Latest Training Programs to Strengthen School Safety

Oct. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- So far in 2010, several shootings rocked high schools and college campuses in the United States.They resulted in seven deaths. While the most terrible tragedies like these become headlines and extended news coverage, many more myriad acts of school violence that never get media coverage.

A ninth grade student at a high school in Ithaca, New York was just 14 years old when she took her own life. Her suicide note stated she felt she was disliked by her peers, and was bullied at every school she had attended.

"Bullycide" is is the new label used for student suicides prompted by extreme intimidation. Its victims are children like the 14 year-old girl from Ithaca, New York who took her own life or the teenager whose case gained national attention as a victim of "cyber-bullying". She was the target of a MySpace hoax perpetrated by by fellow students, and even one of the students' parents. She commited suicide after reading a particularly cruel entry.

Social networking sites - sites like Facebook - are certainly not under the control of schools. Nevertheless, high school, middle school, and even college is where harassment can be incubated or prevented. It is simply too often the case that teachers and school administrators are not prepared to spot the signs of violence or bullying before it occurs. Just as often, they are not prepared to counsel and direct pupils who may be victims or bullies.

The All Hazards Training Center at The University of Findlay (see http://seem.findlay.edu)offers comprehensive training for prevention of classmate harrassment, or "bullying", plus other school security problems such as disgruntled parents, dangerous contraband, assaults and a variety of safety enhancement practices. A comprehensive approach is always taken, which includes all potential emergency issues including severe weather, fires, and hazardous materials transportation accidents

Findlay instructors teach the essential steps in the awareness phase, with emphasis on situation management and emergency response. This training is offered from a menu of individual daylong classes for administrators, deans and school resource officers (SROs) and teachers. Such sessions and associated "security audits" help provide a profile of the school's security strengths and weaknesses, including the manner in which students treat one another and what means may have been used in previous bullying scenarios, whether mental or physical.

These School Safety and Security training courses - see http://school-safety-security-training.findlay.edu  -  stress "threat assessment" as the most effective way of preventing bullying and harrasment. Their trainers follow the initial seminars with specialized training for particular parts of the school staff.The classroom training can move into "hands-on" training, where exercises are performed that address specific potential crisis scenarios and breaches of security. Ultimately, in concert with local law enforcement and other local emergency services, Findlay All Hazards conduct full-scale emergency exercises across the entire school system or college campus. Such exercises include a number of potential crises, from bomb threats to riots at school sporting events.

It has never been more important for school personnel to be trained to recognize the warning signs of harrasment. The roots may lie in social networking sites outside the school or in the direct, daily interactions students engage in. Threat assessment, prevention and, in the worse case, emergency management need to be as much a part of the school's agenda as reading, writing and math. If they are not, the school may cease to be a safe place for learning to occur.

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The All Hazards Training Center of the University of Findlay is the industry leader in development and delivery of enterprise-wide custom safety and security training. Topic areas include OSHA safety training, hazwoper training, maritime security training, emergency management training, environmental and hazardous waste training, school safety and security training and workplace violence prevention training.