**Classroom Safety**

**Personal Contact Skills**

1.  **Never teach more students than you can safely observe.**

2.  **Never allow your students to serve as patients. Students are not
    familiar with the techniques; therefore, allowing a student to act
    as your patient could get someone hurt.**

3.  **Always establish a word such as 'break' to indicate an immediate
    hands-off situation during role-play.**

4.  **Break your class up into three person groups and then allow only
    one group to practice while the other groups observe and critique.
    **

5.  **After each role-play, ask in a reassuring manner if everyone is
    OK.**

6.  **Be careful with humor. Humor is an effective release of tension,
    but humor can also lead to 'horse play'. There is a fine line
    between the two; however, the instructor must maintain the control
    necessary to keep the class safe.**

7.  **Always use mats when teaching Personal Contact Skills. A word of
    caution: mats that are not fixed together (such as using Velcro) can
    be as dangerous as no mats. If mats slip, so do the feet.**

8.  **Never let anyone participate in the physical technique if they
    were unable to sign both parts of the Risk/Health form.**

9.  **Always inform your students that they will feel sore and possibly
    be bruised the next day. If people are aware of this beforehand,
    they will not be as concerned when they wake up with stiff legs or
    bruised wrists.**

10. **Always use a spotter when conducting a role-play; this insures
    that the team is stable under any circumstances.**

11. **Never let students demonstrate alternatives to what you are
    teaching. It is not safe.**

12. **If a student has specialized training such as martial arts, state
    that such training is specialized and intense; however, the
    techniques being taught in this class work for the average person.**

13. **If a student becomes disruptive in class, take him/her aside and
    inform him/her that this type of behavior can be dangerous, and you
    need for him/her to stop. If the behavior continues, ask the student
    to leave.**

14. **Always try to teach in pairs.**

15. **If dynamic role-play happens to move away from the mats, stop the
    role-play and have the team return to the mats.**

16. **Conduct stretching exercises each day prior to teaching the
    physical techniques.**

**Personal Safety Skills **

1.  Be careful with humor. Humor is an effective release of tension, but
    humor can also lead to 'horse play'. There is a fine line between
    the two; however, the instructor must maintain the control necessary
    to keep the class safe.

2.  **Never let anyone participate in the physical technique if they
    were unable to sign both parts of the Risk/Health form.**

3.  **Always inform your students that they will feel sore and possibly
    be bruised the next day. If people are aware of this beforehand,
    they will not be as concerned when they wake up with stiff legs or
    bruised wrists.**

4.  **Never let students demonstrate alternatives to what you are
    teaching. It is not safe.**

5.  **If a student has specialized training such as martial arts, state
    that such training is specialized and intense; however, the
    technique being taught in this class is one that works for the
    average person.**

6.  **If a student becomes disruptive in class, take him/her aside and
    inform him/her that this type of behavior can be dangerous, and you
    need for him/her to stop. If the behavior continues, ask the student
    to leave.**

7.  **Never allow the students to demonstrate the 'death grip'; it is
    too dangerous.**

8.  **Maintain control at all times. After each exercise, make the
    partners return to their original positions.**