Strategies and Plans for a Safe and Caring School

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Strategies and Plans for a Safe and CaringSchool
Ohio School Social Work Association
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What students want is a school where it is
apparent to all that the staff is constantly
trying to make things better. This strong We
care message is the foundation of quality .
William Glasser
We care
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Purpose of Today

• Understand the new generation of students

• Understand the new generation of students

• Understand schoolplace violence
• Create a safe and caring school
• Learn how to reclaim our youth

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Research is Showing That Our Students ARE
Different Today

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• Children are different today from five years
  ago. They used to be fearful of what their
  parents would think about their behavior. Many
  no longer care.

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Societal Shifts

• Fewer supportive relationships
• Unhealthy environment
• Learned irresponsibility
• (The well fix it for you syndrome)
• Lack of purpose

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Fewer Supportive Relationships

• Many parents are too busy and too stressed
• Families are smaller and more isolated
• Less parental contact with kids
• Kids plugged into computers or TVs

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• contemporary society is creating a number of
  children at risk for relational impairment.
• Dr. Larry Brendtro

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Unhealthy Environments FACTORS
Media
Drugs
TV
Music
Video Games
By age 16, the typical child has viewed 2,000,000
acts of violence and approximately 30,000
murders/attempted murders on television
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Learned Irresponsibility

• Anthropologist Ruth Benedict criticized our
  culture for excluding youth from responsibility
  only to blame them for their irresponsibility.

• Children who believe their needs will not be met

• Children who are given everything and have
  everything taken care of for them

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Lack of Purpose
Children used to know the answer to why am I
here

• Millions of children are not safe physically,
  educationally, economically or spirituallythe
  poor youths who shoot up drugs on the street
  corners and the rich youths who do the same thing
  in their mansions share a common disconnectedness
  from any hope or purpose.
• Marian Wright Edelman, Childrens Defense Fund

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It was never our job to bond with these kids, it
should be the families, but more and more the
role is falling to the schools. Dr. Larry
Brendtro
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Its all about
relationships
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Purpose of Today

• Understand the new generation of students

• Understand schoolplace violence

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Schoolplace Violence
Although overall incidents of violence in
schools are decreasing, episodes of schoolplace
violence are increasing in intensity and have
become a trend. Columbine has forever changed the
way we do business Dr. John Nicoletti
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Traditional School Violence

• Pushing, shoving, fistfights, vandalism
• This form of violence has been decreasing and
  was seldom fatal.

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Current Trends in Schoolplace Violence

• Increasing intensity
• More casualties
• Multiple perpetrators
• Introduction of bombs in addition to guns

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Parallels School and Workplace Violence

• Almost all made threatening statements
• History of perceived injustices, minimal social
  support and poor adjustment
• All perpetrators gave indications and warnings
  that they were about to become violent

It is never a surprise and it never will be.
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From Pollyanna to Paranoia
Experts believe that this type of violence is
highly predictable in its nature and course and
that, with understanding, there are steps we can
take to intervene and prevent it.
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Early Warning Signs
There is not a single variable capable of
predicting violence. We can assume that the more
traits or behaviors the person has, the greater
the probability that he may act violently.
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Early Warning Signs

• Isolation
• --Social withdrawal
• --Feelings of rejection
• Sense of victimization
• School Issues
• Preoccupation with weapons/violence
• Escalation of inappropriate behaviors

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Threats of Violence

• Types of threats
• --Direct threats
• --Conditional threats
• --Veiled threats

Before they do it, they are going to tell you
they are going to do it, and tell you in a number
of ways.
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Formula for Violence

• Time
• Opportunity
• Ability
• Desire
• Stimulus

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Time

• Period of time needed to complete an act of
  violence including
• --Formulating and designing a plan
• --Overcoming inhibitions to violence
• --Executing the act
• Look for evidence of practicing behaviors or
  rehearsal aimed at decreasing inhibition.

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Opportunity

• The chance or opening, that allows access to the
  target
• Includes access to guns and other weapons
• Encourage a climate where students report any
  threats or inappropriate behaviors to school
  personnel.

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Ability

• The level of threat increases with the students
  ability to commit a violent act. Ability is
  determined by
• --Intelligence
• --Creativity
• --Experience with weaponry
• --Organizational skills
• They will tell you about
• their abilities.

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Desire

• The willingness to inflict injury or death must
  be present at a significant level for violence to
  occur.
• Desire builds within the individual to a point
  where its overwhelming and they feel a sense of
  urgency to act out.
• We can intervene to decrease desire.

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Stimulus

• An event or series of events that serve as a
  trigger
• --Suspensions or expulsions
• --Losses, especially involving humiliation
  or loss of self-esteem
• --Break-ups of relationships, especially for
  adolescents

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The Role of Protectors

• Recognize early signs of at-risk youth
• Address or report all threats or any behavioral
  observations that concern you
• Help to Minimize T-O-A-D-S
• Be familiar with Crisis Plan

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Its all about
relationships
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Purpose of Today

• Understand the new generation of students
• Understand schoolplace violence

• Create a safe school environment

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How Do We Facilitate a Safe, Caring and
Responsive School?

• Effective teaching
• Connecting with each child
• Meaningful and challenging curriculum
• Community collaboration, support and education
• Common and consistent standards of conduct

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Powerful teachers do lots of little things to
prevent problems from starting in the first
place. Erickson
Lead teachers do not coerce they talk to their
students and work out ways to solve problems.
Courtesy is the corebeing kind, listening, not
criticizing, no sarcasm . William Glasser
Every child needs one adult who is irrationally
crazy about them Dr. Larry Brendtro
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Purpose of Today

• Understand the new generation of students
• Understand schoolplace violence
• Create a safe school environment

• Learn how to reclaim our youth

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Violence will be reduced in our micro-level
interactions with kids. Jim Fay
Our goal is to put trees in front of students
whenever they cross boundaries of respect and
responsibility.
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Its all about
relationships
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Circle of Courage
Belonging
Mastery
Generosity
Independence
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Reclaiming Our Youth
Belonging
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Students Need to Have a Sense of Belonging
Kids need to find supportive relationships. If
not in school they will do whatever it takes in
the neighborhood or even in cyber-space. Betsy
Geddes
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Relationship Technology
Relationship is an action, not a feeling Crisis
is Opportunity Loving the Unlovable Disengaging
from the Conflict Cycle Earning the Trust of Youth
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Relationship Technology

• Relationship Building is an Endurance Event
• Respect Begets Respect
• Teaching Joy
• The Invitation to Belong
• Kids dont care what you know until they know
  that you care.

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Five Bonding Techniques -- Creating Deposits

• Handshake physical touch
• Eye contact
• Smile once they smile they are yours!
• Use their name
• Time spend time with kids. Time you spend in
  the hallways is a deposit!

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Relationship Bank Account

• Because You Will Make Withdrawals -
• Create More Positive Deposits!

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Reclaiming Our Youth

• Mastery

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Mastery

• When children feel confident, motivation for
  further achievement is enhanced.
• Need to develop cognitive, physical, social and
  emotional competence.
• Success and mastery produce social recognition
  and inner satisfaction.

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Mastery

• Brain-Friendly Learning
• Encourages active, not passive learning
• Is nonthreatening
• Is experiential
• Is social
• Learners Clubs
• Co-operative learning
• Use of conversation and discussion, not lecture
  and recitation.

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Reclaiming Our Youth
Independence
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Independence

• Give Responsibility to Teach Responsibility
• Use discipline, not punishment
• Guide with influence
• Modeling, group influence, discussion, positive
  expectations

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Independence

• Demand greatness, not obedience
• Communicate belief in the young persons ability
  to control his or her life
• Mobilize the power of peers----Peer helpers, peer
  counseling, youth self-government
• Tap their spirit of adventure---- Wilderness
  adventure, ropes courses, etc.

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Reclaiming Our Youth
Generosity
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Generosity

• Planned use of service learning, links academic
  learning with real human needs
• Should be exciting and spontaneous
• Direct people to people service is most powerful
• Challenging projects appeal to the strength of
  young people

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Generosity

• Examples
• Help with Special Olympics
• Buy groceries for needy families with money
  accumulated for stopping vandalism at school
• Chop firewood for the disabled
• Organize programs for daycare or nursing home
  facilities

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In every city and hamlet, schools could become
the new tribes to support and nurture children
and adolescents at risk. Dr. Larry Brendtro
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• The No. 1 protective factor against school
  violence is having a student feel connected to
  his school and that he fits in.
• Dr. Keith King
• University of Cincinnati

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Start building those
relationships
TODAY
TODAY
TODAY
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Credits

• Dr. Larry Brendtro, et. al., Reclaiming Youth at
  Risk, 605-647-5244
• Dr. John Nicoletti and Dr. Kelly Zinna, Violence
  Comes to School, 1-303-989-1617
• Strategies for Angry, Disruptive or Violent
  Youth, School Consultant Services, Inc., Golden,
  Colorado