How To Behave If Your Child Doesn't Feel Safe At School

What should I do if my child doesn't feel safe at school?

If your child expresses that they don't feel safe at school, the first thing to do is ask them about it in some detail, listening more than talking. Try to find out very specifically and tangibly what it is that makes them feel unsafe. The next step is to go to the school and assess for yourself the things that your child has told you. Often there are situations that are out of view of adults, if there is truly a safety concern, it may be a lack of supervision, or that type of thing, but I will caution parents that sometimes kids will report safety problems at a school that are really exaggerated or not there, because they don't like the school, or some other type of situation. You want to do your own assessment, fairly objectively, ask questions of the school staff. Find out for yourself what the safety level is. Look around you. What does the school feel like? What does it sound like to you? Does it look clean? Does it look orderly? Do you hear profanity in the hallways? Are the children disruptive, and being left alone and not supervised? Ask yourself, does this look like a properly structured and supervised and calm environment? If you see things that bother you that backs up what your child says, do something about it and get involved. Ask for things to be done. You'll have to decide on the situation, what that is, as far as how appropriate that is. That may involve going beyond the school in some cases, talking to the boss's boss, if you will. Everybody has a boss. When I was a school district police chief, I would tell people, if you're not happy with me, here's who my boss is. Not everyone takes a proactive attitude like that, but as a parent paying tuition or tax payer paying tuition indirectly, you do have a right to some service, and just like any other organization, if you have problems with it, work to resolve it a professional adult manner.