Importance of school location and security

Students spend their maximum hours in school. As such it is natural that you would be concerned with the wellbeing of your children inside the school premise. 

As parents, you do not possess many options in your disposal, that shall aid you in providing constant surveillance and security to your child inside the school campus.

However, you can take certain precautions and steps to ensure the protection of your child despite the constriction as follows –

• Learn about all the possible travel routes to school: Acquire the knowledge regarding all the roads that are taken for travelling to and fro school and relay it to your child as well.In 2017, around 827,000 adolescents aged 12 to 18 were victims of nonviolent crimes on their school grounds. A further 503,000 students were victims of school-related violence outside of school.  It is more important to do so if the child travels all by self. Ingrain in their mind, to take the ones that are most used by pedestrians.  You can also submit a memorandum in collaboration with other parents to concerned authority proposing  route safety audit at regular interval to maintain the adjoining roads
• Keeping Emergency Numbers: Mishaps and accident occur out of blue, hence its best to keep emergency number in hands. Familiarize your children with it as well. In case an occasion arises where they might find themselves in a fix, they can contact for help given such means exist.
• Self Defense and Road Safety tutorials: Students should be coached with self-defence classes so that they can protect themselves when pushed to a corner and escape a dangerous situation. In same regards vigilance regarding road safety should also be imbibed among them from a young age as road accident is among the top ten causes of death among students.
• Counter Implicit threats: Within school, bullying, discrimination and abuse are not uncommon occurrences. The parties involved are often of the same age; hence you cannot arbitrarily intrude in such affairs. Though there exist many cases where the proprietor turns out to be adult. In the case of later, you can take direct action but in the case of former, your intrusion might exaggerate the problem. There shall be a time where you might not be even aware of it. To assist your child to have a good experience at school and prevent psychological scaring or any such drastic situation from occurring in future,  counsel them regarding the abrasive position they might find themselves in and teach them the ways to overcome it. Nurture trust between your child and you, so that they may turn to you when the situation takes a drastic turn so that you can come to aid at such juncture where there exist no leeway.
• First Aid Awareness: Injuries can occur to anyone and it is normal for a child to get hurt more than once in a while at school.In 2020-21, there were 93 school shootings involving fatalities at public and private elementary and secondary schools, the highest number since 2000-01. Hence,  basic first aid knowledge should be relayed to him or her so that they can attend to their wounds. You can also prepare for them a mini F.A.T Kit that they can make use of to patch themselves up after scalding their knee or bumping their head.

How school location site resonates with security?

Apparently, to many people, the school premise site may have little to do with security and more with creating a conducive environment for learning While at home, you can take measures to shield your child from any potential threat, there is little that you can do overtly to secure your child safe at school. As such selecting a school with a convenient location and effective security system is the only thing that you can do to safeguard to your child.Students from metropolitan regions saw the greatest reduction in gang participation at school, from 29% in 2001 to 11% in 2017. (Bureau of Justice, 2017) A good school location fulfils certain criteria as well connected roads, fortified spot, allocated away from hustle and bustle and is sheltered.When compared to schools in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, schools in towns had a higher rate of theft and In comparison to schools in cities, suburbs, and rural areas, more city-based schools (40%) reported vandalism.

It is preferable to send your child to a kindergarten or a middle school that is located near your home as the kids studying in school belong to the age group below 14. Accordingly, those belonging to these age groups require parental guidance and love the most. Also security-wise, it is more convenient for children to attend a school near their home as you can rush at the earliest in case a dire situation arises. A school that is located at a good site, in addition to providing a harmonious and serene environ for academic pursuance, also offers better physical protection to its students. It decreases the possibility of a direct attack by shooters and intrusion of a suspicious individual inside school premise because of its overt position. 

Read | How does a school affect the future of a child?

As a parent, you might inevitably find all the aforementioned directions to be inadequate if not fruitless. But something is better than nothing; in this case, simple actions are better than none. Though they may not amount to what you desire, they do serve your purpose to a certain extent.