I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent spate of school shootings. I’ve been thinking about them on a lot of levels. I think, as most of us in education do, about the recent shooting at the Amish school and I do think about how we can ensure that the kids of SLA stay safe from the outside world. As a teacher, a principal, a parent… my biggest fears about our kids are not what they might do to each other but what the world might do to them.

But then I also worry a lot about stories like this one — about how PA lawmakers are taking up the issue of safety in schools, and this one about Radnor High closing for a day and then reopening under lockdown because of a note scrawled on the bathroom wall, and I worry about the cure being worse than the disease.

I’ll fess up to this right now — I don’t know how to keep children completely safe. I worry every time a car comes down our street when Jakob and I are in front of the house, because you never know when someone could lose control of their car and fly up onto the sidewalk. I triple-check the locks on our doors at night, because, well, you never know. And the thought of my own children navigating their teenage years is something that is rather terrifying at this point in time.

But Jakob and I still walk on the street. And we even still take bike rides together. I try to mitigate the risks we take together while still letting him grow up without too much fear.

I’d like to think we can create cultures in our schools that do the same.

I believe deeply in keeping our schools safe. There was one moment in time last year where we weren’t sure that SLA was going to get the budget for a full-time school safety officer, and you can be sure that I worked with several folks to ensure that we would.

But I also don’t believe in making kids feel like they are walking into prison when they are walking into a school.

I think we need to look at the issue of school safety from several points of view — how do we keep outsiders out, and how do we create safe cultures within. Outsiders out are easy — every school should have someone, a safety officer, at the door, making sure visitors sign in, have a reason to be there, etc… is it failsafe? No… but it’s a good start, and it does just make sense. I don’t think there’s anyone who would argue with that one. Some cameras from the Main Office to the front door and a buzzer system for after-hours? Done and done. Absolutely.

The harder question is — how do we create safe, nurturing environments within schools that that the tragedies of Columbine and other school shootings don’t happen as frequently as they seem to be happening these days?

First — let’s remember that the vast majority of our schools are safe. I think it’s important to remember that. A quick google search turned up the Youth Violence Project down at the University of Virginia School of Ed, and their data reveals a drop in the total number of shootings over the past decade and a total number of U.S. school homicides in 2005 of 13. Considering the millions upon millions of students in U.S. schools, we’re doing o.k. overall.

But I do think that the closing paragraphs of a paper entitled Myths About Youth Violence and School Safety found at the YVP web site bears repeating:

Schools are not dangerous places. The perception that schools are dangerous is a misperception
generated by a series of extreme, high profile cases that are not representative of most schools. In
fact, very few serious violent crimes take place at school. From the standpoint of violent crime,
students are safer at school than at home. Moreover, schools have become even safer during the
past decade, such that the serious violent crime rate at school is less than half what it was in
1994. Although there are relatively few serious violent crimes at school, there are many less
serious crimes and there are numerous discipline problems—primarily disorderly conduct and
fights that do not result in injuries—that demand attention. Bullying, teasing, and harassment are
common problems that deserve attention in every school, too.

Schools are relatively safe, but they are not crime-free and we have an obligation to keep them as
safe as possible. To keep schools safe, it is important to recognize what kinds of crimes are likely
or unlikely to occur, and to base decisions on facts rather than fears.

So let’s look at what we do see, and what we can do. National data suggests too many students (11% of boys and 6% of girls) were threatened with a weapon at school, even though there are only 6 cases for every 100,000 students of serious violent crime in schools. And bullying and gang activity rates remain too high. What can we do?

It goes back, for me, to the most important value we need to hold onto in our schools — we teach children before we teach subjects. Bag checks and metal detectors don’t stop bullying, they increase it by creating a culture of fear from the moment kids walk into the building. We need smaller classes. We need teacher-student interaction beyond the academic classroom and into advisories. We need teachers and principals who listen to what kids say, who want to educate the whole child, who reach out to get parents involved, and who make sure kids feel valued and listened to.

Will we ever stop bullying completely? No. Never. Kids come to use with all sorts of issues in their home life, and they also come to us as kids, not adults, so some problems will just come with the territory. But we can make those kids who feel left out of the process feel included. We can give kids something positive in their life. We can make sure that no one feels invisible in our schools. And we can let those kids who may otherwise become the bullies know that a) we still care about them, but b) our schools are places where all kids must feel safe, and no student or teacher has the right to take that away from someone else.

Let’s make sure we don’t overreact to the tragedies we’ve seen lately. Let’s make sure that whatever reactions we have as a society to the recent spate of school violence do not damage the first mission of all our schools — to create spaces where students can learn about themselves and the world.

The safest communities are the ones where all members feel valued and safe. Let’s keep working proactively to find a way to give that gift to our children.