Seeking Safer Schools: An Educator's Guide to Promoting School Safety.

This book examines some of the causes of violence in schools. It discusses school violence over the past 30 years and tracks the most common directions student violence takes. The text emphasizes the importance of partnerships in reducing violence--with students, parents, God, the community, and law enforcement--and looks at ways to improve these relationships. It describes how educators may improve campus safety by calling on people, technology, planning, training, and the law. It also emphasizes that the economic costs involved in enhancing student safety need not be excessive; through the careful use of people, technology, facilities, the law, training, and practice, schools can significantly heighten their students' safety. However, since the unthinkable sometimes happens in the best schools, ways that educators should react to an armed assault are likewise discussed, along with an outline of tactics that can significantly improve the chances of survival. The book concludes with suggestions for a long-term solution to on-campus violence and offers thoughts derived from the author's many years of observing firsthand the escalation of violence in the U.S. Two appendices provide further information on sexual harassment policies and the penal code. (RJM)