Tuesday, April 9, 2013

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.





14 comments:

  1. the emergency button is a good idea!

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    1. Our school district has signed on to put them in every school. I think it is a great tool for the security receptionist.

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  2. Contact People need to be strong enduring people who'll place themselves between the danger and the potential victim. Critical early action is essential.


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    1. Seconds matter and can mean the difference in amount of damage the perpetrator can do.

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  3. Informative post- thanks for sharing!

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  4. Great theme for the challenge! I am all about safety. Happy blogging!

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    1. I have been on our town school safety committee now for 5 years. I too am all about safety!

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  5. Good points throughout, though if they are in early elementary school, they may be too young to notice odd behavior in friends.
    Or maybe not ... after all that's happened.
    Great post.
    Silvia @ Silvia Writes

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  6. Very good post and I like the School Safety theme. All of these articles are very informative especially with the videos and links as extra references. We have two young boys so we can use all the advice we can get. It's kind of a scary time to be a parent, this helps. I'll check back in.

    thanks,
    Dan Miller

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    1. It is a scary time to be a parent, but with the resources out there you can educate yourself and make a difference in your community and hopefully make it less scary!

      I am glad you will be checking back !

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  7. So sad we have to think in these terms. I was a teacher, and have a daughter who is a teacher,so it all hits close to home for me. Thanks for visiting my blog...good luck with the rest of the A-Z!

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I would love to hear your thoughts!