7 Stories from 2018 to Help Restore Your Faith in Humanity
Here’s a round-up of our favorite feel-good stories from 2018 to ring in the New Year with a positive outlook on mankind.
Campus and hospital security is no easy task. A lot of decisions security professionals make can be the difference between life or death, making a lot of the topics or stories we cover at Campus Safety wrought with controversy, devastation and loss. While it is crucial to cover these stories as they are essential to understanding the most effective ways to keep our campuses safe, it is also important to focus on the good that so many of us are doing for others.
There is more good than bad in the world. Media and our industry force us to focus on the bad because it’s not the good people we have to worry about. But I promise, they are all around you. Perseverance, camaraderie and selflessness will always remain no matter how bad the world might seem.
Here are seven stories from 2018 that we believe deserve as a second look. Every day there are people doing good. Some days, you might just have to look a little harder.
During Our Darkest Times, Human Kindness Shines Through
While the recent California wildfires have led to tremendous loss and turmoil for so many, it has also led us to the many, many heroes who stepped up and put other people’s lives before their own.
These heroes come from all walks of life, including the owners of a rowboat who rescued a group of people who escaped flames by jumping into a reservoir, a billionaire who loaded up his yacht with water, food, diapers, dog food and bicycles to deliver them to Malibu (as seen in the video below), and countless firefighters and volunteers.
(Video Source: LA Times)
West L.A. Veterans Affairs Office Opens Parking Lot to Homeless Vets
In April, the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs office partnered with non-profit Safe Parking Los Angeles to provide a designated parking area for veterans living in their vehicles. The space also includes a portable bathroom and a picnic area.
There are an estimated 4,500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles and around half of them sleep in their cars.
The VA is also currently working on a 388-acre campus to be a home for aging and disabled vets.
(Video Source: ABC)
Middle Schooler Drives School Bus After Driver Suffers Medical Emergency
A brave 13-year-old boy drove his school bus after his bus driver had a medical emergency.
Karson Vega was riding the bus home from LaGrange Middle School when he noticed the driver started driving erratically. He quickly called 9-1-1 and sat on the driver’s lap to take over the wheel. He turned on the flashers and drove nearly two miles before stopping near a bridge.
Vega’s mother said he knows a lot about cars and often asks family members to let him practice driving on back roads.
“My uncle let me drive his 18-wheeler, so it’s pretty much the same thing,” he said.
(Video Source: Fox 7)
Teacher Who Subdued Noblesville West Middle School Shooter Praised
On May 25, a student opened fire inside a seventh-grade science class at Noblesville West Middle School. Teacher Jason Seaman ran at the student, swatted the gun out of his hand, and tackled him to the ground.
“If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure,” said student Ethan Stonebraker.
Seaman was shot in the abdomen, hip and forearm. The only other person shot was student Ella Whistler. Both survived their injuries.
While it is important to learn about the psyche of active shooters, it is not their names that deserve to be written or come out of our mouths. It’s the names of people like Jason Seaman who put their lives on the line for others that deserve to be heard.
Jason Seaman. Jason Seaman. Jason Seaman.
(Video Source: ABC News)
Schools Install Laundromats to Reduce Bullying, Improve Attendance
With support from local and national organizations, more and more schools have begun installing laundromats on school grounds to reduce student absenteeism and bullying.
Westside High School principal Akbar Cook, who has been working for two years to build a laundromat at the school, says a lack of clean clothes contributed to 85 percent of students at his school being absent three to five days a month.
“They were being bullied and it wasn’t just in the building, it was on Snapchat,” Cook said. “So you go home and you couldn’t even escape it if you were on social media.”
CareCounts, a program started by Whirlpool, has helped 10 districts and 58 schools, washing an average of 50 loads of laundry per participant.
The program was started at Gibson Elementary School in St. Louis. Attendance rates for high-risk students at the school increased from 82 percent to 91 percent during the 2016-2017 school year.
(Video Source: ABC 7)
Drones Delivering Blood Could Be New Healthcare Trend in U.S.
In 2016, Zipline, a Silicon Valley startup, began using drones to deliver blood in Rwanda.
“We had heard about this big problem in places with poor road infrastructure that health care suffers a lot because they couldn’t get supplies to doctors when they needed them,” said Keenan Wyrobek, Zipline’s chief technologist.
The company was contracted by the Government of Rwanda to establish a distribution center with 15 drones to deliver blood, plasma and platelets to twenty-one hospitals across the western half of the country.
So far, Zipline has flown over 186,000 miles and delivered 7,000 units of blood in 4,000 flights.
(Video Source: CNBC)
Study: Student-Run Mental Health Clubs Decrease Stigma
A June study found student-run mental health clubs have helped bring awareness to and curb the stigma related to mental health.
A survey, which was distributed three times during the 2016-2017 academic year, asked students about mental health awareness and familiarity with Active Minds, a student-peer organization that supports student-run mental health clubs on college campuses. Researchers graded the responses as having “low engagement,” “moderate engagement” or “high engagement” with mental health issues and Active Minds.
The first survey, distributed at the beginning of the school year, found 63 percent were in the “low engagement” group, 30 percent in the “moderate engagement” group and seven percent in the “high engagement” group.
By the end of the academic year, results for the low and moderate groups showed increased familiarity with Active Minds and was associated with increased knowledge, decreased stigma and a greater probability of helping another student during a mental health crisis.
(Video Source: NBC News)
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About the Author
Amy Rock, Executive Editor
Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.
Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.
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