Classroom Safety

In this day and age where school administrators consider backpacks, lockers, and baggy pants to be potential dangers to students and faculty, what will be next? Perhaps pencils, pens, scissors, and glue will be added to the list of items to ban from schools. These, along with other hazardous educational necessities pose real threats to maintaining an orderly school and should be prohibited.

You hear almost every day another school goes into lock down or some crazy lunatic takes a gun to school its every tragic to hear of students and teachers getting shot. You hear of parents so afraid to send their child to school or not knowing when they drop their son or daughter off it will be there last. What if we can take preventive measures to help prevent a troubled individual or make them think twice about taking a gun to school? There are many things that schools can do to secure the students inside and are being implemented, but who are the students always around? And who sees the students more than anyone else? The teachers and I believe we can do the most good by arming them with guns after the proper training and

This week Ms.Vega discussed her code RED procedures with me. Code RED is the code word that the school uses before it is placed under lockdown when a threat may be present at the school. The first step that happens is an administrator says the words “code RED”, teachers than know to stop what they are teaching and start locking the school down. Students are to all go and sit together at the front of the classroom away from all windows and doors. Teachers cover the windows and all other spaces where students may be visible.The lights are turned off and the door gets locked, teachers then join their students at the front of the class. Everyone is to remain silent. An administrator then walks around to make sure all doors are

There should be first aid kits in every classroom for safety and preparation of teacher’s confidence toward safety. Supervision is important however, it helps with children and teacher’s safety. Teacher’s should check any equipment at least three times a week to make sure everything is a safe environment for children. If emergency is at extreme levels there should be an emergency preparation plan in every daycare or public school

Fire notices are displayed throughout the school detailing the fire evacuation procedures and evacuation points.

When an emergency situation arises, it's essential that you are able to recognise it, as well as respond. Emergency situations such as fires are suddenly notice and quick recognition can be crucial. When aware of a fire, alert the nearest fire alarm and evacuate the building through the nearest fire exit. If you at any point in the school day hear the fire alarm. Everyone must immediately leave the building via their nearest fire exit (this is rehearsed often throughtout the year to make sure everyone is fully aware of what to do). If a child has an illness, then you must first speak to the child in question and become

A thorough check of all exits to be made to ensure all gates/doors was locked and there is no way a child could have left the school.

There are a number of people able to administer first aid on the school premises. There is an appointed person who oversees restocking of first aid boxes, ordering of supplies, filing data from the accident record book, storing of toxic substances and arranging further training and refresher courses. First aid boxes are located around the school and medicines are stored in the staff room under lock and key. Each child who suffers with asthma or who has a serious allergy keeps their own inhaler and a spare one for each child must be kept in school, epipens are stored in the staff room again under lock and key. Photographs and care plans are in place for each child with serious allergies and asthma and these are kept in the staff room.

Ensure that the group you are working with leave the building by the nearest exit and walk to the assembly point. Line up for a roll call. Visitors must report to the office administration staff - who will have the log of persons in school at the time.

In our school we have our emergency procedures displayed at specific points around the setting so that no matter where you are there is a copy within easy view such as the toilets or the main office waiting area. These procedures state what to do in the event of a fire or evacuation. We carry out regular fire drills so that the children know what to expect and also to help us identify any issues with our procedure. The dates and time taken to carry out fire drills are recorded. We had our practice fire drill recently in our school and I was playing with some children in the nursery garden and we did not hear the fire drill outside, so when we took the children to the fire assembly point,

This situation is not only an inconvenience for our students; it also presents a safety hazard

Through this tragedy, educators have learned a different approach to intruders. We teach students to think for themselves through a training program called ALICE: Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. There is no linear progression to ALICE. Through studies, we have learned the best chance for survival is to evacuate the building and run. ALICE teaches schools, teachers, and students how to respond in intruder situations. Schools all across the country including hundreds in our area conduct weekly ALICE drills. An example of items implemented from our ALICE trainings include: a method of communication to all teachers and students, increase in the number of school security cameras, door locking mechanisms on every classroom door to be used in the event that a classroom cannot evacuate and needs to “shelter in place” and finally, a go-bucket. Items in a go-bucket vary across schools but if you google the term you will see these items include: items to barricade a door, items to defend oneself, items such as wasp spray, which can

Next, we had security guards. I don’t really remember exactly how many we had, but they frequented problem areas of the school. The lunchroom was a major problem place, and the surrounding hallways where students would eat and do homework. There would also be security guards that walked around the “unfrequented” parts of the school. The security guards would also go outside and monitor the path, and the students crossing as well. Next, we had a desk at the front of the school with a security guard that doesn’t leave during the day. Vistors were required to sign in and report to the office. For awhile, we had a security guard that went around and looked around the parking lot, looking for suspicious things. Now, there is a van that drives around the parking lot keeping it secure as well. Next, we have to evaluate the potential risks and threats. At Grand Blanc, we didn’t have metal detectors, so being able to slip in with a knife, or something small, like this student did, would be a problem. Also, big bags such as purses, athletic bags and backpacks are problems as well because without metal detectors we do not know what are in the bags. Another potential risk is the unfrequented areas of the school. Even though there are cameras, there are enough cameras that you cant watch every one every time. With the unfrequented areas of the school, a student could create something destructive- it could be a considerable amount of time before someone passes by.

While the elementary school provided a short description of their emergency procedures, it stated that more information could be found in the Crisis Management Plan (also included in the Staff Handbook). What’s strange is that although a crisis management plan has been created, fire drills were not better described nor mentioned all; not even the sound signal to look for. In the event of a fire, younger students usually need more attention to care and calm down. Therefore, it would have been helpful to cover fire procedures more thoroughly. In the high school handbook, the

During the past decade, school safety has been at the forefront of many school districts safety polices and plans. With recent high profile school shootings, the question school districts continue to ask is how do we keep our schools safe? Administrators face heavy scrutiny when weighing approaches to school safety and student discipline. Likewise, school employees have the right to work in safe environments devoid of life-threatening behaviors (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). America’s founding fathers understood the importance of a public school education. They believed educating its citizens would allow them the opportunity to learn new skills while becoming successful and productive people in society. However, our founding fathers did not predict the severe behavior changes our schools face in educating disruptive and dangerous students. America’s school districts are charged with providing solutions for disruptive and dangerous students (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). School officials must address these issues with research-based interventions and collaborative resources that provide a safe learning environment for all stakeholders (Elliott and Mihalic, 2004; Schoenwald and Hoagwood, 2001). Boards of education continue to support school efforts to rethink best practices for disciplinary alternative middle schools (DAMS). Many school districts focus on research-based interventions and resources that manage aggression and