Reviews and critiques some of the more prominent school-safety databases. Develops a framework for collecting safe-schools indicators by merging the safe-school framework of the National Education Association with a social-indicators model. Provides recommendations for annual data collection, publication, and dissemination. (SLD)

Discusses the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) Laboratory Safety Standards as the major driving force in establishing and maintaining a safe working environment for teachers and students. (Author)

The key to violence prevention lies in shaping children's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors before violence becomes an automatic manifestation of their anger. The Johnson Institute's Respect and Protect program promotes respect for everyone and a systemwide ethos (violence as unacceptable), targets enabling behaviors, distinguishes between…

Provides construction and operation details for a tornado machine. Includes suggestions for investigations and information about tornado warnings. (DDR)

The Chesapeake (Virginia) Public Schools developed a strategic school-improvement plan with 178 recommendations representing certain goals: school safety, standards, effectiveness, efficiency, staff training, technology integration, community involvement, and facilities. The implementation process consisted of assigning responsibilities,…

Educators concerned about school safety have resorted to searching students, their lockers, and their possessions. These searches have led to litigation over whether the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures applies to public schools. Although courts have upheld reasonable searches, administrators should carefully…

Individuals wishing to establish a legal negligence claim against a principal must first present evidence of recognizable duty (adequate supervision); breach of duty; proximate cause; and injury. Wise principals schedule periodic meetings to review safety measures, focus on vulnerable areas, designate an emergency stand-in, review equipment and…

Discusses the Safe and Caring Schools Project, a Canadian program that encourages school practices that model and reinforce socially responsible and respectful behaviors so that learning and teaching can take place in a safe and caring environment. This holistic program stresses the importance of the role parents, teachers, and the community play…

Argues that covering crime in school publications can be effective in helping to solve campus problems. Notes that, with the right to cover the crime, comes the responsibility to be as accurate and fair as possible. Offers five suggestions on how to go about getting such a story. (SR)

Abraham Maslow's needs hierarchy proposes that people must satisfy their "deficiency" needs (for food, safety, love, belonging, and esteem) before they can move toward growth and achievement. Schools should help all students meet standards, stress rate of improvement, and report scores on school-climate measures. (MLH)

Describes technology-driven strategies for reducing school violence: (1) commitment communicated by newsletters and cable television; (2) elimination of weapons using metal detectors, surveillance cameras, breathalyzers, student passes, alarm systems, and school emergency plans; (3) two-way communications and low technology; (4) educational…

Discusses federal district court decision dismissing suit brought by three Texas high school students claiming that their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when police, at request of administrators, entered school and rounded up, handcuffed, and detained them and 11 other students who "hung out" with a student arrested…

Presents a crisis plan for schools to enact in emergencies, from the first 30 minutes after the incident to several weeks afterward. Includes: (1) recruiting the entire school staff in the plan's conception; (2) appointing a leader and a group of people responsible for carrying out specific tasks; (3) conducting a full-facility review to address…

Provides psychometric data on the Inviting School Safety Survey (ISSS) while examining the instrument's factor structure and internal consistency. Results indicate that the ISSS can provide a potential framework for measuring the influence of interventions on students' feelings of safety and freedom from delinquent and violent acts in the school…

Discusses the reduction of aggression in middle schools through organizational, curricular, programmatic, and philosophical school modifications. Considers specific school programs and provides a list of seven guidelines for addressing aggression and violence. (JPB)