School of Errors establishes another voice in the discussion of how to promote safe schools. It challenges the unchecked expansion of school fortification and questions the realized benefit of inter-agency collaboration during a sentinel event. This book offers an alternative to traumatizing simulations by providing clear options for improving school safety by the empirically-proven effective measures of leakage detection (preventive) and sensemaking (reactive). School of Errors restores the scientific method to school safety and clears a path through the media rhetoric fogging this vital topic.

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School safety is a primary concern for any parent, teacher, or school administrator today. Perrodin (Viterbo Univ.) has extensive experience with and background in safety training, and he provides a realistic view of the topic, including practical ideas and solutions for school systems to implement. He cautions of "safety experts" who are more interested in making a profit than protecting schools, noting that administrators should be wary of proposed solutions that only advocate for more safety cameras, metal detectors, or other flashy technology. Instead the author asks for schools to consider "the torus," a way of visualizing familiar places, events, and daily routines and their interruptions as a possible solution, along with situational awareness. Perrodin cleverly uses a bagel to illustrate this point. He believes that schools must be ready to let go of the familiar and improvise, emphasizing a student-centered approach, particularly in the section on drill fidelity, stating that drills should be conducted less frequently but with more urgency to teach students skills to use in a particular situation rather than just to show them what could happen. This accessible book will appeal to multiple audiences and would be a valuable addition to any library. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels.