Nothing in the daily news causes more parent angst than a school shooting or traffic accident involving a school bus. An event may happen a thousand miles away in a community completely different than our own, yet the immediate response is fear that such a tragedy can happen to my or a neighborhood child.
We give our children to the school of our choice with the expectation that our child will be safeguarded and returned to us at the end of school day. School in this sense includes everything a child takes part in that is under school supervision. For some children school begins and ends with a bus ride. For some children, school is not only on the school campus but on field and athletic trips. For some children, school is between the school bells and for others school begins and ends well outside the bell system. No matter, the parental expectation is that a child will be safeguarded always.
The reality is exactly that. Children in school are safeguarded.
- The odds of a child being exposed to a school shooting are .00051 to 1. Even though the news of school shootings is horrendous and the frequency is increasing, the odds are exceptionally small that a child will be exposed to a school shooting. There are 54,000,000 children enrolled in 130,900 different schools in the US. The number of schools where shootings do not occur is so high that it dwarfs the number where shootings happen.
Truth rather than reality, however, is that even with exceptionally low odds, when a parent’s child is shot or exposed to a school shooting the world is never the same again. And no one predicts a school shooting; they happen without immediate warning.
- Children are more at risk of being shot at home or in their home community than at school. Gun violence is the leading cause of child death. More than 17,000 children are gunshot each year or about 60 children each day of the year.
The incidence of children killed by guns and mass shootings at schools has not changed gun laws one iota. One can argue that Americans are more committed to protecting the 2nd Amendment than they are to protecting their children.
- School safety and security measures have drastically improved and increased in the last five years. The days of unrestricted access and unlocked doors are no more. More schools are surrounded by camera systems and require identification before a person, even parents, can enter the school during a school day. However, not every window is bulletproof, and few backpacks or coat pockets are inspected at the schoolhouse door.
The next layer of school safety security will affect after school, evening, and weekend school activities. Few schools screen attendees at high school games.
- The NHTSA rates school buses as one of the safest modes of transportation for children. A child is eight times more likely to be injured in an accident in a family car than on a school bus. School bus accidents involving a fatality are less than 1% of all fatal accident each year and most of the deaths in school bus accidents are not children.
However, seeing an overturned school bus causes immediate images of injured and bleeding children and worry about school transportation systems.
- Safety features on school buses have improved in recent years. And driver training and school-to-bus communications also have improved. Additionally, the Hollywood image of a school bus driver who is friendly and caring about each child aboard the bus is more reality than not.
These facts do not mean that children are free from all harmful events while in school. Playground and athletic injuries happen. Our school soccer-playing grand daughter is recovering from ACL surgery following a game time injury. More than 200,000 children each year are treated for playground injuries, most of these from falling or tripping. There are 3,500,000 or more sports-related injuries each year. The likelihood of injury is still small; about 2.9 injuries per 1,000 athletes. These facts are facts, yet they do not dissuade parents from promoting and encouraging their children to be active at recess or joining school teams.
Bullying and harassment of children in and out of school is real. These peer-to-peer problems call for constant school vigilance and support. Approximately 20% of students report some form of bullying or harassment each year; one in five children. The degree of impact varies and is difficult to discern. For too many children, bullying and harassment is a PTSD injury that leads to significant socio-emotional issues.
Mental health for growing children has become a national issue with multiple layers. Because they are school-aged, all mental issues for children have some connection to their school. Schools that traditionally focus on academic, activities, arts, and athletics now add social-emotional health to their school programming. We will see state-funded resources for mental health education and programming increase soon.
The Big Duh!
Children are vulnerable to all sorts of accidents and tragedies. As I write this, a media note flashed on my screen telling of a child in our state struck in a school crosswalk this morning by a motorist. No one saw this event coming, but it happened.
Additionally, we read and hear of “bad” people who have access and do harm to children, in and out of school. Whenever the story is about a school person, we wonder if children in our school ever encounter such harmful adults. Sadly, school shootings and illegal, harmful adult behaviors do happen. Each of these stories re-energizes parent and school scrutiny of their child/student’s life so that such events are increasingly unlikely to happen.
Often, we hear it said after a child tragedy, “We have to make sure this never happens again!” Truth be told, “never again” is not attainable. However, creating an unlikelihood of tragedy and living safely and sanely within our reality of facts are attainable and school is a good place for children to be. Do not be surprised when your local school installs bulletproof windows and walks children and school guests through metal detectors in the near future. Safeguarding means safeguarding.