Annual Report on School Safety--October 1998

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

What Schools Can Do

1. Provide strong administrative support for assessing and enhancing school safety.

A comprehensive approach to school safety and security requires that school administrators and principals meet several challenges simultaneously. These challenges include:

• Assessing the school's security needs.

• Monitoring the school facility to ensure it is a clean, safe environment.

• Implementing policies that support and reward pro-social behavior.

• Implementing schoolwide education and training on safety and avoiding violence.

• Providing counseling and social services to students.

The direct involvement of top school leadership commits the necessary resources (including staff and classroom time) and supports the policies and strategy recommendations of work groups concerned with school safety issues. School leadership also ensures that principals receive training on the development and implementation of policies and strategies.

2. Redesign the school facility to eliminate dark, secluded, and unsupervised spaces.

A school's physical plant influences whether crime will occur. Schools can be designed to limit access of unauthorized persons, increase the ability of school staff to visually supervise all areas of the school facility, and reduce crowding. Schools should be built with security in mind, but existing schools can make changes to their buildings to increase safety. Installing adequate lighting and break-proof door and window locks, minimizing private storage areas, and eliminating removable ceiling panels are important safety measures all schools can adopt. The key is to make the school environment safer and to use space constructively without creating a restrictive environment.

3. Devise a system for reporting and analyzing violent and noncriminal incidents.

Information cannot be effectively used if it is not regularly collected and examined. An incident reporting system provides a systematic approach to monitoring rule infractions and analyzing problem areas. Obtaining accurate records of violent incidents and injuries from year to year helps school officials identify overall trends in school violence. Tracking individual student behavior patterns over time is a good way to identify students in need of additional assistance before their problems become more serious.

For a school crime data collection model, refer to chapter 4, Resources, for Recommendations of the Crime, Violence, and Discipline Reporting Task Force of the National Forum on Education Statistics.

4. Design an effective discipline policy.

School rules must be clear and consistently enforced. Serious and repeated violent infractions carry heavier penalties than less serious or infrequent infractions. It is important that the school discipline policy be communicated periodically to students, parents, and staff. A common practice at many schools is for students and parents to sign a document at the beginning of the school year indicating that they know and agree to follow school rules. Discipline needs to be consistent for all students. Due process involves more than one staff member listening to all parties, gathering and interpreting evidence, assigning sanctions where appropriate, and ensuring access to an appeal process.

5. Build a partnership with local law enforcement.

Although a school may have its own security personnel, establishing a relationship with community law enforcement is essential. Both groups play important roles in making schools safe. School security personnel are familiar with the school facility, its security devices, and the student body. Police officers are trained to deal with violent incidents. Accurate reporting of criminal behaviors to the police sends a clear message that illegal acts will not be tolerated.

In many communities, police officers know the community and its residents. They often have information about community and family problems that is useful to school personnel. They promote school safety by interacting closely with students. Police officers can teach special courses on substance abuse, kidnap prevention, and gun safety. They often have access to or knowledge of community resources such as recreational facilities and organized athletic leagues.

If State and local laws allow, police can assist school administrators in identifying specific students who require additional supervision. In some schools, probation officers work inside the school building where they have better access to the students assigned to them by the courts.

6. Enlist school security professionals in designing and maintaining the school security system.

In some schools, obvious security measures are needed to ensure safety. School security measures include:

• Hiring security personnel.

• Installing security devices.

• Conducting random inspections.

• Providing students and staff with identification cards.

Security involves careful attention to training, searching for and closing any security gaps, improving communications, testing security devices and procedures, performing maintenance, and updating technology. Relying heavily on security devices like metal detectors without adequate staffing, training, and other strategies will have limited impact.

School staff and consultants can assist in preventing and reducing crime by:

• Conducting security assessments.

• Providing staff development programs.

• Developing crisis preparedness guidelines.

• Identifying security equipment needs (such as metal detectors and surveillance cameras).

• Designing enforcement and investigation techniques.

• Enhancing links with community officials.

• Providing safe activities for students.

7. Train school staff in all aspects of violence prevention.

Training staff in enforcing discipline, handling disruptive students, and treating students with respect decreases the likelihood that students will become violent in the school setting. Staff needs to be trained to serve as models of nonviolent communication for students and to set the standards for appropriate behavior and communication. Limiting the number of students assigned to each teacher increases the chances that training will have the desired results. Staff need to be familiar with all school rules and policies dealing with violent behavior, and they must know how to use the alarm system, when to refer students for counseling or discipline, and what to do in a crisis.

8. Provide all students access to school psychologists or counselors.

All young people have a variety of emotional needs that they bring to school. Some needs may be met in school through encounters with peers and school staff (teachers, psychologists, and counselors), while other needs require proper assessment and referral to community services. If these needs are handled effectively, students are less likely to engage in negative behavior.

9. Provide crisis response services.

Serious but rare events, such as shootings, bomb threats, hostage situations, and other crises require quick and pre-planned responses. A comprehensive plan for dealing with a crisis situation includes:

• A crisis response team with clearly delineated duties.

• A plan for evacuating the school.

• A plan for coordinating with and notifying police, elected officials, government agencies, and other proper authorities.

• A plan for notifying parents quickly.

• A media/communications strategy.

• Counselors available to deal with students in the aftermath of a traumatic event.

When resources are lacking in the local community, help is available from the State or Federal level. Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools, published by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, provides detailed information for schools on how to respond to a crisis. (See Chapter 4, Resources, for information on how to obtain a copy.)

10. Implement schoolwide education and training on avoiding and preventing violence.

Many schoolwide programs are effective in preventing and reducing violent behavior in schools. Schoolwide education efforts can focus on common myths about violence and misperceptions about normative behavior. Training might be offered on:

• How to avoid dangerous situations, places, and people.

• How to get help when in danger.

• How to notify authorities about weapons.

Skills training can be offered in social interaction, problem solving, coping, communication, resisting peer influence, understanding values, respect for individual differences, countering bias, anger management, conflict resolution, and peer mediation. Instruction and skills training can be effectively combined using interactive and engaging learning strategies.

11. Use alternate school settings for educating violent and weapon-carrying students.

Research tells us that a relatively small percentage of students account for most of the violent incidents at school. Providing special services to this group of adolescents is essential for increasing school safety. If a student continues to commit repeated acts of serious violence, the school administrators may be obligated to place this student in a separate educational setting to assure the safety of other students and staff. Separating violent and weapon-carrying students from the general student body sends the message that school administrators have acted appropriately to preserve school safety and allows the special needs of these students to be met more effectively. Alternative programs are preferred to suspension and expulsion alone because they avoid shifting violent students onto the streets with little supervision. Common features of effective alternative schools include strong administrators, dedicated and well-trained staff, needs-based assessments of each child, a low student-to-staff ratio, and counseling for students and their parents.

12. Create a climate of tolerance

Fostering and maintaining a safe learning environment means creating a climate of tolerance in which all students are comfortable and secure. Particularly in adolescence, youth have a strong need to be accepted by their peers. However, because of stereotypes, ignorance, and intolerance, certain individuals and groups tend to be alienated from their fellow students. A source of conflict in many schools is the perceived or real problem of bias and unfair treatment of students because of ethnicity, gender, race, social class, religion, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or some other factor-both by staff and peers. Schools can encourage students to be more accepting of diversity through school-wide awareness campaigns, policies which prevent harassment and discrimination, and offering support groups.

13. Provide appropriate educational services to all students.

A schoolwide culture that supports positive learning opportunities for all children and youth is critical. This entails assessing special needs among students who behave inappropriately, referring them to special educational and other services when appropriate, providing positive behavioral supports and interventions as needed, supporting the development of skills for future employment, and developing working relationships with parents, families, and communities.

14. Reach out to communities and businesses to improve the safety of students.

Youth need to be safe all the time, not just at home or at school. School personnel can take the initiative to work with businesses and other community partners to create safe places and safe corridors. Such places include businesses, religious centers, museums, police and fire station activity rooms, and hospital and library meeting rooms.

15. Actively involve students in making decisions about school policies and programs.

Students often know the strengths and weaknesses of school policies and programs as well as anyone, and they have unique insights to offer. When students participate in the decision-making process, they are more likely to support the decisions that are made. Students are an excellent resource for creative ideas, which can be collected from all students, student leaders, and students who are active in school safety programs.

16. Prepare an annual report on school crime and safety.

School staff, parents, students, and other members of the community want to know how safe their school is and what progress is being made on school safety. Schools can collect and tabulate incidents of crime and misbehavior, report the trends over time, compare school violence trends with similar trends in the local community, and outline how these trends have been used to alter policies and procedures. This report can also be used to introduce school safety programs and strategies to parents and to the broader community.

[What Communities Can Do]

[What Students Can Do]