[Publib] fights and rescue co-worker

[Christopher F. Bowen]

No policy can cover every possible situation. Our policy is that staff should not risk getting hurt by intervening in a fight. Our policy also says that patrons must leave the library at closing time. However when we do our annual training for staff who may be in charge of the library in the absence of the director or assistant director, I always remind staff that we in addition to following the policy we have to consider what we can live with. Part of my presentation includes asking, "How will you feel if you put a kid out at closing time when it is 20 below outside, you can't reach a parent, and the police are too busy to come and pick him or her up?"

So yes, many of us would probably intervene if a co-worker is attached. Or even if a patron is attacked (as opposed to an argument that escalates into a fist fight.) But you can't make a policy that says that staff must jump in if a co-worker is assaulted. 

In any situation, I believe that the best course of action is to call 911 first and ask for help, then yell at the fighters that police are on the way in the hope that will scare them off, then jump into the fray if you must. By the way, our policy also directs the in charge person to make sure that someone is waiting at the entrance to direct the police and/or paramedics to the appropriate area of the building when they arrive.

Christopher F. Bowen
Library Director
Downers Grove Public Library
1050 Curtiss Street
Downers Grove, IL 60515-4606
630-963-2595

-----Original Message-----
> > So I guess my new question to the collective brain is.... Do you intervene
> > when a STAFF MEMBER is attacked? ?This was just random
> > violence--unprovoked--on a staff member at her desk by a random patron. 
> > What's the protocol then?