Introduction and Background
Schools are the four walls within which the learners strive to get new knowledge in a safe and conducive environment. The learners, teaching staff and other administrative and support staff must mentally relax without any threating environment. The parents must also feel satisfied that their children are going in an environment where they will be safe mentally, physically and while using internet. The administrative practices must be in a practical approach that the children’s relationship with each other must be bullying free. The relationship between the teachers and students must based on the trust and open communication.
The formal school schedule is that the students must be within the school up until the home time. This schedule is stretched on maximum seven hours, which clearly means that most of the personality development is happening at school. It is not beyond imagination that if a child is not feeling safe from the teachers, peers and people they meet on internet or any other, what kind of personality is the child building up. The learner on the daily basis is going through from this fear of unsafe and in secure going to school so what is he learning. It will be just a waste of time for him which leads him to be evolve into a depressed individual turned into a liability in the future.
The learners, teachers and parents / guardians will be in constant fear if the school is situated in any conflicted area. With the unconciuos sense of insecurity the learners will fail to absorb the knowledge delivered to them by insecure teachers. The parents also are reluctant to send children to school, which is sadly affecting the learning process of children. It is the era of internet and everything is getting digital, the students must be taught the right way and internet ethics to communicate on internet so they do not get harmed and no body is get harmed by them. It is suggested that the school must provide certain type of trainings to the teachers and students which equip them with knowledge and techniques to handle such type of situation when arise. Many private sector schools are already doing such kind of efforts and they also included related topics in the school curriculum but public sector school students are still deprived of this knowledge.
It is indispensable to learn in-depth about the school safety, its importance and risks involved and designing a strategy to address it for the better and smooth learning process at schools.
What is School Safety
School safety is directly related to child’s safety and security. It incorporates all the programs and systems design to protect the learner, teaching and other staff at school from any potential harm. All the systems and practices are designed to the extent of successful implementation to provide prompt response in case of any expected damage in compliance of estimated force of damage necessary for the well being of humans present under the roof.
It basically refers to the set of designed systems, practices and strategies available in the school building which are readily applicable in case of its requirement in any threating situation related to emotional or mental safety and cyber safety. In case of physical threats, the whole security system must be incorporated in shape of security organizations and their threat alerts published for the general public for the safety of the children. Generally, there are three components of safety which are;
Physical Safety
Physical threat is a constant sword hanging on every citizen of conflicted areas. The schools are in more vulnerable situation because children are more in numbers under the roof of a building. It becomes easy to target them. It is most important to consider the threat alerts from security organization as well as install a complete security systems including cameras, search gates and body/bag search. The children must be trained by the school about taking anything suspicious from strangers and passersby.
Physical safety also involves the safety gears during the play time in the ground like football gears, especially swimming attendants and other specific requirements for children.
Emotional Safety
Emotional insecurity is not less than any other threat to life. Imagine a child far from parents and his comfort zone and he /she is getting bullied, facing discriminatory behaviour from teachers and victim of nepotism, what kind of human being he will be evolved in. Off course depressed and less fruitful. It is the most difficult type of unsafety a child can face because no none can gauge to the extent harm. Very highly qualified personnel must be appointed in the school buildings who can clearly separate the matter from general. The school must initiate the idea of training the children as well so they can also report the case in its actual soul.
Cyber Safety
In today’s digital world, the cyber crimes are at escalation. Children get abused from netzines just like real world. Children can get blackmailed from friends. Sometimes, this leads to a crime by playing online games with friends. Schools must teach the students about the internet ethics before letting them to be on internet. Some critical measures must b e taken in account like controlling their data and keeping an history of their visits to internet so they can be protected from any maltreatment.
As the time is passing by, these three safety components are so interlinked that are not easy to bifurcate. One aspect can impact the other one which results in the need of high experts to be appointed on the jobs to understand and sort out specific solutions.
Why School Safety is Important
Schools are primarily designed to deliver formal education but it is learnt that while students staying in the schools for many hours there must be certain measures taken by the school management to protect the children from any mutilation. It is essential to keep the children in certain trusted environment so they can achieve their primary objective of learning new knowledge.
The most natural way of learning is within the school during playtime activities in the grounds indoor and outdoors. It shapes the behaviour of teams building, tolerance and communication skills in the children. It is verily appreciated that the schools give this environment must be as much as safe as it could be.
Safe and trusted environments can impact the child’s personality miraculously. The safe environment and high achievers in learning is directly linked together. Whereas, poor or low results are due to any kind of abuse the child may be facing. The environmental pressures do not allow the children to show up their natural personality. They are too much busy in dealing with these hidden pressures they are having. The brains do not allow new concepts to enter in due to preoccupied space by these pressures. It leads the children to certain mental diseases like depression which shape them as liability on the society. It is suggested that the schools must have a clear practical plan for children of which they must be fully trained for so they can approach the trusted system if they require.
Common School Safety Risks
School management, parents and health professionals are really very much considerate about the issue because the list of potential threats to child’s mental and physical health is spiking up day by day. There are some common safety risks which must be measured thoroughly while making any implementation plan such as follow;
Inappropriate Content
The schools are preferred to be declared as digitalised campus as of the internet era. Now the social media is growing fast and sharing many unethical jokes and images are becoming very normal. The children go after these images out of curiosity and ends up in an addiction of watching these in appropriate images. The children around the school makes these dirty jokes about each other and spread around about the peers. This negatively affect the children when they cannot share it with any one and fail to handle themselves.
In the school premises the teachers must be vigilant to observe such kind of discussions and sexual bullying. The digital labs must be under strict observance and central check. So, the children can be observed during their study hours in the class. There must be a check on visited sites in the history tool bar. The teachers must also be under check for this that whether they are involved. It is suggested that there must be strict legal policies against this breach of moral cycle.
Bullying
Besides, the traditional harassment, bullying is becoming a common mental safety threat now. The involved parities simply end it up for joke. In the schools’ children are bullied for their race, religion, colour, sex and body structure. The bullying in many cases become painful and beyond tolerance for the victim. This affects the children in low academic score, anxiety and depression and motivate to become a bully themselves. There must be an open outcome communication where the victim children can share their experiences.
Violence
In many situations the verbal threats transformed into physical violence among the students. Its results in depression for the victim but strive to get the power to become an abuser in future to take the revenge from society. The victim for life considers himself a weak and vulnerable among others. Consequently, it is a threat to physical and emotional safety.
Substance Abuse
Substance abuse is creeping in the roots of the society very silently. It is observed that selling drugs around the schools and immediate community is happening secretly. The children must be provided with the safe and trusted environment so, the children cannot be motivated to use these drugs as a cure for their problems. Apart from the poor academic performance, the children may indulge in any other problems such as depression, apathy, withdrawal from the society and other psychological dysfunctions. Substance abuse mainly prevails among adolescents. There must be unbreakable security check around the school premises and the security gates and body and bag checks should be incorporated in the school entry schedule.
Self-harm and Suicide
The safety issue of any kind when left unattended may result in self harm or suicide. Though, these are interlinked but not the same. The security cameras inside the schools are suggested so all the children’s activities can be monitored closely.
Most concerning, many of these risks are increased at it’s worsen stage special substance abuse, inappropriate content and suicidal thoughts among small children as well as adolescents. There must be a well-designed framework which encircle and ensures all kind of safety risks at school.
Strategy to address School Safety Risks
As in above discussion, there must be an implementation plan and known to every child to approach. The framework must be followed by the monitoring plan as well and should not leave the matter without follow ups. Following are the suggested steps for such strategy.
Diagnosis of Risks
It recognises that the school safety can be influenced by the relationships of teachers, parents and children themselves. All aspects including natural hazards should also be considered while planning. The influence of physical and mental and social well being must be considered. So, considering these influences, the diagnostic team must chalk out all the safety risks available in the school premises or around the school community.
Design and implement Strategy
When knowing all the risks, the teaching practices, physical learning environment and school management methods and practices must be prioritised. Based on these prioritised practices, a clear and concrete framework must be designed. Teachers and children must be trained about this framework. There must be pictorial depictions of the framework on the walls of the schools so in case of any urgent need and emergency the children can follow the steps.
Monitoring and Evaluation of strategy
There must be clear monitoring and evaluation policy as part of the strategy. There must be a schedule of evaluation of each and every intervention of the school management to avoid any unwanted and threatening situation for the children.
School Safety Promotion
Increase School Connectedness
School management must motivate and create opportunities to create connectedness of school with parents, communities and other campuses of the school. If the school frequently meet the parents and families of the children in the parent teacher meetings and school management meetings, the parents will be aware of any ongoing behavioural change readily and within the course of time. They will have enough time to respond to the safety matter whether physical, emotional or cybersafe issue. The children when know they are connected, they feel protected and safe. The children’s psyche is that they feel protected when know that the family is around and can intervene when required. The different activities like sports and other competition in the cluster among the schools can motivate the children in other directions of the life. The children take interest in sports or other healthy physical activities.
Approachable safety Resources
The access to the help resources must be easy and prompt. It is very difficult for the victim children to as someone for help as the nature of the matter is refraining them to talk about it. The systems must be approachable for these children themselves. The schools must have such practices at floor. The school management must arrange for referral cases at community level and then further health care providers. The children must be trained to these systems so when he is need, he can approach theses resources himself. The counsellors at school must also sent for the refresher courses so they can new and updated techniques of dealing with the small victims. This upgraded intervention can safe the children in the long term.
Controlled reporting system
In the school premises and surrounding communities there are people who are suspicious to the children and community, they might be only new to the community but they consider them suspicious and harmful for the community. There must be a system where these people can be reported. Children and community elders want to report these people but they prefer to hide their identities, so many call numbers should be displayed all around where anyone can report anonymously. Same kind of system should be must be installed in the schools for cyber abuse. A cloud portal should be available where children can report anything wrong happening to them. It is suggested that this system must be transparent, prompt and easy to opt.
Social Emotional Learning
The school should initiate a complete cycle of training about the safety systems at school and community but the emphasis should mainly be given on social emotional learning. These training will make the students skilful to identify the types of social and emotional abuses which are not easy to recognise. These training will also help them to understand the supportive channels are available in their schools as well as in the community. The continuous training session can build and polish the children’s personality into more strong individuals. They can learn diverse skills such as; social communication skills, conflict resolution empathy and non-verbal communication along withe the theoretical skills. These trainings can create more positive learning environment and a promote a connectedness among parents, school and children.
Use of Technology
There are many tools available through which the schools can monitor around the schools. The cameras can help with physical abuse. For cyber abuse the monitoring system should be incorporate in the cloud monitoring. This system cab be equipped with certain wrong or sexual phrases and words, so it can detect it and able to provide identities of the student or staff searching such kind of material. In the first-place content filters should also be installed where in appropriate websites and content can be blocked, it can be a basic defence line against the growing threat of cyber crimes.
Conclusion
It is concluded that child safety with in school premises and community is a must for healthy and beneficial individuals to the society and community. A threatening environment halts the positive learning process of the child. Unsafe environment demotivates the child to build good relationship with teachers and friends. Safe environments impact the child personality surprisingly positive, happy and competitive. A child in safe environment can fight any challenging situation they have in life. The confidence and self trust are the outcomes of sense of security and base of academic success. It is observed in the schools that good scores are directly linked with the safe environment. A child who during the school time is worried about any kind of threatening environment fails to concentrate on learning new things.
It is also studied in the article that there are many types of safety that a child or and adult demands since they born, it includes first; physical safety which means that in play grounds the students should not be left unattended. It also includes the safety in the conflicted areas. Second; it talks about the social and emotional safety, which includes bullying, in appropriate content and discrimination of all kinds. Third; the most important kind of safety these days is cyber safety which is mostly not easy to identify by the elders, school management or the child itself.
The article also discusses, many risks involved if the child safety got ignored by any reason. It includes a long list but the most threatening to human life is thoughts of suicide, bullying and substance abuse. Based on these risks, there are many ways of promoting child safety concepts and frame works such as; accessibility to the framework, connectedness with families and communities and better and trusted reporting system.
It is concluded with the strong recommendation that the child safety must not be ignored considering its direct threat to human life. A little effort can safe the children from becoming a future liability on the society. Let’s design the victim approachable programs which enables the children to feel secure while in the schools or homes. These programs must include a flawless and transparent monitoring section to implement it in the right direction.