The transformed school counselor chapter 11

Creating a Safe, Supportive, and Respectful School Culture and Environment The Transformed School Counselor Chapter 11... The Challenge for Educators  ensure students are safe and healt

Creating a Safe, Supportive, and Respectful

School Culture and Environment

The Transformed School Counselor

Chapter 11

Safe and Supportive Learning Environments

Every child deserves to be safe, respected,

valued and able to focus on learning.

(Jennings, U.S Department of Education, 2010)

What is the first step a school counselor can take to work towards this goal?

The Challenge for Educators

 ensure students are safe and healthy;

 have access to adults who care about their success;

 engage students in school participation;

 respect diversity;

 provide emotional and physical safety; and

 create school environments that address the physical surrounding, academic environment, wellness, and fairness in disciplinary enforcement

Why is there more violence among young people today?

 Do you remember situations in school when you were younger that resulted in violence?

 How were they resolved?

 What do you think was different about violence in schools then and now?

What is School Violence?

 How should we define school violence?

 Why is it important to agree on a definition

of violence?

School Violence Defined

a wide range of activities, including assaults with or without weapons, physical fights,

threats or destructive acts other than physical fights, robbery, harassment, dating violence, molestation, rape, bullying,

hostile or threatening remarks between groups of students, and gang violence

(Centers for Disease Control, 2010; Fisher & Kettl, 2001)

What’s the Difference?

 A disruptive student is one who interferes with the educational process or a teacher’s authority over the students in the classroom

 The violent student may possess or threaten

to use a gun, knife, or a dangerous weapon;

or damage or destroy school district or personal property.

Can you provide an example of each?

Bullying: Violence or Disruption?

For a behavior to be considered bullying, it must have three elements: It must be

intended to harm, it must be repetitive, and

a difference of power, e.g., physical, social, age, size, etc., must exist between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993).

Bullying: 21 st Century Style

 Face to face: victim, bully, bystander

 Cyberbullying

 Sexual harassment

School Risk Factors

 Academic failure

 Low bonding to school

 Truancy and dropping out of school

 Frequent school transitions

Early Warning Signs

 Social withdrawal

 Excessive feelings of isolation and being alone

 Excessive feelings of rejection

 Being a victim of violence

 Feelings of being picked on and persecuted

 Low school interest and poor academic performance

 Expression of violence in writings and drawings

 Uncontrolled anger

 Patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating, and bullying behavior

 History of discipline problems

 Past history of violent and aggressive behavior

 Intolerance for differences and prejudicial attitudes

 Drug use and alcohol use

IMMINENT WARNING SIGNS

 Serious physical fighting with peers or family members

 Severe destruction of property

 Severe rage for seemingly minor reasons

 Detailed threats of lethal violence

 Possession and/or use of firearms and other weapons

 Other self-injurious behaviors or threats of suicide

PRINCIPLES FOR IDENTITYING THE EARLY WARNING SIGNS

Characteristics and Actions of Successful Programs

 long-term commitment to sustain interventions K–12

 strong administrative leadership that ensures consistent, clear disciplinary policies;

 training to help teachers and staff work with disruptive training to help teachers and staff work

students, mediate conflict, and proactively incorporate prevention strategies

 parental awareness of the early warning signs for violence prevention and engage them to serve as volunteers in

school programs

 Partnerships and collaboration to address the multiple

Character Education is an intentional effort to help students understand, care about, and act on core ethical values including:

values of respect responsibility

trustworthiness fairness

diligence self-control caring

courage citizenship

Character Matters

Programs of Promise

Connecting Character to Conduct (Stein et al., 2001) is a comprehensive methodology that promotes the core values of RICE:

Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Programs

Students (and teachers) acquire skills to:

• understand and manage conflict

• identify alternatives to resolve issues

• mediate conflict

• contribute to positive school climate

Building a Climate of RESPECT

What issue will you tackle first?

What can you do to help ensure that your school will be safe,

respectful, and free from prejudice?

Legal and Ethical Challenges

What are the legal challenges that school counselors need to be mindful of with regard to school safety issues?

School Counselors: Committed

to Safe and Supportive Schools

Schools have the power “to turn a child’s life from risk to resilience,” (Benard, p 63) and that power is in our hands