Executive summary Schools are under scrutiny and pressure to provide safe spaces for children to develop and learn. While this should include all aspects of a child’s well being, national coverage of school shootings has tipped the scales towards preventing mass violence in schools, often times sacrificing the indoor environmental quality of the classroom space. Kids face a real threat of bullying, asthma, absenteeism, obesity, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when they head to school each day rather than the infinitesimal chance that they would be involved in an event of mass school violence, like a school shooting. This project would reference existing strategies, case studies and ideas from a variety of sources and practitioners and synergize them to create a reference tool that addresses safety, well-being, and high indoor environmental qualities together rather than as isolated goals. This guideline will serve as a decision making tool for administrators, architects, teachers, police and policy makers in order to make informed decisions about student health and safety that considers the everyday exposures as well as the rare occurrences of mass violence. The initial framework for this guideline was created as part of a Masters Synthesis project and will be redeveloped for wider integration and use. Objectives and significance School administrators and teachers today have to balance the priorities of the students in their classrooms. Schools are concerned with student performance in order to meet national guidelines and the well being of students to allow for the appropriate development during their childhood years. Added into this balance is the concern of mass school violence. Because recent school sh... ... middle of paper ... ...pick and choose what may or may not apply to their facilities and operations. This guideline also offers the possibility of looking forward and into districts’ operational guidelines to find where certain strategies can be implemented as part of their standards. The priority of this project is help decision makers in school systems make more informed decisions regarding health and safety by pushing them to consider the whole child on both an everyday and worst case scenario scale. The large body of knowledge that will be available for use by school systems around the nation mitigates the possible obstacles faced by the research team. By ensuring students have a healthy, high performing school classroom each day, their school experience will be more positive in their health, behavior, and well being without creating a sense of fear around active violence prevention.
In conclusion, School Violence is a widespread issue that must be addressed. School shootings and bullying are some of the biggest issues in today’s school system. Many times the seed of the issue begins with bullying and ends with consequences like suicide and school shootings. They affect people as early as elementary school all the way to the college level, some even ending with death. Only together can we stop school violence if we take a stand and change the world.
Schwartz, W. (1996, October). An overview of strategies to reduce school violence. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. Retrieved October 21, 2001.
Its hard to believe that there isn’t enough money out there to increase school safety, but there is enough money that the government is able to cut down on taxes. Tax payers pay for campaigns, but why doesn’t our taxes go off to help make schools safer for our children? Students should not be afraid to attend school. School should be a safe environment where teenagers can be teenagers and not feel intimidated. CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, is a school-based survey designed to produce a sample of risk behaviors of students ages 9-12.
Cho poked his head in the room a couple of times and looked around before exiting and entering a different room. The first shots were heard across the hall, in the hydrology class. It sounded like a nail gun or hammer hitting concrete blocks.
Schools around the world have recently adopted revolutionary solution and prevention methods. The controversy over school violence prevention is not "yes we should or, "no we shouldn't", because you will probably be hard pressed to find someone who thinks we shouldn't get involved. The debate lies in the method we use to prevent and solve school violence. The zero tolerance policy is one suggestion to implement punishment in schools.
Every seven minutes a child is bullied. On average, 68 percent of students say that “other kids pick on them, make fun of them or bully them” (“Statistics”). This causes students to turn to violence. bullied or made fun of which cause them to become violent. How much longer are schools going to sit back and do nothing about bullies? Without punishing bullies, students’ will continue to harm themselves to massive extents. Schools are not doing enough to stop or prevent bullying, as demonstrated by the creation of the group Stand for the Silent.
It is necessary for the schools in the United States to take more action in order to keep the students safe during the day. It is obvious that schools are not safe, forcing everyone to take a part in stopping the violent behavior which takes place in schools on a daily basis. There are many warning signs and ways to prevent this violence from taking place, it is just a matter of using money more wisely and creating more programs for preventing violence before it erupts in schools. There is no excuse for students to feel unsafe in an environment which the government forces them to be in. It is necessary that more action take place and that more training take place in order for schools to be safer, and in the event where violence does occur, the staff of the school is equipped to stop it before it gets out of hand. There is no time like now to keep the children and our schools safe from predators and especially from school violence.
be affected by school violence due to two reasons. First, middle school students are in an
Schools are supposed to be a safe environment where students can receive a proper education. Our modern American school system is failing in keeping our students safe. The way our society has changed can be seen in our schools and students. Issues that have been found in our students and schools have been brought to light in the past few years. It has forced the public to have a conversation about what is happening to our kids and in our schools.
In recent years, tragedies have been visited upon schools across the country. From Kentucky to Oregon to Colorado, the notion of schools as safe havens has been shattered by the sound of gunfire. These acts are not limited to any geographic regions or family backgrounds, nor do they have a single catalyst. Those who have committed such heinous acts have done so for different reasons, at different times, in different schools. But these acts of school violence have at least one thing in common- they have spurred all of us to take a look at what can be done to better protect children and teachers at school. Protecting our children is not simply a matter of public policy. It is a matter of strengthening basic values, of teaching children right from wrong, of instilling in them respect for others. We each have a responsibility to work to end youth violence and to keep schools safe for children and for those who teach them. Youth violence in many schools has reached universal proportions. It is not only happening in our high schools, it has also made its way into our elementary and middle schools. Everyone seems to have a different perspective on why there is such a problem with school safety. Some say it is the parents’ fault, some say it is the media, and others blame the schools. Yet, the question still remains. What can be done to make schools safer for the children and staff? One thing we need to do is learn to listen to our children and observe their behavior. According ...
The issue of school safety has become a controversial topic in the United States, due to tragic acts of violence occurring on a daily basis. American citizens should never have to cope with the negative impact of school violence, no matter how often they hear about the tragedies (Jones, "Parents" 1). In the past, schools were viewed as a safe place for children to get an education. Recently, the concern over violence in schools has taken a toll on many parents, school administrators, and legislatures (Eckland 1). Studies have shown that there are over 3 million acts of violence in American public schools each year. Not all occurrences are serious and deadly, but they occur on a daily basis throughout our country (Jones, “School” 6). This has caused many parents to worry about the well-being of their children while they are in class. This has also led to an increase in questions and concerns by parents and guardians. Many people have asked, “What are you doing about safety and security on my child’s campus” (Schimke 2). School violence is the cause of elevated worry and fear for their children, and school districts should enforce better security.
Violence in American schools has triggered debates on the root cause of student’s anger and aggressive behavior and proposed proactive solutions.
Shootings and physical violence are only part of the problem in schools. More than twenty percent of students have encountered bullying whi...
Violence in schools has spread widely throughout the nation. This has caused many problems among students, families, faculty of schools, and residents of the area. However, there are many possible ways we can stop all this violence in schools. Almost three-fourths of the United States teens are afraid of violent crime amongst their peers (Apfel 23). Violence in schools has become a big problem in today's society.
On the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a day does not go by without talking of the violence coming into schools from the streets. Patrick O'Donnell, a reporter for the Plain Dealer wrote a story on a high school in Strongsville where the school virtually shut down classes due to Internet threats of violence made on the school by an 18-year-old boy. Though the student is charged with misdemeanor counts of aggravated menacing and inducing panic among the students, how can we as abiding citizens of society reduce and even eliminate such violence in schools? Furthermore, last week, seven students were suspended at South High School in Cleveland and one of them was arrested after a sophomore threw a chair that knocked out an assistant principal because of a brawl between students. (Reed, 2005) School is meant to be a safe haven for children, a place where you come to learn and not to plan-out who your next victim will be.