SCHOOL SAFETY BULLYING

School Safety Bullying



School Safety Bullying

Introduction

Schools are designed to be a learning environment that should be fun, memorable, filled with knowledge that can be obtained. The students as well as the staff need to feel safe. Recently, I experienced an issue with a student that led me to research what measures are taken in terms of bullying to ensure safer schools in the United States. In my quest for answers, I found that creating a safe school environment is one of the essential components for a successful school experience.

The debate pertaining to the safety of schools is one that has been raging on for countless years. Nonetheless, there is no denying that parents and children perceive schools to be less safe now than they did in the past. The reasons for this decrease in faith in the security of the schooling system are the shootouts that have taken place in public schools in the last few years. Innocent students have been murdered in these massacres. Such incidents have made it clear that modern day schools are exposed to two forms of dangers when it comes to school safety. The first form of danger is that which comes from the external threat to the school's safety, while the second form of danger comes from the internal threat to the school's safety. This paper will attempt to shed light on the generally exercised methodologies that schools adopt in order to ensure school safety. In the process, the paper will seek to highlight how the modern day threat to school safety comes from internal factors just as much as it does from external factors.

Discussion

On April 20 1999, two high school students in suburban Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students, one teacher, and themselves. This was the worse tragedy to occur in United States schools until a student at Virginia Tech shot and killed 33 people on campus in 2007. Since that time, our nation's schools are much more aware of safety issues and being prepared for emergencies than they were in April 1999. Although extreme security measures were put in place immediately after Columbine such as the installation of security cameras, metal detectors, stricter visitor policies, and better emergency planning and drills at many secondary schools across the nation, it is now found that the safety and drug-free schools programs has back slid in the last few years due financial budget cuts (Snell, Bailey, 2002).

The sheer figures of Security Measures and Programs can be daunting; there are over 200 institutional programs alone. And the exact goals and aim of these approaches vary. Some aim to boost personal security by decreasing extreme forms of aggression, such as shootings. Others encourage a psychologically protected school climate (i.e., one in which scholars and employees feel protected). Some are proactive in endeavoring to prevent the development of violent behaviors, while other ones are reactive. Certain programs aim on ability building, while others rely on the deterrent worth of punishment. Some advances engage the whole school and occasionally even ...