Thinking About School Safety

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Some of the most important lessons that have been learned about school safety are less concerned with what goes on in hallways than in heads. School safety is, to a substantial degree, a cognitive matter. We think about the nature of safety, how safety can and should be achieved, and how threats to safety can be explained. Improvements in school safety, therefore, may require changes in the way we think about it.

Lesson No. 1: Safety means different things to different people

Though obvious, it is necessary to reaffirm the fact that safety is a matter of perception. Perceptions, in turn, are highly influenced by experience. Someone who has experienced an assault is likely to think about safety differently from someone who has never been attacked. Those who know firsthand what it means to be victimized are less likely, for example, to take safety for granted. In schools serving poor students from high-crime neighborhoods, middle-class teachers with little personal experience of violence may find it difficult to comprehend what their students are thinking about as they sit in class. Someone who has never worried about what awaits them on the journey home or once they arrive may not appreciate the escalating anxiety that builds as the day goes on and intrudes on classroom learning. Someone who has never been abused by a family member may not understand why offers of help are met with distrust and wariness.

We have learned over the years that people's tolerance for certain behaviors varies considerably (Coleman, 1992, pp. 19–20). These variations reflect how they think about safety. One person may have a high tolerance for criticism and barbed humor, but another person is ready to fight at the drop of a sarcastic remark. It is not always easy to understand what factors in an individual's life conspire to produce a violent reaction. Our own perceptions frequently form a substantial barrier to understanding perceptions of others. Failure to understand, unfortunately, may only serve to exacerbate volatile situations.

Because school safety means different things to different people, it is prudent for educators to avoid assuming that consensus exists regarding such matters as the perceived level of safety in school or the best ways to combat safety threats. One violent incident, for example, may prompt some individuals to regard their school as unsafe. Others, because of their experiences, may treat fights and aggressive behavior as commonplace acts that do not necessitate great concern or unusual measures. Educators cannot turn back the clock and alter what students, staff members, and parents have experienced, nor can they easily dislodge inaccurate perceptions of school safety. What educators can do, though, is help people become aware of their different beliefs about safety and how best to achieve it.

Lesson No. 2: People confront threats to school safety with different mental models

How people think about matters such as school safety is highly influenced by what Senge (1990, pp. 174–204) calls "mental models." A mental model is a deeply held conviction about how the world works. Mental models range from simple generalizations, such as "some kids are just bad kids," to elaborate theories of human motivation. The power of mental models resides in the fact that they determine what we attend to. If we believe that unsafe schools are caused by a small number of "bad kids," we are unprepared to look for underlying conditions that contribute to violent and disruptive behavior.