Safety in school

The Metro Nashville Police Department is working to staff all 75 student resource officer positions for Nashville schools after roughly 30% of them remained unfilled at the end of the latest school year. "Starting this fall, MNPD is committing to filling those vacancies following the addition of a new recruitment class so that all of our high schools and middle schools will have an SRO assigned daily," Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Adrienne Battle said at a school board meeting Tuesday night. As of May, Nashville police said 23 SRO positions were vacant, along with most of the 70 part-time school safety ambassador roles. Each of the 13 high school campuses across MNPS have at least two officers. Officers also rotate into middle schools. Battle did not specify whether future plans include staffing officers at elementary schools, which is part of a $140 million measure passed by Gov. Bill Lee to put an SRO in every public school in the state. Battle cited concerns over a spike in incidents in elementary schools with SROs and over having armed officers in the same space as younger children. Council meets Wednesday to discuss school safety Councilmember Jeff Syracuse led a meeting Wednesday to discuss school safety, opening with a statement of condolence to families of Covenant School. Syracuse said he met with families and was given advice to not rush to pass major legislation to give grieving families proper time. Both Battle and MNPD Lt. Jason Picanzo advocated du...

When the subject of classroom safety comes up these days, most people think immediately of the active shooter scenario. And while school shootings are a sad reality, they’re not the top suspect when it comes to injuries and illnesses inside your classroom. Over The risks don’t stop with injuries, however. The United States Fire Association reports that Keep a First-Aid Kit on Hand Every classroom, regardless of grade-level, needs a good first-aid kit. • Surgical Gloves • Band-Aids • Alcohol Wipes • Gauze • Adhesive Pads • Ice Packs If you’re a teacher or a concerned parent, you may be able to add more items to your classroom first-aid kit, but make sure you check first with your school administrators for guidelines. They may be more aware of students’ risks and needs than you are. Instruct Kids on Emergency Response Once your classroom has a first-aid kit, the next sensible course of action is to teach kids how to use it—and teach them what to do should an injury occur inside the classroom. Points to cover could include: • Stay calm—kids naturally want to help, so let them know that the best thing they can do is be thoughtful and ready to take direction. • Stay back unless you’re helping the victim—sometimes, though, kids want to be too helpful. Explain to them the importance of staying in their seats or giving someone who’s injured enough room for help to arrive. • Go for help—let kids know it’s okay to leave someone alone if need be, if that means getting help there as s...

SAFETY STRESSORS After being home and doing school virtually for so long, here are some common things that you may be concerned about when physically returning to school: COVID-19: The rules about when and where you need to wear a mask are different depending on where you live, and it can be confusing. Your school may or may not require masks to be worn, and with not everyone being able to get a vaccine, you might have concerns about getting sick, bringing sickness home from school, or going virtual again. BULLYING: One of the benefits of learning virtually was that you didn’t have to see bullies in person, so you may be worried about getting picked on again now that you’re back in a classroom. GETTING INTO TROUBLE: Being back in school probably means being on a stricter schedule than you got used to while doing virtual school, so it might be hard to sit still for hours at a time or to keep your behavior under control. Your teachers may also get stressed as everyone gets used to being back in school and they may seem less patient or meaner than you remember. You may feel like only certain people get disciplined for misbehaving, or some get punished worse than others. If you are one of the people who seems to be in trouble more often or faces harsher discipline than others who do the same thing, it can be scary. SCHOOL VIOLENCE: When no one was at school, there was no fighting in the halls and you stopped hearing about shootings or other acts of violence. Now that school is...