In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr asked a very prophetic question: Where do we go from here-chaos or community? Since Dr. Kings untimely death, the African American community has buried thousands of children as a direct result of community violence.
In the 1990's school districts in the U.S. have experienced unprecedented numbers of school shooting and youth killed under the age of 16 years old. according to the National School Board association 900 teachers throughout the U.S. are assaulted daily and according to the National Association of School Psychologist 160,000 students stay home daily for fear of being assaulted at school.
As we enter into a new school years we must ask ourselves are our schools safe. Morever, "have we begun to moved toward Dr. King's dream of community or do we allow chaos to continue to be a major part of the lives of school age youth. How many more children have to be killed?"
Recommendations For Creating Safe Schools
The following are suggested recommendations for developing a safer school environment.
Train all school staff (teachers, counselors, clerical and janitorial) in all aspects of violence prevention strategies;
Develop a crisis management plan which includes resources for crisis response (family/individual counseling);
Developing an effective school wide discipline policy which is enforceable by individual school districts;
Build a solid rapport with local law enforcement entities (school police, city police etc.);
Creation of programs which address violence, anger and conflict (after school initiatives & summer programs);
Assess the school's physical structure to determine areas where students may be unsupervised;
Assess current security needs (training of school security staff, identification cards, access to school through windows/doors & locker searches);
Promote safe school & community initiatives through posters, flyers, announcements etc;
Develop systems to monitor violent behavior among students (repeated fight, carrying weapons etc.).
In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr asked a very prophetic question: Where do we go from here-chaos or community? Since Dr. Kings untimely death, the African American community has buried thousands of children as a direct result of community violence.
