There is never a school year where safety is not a priority.  We all know about the increased number of school critical incidents in the last couple of decades and how this has increased the need to ensure safe schools.

We also know from Pavlov and other great psychologists that safety is the number need of students. If a student is not safe, not fed and not comfortable in a classroom, the odds of learning are slim to none. This is the same for the adults and educators in the school building. It is hard to teach when you are concerned for you and your students’ safety.

Thus, if there is any question about the need for school safety, that should be put to rest.

First on an individual school basis, there are checkpoints that each school can assess what needs to be done to improve their own school safety.

Let’s dive into three items that can improve school and security:

What is your locked door policy?

This applies to classrooms in the building. Studies on school attacks have shown that locked doors are the key to survival. Intruders are looking for unlocked doors that lead to easy targets. Thus, locked doors buy time for intruders who see them as obstacles.

Most parts of school safety are designed to buy time to allow first responders to arrive. Depending on your school’s location, you may need to buy up to 15 minutes, especially if it is a rural school.

Some questions to ask:

• Are teachers required to lock their classroom doors all the time?
• Are there any door locks that need to be fixed?

How is your school’s perimeter protected?

This has two layers to it, the doors that face outside the building and the perimeter around the school.

First, the doors around the school building. How are visitors allowed into the building? Is there one place for them to come through? Do you have a secure vestibule before visitors are actually in the building? Are those doors magnetically sealed or closed by more than just the lock to keep someone out?

Many schools have badges that deactivate magnet doors that allow them into the building.

Is there a way to have a person in charge of watching through video who comes to all the doors that allow entry to a building? Are there regular or weekly door checks that happen each week to check for doors that are not working right.

Where this author is in Texas, some of our doors can be pulled open with enough force when the temperature outside gets below 30 degrees, and we find this during our weekly door sweeps during our short winters.

Much like a locked classroom, an airtight school with monitored entries can be difficult to enter for someone who intends to do harm.

For many schools, next to a locked door, how difficult it is to enter the school is the next best line of defense.

The next layer of defense is the perimeter around the school. In the state of Texas, one of the newer suggestions from safety officials is to have a secure fence with gates as another perimeter. For urban schools, this could be difficult as your building may be next to another building and that can act like a perimeter.

The outer perimeter design as a fence is like the locked door theory, it buys more time and creates another barrier that makes it difficult for someone off campus to simply want onto campus and do harm.

The outer perimeter would have timed gates and keypads to control who is going behind the perimeter. Push bar gates would be available for those who need to leave in emergencies like a fire drill or something similar.  This idea has been around for a while around playgrounds to protect students from kidnappers, etc.

Armed Personnel on Campus

The next form of school safety from critical incidents goes back to response time from emergency responders and who is on campus that can respond quickly if the worst case scenario is taking place.

Many school districts in the nation have moved to have some form of security officer on campus. Whether the district has started its own police department with student resource officers on campus or has contracts with local police departments, having an officer on campus provides many positive safety considerations.

From an administrative standpoint, having the resources right there on campus for legal advice or legal incidents that might involve young adults, is very handy.

Then of course if the worst-case scenario happens, an officer is on campus who is armed, trained and ready to act with a direct line to get help.

Other school districts who do have the financial resources or manpower to have an officer on campus have moved to having trained armed staff on campus. I was fortunate to work at a school district that had both on campus.

This school district posted signs in front of all schools making it clear if someone came on campus with the intent to do harm to students, there were people on campus who were trained to protect the campus.

The idea was to provide a moment of pause and consideration for anyone who might come on campus to do harm. Remember, those who wish to do harm on campus want easy targets and to not be hassled. These districts with officers and/or trained personnel are not easy targets.

There are legitimate arguments to be made having trained personnel on campus who are not fully trained police officers. Their psychological and physical training are not as extensive and without as extensive training, will they truly respond as they need to if the worst-case scenario takes place.

Law enforcement also has concerns about being able to identify these personnel when they enter the building with the intent to take down the person causing harm in the building. It is easier to identify law enforcement than those in street clothes who are armed.

In short, keep doors locked, secure your perimeter and have some sort of rapid response available for the safety of the campus. Consistently monitoring these three aspects will make a campus safer for everyone on campus and provide checkpoints for a campus to evaluate what they can do better protect those on campus.

Educators never stop learning; check out our available graduate degree programs  to hone your skills and promote lifelong learning and academic excellence.

The post How to Improve School Safety and Security appeared first on Graduate Programs for Educators.

School safety addresses physical as well as social and emotional facets of students’ school experiences. This can include but is not limited to bullying, harassment, physical and environmental safety, and mental health. This has always been an area with a high level of importance for educators.

However, in recent times, it has become an increasingly higher level of concern and importance. Ultimately, school safety is not only important for physical, mental, and social-emotional well-being of students and staff but for overall student success. When students not only feel safe physically, but emotionally and socially as well, there are correlations to increased academic achievements.

This is similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and its ideology can be applied when considering school safety as a whole. More specifically, once basic needs are being met, the higher up the hierarchy the individual can climb. In order to accomplish this, not only must needs be met but positive social and emotional components must be fostered in order to contribute to academic success.

A component of safety is physical safety of the individuals inside the building. Throughout the years, there has been an increase in reports of violence in school environments. This concern for violence has been derived from various incidents of intruders, school shootings, etc. As a result, this raises increased concern in physical safety and well-being for students and staff in school buildings.

How Schools Can Help Keep Students Safe

Strict Security Protocol – ID’s, Metal Detectors, Etc.

Physically, schools can keep students safe by implementing and maintaining strict

security protocols. This could include requiring all staff to wear identification badges and visitors to provide identification, such as a driver’s license upon arriving and entering the school premises. In addition, visitors entering the building could be required to undergo a security check which could include utilizing metal detectors and searching through any bags brought in. Visitors should also be limited to only required individuals or scheduled meetings.

Trained Security

Further, trained security should be on site and available at all times. Trained security could include police officers or other trained individuals, who could be strategically placed throughout the building and patrolling the building throughout the school day. Another aspect of the security should be maintaining all doors closed and locked throughout the school day. This would eliminate the opportunity for individuals who are not employees to enter/exit the building. Additionally, having safety plans as well as safety drills are important.

Up-To-Date Safety Protocol

Although we make efforts to prevent risks, it is important to have a plan in place should a safety-threatening situation occur, all stakeholders are clear and well-aware of protocols. Practicing safety drills is extremely important so that staff and students know exactly what to do and where to go should a safety incident occur. Practicing and knowing this information will help to keep stakeholders as safe as possible in the event of a violent occurrence. These plans/drills should be consistently revisited and revised as needed.

Mental Health Movement

Another area to consider would be training all personnel on social-emotional/mental health. This may assist in identifying and mitigating violent occurrences. Suppose staff are more trained and equipped in identifying potential areas of concern in potential students and staff. In that case, it is more likely to be mitigated prior to becoming an incident and providing the resources and skills the individual needs in order to prevent them resulting in unsafe situations.

Physically, students, staff, and all stakeholders need to feel safe. Without feeling safe physically, mentally, and social-emotionally, it becomes difficult to focus on academics and student growth/achievement.

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, when students are physically safe, they can then begin to move up the hierarchy to “love and belonging”, where they can then begin to work on relationships. Social-emotionally, individuals need to be able to form and maintain healthy, positive relationships with peers and adults. Once these areas are positive, students’ academic growth independence can be fostered. Thus, in turn leading to increased learning, success, and less behavioral concerns.

An additional area to consider in regards to school safety is the community and stakeholders. Educating community members on identifying/reporting concerns could assist in preventing violent situations. If community members are aware of potential signs for concern, it is more likely that it could be reported and help prevent the unsafe situation from occurring. Providing stakeholders with mental health resources and positive outlets could also assist in preventing potentially violent situations. Addressing the social-emotional needs as well as mental health aspects are extremely significant. During the school day, students should be exposed to counselors or therapists and should be able to access them as needed. Doing so will assist in providing students with the resources and skills necessary to develop and foster a growth mindset, positive relationships, etc.

Another area to consider to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to school safety is implementing a school crisis team. This team could consist of several members including parents, community stakeholder, administrator, counselor, security, and teacher. Having this team should assist in assessing potential risks, developing a plan to mitigate them, liasioning with staff/students, and revisiting and revising as necessary.

It is also important to analyze school data which can include strengths and weaknesses of students/staff.

For instance, identify students with the most significant behavioral issues:

• Where are they occurring?
• When?
• Antecedent?

Examining this specific data could help mitigate some of those behaviors. For instance, student schedules could be rearranged to avoid conflicts, providing counselor sessions, etc. analyzing data can provide information necessary to create plans to improve behaviors/concerns. To add, data for academics could be reviewed as well; struggling students could be provided with mentors. This could help alleviate frustration, struggle, lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and more.

Overall, safety is a component made up of various facets, all of which are extremely crucial in student success. Each component of safety has a significant role linked to positive academic outcomes. Thus, it is important to identify concerns/risks, create plans to prevent potential hazards and continuously revisit plans and protocols. In our ever-changing world, school safety has become an increased area of concern and is of the utmost importance in ensuring continued future success for all students.

Are you interested in pursuing your education graduate degree? Check out our 190+ available masters, doctorates, endorsements, and certifications to advance your career today! 

The post Back to School: School Safety This Year appeared first on Graduate Programs for Educators.

The allegory above represents the simplest form of the situation educators have been facing since the spring of 2020. COVID-19 showed up to haunt us by negatively affecting individuals, families, and organizations around the world. With the upset that began eight months ago came the looming question that we are still searching to answer, “How can we safely educate children?”

How do we plan for school safety during the spread of COVID-19? 

We first must answer a two-part question:  What are the knowns and unknowns?

Let’s address the unknowns first. We don’t know answers to the following:

• When will we have a vaccine for the virus?
• Who will be asymptomatic yet contagious?
• Will the next infected person experience mild, severe, or life-threatening symptoms?
• Why does the virus infect some exposed individuals but not others?

Each unknown answer represents missing information that would otherwise be helpful in planning to safely educate students in schools. Regardless, we must use the information we know, which leads to the second part of the question. Following are the things we know and must use to create safety plans:

• The virus is contagious.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages the use of: face masks, social distancing, hand washing/sanitizing, disinfecting of surfaces, temperature checks, and quarantining (once an individual has tested positive for the virus).
• The definition of “exposure” is to be within six feet of an infected individual for 15 minutes or more.
• Some people are afraid of COVID-19 and some people are not.

How do we use what we know to create a school safety plan?

It’s always wise to consider the advice of professionals. With that being said, considering the advice of medical professionals and applying their suggestions is smart and will contribute to healthier, safer outcomes. For example, the CDC recommends social distancing; thus, a preventive action to include in a school safety plan is to re-write existing arrival and dismissal procedures to ensure the social distancing of students during the beginning and end of each school day.

Chances of exposure and the rate of transmission can be decreased when we consider both the infectious element of the virus and the definition of exposure. Exposure means being within six feet of an infected individual for at least 15 minutes; so, a way to use this fact to promote safety is to establish an accommodating environmental set-up that allows for at least six feet of separation between individuals.

Additionally, important parts of a school safety plan that should be addressed based on the known facts about COVID-19 include:

• Visitor policies and procedures
• Disinfectant procedures and schedules
• Scheduling of student transitions, arrivals, and dismissals
• Use of signs and other visuals to communicate
• Class sizes
• Furniture arrangement
• Safety supplies needed
• Communication with staff, parents, and students
• Assignments of extra duties such as temperature checks
• Student and staff dress codes – will they include masks?
• Instructional arrangement – virtual, hybrid, or face-to-face

How do you mitigate confusion and fears of community members?

Many times, fear comes from the unknown. If school safety plans are unknown to the community and families, people may be afraid. To mitigate fears, people need to be reassured that the school prioritizes their and their children’s well-being and has a plan for their health and safety, and people need to know specifics about what the plan includes. Family wellness efforts should also be implemented.

Suggestions on communicating safety plans with others include social media, school and district websites, newsletters, emails, articles in the local newspaper, phone calls from individuals at the school, safety brochures outlining the safety plan, and community meetings (which may have to be virtual).

How do you respond to and help staff who are uncomfortable returning to school?

Like community members, staff members can fear the unknown as well. Communication of facts decreases the unknowns and therefore mitigates fear, so share the facts. Clearly communicate the school safety plan with staff and share the reasons for the procedures and expectations in the plan.

Other ways to decrease the fears and discomfort of staff include:

• Assign them to a safety committee that reviews and revises the safety plan when necessary.
• Hold frequent conversations with them to allow staff to express their concerns, opinions, and emotions.
• Express empathy to fearful staff. Tell them you understand and share some of your thoughts and feelings as well.
• Remind staff that “we are in this together” and be available to them when they need to share or express their thoughts.
• Establish a period for staff to visit the school counselor and/or the school nurse for additional support. Encourage self-care outside of school.
• Show staff members schedules for disinfecting.
• Provide staff with personal protection supplies such as masks and hand sanitizer.

Fears and stress can impact health, and we already know the health issues that arise from COVID-19, so we must have a plan that decreases the impact of both.

I’ll conclude with the ending to the “Tale of the COVID-19 Monster” we discussed at the start of the article. “Years and years later, superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students looked back to reminisce on the time of terror and the beastly COVID-19. They talked about life’s changes that occurred and the eventual defeat of the beast. All involved in the conversation made it safely out of the grips of terror and were stronger because of their perseverance, planning, positive attitudes, and collective efforts.”

With proper planning based on the facts, precautions and preventive measures can be taken to help safely educate children and increase overall school safety in the COVID-19 era.

The post School Safety in the Time of COVID-19 appeared first on Graduate Programs for Educators.