My responsibilities as a PK-12 principal are many and diverse. I must provide leadership to improve and increase student achievement, while at the same time I must respond to the immediate, unexpected events and the multitudes of details that happen each school day. However, there is never a doubt, that my number one priority is always student safety.
Violence such as the high profile shooting in Connecticut causes all of us concerns—even when we are not directly affected by the event. We struggle to understand why these events happen and, more importantly, how they can be prevented.
We have encouraged our staff to not dwell on the event but also to listen to any student concerns they hear and we need to reassure them of their safety. And as much as we understand parents’ desire to shelter children from knowing about such a tragic event, it is also important for parents to realize teachers can’t hear every conversation between students and we encourage parents to be sure to listen and address any concerns or questions that their child might have.
As school administrators, we must strive to maintain an important balance between sufficient building security while also providing students a healthy, nurturing, normal school environment.
All students, staff and parents have an important role in promoting school safety. It is important that everyone follow our established procedures and report unusual or concerning individuals or behavior. School safety also includes a caring school community in which adults and students respect and trust each other and all students feel connected, understand expectations, and receive the behavioral and mental health support they need.
Our PK-12 building has 35+ entry/exit doors (prior to the YMCA construction project) and we now keep just one door unlocked during most of the school day. This has caused inconveniences, but we know it is one important strategy for promoting school safety.
We ask our employees to wear ID badges, and all school visitors during the school day to sign in and wear visitor badges—another important safety measure to help us more quickly identify unfamiliar people in our schools.
We will continue to be vigilant in practicing our safety drills—including fire drills (to quickly evacuate the building), re-location drills (to Bethlehem Lutheran Church if we cannot re-enter the building) and lock downs inside the school.
We will continue to work closely with our local law enforcement officers. They are always welcome to visit our schools, and we provide them opportunities to use our building for their own drills and intervention practices. And of course, we are actively reviewing all of our safety procedures again and are discussing if we should implement even more stringent safety precautions.
Although there is no absolute guarantee that something bad will never happen, it is important to understand the difference between the possibility of something happening and the probability that a similar incident will happen in our school.
And even though I can’t help but think about the horrors Principal Hochsprung and her staff witnessed at Sandy Hook Elementary, we cannot allow fear to prevent us from focusing on our responsibility to keep our Cook County students, co-workers and visitors safe and to create a school environment where students learn, thrive and develop into caring and responsible adults.
Each month a representative of our local schools will offer thoughts in Issues in Education. This month’s s contributor is Gwen Carman, PK-12 principal, Sawtooth Elementary School.
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