Environments, outside of the home should be safe places for children to learn, interact and play. It is important that these venues have age appropriate rules and clear consequences for not following the rules. The primary place that most children spend outside of the home beginning at age 5 through 18 is school. This blog will focus on this asset as it relates to school. These tips might be helpful to parents, educators and children.
Schools need to have a clear written set of rules and policies such as a code of conduct that should be reviewed with teachers, students and their parents. This code of conduct should include consequences for deviating from the behavior for both students and employees of the school. This code or set of rules should be posted throughout the building as a gentle reminder of expected behavior.
Children need to feel safe at school in order to learn in an appropriate manner. In November 2003 over 260 high school students from one Midwest state gathered for the fifth annual Student Forum on School Safety. Although most teens reported feeling safe at school, 87% said they had seen other students being bullied, 75% had witnessed a person being injured due to a fight, 12.4% saw other students with guns, and 50% of the students attending the forum had been bullied themselves.
Student’s need to understand what the boundaries are in their school. If a child has been reprimanded for negative behavior, the parent should hear about the incident through some form of communication such as a phone call or note sent home. Schools and parents need to work together to make school a safe, fun place to learn.
Teenagers can be more proactive about ensuring that their school has boundaries that are clear and mutually respected. If there are deep concerns regarding the boundaries, teens can form a committee with other students who feel the same way, and ask a teacher to sponsor the committee. Put together a list of problems and brainstorm possible solutions. Present this information to your principal and ask for his or her feedback. If the issues are already addressed in the student handbook, perhaps the handbook needs to be updated.
Students and their families can take an active role to ensure that their school has and upholds appropriate boundaries.