In a learning community, everyone must participate in decision making. Involving students in developing classroom rules, solving community problems, and reviewing school and district policies has lasting benefits. Service learning, mentoring, and mediation programs help students develop civic responsibility, interpersonal competence, and…

Staff members' relationships with high-school students are an important factor in ensuring school safety. Educators must demonstrate that all students can learn and behave appropriately; model socially acceptable behaviors; and minimize students' hostile feelings toward teachers, administrators, and school. Discipline tips are provided. (MLH)

Principals should consider redirecting school counselors' responsibilities to include directing safe-school teams; establishing networks to identify at-risk students and violent behavior signs; developing conflict-resolution activities; assessing and counseling misbehaving students; devising crisis- management plans; and helping staff predict and…

Discusses discipline in today's schools, examining common discipline problems, noting the effect of punishment; describing various disciplinary measures (peer mediation, peaceable schools, zero tolerance policies, and corporal punishment); emphasizing the importance of prevention versus punishment; discussing school safety; and highlighting the…

A review of the literature on special education and school discipline in light of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act finds little evidence to support student suspension and expulsion. Support is offered for a unified system of discipline that preserves both a free and appropriate public education and a safe…

This collection of seven articles examines the issue of playground safety, focusing on recent trends and mandates in playground safety; treated wood on playgrounds; safe playgrounds for infants and toddlers; achieving a safe ratio of adults to children; soft contained playgrounds; certified playground-safety inspectors; and playground injuries in…

Examined student views regarding violence-prone subcontexts in their schools, contrasting elementary and middle schools, grade levels, and different public locations at school. Found organization and social dynamics of the middle school likely influenced students' perceptions, and students in different grades within elementary and middle schools…

In this article, the author discusses the creation of a threat-assessment team to be utilized in order to analyze each threat and the usage of threat-assessment protocols for the purpose of guiding school administrators through a crisis. These are actually developed with the advice from the US Department of Education and the Secret Service. When a…

Children can be exposed to dangerous chemicals and toxins in the most unlikely of places: Their schools. This brief article describes the types of threats that school environments pose to students' health, including such pollution and chemical exposures as lead, mercury, arsenic, molds, and poor indoor air quality. The article provides tips for…

Experimental data from the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration were used to examine (a) if moving from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods (via randomization) was associated with low-income minority children's achievement, grade retention, and suspensions/expulsions; (b) if moving minimized gender differences in these outcomes; and…

High-profile cases have made the public aware of the horrific consequences of bullying and school violence and have left educators wondering whether schools are safe places for students and staff alike. According to an Angus Reid poll conducted by telephone in March-April, 1999, among a representative cross-section of 894 Canadian teens between 12…

The education of many Latino youth residing in urban communities is often hindered by fear of crime and violence occurring in places where they live and attend school. Addressing these concerns, this study tested a path model predicting school engagement that included neighborhood and school environment variables (e.g., neighborhood youth…

In spring 1994, the author was hired to be the assistant principal at McLoughlin Middle School in Medford, Oregon. Disciplinary referrals in the 804-student school were on the rise. Teachers were frustrated, students were anxious, and parents were concerned. Casting about for a solution, she heard about a two-day workshop on schoolwide discipline…

Bullying has never been easier. Any child, operating in relative anonymity on the Internet at any time of day or night, can harass and intimidate peers. Bullying has gone high tech as kids, usually between age 9 and 14, use personal computers, cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) to intimidate and manipulate their peers. Bullying…

Schools that take a tough stance against schoolyard bullying are beginning to realize how things are changing in the 21st century. Today's bullies are turning more to technology--and cyberspace--for the purpose of tormenting their victims. To some extent, it is classic bullying--but it is also bullying that takes place in a new medium that expands…