How to prevent violence in schools
Talk to Your Children
Keeping the lines of communication open with your children and teens is an important step to keeping involved in their schoolwork, friends, and activities.
Ask open-ended questions and use phrases such as "tell me more" and "what do you think?" Phrases like these show your children that you are listening and that you want to hear more about their opinions, ideas, and how they view the world.
Start important discussions with your children—about violence, smoking, drugs, sex, drinking, death—even if the topics are difficult or embarrassing. Don't wait for your children or teens to come to you.
Set clear rules and Limits for your children
Children need clearly defined rules and limits set for them so that they know what is expected of them and the consequences for not complying. When setting family rules and limits, be sure children understand the purpose behind the rules and be consistent in enforcing them.
Discipline is more effective if children have been involved in establishing the rules and, oftentimes, in deciding the consequences. Remember to be fair and flexible—as your children grow older, they become ready for expanded rights and changes in rules and limits. Show your children through your actions how to adhere to rules and regulations, be responsible, have empathy toward others, control anger, and manage stress.
Know the warning signs
Knowing what's normal behavior for your son or daughter can help you recognize even small changes in behavior and give you an early warning that something is troubling your child.
Sudden changes—from subtle to dramatic—should alert parents to potential problems. These could include withdrawal from friends, decline in grades, abruptly quitting sports or clubs the child had previously enjoyed, sleep disruptions, eating problems, evasiveness, lying, and chronic physical complaints (stomachache or headaches). As a par
ent, it’s important to learn more about emotional & mental health.
Don't be afraid to Parent; know when to intervene
Parents need to step in and intervene when children exhibit behavior or attitudes that could potentially harm them or others. And you don't have to deal with problems alone— the most effective interventions have parent, school, and health professionals working together to provide on-going monitoring and support.
Stay Involved in Your Child's School Show your children you believe education is important and that you want your children to do their best in school by being involved in their education. Get to know your child's teachers and help them get to know you and your child. Communicate with your child's teachers throughout the school year, not just when problems arise.
Stay informed of school events, class projects, and homework assignments. Attend all parent orientation activities and parent-teacher conferences. Volunteer to assist with school functions and join your local PTA. Help your children seek a balance between schoolwork and outside activities. Parents also need to support school rules and goals.
Join your pta or a violence
prevention coalition
All parents, students, school staff, and members of the community need to be a part of creating safe school environments for our children. PTAs and other school-based groups can work to identify problems and causes of school violence and possible solutions for vio
lence prevention.
Help to organise a community violence prevention forum
Parents, school officials, and community members working together can be the most effective way to prevent violence in our schools.
Help develop a school Violence prevention and response plan
School communities that have violence prevention plans and crisis management teams in place can be more prepared to identify and avert potential problems and to know what to do when a crisis happens. The most effective violence prevention and response plans can be developed in cooperation with school and health officials, parents, and community members. These plans may include descriptions of school safety policies, early warning signs, intervention strategies, emergency response plans, and post-crisis procedures.
how to deal with the media in a crisis
Good public relations and media relations start with understanding how the media works and what they expect from organisations that issue press releases, hold press conferences, and distribute media kits.
Work to influence lawmakers
Writing an editorial for the local newspaper, holding a petition drive, speaking before a school board meeting, or sending a letter to your legislator can be effective ways to voice your opinion and gain support from decision makers for violence prevention programmes in your community. Working with other concerned parents, teachers, and community members, you can influence local, state and even federal decisions that affect the education, safety, and well-being of our children.
Profile and counsel at-risk individuals If carried out correctly, identifying and monitoring at-risk children will improve school safety. Identifying potentially violent individuals early means there is more time to steer the student onto a new path, and also ensures that these efforts will be more effective.
Employing a qualified mental health professional who has experience handling at-risk children or adolescents may be necessary for some situations. A professional can counsel potentially violent individuals with undivided attention and support that can further prevent dangerous situations.
There is also an urgent need for schools to have a school violence audit.
What is a school violence audit?
A research in the area of violence in schools specifically as to what works and what does not, and second, the importance of understanding and valuing the role of the school and its organisation in the prevention and minimisation of violence. Schafer and Korn (2003) state: “There are numerous and creative suggestions, projects and programs against violence in schools, but as long as nobody cares about their scientific evaluation, any success remains ‘miraculous’.” An audit makes efforts to measure or research the level or nature of difficulty in a school, produce an action plan based on this analysis and then monitor the implementation of that action plan. As such it attempts to bring a pre- and post-intervention focus to actions taken. Cowie et al. (2003) posit, “schools play an important part in reducing the risk of pupils becoming violent”. They go on to suggest that “violence is not a social inevitability in relation to socio-economic factors, and that the organisation of schools can in itself generate violence”. How well organised is this school to prevent, minimise and respond to issues of violence?
Why is an audit necessary? Audits are a process through which a school is able to understand better its relative position in relation to a particular area of school life. Based on a clearer understanding of the nature and/or extent of the problem (if one exists – and it may be that an audit indicates that a problem does not exist) a school is then in a better position to take both preventive and remedial action. Much as an audit is important, schools have the responsibility to ensure it is credible and consequently use it to come up with ways of preventing violence in schools.
“You have so much power to bring awareness, prevention and change.” Ashley Judd