Students, Parents and Teachers Are Entitled To Expect Schools To Be Safe The growth of violence in our nation, state and community concerns all of us. And it has had an impact on our schools. Every day, many young people are confronted with fighting and other intimidating behavior either at school or on the way to or from school. In many cases, school violence and bullying has a long-lasting effect on our children, our society and our community. It disrupts education, and reduces our children's sense of security in the place they must, by law, attend: school. Providing safe, non-threatening, non-violent schools is one of our most important responsibilities. Students should feel safe in school. They must be challenged to learn, rather than challenged to survive. Parents play an important role in improving safety at school. Parents want to be confident that their children will be safe. There is no substitute for involvement. Go to your child's school. Ask questions. Get answers. The school should be just as interested in safety as you are. Stay involved in the activities of your child's school. In order to maintain safe schools, information sharing is critical. It is essential that every school and agency which works with young people, including schools, police agencies, the court system, youth probation offices, and child protective services, work together. To be effective in identifying early signs that a youth is troubled and needs help, this partnership must rely on effective information sharing among all of the agencies responsible for delivering services to young people. Teachers frequently see the first warning signs of trouble, or they have critical information about youths involved in juvenile court. By sharing that important information with justice and other youth-serving agencies, effective strategies can be developed to keep those young people from a life of crime and trouble and, at the same time, do a better job of maintaining safer schools. Likewise, when the juvenile justice system is about to send a juvenile offender back into the regular school system, justice officials should inform all of the educators of the timing and circumstances of the juvenile's return to school. Communication and involvement. It seems simple. After all, the safety and security of our children and their schools is a top priority. |
