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Safety - School Hazard Zone
I am concerned that schools are ill equipped to deal with all emergency situations and as a result the safety of students and staff are at risk.
A team of staff members at my school developed an emergency plan following the Columbine High School tragedy. The plan is to be used in the event of imminent danger such as a bomb threat, if the school is under attack, or if an armed perpetrator is in the interior or exterior of the building. It is a reactionary plan. It focuses solely on events that happen after an incident occurs within a specific radius of the school building.
If students commit the majority of school shootings, I believe a preventive plan should replace the existing reactionary arrangement for incoming “in and out-of-district” students. What we have in place at my school are traditional intake procedures for “in district” students coming from middle schools into the high school. Central Office has deemed the level of information sharing currently used for students moving from one “in district” school to the next as adequate. But these measures are inadequate when dealing with unsettled students who in a moments notice with certain stimuli could kill or maim unsuspecting students or staff members.
The traditional transfer procedure of middle school students to high school in most school districts require sharing basic information between schools. Staff members in charge of processing “in or out-of-district” incoming high school students, require proof of residency documentation, medical, attendance, and academic records as well as cumulative records of student standardized test scores. This is not enough in the twenty-first century when students are exposed to more and more stressful situations and therefore prone to threatening behavior as solutions to problems. Students who travel with updated academic and behavior records help school personnel develop a student profile before they physically enter a new school situation. A student profile provides academic background and an introduction to individual student personalities as well. “In district” student cumulative information helps to lower the risk of danger to school populations. It is also crucial to gather information from “out-of-district” incoming students.
One area that must be modified is the implementation of a more comprehensive plan for “out-of-district” incoming students. There lies a loophole in the plan! Student records should follow incoming “out-of-district” students to their new school in a timely fashion. This is not the case in many schools. The lax intake procedure associated with “out-of- district” students, subjects students and staff members to possible danger on a daily basis. It is unconscionable that schools do not sufficiently dealt with this problem yet.
Taking into consideration the number of school shootings across the United States in the past decade, it would make sense for a public schools to aggressively implement comprehensive safety procedures. Negligence should no longer be tolerated. Adequate historical background information should be required from “out-of-district” incoming students. In good conscience, I cannot continue to enter the school without calling attention to the potential dangers that lurk behind the walls.
The safety of children and staff members should always be the priority. Safety issues cannot be taken lightly. We live in a dangerous time. It is my intention to expose this breech in school safety and urge people to take action before something horrific happens again.
- Pam Joyce's blog
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An emergency plan = a definite need in Montreal's schools
I totally agree with you when you say that schools are ill-equipped to deal with shootings or other threats of that kind. I teach in Montreal and in downtown Montreal, there have been two major school shootings in the last years. One happened 19 years ago ( it is still very fresh in our minds here) in the Engineering department of the University of Montreal and the other one happened last year at Dawson college. In both cases, people didn't know what to do, where to go, if it was real or just a bad joke... and by the time the police officers arrived, the killers had made several victims.
I am a secondary school teacher in Montreal. My students are 12 and 13, they're kids, and I am pretty concerned of their safety especially with the last schooting we had here not too long ago. Some years ago, when the tragedy happened at Columbine, our school took some measures to prepare the staff in case of such emergency. Over the years, with the technological changes and staff changes bringing new ideas those measures have been improved and organised so that we had a great emergency plan. With last year's shooting and with the rise of violence between street gangs ( we have some active members of street gangs attending our school), a committee was formed to revise the plan and make it even safer.
At the moment, our plan includes diverse possible scenarios and guidelines to be followed depending on the emergency. A couple of times per year, staff members get to revise the procedures and codes included in the plan so that if something happens they will act according to the plan. For instance, if someone enters in the school with a weapon, there will be a message on the intercom that says that ' the principal must present himself at the cafeteria'. That is a pretty innocent message but to every staff member this message is a signal to use the procedures in the plan. Depending on your function in the school you have different tasks to do. Our emergency plan goes even further than school shooting. Since our school is located in an industrial part of Montreal where there are several refineries, pipelines, oil tanks,... we have emergencies procedures in case of 'terrorist' attacks, explosions, toxic vapors, fire, ... As I wrote in the lines above, those procedures are explained and revised a couple of times every year and every staff member has a copy of it in a binder that he must keep at hand.
That is what is being done at the moment with the staff. With the students, nothing much is being done beside the fire drills. Considering the age of our students, some believe that discussing these possible emergencies with them could lead some to panic, to develop anxiety, to misbehave,... But I don't agree. I think there are ways to approach the subject with them. That is why ever since the tragedy in Columbine every year in my classes I do a big project on school violence, bullying and school shooting. That project is according to me the perfect context to make them think and express themselves on their fears, questions, opinions,.. It is also the perfect context to see if they would know what to do in such case of emergency. What I really enjoy about that project is that there is so much going on in terms of school violence , school shootings, bullying and cyber bullying that there is always something in the news about it and the kids are always very eager to discuss what happened and how they would have reacted, how this could have been avoided,...
In brief, I think it is more than necessary to have an emergency plan in case of such tragic event, and I believe it is awfully important to not only prepare the staff to react, but also the students because everybody's safety is at stakes.
Response to Melanie
Hi Melanie,
Sabrina
SCHOOL SAFETY CONT.
An Ounce of Prevention
Hello Melanie, Sabrina, (name removed), and Benji,
Thank you for your insights. I agree with the idea of proceeding with caution especially within the school system. It seems as if when there is a crisis at a school often "school rule makers" go into full speed ahead and forget to ponder for a moment at the idea of SOURCE. For example, in the case of a school shooting, the first question that might come to mind is, what could have caused a middle school aged CHILD to shoot up a school?
"School rule makers" probably ponder this question for a moment but then quickly get along with the business of the quick fix. As we can see the quick fix DOES NOT WORK and we are repeatedly confronted with evidence that supports this. Maybe a better recourse would be to address the world of the child.
What kind of world are children growing up in today that causes them to act violently? An ounce of prevention, sustaining a healthy, peaceful, safe world for all children, could assist in transforming the world.
The world revolves full circle and envelops everyone. What are our children getting sucked into?
In shareworldthoughts.com, I attempt to make connections with how the atrocities of the world affect young people.
"harmonious thought-in process"
Pam