School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

No one plans to fail but he who fails to plan will most probably encounter failure.  Though this maxim can be applied to most anything in life, I think that it especially bears a lot of weight in school safety.  The landscape of school safety has changed and it continues to change just as rapidly and everyone involved should take steps to ensure that we are keeping up with the changes.  This is basically what Vincent Bove aimed to get across during a meeting of the Bergen County Education Association last month.

Before we delve deeper into his message, let me introduce Vincent Bove a bit.  He is an acclaimed security educator, a Board Certified Protection Professional, Board Certified Crime Prevention Specialist, Certified Law Enforcement Instructor and U.S. Department of Justice Certified Community Anti-Terrorism Awareness Trainer.  More so, “since the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, Mr. Bove has been called upon to inform, instruct and inspire over 50,000 educators, parents, students, mental health professionals, law enforcement officials, and community leaders throughout the United States. His constant challenge to audiences is that we all must do our part to transform our schools and campuses into safe havens for developing citizens of character and achievement.”

In other words, Mr. Bove is an expert in security and he has been doing a lot of work in this regard.  So back to his message during that meeting.  His point was that even though the authorities have given a mandate for schools to come up with security plans, not all of them have done so.  He pointed out that this is partly due to corruption in both the government and commercial sectors and that this creates a breeding ground for children (who will later on become adults) who have a warped sense of morals and ethics.  Furthermore, he stated that teachers and schools in general should be able to hone and shape these children so that they can achieve their vast potential as individuals.

I couldn’t agree more with what he said!  This is one person who seems to see the whole picture.  He has linked the state of the society and bureaucracy to the seemingly small issue of school safety.  I believe that if more and more people think like him and take action on a wider scale, then this overwhelming problem of school safety can be addressed and dealt with.  And it starts with a solid plan that can be concretized and implemented.

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Posted on November 19th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, College, High School, K-6, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues