School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Improving school safety is an ever continuous process, one that will not happen overnight.  This is something that I have said time and again.  More than it being a continuous process, however, it also involves the participation of all the sectors involved.  So why am I going back to this old and familiar argument of mine?

Because I heard about an activity being held in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Twin Cities has this story:

St. Paul Public Schools is inviting families and community members to learn about school safety through several sessions scheduled for next week.

Safety expert Michael Dorn will offer information and tips on keeping students safe in school, with material tailored specifically to St. Paul, said Will Waterkamp, administrator of district security and emergency management.

The topics to be addressed include keeping children safe as they travel to and from school, recognizing warning signs of dangerous student behaviors and discussing school safety myths. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions and concerns.

This kind of presentation has not been open to the public previously in St. Paul, Waterkamp said, but the district decided to offer it based on parent interest.

The sessions are free and don’t require preregistration. Anyone needing child care is asked to call 651-767-8370. Spanish, Hmong and Somali interpreters will be on hand at each session.

Some thoughts on this piece of news.  One, they actually organized something and put that plan into action.  The result is the series of workshops wherein the people involved can learn something they can apply to real life.

Two, the sessions are being offered for free.  In the kind of economic climate that we are in, it would be very hard to encourage people to attend seminars or workshops on school safety if they had to pay for it.  It is heartening to know that the public school system of St. Paul sees these workshops important enough to shell out money for them.

Three, the material to be used in the workshops are specifically tailored to fit the situations that children and parents may encounter in St. Paul.  This could be the most important point of all - school safety has its “generic” ideas but in order to be truly effective, programs and measures should be tailor made to match the needs of each community.

It would be great to have similar activities in various parts of the US, wouldn’t it?

In the meantime, if you are in St. Paul and you would like to attend the sessions, here is the necessary information:

— Tuesday, 9 a.m.-noon, Neighborhood House, 179 Robie St., St. Paul
— Wednesday, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Junior Achievement, 1800 White Bear Ave. No., Maplewood; and 2:30-5 p.m., Harding High School auditorium, 1540 E 6th St., St. Paul
— Thursday, 6-9 p.m., Arlington High School great hall, 1495 Rice St., St. Paul.

Don't miss another post -- subscribe by email or RSS today!

Share this post

Posted on February 2nd, 2009 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, High School, K-6, News, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues