Safe Schools/School Violence

Although most schools are safe, the violence that occurs in our neighborhoods and communities has found its way inside the schoolhouse door. However, if we understand what leads to violence and the types of support that research has shown are effective in preventing violence, we can make our schools safer. Also, the threat of violence within the school community setting is a reality that must be faced and included in emergency/crisis/disaster planning

Early Warning Signs and Resiliency Factor for School Violence

Violence is everyone’s business. The authors of “Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools,” a joint report by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice release in August 1998, emphasize that everyone has a personal responsibility for reducing the risk of violence. Community members who understand early warning signs will be better prepared to take action in a crisis.

Although everyone has a responsibility to be alert to early warning signs, there is a danger that these warning signs will be misinterpreted. Adult and fellow students must avoid inappropriately labeling or stigmatizing individual students who appear to fit a specific profile.

According to “Early Warning, Timely Response,” early responses include:

• Do no harm; first and foremost provide help
• Understand violence and aggression within a larger context
• Avoid stereotypes
• View warning signs against developmentally typical behavior
• Do not overreact to a single sign. Children typically exhibit multiple warning signs.

Early warning signs generally indicate a need for further analysis. No sign alone is sufficient to predict violence. Instead use early warning signs to identify and refer children who may need help. Mental health counselors can be helpful in determining appropriate intervention.

Early warning signs include:

• Social withdrawal
• Excessive feelings of isolation and being alone
• Excessive feeling of rejection
• Being a victim of violence
• Feelings of being picked on and persecuted
• Expression of violence in writings and drawings
• Uncontrolled anger
• Patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating, and bullying behaviors
• History of discipline problems
• History of violent and aggressive behavior
• Intolerance for differences and prejudicial attitudes
• Drug and alcohol use
• Affiliation with gangs
• Inappropriate access to, possession of, and use of firearms
• Serious threats of violence

Unlike early warning signs, imminent warning signs (usually observable to more than one staff member, as well as the child’s family, and usually presented as a series of behaviors or threats) indicate that the child is close to posing a threat to self or others.

These signs might include:

• Serious physical fighting with peers or family members
• Severe destruction of property
• Severe rage for seemingly minor reasons
• Detailed threats of lethal violence
• Possession and/or use of firearms and other weapons
• Other self-injurious behaviors or threats of suicide

When a child exhibits imminent warning signs, safety must always be the first consideration. Action must be taken immediately. Parents should be informed, and intervention by school authorities and possibly law enforcement officers is needed.

According to the America Psychological Association (in the fact sheet “Is Youth Violence Just Another Fact of Life?”), aggression is learned at an early age. Prevention programs that start early in childhood and continue throughout adolescence have the best chance of success. Such programs promote resiliency factor that protect children from becoming violent as well as making them less vulnerable to the effects of violence.

Resiliency factors include:

• Positive role models
• Development of self-esteem
• Supportive relationships with teachers and friends
• Sense of hope about the future
• Belief in oneself
• Strong social skills
• Good peer relationships
• A close, trusting bond with a maturing adult outside the family
• Great empathy and support from the mother or mother figure
• The ability to find refuge and a sense of self-esteem in hobbies and creative pursuits, useful work, and assigned chores.
• The sense that one is in control of one’s life and can cope with whatever happens.

Schools can prevent violence by fostering learning, safety, and socially appropriate behaviors. Effective prevention programs address multiple factors and recognize that safety issues interact with children’s social, emotional, and academic environment.

Effective prevention, intervention, and crisis-response strategies operate best in school communities that:

• Focus on academic achievement
• Involve families in meaningful ways
• Develop links to the community
• Emphasize positive relationships among student and staff
• Discuss safety issues openly
• Treat students with equal respect
• Create ways for students to share their concern
• Help children and adolescents feel safe expressing their feelings
• Have in place a system for referring students who are suspected of being abused or neglected
• Offer extended day programs for children and after-school activities for adolescents
• Promote good citizenship and character
• Identify problems and assess progress toward solutions
• Support students in making the transition to adult life and the workplace

 

Tips for Parents

Parents can help create safe schools. Here are some ideas that parents in other community have tried:

• Discuss the school’s discipline policy with your child. Show your support of the rules and help your child understand the reason for them.
• Involve your child in setting rules for appropriate behavior at home.
• Talk with your child about the violence he or she sees on television, in video games, and possibly in the neighborhood. Help your child understand the consequences of violence.
• Teach your child how to solve problems. Praise your child when he or she follows through.
• Help your child find ways to show anger that do not involve verbally or physically hurting others. When you get angry, use it as an opportunity to model these appropriate responses for your child and talk about it.
• Help your child understand the value of accepting individual differences.
• Note any disturbing behaviors in your child. For example, frequent angry outbursts, excessive fighting and bullying of other children, cruelty to animals, fire-setting, frequent behavior problems at school and in the neighborhood, lack of friends, and drug use can be signs of serious problems. Get help for your child. Talk with a trusted professional in your child’s school or in the community.
• Keep lines of communication open with your child even when it is tough. Encourage your child always to let you know where and with whom he or she will be. Get to know your child’s friends.
• Listen to your child if he or she shares concerns about friends who may be exhibiting troubling behaviors.
• Share this information with a trusted professional, such as the school psychologist, principal, or teacher.
• Be involved in your child’s school life by supporting and reviewing homework, talking with his or her teacher(s), and attending school functions such as parent conference, class programs, open houses, and PTA meetings.
• Work with your child’s school to make it more responsive to all students and to all families. Share your idea about how the school can encourage family involvement, welcome all families, and include them in meaningful ways in their children’s education.
• Encourage your school to offer before and after school programs.
• Volunteer to work with school-based groups concerned with violence prevention. If none exist, offer to form one.
• Find out if there is a violence prevention group in your community. Offer to participate in the group’s activities.
• Talk with the parents of your child’s friends. Discuss how you can form a team to ensure your children’s safety.
• Find out if your employer offers provisions for parents to participate in school activities.
• Remove firearms from your home, or ensure that they are locked, well secured, and stored separately from ammunition.
• Act as a role model. Settle your own conflicts peaceably and manage anger without violence.
• Discourage name calling and teasing.

 

Questions Parents Can Ask About Their Children’s Schools

• Are all students connected to others in their school community?
• Are our schools in good condition and do they have the resources they need?
• Do parents and family members have opportunities to get involved?
• Are academic and behavioral standards rigorous?
• Will there be a good teacher in every classroom?
• Are there enough quality after-school care programs?
• Are there opportunities for student to develop skills for the nonviolent resolution of conflict?

 

How Students Can Help

• Listen to your friends. If they share troubling feelings or thoughts, encourage them to get help from a trusted adult. If you are concerned, seek help for them. Share your concerns with your parents.
• Know your school’s code of conduct and model responsible behavior. Avoid being part of a crowd when fights breakout. Refrain from teasing, bullying, and intimidating peers.
• Take personal responsibility by reacting to anger without physical or verbally harming others.
• Seek help from parents or other trusted adults if you are experiencing intense feelings of anger, fear, anxiety, or depression.
• Organize an assembly and invite your school psychologist, school social worker, and counselor, and student panelists to share ideas about how to deal with violence, intimidation, and bullying.
• Work with your teachers and administrators to create a safe process for reporting threats, intimidation, weapon possession, drug selling, gang activity, graffiti, and vandalism.
• Invite a law enforcement officer to your school to conduct a safety audit and share safety tips.
• Volunteer to be a mentor for younger students.

 

Characteristics of Safe Schools and Effective Prevention Programs

Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University, Utah State Office of Education

1. Focus on known risk factors in:

A. Neighborhoods and communities

B. Schools

C. Homes and families

D. Individual children and youth and their associates

2. Assess each youth’s risk by assessing number of risk factors and time exposed to each risk factor.

3. Regularly document early warning signs, imminent warning signs, disturbed relations, oppositional behavior, target of abuse, etc.

4. Emphasize the development of “protective” factors, including:

A. Focus on academic achievement, especially reading

B. Bonding

C. Social/interpersonal skills

D. Clear standards

E. High expectations

F. Self management

5. Possess the attributes and characteristics of other “safe” schools including:

A. Focus on academic achievement

B. Meaningful family involvement

C. Community links

D. Positive relationships

E. Respect for students and staff

F. Open discussion

6. Provide universal or school-wide systems of support for all students including a common language that communicates values, expectations, ethics, and positive recognition programs.

7. Provide targeted classroom interventions for students more at risk or who have exhibited one or more of the “early warning signs.”

8. Provide intensive, individualized interventions for students most at risk or who have exhibited one or more of the “imminent warning signs.”

9. Promote positive relationships between staff and students by maintaining a ratio of positive to negative interaction in excess of four to one, supporting those who struggle to achieve high standards, and officering descriptive commendations for progress.

10. Emphasize generalized skill development (social and academic) by:

A. Making communication expectations clear

B. Providing rationales

C. Emphasizing fluent performance

D. Providing large numbers of response opportunities in many environments

11. Access evidence of coercive conditions and practices.

A. Escape behaviors (sluffing)

B. Avoidance behaviors (tardiness, absenteeism)

C. Aggressive or destructive behaviors (vandalism, garbage)

D. Somatic complaints (sickness, etc.)