Help ~ School Safety A~Z

Today's blog letter is "H", and I had two main thoughts regarding "HELP".  First was how can we as parents HELP prevent school shootings from even occurring.   I found this great segment and agree with the discussion that took place.  One thing that he said that prompted my second thought was that evil people are going to do what they plan on doing, and we need to ensure we are prepared to minimize loss.  That led to my second "Help", which is the emergency notification.

What Parents can Do to HELP prevent school shootings:

1. Communicate with your children.  Ask them how they are feeling.  Ask them about their friends and if they have noticed any odd behaviors.
2. Are your kids being bullied, or do they know anyone being bullied?
3. Thoughts of Suicide or depression?  If you kids have had them, seek out mental help professionals.
4. Tell kids importance of Lock down drills and how it will prepare them to act quickly in case of an emergency.
5. Help individuals in advance to prevent them from getting to the point of no return.

Calling for HELP:

Knowing how to call for help and how to communicate when there is an emergency is of critical importance in school safety.  Seconds matter.  When someone evil enough to come in and hurt children makes their way into a school, the faster the police are called, the more lives are saved.  School safety then becomes more of how we can lessen the potential damage.

Our front desk staff at our schools need the resources to communicate.  Many schools are installing emergency buttons that will be able to communicate to the district office and to the Police and Fire Departments.