Safety at School: 7 Tips to Ensure Your Students Feel Secure

There are many students in this country who, unfortunately, simply don’t feel safe when they show up for school every day.

Can you blame them?

Between the rising bullying rates in American schools and the school shootings that take place all too frequently these days, it’s not hard to see why so many students are concerned about safety at school.

To combat this, there are steps that teachers and school administrators should take to ensure that their students feel safe at all times.

If you work at a school, you should make it your mission to put an emphasis on safety at school so that your students can spend more time worrying about their schoolwork and less time worrying about bullies and other safety risks.

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Here are 7 Safety at School Tips to Ensure Your Students Feel Secure

1. Give Everyone in Your School an ID Badge

How closely are you keeping tabs on who comes into and goes out of your school on a daily basis?

If you’re not doing it at all, you could be compromising safety at school in a big way and putting your students in danger.

You should give all of the students, teachers, administrators, custodians, and other employees in your school an ID badge and make them keep it on them at all times.

You should then put a system in place whereby everyone is forced to show their ID badge prior to entering your school. This will keep those who don’t belong in your school out and allow you to keep tabs on who is inside of your school at any given moment.

Carrying around an ID badge might take some getting used to. But it’ll be well worth the effort on everyone’s part.

2. Talk to Students About the Dangers of Bullying

More than 20 percent of American students have reported being bullied in the past.

That number is simply too high and must come down if we want to maintain safety at schools.

Whether you run an elementary school or a university, you should make it a point to speak with your students about the dangers of bullying. You should also encourage students who are being bullied to speak with someone about the bullying they’re facing.

Some kids have no problem coming forward and speaking out against a bully. But many others suffer in silence and see their schoolwork suffer as a result of bullying.

You should maintain a healthy dialogue with your students as far as bullying is concerned. It will help bring the bullying in your school down and make it less of a problem than it is in some other parts of the country.

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3. Take Swift Action Against Anyone Accused of Being a Bully

Bullying should not be tolerated under any circumstances in your school. If you even suspect that a student might be bullying another student, you should work hard to get to the bottom of the problem.

Schools have come up with all different ways to handle bullying. Some get the parents of a bully involved to bring an end to it, while others will keep things in-house and resolve the bullying issue with the help of guidance counselors.

But the last thing you want to do is sit by and watch bullying take place without taking action against a bully. The situation will only get worse and reduce the safety at school that your students feel.

4. Encourage Troubled Students to Speak With Guidance Counselors

Is there a student in your school who just doesn’t seem to have things together?

They might show signs of depression. Or they might act out in class and show too much aggression.

Whatever the case, it’s a good idea to have a student like this speak with a guidance counselor at your school to see if there’s an issue.

Far too often, school administrators fail to pick up on clues concerning troubled students. It’s not until the student puts others at risk that they realize they needed help.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. If you think a student might be struggling in some way, you should get them the help they need immediately.

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5. Install Functioning Locks on Doors and Windows

There are many school buildings all across the country that are old and decrepit.

Lots of these school buildings don’t have functioning locks on doors and windows.

That alone is a huge safety risk and will make your students less secure when they’re in your care. You should make every effort to have broken locks replaced so that you can lock up your classrooms.

In a lockdown situation, broken locks could make certain classrooms more susceptible to an active shooter or intruder than others. Countless lives can be saved simply by making sure locks work properly.

You should test out your locks regularly to see if they’re working. If they’re not, they’ll need to be replaced right away.

6. Speak With Students About Fire Safety

Does your school have a clear fire plan in place?

While most schools have put a lot of their focus on bullying and school shootings when it comes to safety at school, fires are still something administrators need to worry about.

There are about 4,000 fires that take place inside school buildings every year.

You should make sure your students know what to do in the event of a fire. You should hold fire drills to practice how to exit a building if a fire ever starts.

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7. Organize Classrooms to Avoid Unnecessary Clutter

School buildings that are cluttered with too many desks, school supplies, and other things pose a safety risk to students.

You should put a system in place for organizing everything in your school. That might mean purging items from time to time. It also might mean turning one room in your building into a storage room that houses all of the clutter you have lying around.

Outside of making your school look nicer, organization will also keep your school safer. You won’t have to worry about students tripping and falling over things or being forced to navigate around a bunch of stuff during an emergency.

Make Safety at School More of a Priority for Your Students

Safety at school is something that should always be at the front of your mind whenever you’re tasked with taking care of children.

Teachers and administrators should do their part to make students feel secure. It’ll result in a better learning environment and allow students to enjoy their time in the classroom.

Check out our blog for more tips on running a successful educational institution.