Ten Rules for School Safety – In and Outside the Classroom

by Malik Russell

Everyone hears the continual horror stories of violence at schools – shootings, stabbings, gang violence as well as theft and attacks on teachers. We’ve all heard the highly publicized horror of a student attacking a teacher or young girls caught on YouTube video. Outside of a quick course in Brazilian Jujitsu and body armor, how do we keep ourselves and our students safe?

According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) young people are nearly 50 times more likely to be murdered away from school than in school and overall crime rates have pretty much stabilized during the past few years.

In fact, “the rates for other serious violent victimizations were lower at school than away from school for every survey year from 1992 through 2005. Serious violent victimizations include rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault.”

According to the report Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007 schools and communities are adding security guards and increasing use of security cameras as well as bolstering the visible presence of staff and adult supervision in hallways.

In 2005 around 90 percent of students had school staff supervising hallways while 68 percent were monitored by security guards or police officers. These measures have produced positive results as “fewer students are avoiding places in school because of fear for their safety. Between 1995 and 2005 the percentage of students who reported avoiding one or more places in school declined from 9 percent to 4 percent,” indicated the report.

Still crime persists in schools, and the failure to recognize or address the potential warning signs can result in tense and violent environments for students and teachers.

Many school systems are taking clear steps to address such issues as weapons, gang violence and threatening student behavior. In Denver a state-funded center to prevent violence in schools is initiating a pilot program in three school districts. The School Safety Resource Center will work with educators in developing strategies to prevent violence on and off school grounds. The Center will also create safety and communication plans to address incidents before they begin or afterwards to maintain safe environments. It will also work with a program at the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Safe2Tell, a 24-hour agency that lets students report any concerns.

Other school districts may be investing in more technological solutions to address school violence by reviewing or implementing safety assessment tools such as those provided by groups such as CDW Government, which has an online questionnaire that helps officials, parents and policy makers assess school safety.

However, school safety is not something that can be addressed through measures outside the classroom. Teachers as always will play a key role in creating safer schools. And there are steps teachers can take to create safer environments and be in position to respond to unrest.
In an Education World article, author Linda Staff identifies 13 steps teachers can take at the beginning of the year to manage classrooms in a way that promotes order.

1. Develop written expectations you can live with and enforce.
2. Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent.
3. Be patient with yourself and with your students.
4. Make parents your allies. Call early and often. Use the word “concerned.”
5. When communicating a concern, be specific and descriptive.
6. Don’t talk too much. Use the first 15 minutes of class for lectures or presentations, then get the kids working.
7. Break the class period into two or three different activities. Be sure each activity segues smoothly into the next.
8. Begin at the very beginning of each class period and end at the very end.
9. Don’t roll call. Take the roll with your seating chart while students are working.
10. Keep all students actively involved. For example, while a student does a presentation, involve the other students in evaluating it.
11. Discipline individual students quietly and privately. Never engage in a disciplinary conversation across the room.
12. Keep your sense of perspective and your sense of humor.
13. Know when to ask for help.

Starr also advocates direct eye contact, silent signals, moving around the room closer to more restless students, positive reinforcement as well as calming techniques that allow you to greet students as the enter the classroom and sense how they are feeling on that day.

Aside from Starr’s recommendations, teachers are always urged to use their experience and judgment and learn to address behavior in ways that reduce confrontation when possible.

On a personal level, one wise teacher with more than 20 years as a teacher in a major city once told me, always give the kids some room or a way to get out of their situation with some dignity, and they’ll do the same for you.