Strategies Of Promoting Safe Schools

The state of security in schools has become an issue of great concern. There have ben many cases of insecurity issues within school premises. For these reasons there should be steps taken to ensure that schools remain a safe place to be for the students. The school district is willing to work with law enforcement, community groups, private concerns and federal and state agencies to maintain safety in schools. Some of the steps taken include programs such as safe kids/safe streets, safe start and safe future. All these programs are aimed at ensuring that there is safety everywhere for the kids. The programs are commonly initiated by the community in order to ensure that the entire community is safe for students. The other way of ensuring safe schools is through safe schools pyramid. This reflects on the fact that schools have to be comprehensive and individual in the approaches they take when it comes to solving problems of school violence. These strategies are quite promising since they are proactive and are on the basis of intervention and prevention. There should also be crisis training as well as professional development for staff on the basis of needs assessment so as to ensure that they will ensure safety in schools.

At risk-students that can potentially cause violence

The prevention of violence in schools is a priority in most schools. There is some students who have the potential of performing acts of violence in their schools. These students have to be identified in order to prevent any such acts from occurring. There are several warning signs which can be used to easily identify such students. These signs include students who have a history of aggressive behavior or violence. Students who have gone through early childhood abuse or neglect have the potential of causing violence. Another sign in such students is taking alcohol or abusing other drugs. When students withdraw from friends or their usual activities they could potentially cause violence. Finally another thing to look out for is gang membership. Students who are members of a gang or desire to be in gangs have the potential of causing violence (American Psychological Association, 2013).A more viable approach in the prediction and prevention of school violence is through threat assessment. This uses a set of strategies in order to determine credibility of a threat and likelihood of the threat being carried out. The first step involves understanding facts concerning school violence as well as potentially violent offenders.it are very important to avoid any form of misconception when it comes to violence in schools.it is also important to ensure that trust is built between adults and students.it is also necessary to build an interdisciplinary as well as trained threat assessment team (NASP Resources, 2013).

Juvenile gangs

There has been an increase in the number of juvenile gangs that are being formed. The gang problem is one which is continuing to grow within the community, it is important to find out the factors which drive juveniles into joining gangs. Joining gangs is consists of both pulls and pushes. The pulls entail the attractiveness of gangs. These include prestige associated with gang membership from friends. The gangs also provide attractive opportunities such as chances of excitement through selling drugs and getting money. Therefore most juveniles end up choosing to join gangs. There is some social .cultural or economic forces that might push adolescents into joining gangs. A key factor is the protection that comes with gangs as well as the general perception of well being for members of gangs.

These gangs have their own culture pertaining to their nature and conduct. Every gang has their own culture such as how they dress, how they should behave towards men and women. The members normally have particular knowledge about their gang like initiation rites, traditions, history and territory. The gang culture is normally imparted from one generation to the other through socialization. Incase the norms are violated; the violator is likely to face punishment. Gang Resistance Education And Training is a school based program which are instructed by police officers which includes learning activities and classroom instructions. The am of the program is to provide life skills to those enrolled so as to assist them avoid any delinquent behavior and turning to violence as a solution to their problems (American Psychological Association, 2013).There is also a teen, crime and community initiative which motivates young people to create safe neighborhoods and schools. The TCC community work program assists teens in understanding how crime can affect them, their friends, families and entire community.it gets them involved in projects for preventing crime so as to help turn their communities into a safe place.

References

American Psychological Association. (2013).Warning signs of youth violence. Retrieved June 30, 2013 from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/warning-signs.aspx#NASP Resources(2013).Threat Assessment: Predicting and Preventing school violence. Retrieved June 30, 2013 from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/factsheets/threatassess_fs.aspx