Thousands of people are affected by the lack of school safety in schools across the nation. Students everywhere are attending schools that are more dangerous than expected. This is a growing concern everywhere, and schools need to improve, or else they are prone to being unsafe. Whether it is building, drill, concussion, social, or technology safety, schools need to improve to lower the risk of an incident.
Project Citizen is an effort to improve our community one step at a time. Project Citizen requires a lot of research for specific sections of our main problem. These are called tasks. After all of the tasks are finished, everyone writes a paper summarizing the main problem. Then, everyone makes a presentation in groups. The keys to being successful in Project Citizen are to work hard, research well, work as a team, and most importantly, be organized. The steps to Project Citizen are: Identifying a problem in the school or community, research the problem, evaluate possible solutions, then develop public policy ideas and pick the best solution. The main goal of Project Citizen is to improve our school/community to make it a better place. This year, the hope is to make our school safer, and less prone to accidents happening.
In order to have a safe school, you need to know the terms to understand the importance. Safety means the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. Security is the state of being free from danger or threat. These two terms are synonyms along with well-being, protection, and freedom from danger. "Safety First" is "Safety Always." says Charles M. Hayes. This shows how safety needs to be present all of the time, because you never know when an incident can happen. School Saf...
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...ver your head, and make sure it is safe before getting up. If an intruder comes in, find your teacher, follow his/her directions, stay quiet and act quickly, lock all doors and windows, turn off the lights, hide in a closet,cabinet etc, DO NOT make any noise, and do not come out until told. Many intruders coming into school have been tragic to the school and community. Some of these events include the Columbine school shooting, when a bomb was set in the school cafeteria that went off and shocked the community. After, there was the Pine Middle School shooting, where a student shot and injured two other students. These shootings are very scary, and we need to make sure it never happens to us. All of the teachers and staff know the drill procedures, but we need to make everyone in the school know it. All in all, drills are very important to know and be able to perform.
Unlike most of the country, I knew about Columbine High School on April 19, 1999. I knew that the Columbine Rebels had a good football team, I remembered how they beat Cherry Creek for the 1999 football championship. I knew what Columbine's building was like from when I was inside it in January for a debate tournament. I had friends that went to CHS. We had gone on a trip to Hawaii together to learn about biology. The rest of the country found out about Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. They didn't hear about their football team, the debate tournament they hosted, or my friends, though; they heard about two angry students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, that went on a killing rampage killing 12 other students, a teacher, and themselves. The nation, the media, the killers, my friends, and me all have their own view of what happened that day. Many people tried to understand how something so terrible could happen, while the killers thought that the killings were a wonderful thing, and still other students were trying to comprehend that this tragedy had actually happened so close to home.
How are teachers expected to accomplish this in the event of a shooting? There are safety codes and drills practiced such as code red, code blue, and evacuation drills that can help keep students safe. In the event of a code red, students are to gather in the corner of the room farthest from the door; teachers turn off the lights and lock the door. Some teachers do what they can and barricade the classroom door with desks or filing cabinets. but hiding in a dark room isn't enough.
School safety plans have had an increase in focus over the past decade due to the increase of televised coverage in mass school shootings. School officials relied upon the moral rationales that support aggressive street policing as they struggled to” reach the students” and make sense of the new disciplinary policies while maintaining their identities as educators (Garret, 2001). In reacting fashion, schools placed an emphasis on gun safety. As originally enacted on March 31, 1994 the Gun-Safe Schools Act (GFSA) required each state receiving Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds to have in effect a state law require local educational agencies LEAs to expel from school for a period of not less than one year a student who was determined to have brought a weapon to school (Thomas, 2006). The focus of trying to keep guns out of schools had administrators putting plans in place with little information as to what works for schools. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Educatiohttp://ed.grammarly.com/editor/content?page.paperReportKey=#n (2003) informed educators that they needed to add the possibility of terrorist attacks to the safety plans of schools knowing that this would stretch the ability of schools to meet the needs of the students and community. Reactions to school sho...
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.
Furthermore, educational institutions are suppose to emphasize learning and teaching- it is children grow and learn more about the world each day. However today's educational institutions mostly rely on punishment, violence, and misbehavior. Guided by the mass increase of school shooting and reports of increase in school violence, schools around the world have recently adopted revolutionary solution and prevention methods.
Schools were once traditionally viewed as a safe place for children, teenagers, and adults. The educational setting coupled with community involvement gave no reason for violence to occur in schools. As years progressed, the occurrence of violence in school shocked communities across the nation, calling for state lawmakers and school districts to produce a solution to prevent these acts from occurring. Events such as the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado urged schools throughout the U.S. to increase their security measures with more stringent policies and procedures while spending millions of dollars on security equipment from security cameras to metal detectors. While schools increase their safety measures to prevent another major incident from occurring, such as a suspect with a firearm (active shooter) from entering school property, some of the security measures have not been effective. An example is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooter was able to bypass a locked door which is one of the security measures the school had in place, making personnel visiting the school required to request entrance into the building (Barron).
Schools have been creating new rules and procedures to help secure school campuses which is helping the parents of children attending public school feel reassured about their child's safety. The recent school shooting in Parkland Florida caused a lot of new safety precautions around the school, there are, “ fewer entrances, with law enforcement posted at each point; identification badges that students and teachers are required to wear at all times; and clear, plastic backpacks the only bookbags allowed on campus.” These new rules that the school were coming up with were something that was necessary. The school officials had to take charge and show the parents of students that the children were going to be safe and well taken care of. The principal of the school in Parkland Florida, Ty Thompson, compared the new safety system, “entering in a sporting event, or even Disney World.” If this safety precaution is used at other places why is school any different, the precautions are designed to help ensure the safety of the attendees as well as the people who work there. Most parents might say that these new rules are helping the kids feel more safe being at school, and that the rules are giving them reinsurance on their child's
Talley, R. C., Walz, G. R., National Education Goals Panel, W. C., ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services, G. C., & National Alliance of Pupil Services, O. n. (1996). Safe Schools, Safe Students. Proceedings of the National Education Goals Panel/National Alliance of Pupil Services Organizations Conference on "Safe Schools, Safe Students: A Collaborative Approach to Achieving Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-free Schools Conducive to Learning" (Washington, D.C., October 28-29, 1994).
Which can be having armed officers walk though halls, making sure the school is safe from any harm that could potentially happen.
In this day and age where school administrators consider backpacks, lockers, and baggy pants to be potential dangers to students and faculty, what will be next? Perhaps pencils, pens, scissors, and glue will be added to the list of items to ban from schools. These, along with other hazardous educational necessities pose real threats to maintaining an orderly school and should be prohibited.
Active shooter drills are available, and provided by college campuses. All teachers are properly trained to protect the classroom from an active shooter. The proper procedures taught to teachers are to lock the doors, turn off the lights, and cover any windows. The students are instructed to hide behind desks, and stay quiet until police or other officials show up. Active shooter drills are constantly improving.
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.
Children should be ensured of a safe learning environment as school is the place where they spend most of their day. Well disciplined schools emphasize on the importance of learning and intolerance of conditions which ...
These days, school safety is one of the most important parts of running a good school. So how can we make our school, safer and a better school overall?