us use our skill sets and our technologies and our
- 1:03:38networks to just come together.
- 1:03:39And again, start building a really beautiful, cohesive platform over
- 1:03:43the next three to seven years, as we continue to build and go forward
- 1:03:47to just really understand see and feel what we truly can do because
- 1:03:54we're not done solving problems.
- 1:03:57There's going to be all of
- 1:03:58Dave Conley: ever?
- 1:03:59Jerremy Newsome: We're never going to be done.
- 1:04:01There's always going to be problems.
- 1:04:02There's always going to be challenges, but here's the beautiful part.
- 1:04:06if you are a praying type and you ask God for strength, God
- 1:04:11doesn't give you more strength.
- 1:04:14It gives you bigger rocks to push challenges to overcome hurdles to climb
- 1:04:18over so that you can become Stronger on your own the beautiful part of
- 1:04:24all this is As we have challenges, we just simply have to sit down and
- 1:04:27go, we know that there's problems.
- 1:04:29We know that there are solutions.
- 1:04:30Let's begin to tackle them.
- 1:04:32Let's begin to chip away at them.
- 1:04:34And I truly believe in my heart of hearts, the core change that will
- 1:04:39alleviate so many of the burdens of this country is education.
- 1:04:43And as you unravel, tweak, adjust, grow and expand the version of how we can
- 1:04:50impact our Children closer and more.
- 1:04:53We want to really focus on what we can do going forward.
- 1:04:57So speaking of one of those, as I briefly mentioned in this episode, we
- 1:05:03got some big things to talk about next.
- 1:05:06One of them being This giant deficit that we're in, right?
- 1:05:11The financial consequences of the country.
- 1:05:16That's something that's not going to go away.
- 1:05:18We really need to focus on that.
- 1:05:21So we are diving next into college, going again into education and talking about,
- 1:05:31all right, as part of this giant national looming debt that we're in, none of you.
- 1:05:38Are prepared or ready for how much of that debt is being burdened
- 1:05:44by people going to college.
- 1:05:47So it's going to challenge us in ways that Dave and I did not expect.
- 1:05:52Every single one of you are going to get absolutely just thrashed by what
- 1:05:56you think is going on in colleges.
- 1:05:57We have so much discussion on that topic.
- 1:06:00After the kids are in school, where do they go?
- 1:06:01Next is college still worth it so much discussions and topics on that day of
- 1:06:07our listeners are going to be pumped
- 1:06:10Dave Conley: thank you all for listening to this wrap up episode of Solving
- 1:06:14America's Problems with your co hosts, Dave and Jeremy, and we're looking
- 1:06:19forward to seeing you next time.
- 1:06:21Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
- 1:06:22See you family