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Developing a student safety checklist

It is important to understand the risks that students might be exposed to while studying at school campuses. School safety is not just the onus of teachers, and parents. It is the priority of all people. School safety is a very frightening word. A school is most often than not seen as a harmless place. But words like school safety and student risk management give it other connotations.

If you are a parent who would like to ensure maximum school safety for your child, then you have to take the following checklist with you the next time you go to meet your child’s teachers. You can also invite other parents to take part in this exercise. Or you can even sit down with your child and your child’s friends to make the checklist.Here’s how your checklist should go…

1) Ask the school, how they prioritize school safety. Is it the first position, second position or which position?

2) Does the school have processes for disaster management?

3) Does the school keep a track of all the unsafe incidents that have taken place at the school? Do they have analytic reports on the same?

4) Does the school have prevention and cure plan? Do they have measures to prevent a catastrophe as well as come out of it?

5) Check the school’s safety list. What do they place as unsafe? Do they factor-in all the possibilities of danger or is it not a comprehensive safety list?

6) Do they have special point of contact or an office for emergencies? Does the school have specialized and trained personnel to deal with emergency situations?

7) Does the school provide counseling help for violent students?

8) Have they any certification to ascertain themselves as a safe education provider?

These are some of the checklist items that parents can have at PTO meetings. Some of these might help schools to understand what they are lacking in.

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School Inequality, How it Happens and How to Prevent It

Phenomena such as gentrification and white flight have made it difficult for some schools to offer their students educations that properly prepare them for college or careers. The negative effects of gentrification and white flight, however, can often be countered with reliable property management.

How Gentrification Affects Schools

Gentrification often occurs when professionals move into a poor area of town. These individuals and young families are attracted to low housing prices in poorer areas. Over time, though, they begin to make more money in their careers. Instead of leaving the neighborhood, the professionals spend money fixing up their homes and attracting new stores.

This sounds like a good thing for the neighborhood, but it can have some negative consequences. Gentrification often occurs on select streets or sides of a neighborhood. Over time, the neighborhood becomes divided in half. School systems suffer when this happens because the wealthier side of the neighborhood pays more property tax that support good schools. This takes away resources from the poorer side, thus making the schools less effective for students and the area’s educational system as a whole.

How White Flight Affects Schools

White flight has a more direct negative effect on schools. White flight is a phenomenon that involves affluent white families moving to suburbs. This often leaves behind empty houses that soon turn into slums. As the area becomes more depressed by poor housing standards and low property taxes, the schools start to suffer. Since they cannot afford to hire the best teachers or purchase equipment for classes, the schools cannot provide good educational opportunities to their students.

Preventing Inequalities with Planned Property Management

Property is at the heart of these problems. A reliable Mesa property management company can help ensure that buildings and properties remain in good condition. This prevents the area from slipping into a localized depression that negatively affects schools. Charter schools and larger variety within school programs are other options used by some systems.

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What to do when a gun-wielding student goes berserk

It is one of the most unfortunate incidents that can happen in schools. It’s such a scary feeling to be in the middle of a shootout at school. It helps to have some information on how to react in such situations.

1 When in suspicion, be alert

When you are suspicious about a student’s movements, you have to stay alert. Take the help of some seniors and ask them to intervene without mentioning your name. By doing this a possible danger could be averted. If a student is bringing explosive materials or sharp objects to school, then this is an indication of a possible danger. If a student is practicing shooting at other students, even this could be reported. Such behavior is not appropriate in a school environment.

2 Schools might have procedures for this. Ask your teachers.

Schools will definitely have procedures for disaster management and emergencies. Ask your teachers to produce such documents. You can take note of what to do in case a school shootout happens. There could be some rooms where you might take refuge along with others. There could be secret exits, or even emergency exits that allow students to free themselves from the school premises as quickly as possible.

3 Always be alert

When you hear commotion in the distance, don’t be sitting down. Get up and see what it is. If you see the gun-wielding assassin in the distance, try to run away from the person. Do not try to become a hero by confronting this person unless you can trap this person without any harm to yourself or others. If you find a safe exit, let others know of this as well.

4 Don’t be in groups

Don’t be in groups. The more you spread out, the more your chances of getting saved from the bullets. Groups will create more target-space for the shooter. Try to avoid this as far as possible.

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How to prevent violence in students

So many massacres in schools have left teachers and parents dumbfounded. Schools previously considered a safe haven for children is now becoming a dangerous place. Parents, teachers and people in general are wondering on the solutions to the problems of student violence. How can student violence be prevented?

Adolescents commit a lot of murders. Most of it due to lack of understand of circumstances following such a drastic action, and off course raging hormones. In the United States alone, every year close to four thousand murders are being done by students studying in schools.

Murders in school are mostly done by students who have been cast away as failures in school. They are such students who would have been humiliated at school. Unable to withstand the humiliation of being an outcast at school they vent out their angst and anger by turning to violence.

So what to do to prevent such acts? Prevention is better than cure. Preventing such incidents will require early recognition of violence in students. If a student with such violent symptoms is found, steps can be taken to dissolve such acts through rehabilitation.

There are other harsh prevention methods like sending the student to prison or putting the student through community service punishments. Incarceration will subdue the student’s violent behavior. As the student turns sober in an incarcerated atmosphere, wisdom will also prevail.

The only way to change a violent student completely would be to change the way this student thinks and acts. A great deal of change can be induced if the atmosphere of this student is made as peaceful as possible. Stimulants to violence can be done away with. By doing this the student will slowly start looking inwards rather than outwards. This is the only path to real self-change.

Schools should have specific educational programs that concentrate on things like behavior, personality amongst other things. No threat should be taken lightly. Violent students can be the most merciless.

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A Teacher’s Gift: Motivating Students

Students are always eager to learn. Since most of them are at an age when they are naturally curious about learning, it becomes easier for teachers to motivate them. Teachers have a greater role than teaching students. They should also motivate the students to do things that they are good at. A teacher is like a parent to students at school, in that they are responsible for instilling values in students.

There is no formulaic approach to motivating or inspiring students. IF there was one, then most students would have been motivated to pursue their dreams. There are plenty of things that influence a student’s ability to assimilate and learn. Even motivation is induced by a variety of factors. These factors may be internal, external or both. Motivation in students is nothing but the desire to excel in academics, or extra-curricular activities. It is also the burning desire to achieve excellence at a young age. Motivation is also the inclination to know more about the subject and devote more time to learning a subject. Motivated students show remarkable qualities of self-confidence, self-esteem, patience.

So what can teachers do to motivate students?

1 Give positive feedback about a student’s ability

By giving positive feedback about a student’s ability to the student, motivation can be seeded in this student. The student will be convinced about this unique ability and go all the way to pursue excellence in it.

2 Always make the students succeed

Inculcate a step-by-step approach to educating students. Don’t give assignments that are very easy to do or extremely difficult. Make the student feel successful after a completed assignment, and deservedly so.

3 Make things relevant to the student

When studying something, the student might not find personal relevance to the subject. The teacher can try to map aspects of this subject to how it may affect the student’s present or future life. This will enable the student to find purpose in any activity.

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How Storm Watching Can Help Children

Watching a storm, under proper guidance, can be a unique experience for children and adults. While it helps them learn about the natural disaster, it also enables them to overcome the fear they may feel during one.

Could Formation on a Spring Day

In storm-prone areas, watch as large white clouds form in the sky. If these clouds continue to rise high, and appear as though piling on top of one another, it is an indication of a storm. When warm air rises rapidly on a warm summer day, it forms moisture in the air. This results in the formation of such cumulonimbus clouds.

As you observe the clouds, you will notice that none of them remain the same. They keep changing shape.

What are Cumulonimbus Clouds?

Cumulonimbus clouds are large white clouds that look like cauliflowers. They are fluffy and light to look at. Cumulonimbus Calvus clouds moving upward form the Pileus cloud on top. When the clouds move rapidly and catch up with this Pileus cloud, it is an indication of a storm.

Indications of Lightning and Thunder

When negative and positive charges in clouds get developed, lightning is the result. The positive charge in ice crystals inside the clouds makes them rise upward, whereas the negative charge in water droplets inside the clouds makes them sink inward. The working of the opposite charges causes lightning to strike through the cloud and towards the ground. Thunder is caused when the air surrounding the lightning bolt heats up, expands and then rapidly contracts. The time between the lightning and thunder can help calculate how far away the storm is.

Safety during Storms

A storm should always be observed from a safe place inside, not under a tree. Observing cloud formation is helpful in detecting a storm. Noting down information and taking pictures can be useful.

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The Increase of Teacher Abuse

Teachers face numerous threats from students in the form of constant classroom interruption, physical violence, verbal abuse etc. Apart from school teachers, young workers and school staff are also affected.

Survey Taken in Ontario Secondary School

According to a survey published in the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation, almost thirty eight percent of the teachers were victims of violence. The teachers belonging to rural areas are more affected than the one ones from urban region.

From the survey taken, it was found out that 82% of teachers faced interruptions in classroom and violent behavior from students. Some of them were physically assaulted and the personal belongings of few were stolen.

Bullying on the Internet

There are teachers who become victims of cyber bullying. Criticisms are made on the physical appearance of the teachers. Threats in the form of physical harm are also posted on the internet, which ultimately forces teachers to quit their jobs.

YouTube Videos

YouTube videos on a Maryland teacher being attacked were posted on the internet. The teacher was attacked because she asked a female student to sit down and behave properly. Such brutal attacks happened many a times in the school where she was working, but no action was taken. Thus, teachers do not how to handle such a situation.

Issues Faced by Teachers

During 2—6, BBC published a report 4 out of 10 teachers in Britain were either verbally or physically harmed by the students ‘parents.

Even in China, teachers face the brutal behavior of violent students.

Conclusion

Students cause verbal as well physical harm not only to other students but also to teachers. This is becoming a major issue and it’s difficult to find a solution for this.

Teachers, school management, parents and politicians need to work together and find a solution for stopping students’ violent behavior.  It’s imperative for parents to teach their children how to respect others.

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