For centuries, schools have been known as a safe place for students to obtain proper education. However, as time has past more safety issues in schools have arisen throughout the globe. With schools falling on a decline quickly, more work needs to be done in order to provide safe places dedicated to learning. Doing this will benefit students, parents, and teachers extraordinarily. While safety in schools today is extremely important, it also influences all students in educational, social, and emotional ways. Attendance in school is a major factor in the safety of schools today. When students feel unsafe inside a school building, they are much less likely to attend. On average, nearly five to seven and a half million students miss nearly a month of school each year (“Facts about School Attendance” 1 ). Danger within schools can be evident, however it can also be created behind the scenes- hidden from the standard eye. Bullying, harassment, student insecurity, and discrimination also impact how safe a student feels at school. Experiences like these are often the opposite of pleasant, leading to many students not wanting it to continue. A leading cause of chronic absence is due to students feeling that the only way they can escape daily harassment, is not attending school. Lack of school attendance is a major issue, due to the fact that every day of school counts. When students miss consecutive days of school, they will fall behind their classmates. Workload will pile up,
Improvement in security will also contribute to a safe environment. High schools should implement the use of metal detectors as well as random searches. Although, it may be tedious to remove all metal and coins from your pockets, it will ensure safety. This security measure can be specific to each school. An example being to make the checks random throughout the week or only require it for students to have a late arrival. Random searches can also be specified such as only searching lockers or classrooms. Motion sensored cameras can also be a very effective with safety. In many school’s cameras are only in the hallways and lunchroom, but what happens when violence occurs in a classroom? All evidence will be based off hearsay. This is not an effective way of assessing the incident considering there are 3 sides to every story. Adding motion cameras to classrooms will make evidence accurate. Not only will student-student altercations be recorded, but teacher-student altercations will be recorded. Security guards themselves should also be improved. Security guards should be posted in hallways upon children arrival, during passing periods, and upon school dismissal. Security guards should also be fit enough for the job. “The results indicated that utilization of multiple security measures reduced the likelihood of exposure to property
After the Sandy Hook, there were countless ways for students to be safe at school. In Preparing for the Unthinkable: School Safety after Sandy Hook news article, Vicki Bauman said, “ Instead of gates, guns, and metal detectors, let’s invest in the things we know will make us safer: counselors, health care, teaching positive behavior, and making sure we have services to reach out to disconnected youth and pull them back on track.” Therefore, violence is not the answer to any question or issue. The community and school system should take a stand and get the necessities that the schools need to have a safe environment for the students and faculty and staff. The school can invest in law enforcement. The law enforcement will be able to conduct a consistent search through a metal detector. The law enforcement will help the students to avoid bringing prohibited weapons to school as well as, there to protect the school.
It would be a wise idea for school administrators to have a comprehensive security assessment of the school’s physical design, safety policies, and emergency procedures. Once again this must be conducted with the cooperation of school staff, emergency personnel, students, and other school community members. Every school has different needs and safety plans may vary. According to the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police), there are twenty recommended actions that can be used to prevent violence in a school setting.
Safety: Students know that they are physically safe and that they are not in danger in the classroom. Safety also includes students emotional and mental well-being, meaning that they will be free from emotional damage such as bulling or name-calling.
You will be asked 10 questions about how you feel about safety in your school. Please choose an answer that reflects the way you feel most correctly. Please remember to be as honest as possible. Your identity will not be shared.
They focus more about how safe people feel, while still making sure they are actually safe. To do so, they offer having security devices built within the structure of buildings. Having them with the walls makes it more discrete, so it will not affect the image of the building. They also mention having a balance between safety and an inspiring environment, which is one of the biggest challenges in modern day society. They also acknowledge the fact security measures taken will need to be consistently revised as technology keeps improving. This is useful to the essay because it discusses many of the issues possible solutions to security and can be applied to schools. It also widens the origins of research collected.
“Not just safe in terms of physical and emotional safety, but also in terms of students feeling safe enough to take intellectual risks.”
Even with the presence of the recent shooting in Florida, the entire culture of school security has transformed since the 1999 Columbine school shooting. The Columbine massacre was the time when two teens opened fire on other students, killing 13people and injuring more than 20 others before shooting themselves and committing suicide. It was the worst high school shooting in the United States history and initiated a national discussion on gun control and school safety. Since then, the issue of gun violence and school shooting has dominated school safety concern. Also, the incidence initiated a revolution to the school security measures. Todays, schools are far more secure than
"Health and safety in a school is about taking a sensible and proportionate approach to ensure the premises provide a healthy and safe place for all who use them, including the school work force, visitors and pupils." (HSE Health and Safety checklist for classrooms - August 2011)
The process of adding more guards and adding more detectors to school buildings will just add on to the stress of students going to school. Also by adding all the equipment it will make it feel more like a jail anyway because they already have a set lunch, certain amount of bathroom passes and a bell dismisses them from all their classes. So even by adding the following safety measures the schools are not becoming more “safe and secure” (“5
academic success and research by Astor and others has consistently found key factors that can make schools safer: cultivate social and emotional health, connect to community resources and respond, particularly, to troubled students.” If schools had better communication and relationships,
What steps are being taken to keep students safe? The topic has risen, ‘should teachers be armed?’. Teachers should be armed in order to protect students from possible threats. School shooting has dramatically risen since 2000, though they dated back to 1764. Teachers would be trained and very prepared to handle any ‘code red’ emergency. Though there are opposing points there are solutions and positive outcomes for most.
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
Schools need to maintain a disciplined and safe learning environment. There are many disciplinary actions that are in use today and although some can disagree about the amount of discipline that is best for maturing children, it is reasonable to be in agreement that a positive learning environment begins with physical and emotional safety. School safety includes a broad range of matters, including, fighting, bullying, drugs, alcohol, weapons, and etc. Many schools use varying methods in an effort to maintain school safety. Some schools limit school access and require all visitors to sign in. Physical surveillance is another common method of addressing school safety issues along with use of staff and student identification. Among all these
Unsafe learning environments create a climate of fear and insecurity and a perception and this reduces the quality of education for all students.