 Considering recent events throughout the country, school safety has become a major concern for parents, teachers, and administrators. When we think of violence in schools, some of the more horrific events immediately come to mind: Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School, and Virginia Tech. However, it's important that these events don't overshadow the increasing level of violence that happen in schools on a daily basis, such as assaults, bullying, and theft. Such violence can have lasting harmful effects on the victims, families, friends, and communities involved, so it's imperative that prevention efforts be made to foster a safer learning environment.
Do you know which preventative measures are being taken at your child's school to help stop violence from happening? Since the answer to this question can sometimes be unknown when you're dealing with a large public school system, many parents are choosing to go the private school route as these schools generally offer specific guidelines for youth violence prevention. At St. Barnabas Episcopal School, we are committed to providing our students with a safe learning environment where they feel safe and comfortable to thrive. To be more specific, here are 6 ways that our private school is practicing prevention: 1. Mass communication system Parents, students, teachers, and staff greatly benefit from our mass communication system at St. Barnabas, and it plays a large role in the way that we approach safety and emergencies. We rely on this technology to quickly and effectively communicate anything from severe weather alerts to important need-to-know information. 2. Security cameras The main entrances to classrooms are locked. We use security cameras to monitor our St. Barnabas Campus. This helps to ensure that the general safety and security of students is being addressed throughout the school day and during extracurricular activities. 3. Volunteer background checks We're very thankful for the wealth of volunteers that we have at St. Barnabas, and it's important to note that each volunteer that has any supervision of students undergoes a background check before being allowed to help out with school related programs and activities. 4. Check-in system We have a visitor management check-in system that requires every visitor on our campus to check in our front office before gaining access to the school. We take security one step further at our private school and require all visitors to wear a volunteer badge before entering school buildings. In the event that an unregistered visitor is walking through campus, administrators and teachers immediately approach the visitor to inquire of their purpose on campus and redirect them to the front office. 5. Safe locations All students, teachers, and staff at St. Barnabas have been trained how to access designated safe zones. This combined with an annual review and presentation given to staff by the Sheriff's office will help ensure the entire school is on the same page. 6. Safety teams In anticipation of an emergency situation, we proactively train our entire faculty and staff at our private school on how to handle and respond to these situations. We also have a dedicated safe team that is assigned responsibilities during a wide variety of potential situations. Our private school is committed to giving our students a safe and nurturing environment that breeds academic success, and our strategy for violence prevention at St. Barnabas is very effective in helping us to accomplish this. Please contact us to learn more about the safety measures that you can find at St. Barnabas Episcopal School. |