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The Role of Support Staff in School Safety
The Role Of School Support Staff in School Safety
By David Esquith, Director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students
Helping schools to keep students safe is a challenge that I face as the director of the Office of Safe and Healthy Students at the U.S. Department of Education. And keeping my own two children— third-grade girls—safe is a worry I have in common with parents all over our country. In my professional life, I have a vantage point that enables me to be comforted by the data, which show that schools are safer now than they have ever been. As a parent, I am comforted knowing that the entire staff of dedicated professionals who work in my girls’ school are doing everything they can to ensure the safety of my children and all the children there.
The good news that our schools are increasingly safer is tempered by the progressively complex threats to safety that students and staff face on a daily basis. While technological advances have enhanced our ability to improve teaching and learning, they have also increased our children’s vulnerabilities and hastened their entry into adulthood.
Schools, as self-organized learning environments, have responded to new and old threats by wisely engaging every adult in the school as equal partners in their efforts to keep students safe. We know that certain locations in and around a school (e.g., bathrooms, cafeterias, and locker rooms) may be more unsafe than others, and that students may be more at risk in terms of their safety just before and after school. Considering what we know about the places and times when students are at higher risk, it is common sense that school support staff play a key role in school safety.
Whether it is the computer technical staff person who recognizes that a school’s computer network is being used for cyberbullying, the bus driver who resolves a conflict before it escalates into a fight, or a custodian who makes sure that doors to the school building are kept securely locked from the outside—support staff play vital and unique roles in preventing violence and keeping schools safe. That they carry out this role so well is a tribute to their professionalism and dedication.
SAFETY CHECKLIST
Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.
1. Our school building, grounds, playground equipment, and vehicles are secure and meet all established safety and environmental standards.
2. Our school physical plant is attractive; is structurally sound;has good internal (hallways) and external (pedestrian, bicycle, and motor vehicle) traffic flow, including for those with special needs; and is free of defects.
3.Our physical, emotional, academic, and social school climate is safe, friendly, and student-centered.
4.Our students feel valued, respected, and cared for, and aremotivated to learn.
5.Our school staff, students, and family members establish and maintain school and classroom behavioral expectations,rules,and routines that teach students how to manage their behavior and help students improve problem behavior.
Source: ASCD (formerly Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) (2013). Whole Child Indicators
