Over the last 20 years, school safety has been an increasing concern for all the education stakeholders. There has been a steady increase in school shootings and other natural disasters that safety has become a primary concern for any parent who has a student in school. It seems like the more policies are passed to safeguard schools and ensure the safety of students and the staff, the more the number of shootings increases. The purpose of this essay is to take an in-depth look at current school policies that are implemented to ensure school safety.
School personnel continues to deal with the national concern over safety. The staff has to go through a flood of advice and statistics about violence and policy recommendations. There is a lot of research and responses where the staff and school leaders have been asked to assess their protective measures. This study looks at the reactions and goes into an in-depth analysis by asking the tough questions about school safety and the intervention programs in place. Results show that protective factors are rated higher than the prevalent risk factors. Currently, the top-rated risk factors were poverty, transiency, harassment, and bullying. In 1995, principals rated response to conflict, staff training, and suicide prevention as the most significant risk factors. Principals also rated improvement to the education curriculum as the highest priority, while now, school safety is the most top priority for principals (Sparague, Smith, & Stieber, 2008).
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Dramatic news events such as school shootings can drive specific issues on top of the media and governmental agendas. The study focuses on how school shootings affect policymakers in the aftermath of such an event. It also focuses on the media coverage and congressional response of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. The researchers found out that the agenda of the legislative converged on gun-control as the main issue. Still, the public, media, and politicians ultimately diverged on the understanding of what kind of problem the school shooting presented. The study concludes that the different institutional structures and media incentives, as well as congress, inhibit feedback between institutions and in their effort to define the problem. The main issues diverge, and the differences amplified by prominent politicians who go to the media to follow specific storylines and do not legislate the required responses (Lawrence & Birkland, 2003).
There are a lot of crises that may emerge in schools, such as school shootings. The main objective of this paper is inspecting the various crisis preparedness strategies employed by schools and addressing the challenges they face. The article looks at the assumptions policymakers make when planning and fleshing out a crisis management plan. The paper attempts to single out the best practices among the schools that have methods and crisis preparedness models while also maintaining a great learning environment. The increase in school shootings in recent years have prompted schools to develop procedures and policies that are meant to respond to violence and other crises. The schools have formed crisis management teams who function to produce contingencies and respond to emergencies. Statistical evidence and the literature review show that there is a problem, and a lot more work needs to be done to protect our schools from a school shooting and other serious crimes, which are even more prevalent than the school shootings (Kingshott & Mckenzie, 2008).
Role of Leadership in school safety
School safety is an important issue that should not be left to the school leaders alone. The ongoing safety concern means that a true leader will take the initiative to develop the best contingency and emergency response plans to make sure that the students are safe. This means that evaluating things that have worked in other schools and getting everyone involved.
Building a School Community
A good leader makes the school as a community. Good leaders encourage cooperation between teachers and students. They have open lines of communication and protect volunteers of information from any repercussion. Schools that have a community make it easy for students and members of the staff to report anything they deem suspicious, and this may be what prevents a future violent event.
Empower staff and cultivate leadership
A good leader learns the skills and weaknesses of the team below them. This enables them to impact leadership skills on the staff. This means that in times of crisis the staff can take the initiative using their leadership skills to ensure that the students and everyone is safe
Utilize data and research
Developing contingency plans means that the school leader can research the best strategies and what other schools are doing to keep their students safe. They should also be able to use data when making these plans and implementing them. The use of research and data should be the key to achieving any policy concerning school safety. Good leaders can measure the advantages and disadvantages of their strategies. Keeping a positive learning environment while still safeguarding the security of the students should be of primary concern.
References
Kingshott, B., & Mckenzie, D. (2008). School Safety and Security: In Search of Best Practices.
Lawrence, R., & Birkland, T. (2003). Guns, Hollywood, and School Safety: Defining the School-Shooting Problem Across Public Arenas.
Sparague, J., Smith, S., & Stieber, S. (2008). Principal Perceptions of School Safety. Journal of School Violence .
