Ways to Help Prevent School Violence

All schools work to prevent school violence and schools are very safe places. Students, staff, and parents all have an important role in promoting school safety. Adults can provide leadership by reassuring students that schools are generally very safe places. In addition, reiterating what safety measures and student supports are already in place at the school can help reinforce school safety. Here are some things teachers, school staff members, parents, and the general public can do to fight and prevent school violence:

• “Positive relationships between students and their prosocial peers, teachers, and families can be critical assets in promoting youth’s well-being and preventing school violence. Several strategies to enhance these relationships have been found to be effective in reducing violence. For instance, many universal, school-based violence prevention programs improve students’ social skills and problem-solving abilities, which can result in more positive peer and student-teacher relationships throughout the school. Some school-based programs also help students know how to appropriately and safely intervene to stop an escalating violent episode between peers” (CDC).
• Many school-based violence prevention programs are aimed at helping students build healthy relationships with their peers and also foster a strong student-teacher relationship as well. Training programs also focus on giving teachers effective ways to manage a classroom, resolve conflicts non-violently, promote good relationships within the classroom, and how to handle a classroom of diverse students. They also focus on helping students feel safe in the classroom and on building bonds of trust so students feel comfortable talking with teachers about experiences with violence and concerns they may have or things they may know about.
• Another goal may school violence training programs have is to help with enhancing parent involvement. Parents are essential to school success and this is true in both academic and social aspects of their children’s school experiences. School violence prevention approaches that involve the family, especially those that start early, can have substantial, long-term effects in reducing violent behavior. This is why parents are often encouraged to take the training and to be as involved as they can be in their child’s education- both at home and at the school.
• Be involved in student’s lives as much as possible. Everyone who as contact with children can help reduce the chances for violence by caring and being involved. Teachers and school staff members have an influence while the child is at school. Parents have an influence every single day in the examples they give to their children. Peers have an influence and can help model good behavior and good conflict resolution and help downplay the tendency toward violence in their peers. And members of the general community can also influence children and can be involved by volunteering and showing them concern and love wherever they encounter the youth of the community.
  We all have ways w can help fight school violence and we all can impact the youth of our communities in a positive way. So take action and take a stand to prevent school violence!