Student Safety Committee, Get the Students On Board

DON'T FORGET STUDENTS ARE STAKEHOLDERS IN YOUR SCHOOL PREPAREDNESS NETWORK...THEY ARE VITAL TO THE PROCESS.

At the school where I work, we have a School Safety Committee which has a cross representation of all different  adult stakeholders from the building: Principal, Housemasters, School Resource Officer, School Security, Union Rep, Teachers, Main Office Secretarial Rep, School Psychologist, Facilities Manager, etc. We focus on an all hazard approach to safety and security in accordance with a NIMs approach. We meet monthly with a monthly theme and have a templated process. We came to the realization that we had no direct student input in the process, so we are developing a Student School Safety Committee. I will be the group mentor / facilitator but it will be a student led effort and the outputs from their meeting will be inputs to the School Safety Committee that meets monthly and vice versa. It is interesting in that a student's perspective on safety, security, and preparedness offer some unique perspectives. More to follow, but it is a a concept other schools that do not directly include students in their process to look at.

SCHOOL PREPAREDNESS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS DONE "TO" THE STUDENTS TO KEEP THEM SAFE AND SECURE, THEY ARE KEY MEMBERS OF THAT PROCESS AND OFTEN ARE THE FIRST LINE OF SCHOOL PREPAREDNESS.