Developing and Maintaining Safe Schools Essay -- Safety Education Essa

Developing and Maintaining Safe Schools There is no greater challenge that exists today than creating safe schools. It is difficult for children to learn in an environment that is unsafe and when they feel at risk. It is hard to keep staff on task when they fear for their own safety. One out of twelve students who stay away from school do so because of fear. In an ideal world, you would like to prevent all school crime and ensure the safety of students and each staff member. There are so many things outside the control of the school administrator that such a task is almost impossible. To predict the potentially disruptive behavior of students, a staff member, or the intruder who comes to your campus is unrealistic, but being armed with the knowledge that this could happen to you could can lead to do several things to prepare for a crisis, avoid a crisis, and preclude successive crises. Restoring our schools to tranquil and safe places of learning requires a great commitment. It involves placing school safety at the top of the educational agenda. Without safe schools, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn. School administrators have a host of opportunities and strategies that can be implemented to make a difference. The difficulty often is in effectively analyzing the problem, and then deciding what can be done about it. A safe school is in place when students can learn and teachers can teach in a warm and welcoming environment free of intimidation and fear. It is a setting where the educational climate fosters a spirit of acceptance and care for every child; where behavior expectations are clearly communicated, consistently enforced and fairly applied. A safe school is a function of community will, priorities and i nterests. It requires partnerships and cooperation. The components and people involved are limited only by the imagination, creativity, energy, and commitment of the local community. Very important people include students, educators, parents, law enforcers, judges, probation directors, mental health leaders, and... ...allenge of setting a safe school environment plan. In today's society, safety is a very important issue. Once upon becoming an administrator, this would be one of the main issues on my list. I would work to have a safe school environment plan in effect. I would follow the outlined guide as closely as possible in order to implement a safe school environment plan in my school and district. Bibliography: Dwyer, K.; Osher, D.; and Warger, C. Early Warning, Timely Response: A guide to safe schools. www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education Flannery, Daniel J. Improving School Violence Prevention Programs Through Meaningful Evaluation. New York, New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, 1993. Houston, Paul. Schools: Islands of Safety in a Sea of Violence. www.aasa.org/Latest/Outlook/outlook10-7-98.htm AASA Leadership for Learning Stephens, Ronald D. The Art of Safe School Planning. Bloomington, Indiana: The School Administrator, 1996. Stephens, Ronald D. Conducting a Self-Assessment of School Safety. Bloomington, Indiana: The School Administrator, 1996.