The term “school safety” is a broad stroke. I’m pretty sure that if you asked ten parents what their number one concern is when it comes to school safety, you’d get at least seven different answers. I have two kids in school, aged a few years apart. My concern for my youngest ranges from being bullied to protecting her from the potential for sexual assault. Safety whereas my high-schooler is concerned, I worry about him being bullied, as well as steering clean of the drug scene. Other parents may be worried about violence in the school, which can range from a bathroom fight to a school shooting.
Before you assume that it doesn’t happen here in our wonderful town of Holly Springs, I know for a fact that there was recently a fight between two students, as other students stood back filming it in Holly Springs High School.
Holly Springs is fortunate enough to have seven School Resource Officers (SROs) for the eight schools in Holly Springs. All of the middle schools and the high school have a full time SRO. These SROs are not “rent-a-cops.” These are real police officers, all of which have undergone additional training to be SROs, and some are even part of the elite police response team for Holly Springs. Holly Springs is one of the only municipalities in the state to have a SRO at every school.
Holly Springs has a great high school. They have sent four students to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the cheerleading team just won the State Championships, the robotics team is looking to go to the World Championships for the third year, and the list goes on and on. It would take a few pages to highlight all the achievements of the students at H.S.H.S. The fact is, with over 2,000 students, the administration can’t be everywhere all the time, and sometimes, the things that we want to protect our kids from, are happening. After these events occur sometimes the parents know, and sometimes they never find out.
One generic definition of school safety is: “Schools or school-related activities where students are physically and emotionally at risk to hazards, known and unknown, to include violence; bullying; harassment; and substance abuse.”
This is not an article to try to scare you from sending your kids to school; but experts agree that everyone should take the time to talk to their kids, ask about their day, and try to get them to open up about anything that they are experiencing at school that could put them at risk. No matter how good of a parent you are, there are about seven hours a day that you have to have faith in your child and those governing the students to keep them safe.
One of the problems with school safety is that no two schools are exactly the same. There is no universal school safety plan that will work for every school across the country. The federal government can play a role in enhancing safety in schools. However, state legislators needs to work with local school leaders, teachers, parents, and students themselves to address their own unique challenges and develop their own specific solutions. What may work in one community may or may not be the right approach in another. Each local problem needs local solutions.
The Center for Safer Schools serves to promote safe learning environments for North Carolina K-12 schools. The Center serves as a hub of information and technical assistance on school safety to school faculty and staff, law enforcement, youth-serving community agencies, juvenile justice officials, policymakers, parents/guardians and students. Center staff focus on school climate, school discipline and emergency preparedness concerns for North Carolina’s public K-12 schools. Staff are available to provide training, guidance and technical assistance upon request for school faculty and staff, and those working with children and adolescents.
The Center for Safer Schools is moving forward to support schools and communities by providing resources through grant funding to schools to hire additional school resource officers (SROs) and mental health professionals, to provide training on school safety and crisis response protocols, and to purchase school safety equipment. They are also working with the Task Force for Safer Schools to develop materials for schools to assist with facility assessments and threat assessments. With school safety as top priority, the Center for Safer Schools urges district officials and community members to make use of resources available. (Information from Department of Public Instruction – Center for Safer Schools)
The message from our federal, state, and local government is that we, as a community network (parents, schools, businesses and local government), must be involved in
making a difference to ensure that our students are able to grow and develop in a positive and safe environment.
