Tips to Prevent Violence in Schools

For Parents

Give your children consistent love and attention. This is your children's right and they are more likely to listen to any advice you may give.

Communicate openly with your children, and encourage them to talk about all aspects of their lives.  In this way you become a friend who is always there for them when needed. Having no one in the home to talk to, depending on the nature of their concerns, can lead them to be depressed or seek relief or help by some other means outside of the home.

Set clear standards for your children's behavior and be consistent about rules and discipline. Involve the child in the process of setting rules and discuss the reasons for those rules.

Make sure your children are supervised. Insist on knowing their friends and the parents of their friends. Encourage supervised after-school activities. Know your children's habits and where they hang out with friends.

Demonstrate Conflict Resolution. Be a role model and set examples on ways of resolving conflict.

Try to limit your children's exposure to violence in the home or community. What we see around us becomes a habit.

Try to limit your children's exposure to violence in the media. Seeing violence in the media regularly increases desensitization and lack of knowledge of the consequences, especially with nonphysical forms of violence.

Take the initiative to make your school and community safer. J oin with other concerned parents, the parents association, etc., for the benefit of your children.

Talk with your children and make them aware of good safety practices. Help prevent them from becoming crime victims and teach them how to act when they observe a dangerous situation at school. Encourage your children to report a weapon on the premises to a teacher or school administrator.

For Students and Youth

Maintain open communication with your parents. L et them know of any difficult situation at school or university.

Break the code of silence. Let others know if you have been threatened. Remaining silent only gives that person power over you and your life.

Report a weapon on the premises to a teacher or administrator of the school or university.

Stop and think before you act. Make good choices. Give yourself a time-out if needed.

Be a positive influence on your peers by promoting zero tolerance for violence in your school or university. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Become involved in stopping school problems instead of being the cause of them. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

For the Community

Contact authorities when you see an underage child on the street during school hours.

Support school initiatives that suspend or expel youth that commit violent acts.

Volunteer to work in your school and ask how you can become involved in helping children understand school violence prevention and the importance of education.

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 Source: Safeyouth.org