You are here: Home / Archives for School

Demanding Safety in Schools

classroom 2nd fl 

Image by cayoup via Flickr

It’s an assumption of protection: schools are thought to offer safety, to provide a haven for students. Too often does that haven prove to be weak, however. Children are teased mercilessly; violence occurs; and parents think themselves powerless to correct it.

This pattern is a tragic one — and it must be stopped.

Safety precautions must be formed. Accomplishing this requires action, however:

Determine Policies

Knowledge is far more than a series of words and percentages. It’s instead an understanding of the elements that shape a school. Parents must demand access to the policies of their educational systems: learning what protocols have been put in place and what issues must subsequently be addressed. This is essential in devising a safety plan; all strengths and weaknesses must first be known.

Demand Statistics

Too often do parents think themselves unheard: their concerns ignored, their worries unheeded. School representatives offer bland assurances and little else, which sparks a need for change. Statistics must then be demanded. Individuals must seek out information regarding violence reports, accidents and more. This is the only way to verify whether safety has been earned.

Discuss Involvement

Education doesn’t rely on singular sources. It instead requires a vast collection of instructors, books and presentations. Safety is the same — needing involvement from all parents to be achieved. It’s imperative therefore that individuals discuss what can be accomplished: noting programs that need chaperones, after-school classes and more. A parental influence will have an immediate effect.

Safety is the right of all students. It must be fought for, though; and all parents must become part of the solution, rather than avoiding the problem.

Filed Under: First Aid, School Tagged With: , ,

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.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: , ,

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.

Filed Under: Education, First Aid Tagged With: , ,

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.

Filed Under: Education, School Tagged With: , ,