Entitled "Non-Violent Crisis Intervention," the 15-hour course was taught by former Huron teacher Julie Beckette, who now lives in Sioux Falls. Beckette has been the math teacher in the Our Home alternative school for the past 14 years. She has been giving workshops on dealing with student behaviors for three years. "I would like to express my appreciation to the Huron School District for giving me this opportunity," she said Tuesday. The district sent her to a school in Sioux Falls to learn the skills to teach the course.

Among the participants in the workshop that was held were teachers, substitute teachers and para-professionals. "This training is good for a year," Beckette said in an interview. "After that they will be required to take a four-hour refresher course to stay certified.

The results of the course work are forwarded by Beckette to the Crisis Prevention Institute, Inc. in Brookfield, Wis. There, the work of those who take the course is evaluated. If found to be satisfactory, the institute will send a card to Beckette, who will sign it and forward it to the student, showing certification.

So what does she try to tell her students?

"I try to help adults understand there are a lot of verbal and non-verbal skills that they can use to defuse a student with a behavior problem," she said. The goal is to de-escalate a student's behavior that could possibly become dangerous.

"Ninety percent of what I teach focuses on non-physical," she said.

She said her emphasis at Huron was to get the staff "to build relationships with the students."

"It's more likely that if you do that," she said, "they are less likely to have behavior problems in class."

Beckette said it's important to teach students to respect others and to care for others.

"But," she said, "we need to be the example; we need to demonstrate to the students the importance of caring and respecting others."

Young people with behavior problems go through a number of stages, she said. The first stage is questions, followed by refusing to do certain things. The third step is venting or being verbally abusive. The fourth stage is intimidation, becoming physical or threatening, she said, and the final stage is tension reduction.

"The goal is to never get to the intimidation stage," she said, "by using specific interventions at each of the previous three stages."

What happens if this all fails and the student becomes physical? Beckette gave her students a set of guidelines and a set of holds to use when necessary.

She said certain holds are used for students who are small or shorter than the adult and a two-person hold for students in grade five to six-feet tall.

"It's important, though, that you know your limitations," she said. "I've been working with youth who have behavior problems for 14 years and have never been hit, had my hair pulled or needed to use a hold," she said. But, she added: "I have helped a staff person get free from hair pull."

In working with these students, Beckette said "it's important that you're careful where you are standing; never stand in their space."

She also gave the class participants tips about personal safety. "I showed them how to block a punch, what to do when a student is biting you," she said. "When being bitten, you should lean into the child; don't pull away. The same is true of hair pulling. Grab the student's hand and pull it toward your head. Don't try to pull away."

Beckette said her primary message to those in the class is there's many things "we as adults can do to help our children learn how to deal with stress."

"I'm a very firm believer we need to look at all children as our own," she added.

Beckette currently is job hunting in Sioux Falls, along with her husband, Felton. She does have a math teaching job offer she is mulling. Her husband was employed at the Bradfield-Leary Center for 10 years, managing the vocational unit.