MPY School Safety Coordinator John Oteri discusses the need for school leaders to create a school culture that prioritizes safety and respect while fostering trust between students and staff. To learn more about how schools can create multi-disciplinary teams to minimize school threats, please register for the MPY Hybrid Conferences, Liability and Fidelity in School Threat Assessment on November 19, 2024 and Identifying and Managing Students at High Risk to Create a Safer School Environment on December 10, 2024. Both conferences will be held at Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School in Danvers, Mass.

Building Safe and Supportive Schools
by John Oteri, M.Ed., School and Safety Coordinator, Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth

Keeping our students safe is school leaders and educators top priority. In the last several years, this mission has taken on a more challenging and serious avenue. Barely a week passes in which we learn of a school shooting or a threat that was made against a school. Sometimes these have tragic consequences, more often the threat is intercepted and tragedy is averted, and yet the potentially grave outcome haunts school leaders and families.

In this country, school shootings and school threats have been far too common. To address this threat, we are constantly re-training and re-evaluating our capacities to respond, both proactively, to prevent a threat from formulating into action, and reactively, to keep our students safe in the building in the event of a shooting.  

School leaders must create a school culture that prioritizes safety and respect while fostering trust between students and staff. The best defense against school violence is to ensure that every student has a trusted adult that they will go to if aware of a threat. Schools must have strong social and emotional supports and be able to identify students without strong connections with staff and direct support to those students.   

Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth is a leader in the preventative aspect of school safety.  For many years, we have been a leader in providing Threat Assessment and Risk Assessment training for school leaders. The best, and most effective way to accomplish this is to assemble a multi-disciplined team in schools consisting of administrators, teachers, counselors, social workers, school nurses, coaches and school resource officers who are highly trained and meet regularly. These teams will assess, direct, manage and document threats and identify students at-risk of resorting to violence. Using an evidenced-based assessment tool such as CSTAG (Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines) will objectively guide the steps and help prevent an act of violence. To learn more about the CSTAG model, creating safer schools and managing and supporting students, please consider registering for MPY’s hybrid conferences on November 19 and December 10, 2024 at Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School.  

Similar Posts