School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

There are people who have an inherent dislike for meetings. Somehow, deep inside, these people probably think that meetings can merely be a waste of time and they would rather be working on a specific task than spending hours talking with other people. Yet we all know how important meetings can be. Though some meetings may indeed be nothing but a waste of time, there are certain discussions that cannot be put off. After all, the cliché “two heads are better than one” has proven to be right so many times.

When it comes to school safety talks (or meetings) I think that no one can afford to have the mentality I just described above. This is especially true for those who work in schools which are considered “dangerous.” I just finished reading an article about school safety talks in South Africa and apparently, a school known for not really being safe didn’t have any representatives for the meet. Dispatch Online reports:

EAST London’s Greenpoint High School, identified as one of the most dangerous in the country, failed to attend a peace camp over the weekend meant to promote safety in schools.

The school has been marred by scenes of violence on its premises. Recent incidents include the alleged assault of a heavily pregnant teacher by a 15-year-old boy and the alleged stabbing of another pupil by the same child.

Ten pupils and a teacher from Greenpoint were supposed to join four other schools at the camp held at the Burning Bush Ministries on Friday and Saturday. The other schools wereMasakhane, Uviwe, Sinethemba and Simnikiwe .

Provincial school safety co-ordinator Felix Mbete yesterday said he was highly disturbed by Greenpoint’s inability to attend , especially since they were in need of serious attention .

Indeed, if I were Mr. Mbete, I would be more than highly disturbed by the occurrence. After all, the talks were set up so that the schools of the area would be able to pinpoint safety issues and come up with solutions to these issues. If the school that is known to have many safety issues does not feel that they have to be there, how can their situation be improved?

I think that this incident highlights some very important things – the willingness of school administrators to acknowledge that there is room for improvement in their domains and the willingness to do something about their situations. These things are paramount to taking a step towards improved school safety. I hope that in our schools, we will not see such an attitude.

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