Ask an expert: How teachers can ensure school safety

September 11, 2000
Web posted at: 8:14 PM EDT (0014 GMT)

By John Woodall

Question: As a teacher, how can I help to ensure school safety?

Answer: Research shows that safety is not the result of a single intervention. The safest schools are those that have developed a united and comprehensive approach to the design of the school culture. The safest schools are the most united schools. It is the divisiveness of the school culture that activates all the hidden fears and anxieties of children that can lead to the worst acting out. So the first thing a teacher can do is become involved in an overall school effort to create a united response to prevent violence and to promote the enrichment of the entire school community. Personally, this means bringing your best human traits to each child interaction. Research shows just one positive relationship with an adult can prevent a host of acting-out behaviors. Administratively, the following points should be considered:

1. In an open discussion with parents, teachers, the school board, police and civic leaders, create a community/school partnership for school enrichment plan and a violence response plan. One focuses on preventing violence by creating a nurturing environment; the other deals with a united community response to any violence that does occur. A school enrichment plan" is different from a violence prevention program in the same way a wellness program" is different from a medical treatment plan. A school enrichment program creates a positive, united school environment, where the roots of violence can't easily take hold. It is an "inoculation" against the causes of violence. It prevents violence by promoting nurturance. Your school can achieve this goal primarily by keeping the focus of the school on academic achievement as well as linking education with issues and service relevant to the community.

2. Features of a school enrichment program should include a regularly held forum for parents, teachers, school board, staff, community leaders, businesses, municipal authorities and police to work together to promote a unified school environment. This forum should address issues confronting the school and the community. Pro-social efforts to promote educational links to the community and civic life in general can be developed in this setting. Providing structure for students after school is an important enrichment of the school environment. Having adequate mental health referral services at the earliest grades is critical and can prevent not only violence but also unnecessary underachievement in children with special needs. Mental health services also need to be available for children suspected of being neglected or abused.

3. Also, a specific plan should be developed that trains all members of the extended school community in the warning signs of violence. Responses need to be graduated in intensity with a nonpunitive, even therapeutic response at first, to more containing measures as circumstances dictate. Remembering the legal limits of interventions, all in the school environment need to be trained in the same detection and intervention system.

Dr. John Woodall is a psychiatrist with a specialty in treating psychological trauma. He is on the faculty of the Judge Baker Children's Center at Harvard University and is the director of the Unity Project Curriculum Initiative, developing pro-social skills in diverse school settings. Woodall just returned from the State of the World Forum in New York City, where he presented his Unity Project to the undersecretary of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.