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Making School Safe
Providing a safe learning environment seems to be becoming increasingly more difficult when crime, drugs, and violence are so familiarly part of the territory. More students are carrying weapons for their own protection. Fistfights are replaced by gunfights. The route for many students includes having to travel through gang turfs or groups of drug dealers.
Teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn when there is an environment in which violence is an acceptable way of settling conflicts. Creating a safe place depends on a partnership among teachers, students, parents, and other community institutions to prevent violence in school.
· Find out how schools in your community are threatened by crime
· Take actions to protect children
· Promote nonviolent to manage conflict
Here is how these all translate into action. Some practical suggestions for young people, parents, school staff, and others in the community will help in creating a safe community and learning environment for schools.
Students:
Ø Learn how to use words, not fists or weapons to settle arguments.
Ø Never bring guns, knives, or other weapons to school.
Ø Immediately report crimes or suspicious activity to the police, school authorities, or parents.
Ø Learn the safe routes of traveling to and from school.
Ø Stay away from drugs, alcohol, and the places and people associated with them.
Ø Get involved in your school’s anti-violence activities, or if there aren’t any, help start one.
Parents:
Ø Sharpen your parenting skills. Build on your child’s strengths.
Ø Teach your children how to reduce their risk of becoming victims of crime.
Ø Know where your kids are, what they are doing, who they are with.
Ø Talk to your children about their lives, listen to them and take their worries and concerns seriously.
Ø Help them learn nonviolent ways to handle anger and conflict.
Ø Do not allow your child to have a gun or any other kinds of weapons.
Ø Be involved in their lives (i.e. school activities, PTA, field trips, helping out in the classroom, etc.)
Ø Work with parents and students to start an anti-violence program for your area.
School Staff:
Ø Evaluate your school’s safety objectively. Set targets for improvement and work towards bettering the situation.
Ø Develop discipline policies that are consistent, good security and emergency procedures
Ø Train school personnel in conflict resolution, problem solving, drug prevention, cultural sensitivity, crisis intervention, classroom management, and counseling skills. Make sure they know and recognize the trouble signs and can identify potentially violent students.
Ø Encourage students to talk about their worries and fears. Listen carefully to what they have to say.
Ø Take a student seriously if he/she threatens violence in any way, and report it immediately.
Ø If something violent happens, take time to talk about it with the students. Get them to think about the better choices that should have been made.
Ø Work with students, parents, law enforcement officials, local governments, and community-based groups to develop and expand crime prevention efforts.
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