Since long before the tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, school safety has been of great concern to our society. The thought of an armed intruder entering a classroom keeps parents, students, and teachers up at night. One question that is asked by parents of almost every educator is “how will you keep my child safe at school”?
While our schools cannot (and should not be expected to) solve all the societal problems that lead to the types of tragedies we see too often in the news, we can take some steps to improve safety in the classroom and hallways.
For the public, school safety issues generally center around gun violence from a student or outsider entering the campus. We often overlook the more common safety issues our students are facing. Gang activity, sexual harassment, assault, bullying, abuse and neglect, addiction, depression, and self-harm are just a few of the dangers some of our students are facing daily. What can we, as a district, do to protect our children?
- We can incorporate policies that support the emotional and mental well-being of our students. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives that promote the social and emotional learning of all students create learning environments where each child is seen and heard. Such policies do not tolerate bullying and harassment.
- We can promote student mental health by providing staff and faculty with meaningful professional development that enables them to identify and intervene when students are in crisis. Often such training is limited to videos that staff and faculty are expected to watch on their own time. Crisis training should be required in lieu of, rather than in addition to, less effective district mandates. If staff and faculty are too overwhelmed with busy work, they will not be able to provide the support our students need.
- We can review and update our Emergency Operating Procedures with feedback from the people most affected by threats- the students and teachers. Campus staff and faculty know their schools and their situations very well and need to be included in the review of emergency procedures. Oftentimes, procedures are created from the perspective of administrators who are not physically in classrooms and do not increase safety within those spaces.
- We can improve communication. Communication is essential to a safe classroom environment. A school-wide email/texting system that allows administrators to send up-to-date information to staff and faculty can eliminate the confusion that often occurs during an emergency, such as an unexpected fire alarm, weather emergency, or during a lockdown event. Every child deserves a safe learning environment.
We cannot expect students to achieve academic success if they do not feel safe. We must be proactive, not reactive, to protect our students. We should not act only in response to tragedies, but do our best to prevent them in the first place.