| Anonymity
Spurs Students to Report Potential Violence
Students often know about the threat of violence in a school -- even when administrators and teachers
are in the dark. Yet fear of reprisal or being labeled a snitch may keep students silent. Programs that
provide anonymity to students and others reporting crime, violence, or the threat of violence can help
make our schools safer places for learning. But, administrators caution, such programs are just one piece
of an effort to make schools safer places. Included: Education World talks with administrators who use
online violence reporting programs in their schools.
When Tragedy Strikes: What Schools
Should Do
Tragedies happen. Children and parents die. Teens commit suicide. And teachers must face their students
after the unthinkable happens. Today, Education World talks to educators and psychologists who have helped
students and teachers deal with death, suicide, and murder. Included: Tips for teachers and administrators
for handling the death of a student.
Secret Service Report Targets School
Violence
School shooters don't snap. They plan. And somebody else usually knows before they attack. The Secret
Service advises schools to get troubled kids help before they plot their attack and to find ways to break
down the barriers that inhibit students from telling an adult about a planned attack. Included: Tips for
identifying potential school shooters.
An Education World e-Interview With
Hank Nuwer, Author of "High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs"
Hank Nuwer, currently an adjunct professor in journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University, has
been writing and speaking about hazing behavior and its consequences "nonstop" for the past 14 years.
His earlier books on hazing, "Wrongs of Passage" (Indiana University Press, 1999) and "Broken Pledges:
The Deadly Rite of Hazing" (Longstreet Press, 1990), were written for adults. Recently, Nuwer talked to
Education World about his latest book, "High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs" (Franklin Watts,
2000), which is directed toward high school students.
The School Shooter: One Solution
Doesn't Fit All
A new FBI report shares the organization's expertise so educators can systematically evaluate student
threats. In detailed guidelines, the report provides criteria to help educators determine the level of
risk posed by a particular student threat, describes the risk factors in four different contexts that
should signal a warning about a student, and suggests interventions. Some educators raise concerns that
the guidelines could be used to unfairly profile students. Included: The FBI's list of student traits
and school, family, and social dynamics that may signal warnings of potentially violent behavior.
Hazing: It’s Not Just a College
Problem Anymore!
In a public statement released this week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) accepted responsibility
for the alcohol-related death of freshman Scott Krueger in a 1997 fraternity hazing ritual. In a letter
to Krueger’s family, MIT President Charles Vest wrote, “At a very personal level, I feel that we at MIT
failed you and Scott.” A recent study suggests that hazing isn’t just a college problem anymore. Our high
schools, it appears, also fail their students. Included: Tips to help schools prevent hazing.
Information Sharing to Make Colorado
Schools Safer
In 1994, an amended federal law opened the door for Colorado to enact a law this year to allow school
and criminal justice officials to share information about violent and disruptive students. The new law
is intended to help prevent future school violence. Will more states follow Colorado and the other states
that have enacted this law?
Don't Get Even; Get Help!: Support
for Victims of Bullies
Education World continues its week-long exploration of bullying with a story about students in one Canadian
school who decided to do something about bullying in their school. They created www.bullying.org,
a Web site designed to help victims of bullies deal with the problem in nonviolent ways -- and to help
victims and others learn how to solve the problem.
Bullying Intervention Strategies
That Work
"Bullying," according to noted expert Dan Olweus, "poisons the educational environment and affects the
learning of every child." Learn what you can do to keep bullying behavior from poisoning your school.
Included: Practical tips for changing the behavior of bullies and their victims.
Sticks and Stones and *Names* Can
Hurt You: De-Myth-tifying the Classroom Bully!
Bullies are raised in the home, but their victims are too frequently created in the classroom. Learn how
what you believe about bullies can hurt your students! Included: Ten myths about bullies, and the research
that helped identify those myths!
Stop Bullying Now!
For many years, bullying was seen as a necessary evil -- an unpleasant, but unavoidable, rite of childhood.
Ignore it, we thought, and eventually it will go away. The problem hasn’t gone away, though, and educators
can no longer afford to ignore it. Included: Ten activities for teaching kids about empathy, anger management,
and effective conflict resolution.
FEMA Program Helps Schools Develop
Emergency Response
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has introduced a planning process to help schools develop
procedures to respond to all types of disasters, including school violence.
An Education World e-Interview: Youth
Violence Expert James Garbarino
James Garbarino ---a national expert on youth violence and author of Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn
Violent and How We Can Save Them --- talked with Education World. Included: Garberino’s ideas about
how we can make our schools safe again.
Taking the Bully By the Horns
All kids know how to recognize bullies -- or do they? Taking the Bully by the Horns, written by Kathy
Noll and Jay Carter, teaches kids how to spot a bully, how to recognize bully "games" -- and how NOT to
play.
America's Safe Schools Week
In this issue, teachers will find helpful Internet resources for teaching conflict resolution in the classroom
and the latest children's books with messages of tolerance; and we'll point school administrators to resources
that will help them analyze school safety needs and programs.
Picture Books Help Kids Handle Anger and Bullying
This week, Education World reviews Bullies and Gangs, The Ant Bully, and When Sophie Gets Angry -- Really,
Really Angry… These three new picture books support classroom discussions of anger, bullying, violence,
and tolerance.
Conflict Resolution Education: Four Approaches
Are you "shopping" for a conflict resolution program for your schools? First, you might consider which
approach to conflict resolution you will take. In this story, learn about four approaches used in conflict
resolution programs. Find out how each actually transforms schools. Included: Resources for learning more
about each of the four approaches to conflict resolution education.
The Brain and Behavior -- Programmed for Violence?
In the aftermath of the latest school violence in Colorado, the entire country is once again asking "Why?"
Many researchers and educators now believe that some of those answers -- and perhaps some solutions --
might be found in brain research.
Schools Combat Violence
What's being done to combat violence in America's schools? What can school administrators and teachers
do? Should disruptive students be expelled? These are some of the problems educators, lawmakers, and other
experts are tackling today.
Follow the Rules, Get Safely to School
Follow the Rules, Get Safely to School is this year's National School Bus Safety Week theme. But bus safety
isn't a one-week topic. It's a year-round subject that connects to many curriculum areas.
Bully-Proof Your School
Recognized as more than just a problem between kids, schools are called upon to put forth a team effort
to end bullies' longtime reign of terror. |
