Keeping Schools Safe

---

"Safety first" is more than an old adage. In many ways it's now a way of life for our country. Being safe matters, and while the vast majority of our schools are very safe indeed, there are instances where parents are concerned. In fact, the federal No Child Left Behind Act says that when states deem a school persistently dangerous, parents can transfer their child to a safer public school.

A free booklet from the United States Department of Education, Questions Parents Ask About Schools, tells what parents can do to ensure that their child's school is safe and drug free. It recommends that parents:

• Review school discipline policies with your child. Make sure that she knows what behaviors you expect of her in school. Let her know that you will support teachers in their efforts to enforce the policies.
• Work with the school to develop a plan to handle safety and drug problems, such as drug education and violence prevention programs. Make sure the school has clear consequences for students who break school rules.
• Get to know your child's friends and their parents. Make sure their attitude about drugs is compatible with yours. If not, encourage your child to find new friends.

Questions Parents Ask About Schools can be downloaded from the U.S. Department of Education Web site www.ed.gov, or ordered from ED Pubs, Education Publications Center, U.S. Department of Education, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup MD 20794-1398.

In other electronic resources, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Safety Zone has published a free Safe and Secure series of eight guidebooks that can be downloaded at www.safetyzone.org/safe_ secure.html or obtained on a free CD while supplies last. (Write: Newspaper Column, NWREL, 101 S.W. Main, Suite 500, Portland OR 97204.) Among some of the recommendations in Creating Schoolwide Prevention and Intervention Strategies, one of the eight guides, are those on schoolwide violence prevention, taken from the Surgeon General's report on school violence. That report recommends:

• Establishing an "intolerant attitude toward deviance" by focusing on breaking up antisocial peer networks and changing the social context of the school
• Increasing "commitment to school" so that academic success is possible for all children and positive school climates are established
• Teaching and encouraging students to display the skills and behaviors that enable them to respond appropriately to events that may occasion and promote antisocial behavior.

The series gives educators, and others who are interested, a glimpse of how colleagues are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success in key areas of school safety.

This column by Karen Lytle Blaha is provided as a public service by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a nonprofit institution working with schools and communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.