Hot Topic:

Safe and Secure Learning

Environments
Isaiah Peters, Daniel Peña, Justin Rygiel, Leslie Rich
Content Warning:
This presentation deals with subject matter involving
suicide, bullying, sexual assault, and school violence
Teen Suicide
● Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds.
- 25 attempts are made for every completed teen suicide.
- Nearly 47,000 in 2017.
● The CDC has reported a 30% increase from the year 2000-2016
- Rates went up across all ages, but the rate of suicides and suicide attempts increase greatly
during adolescence.
- Suicides in teens have spiked with an annual percentage change of 10% between 2014 to
2017 for 15-19 year olds. Rates are at their highest since the year 2000.
● Hospital visits for suicidal ideation & attempts by children 5-17 more than
doubled from 2008-2015 & the school year corresponds with the increase.
- Hospitals would notice an increase in children admitted within four to six weeks once school
has started.
Teen Suicide
Factors:

- Death of a loved one, family/relationship issues or problems, cyberbullying, mental health

issues/disorders such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, etc., or other life stressors.

Warnings/Signs:

- Stay aware of signs such as talking about death/not being around any longer, talking about being a
burden, increase/notice substance abuse, exhibiting rage, anger, or mood swings, referring to death
within writings/poetry/artwork, change in eating/sleeping habits, decline in academic
performance/attendance/participation, as well as removal from their relationships such as groups of
friends or avoiding family.
What Could We Do?
You should know:
- The warning signs for mental health problems
- Who to turn to whether the principal, school nurse, school psychiatrist or psychologist, or social
worker
- How to access crisis support and other mental health services/resources
You can support by:
- Educate staff, parents, & students on symptoms of and help for mental health problems
- Helps ensure a positive, safe school environment
- Teach and reinforce positive behaviors & decision-making
- Encourage helping others, teach empathy
- Encourage good physical health
- Help ensure access to school-based mental health supports
Bullying
Definition of Bullying - Bullying is multiple incidents of intentional verbal or physical abuse, made repetitively, by one or
more students against one or more of their peers.

The Effects of Bullying Behavior

● Male students, are approximately 8.4 times more likely of being involved in repeated violent behaviors/physical abuse,
compared to female students.
● Only 1 out 10 students that are being bullied, will inform their parents or an adult.
● Being bullied makes the targeted victim feel insecure and constantly on guard.
● Bullies’ and their victims are about twice as likely to experience sleep difficulties, compared to those who have not been
exposed to bullying.
● Studies have shown that victims of bullying experience social pain many years after the incidents.
● Most (98.8%) aggressive bullies of the total of 5926 students involved in bullying behaviours study; demonstrated physical
aggressiveness, emotional harassment, and verbal assault.
● Bullying a student can negatively alter their victims view of the world and has lasting effects.
● After a victim has been bullied, psychological problems can occur such as, depression, anxiety and self-harm.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying Defined - Cyberbullying involves a student or group of students, that use information and communication technologies
like e-mail, cell phone, text messages, instant messaging, Facebook, and personal Websites, to publish deliberate, repeated, and
hostile media, that is intended to harm, character assassinate and negatively affect a targeted student/s. (Informa UK Limited, 2019).

Cyberbullying Terms Defined

● Flaming - When a Cyberbully sends rude, vulgar and angry messages at the student who is being bullied.
● Harassing - when a Cyberbully, repeatedly sends a person vulgar, rude or offensive messages.
● Cyberstalking - When a Cyberbully harasses their target by sending threatening or intimidating messages.
● Denigration - When a Cyberbully sends or posts harmful, untrue or hateful statements, about the targeted victim.
● Masquerade - (Cat Fishing) When a person creates a fake profile and fraudulently pretends to be someone else.
● Outing and Trickery - When a Cyberbully sends or posts sensitive, personal, private or embarrassing information
about the targeted victim.
● Exclusion - When a Cyberbully takes action in order to exclude their victim from a specific activity, group or event.
 Sexual Harassment & Assault Defined
Sexual Harassment is defined by the EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) as :

Harassment can include:

- “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances
- requests for sexual favors
- verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
And it is NEVER the victim's fault
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________

According do RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) sexual assault is:

sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault
include:
- Attempted rape
- Fondling or unwanted sexual touching
- Forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body
- Penetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape
And it is NEVER the victim's fault
https://www.rainn.org/articles/sexual-assault
https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm
Sexual Harassment & Assault
- Someone in America is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds
- Every 8 minutes that victim is a child
- 64% of sexual assaults against minors are committed by adults
- 36% are minor on minor assaults
- People from the age 12-34 are the most likely to be victims of sexual assault
- 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of sexual assault
- Minor on minor sexual harassment can often take the form of bullying
- Inappropriate remarks
- Repeated and unwanted flirting
- Small, but significant invasions of personal and physical privacy
Sexual Harassment
How to spot it:
- 40% of students who are being sexually harassed stop attending class
- Students may become hyper aroused because they feel unsafe in their environment
- Always alert, confrontational
- Students may also become depressive as a result of sexual harassment
- Isolating themselves, even blaming themselves

How to respond:
- Always intervene and report when you see behavior that could be sexual harassment or assault

Let Students know…

- You believe them

- It is not their fault
- You will help them, they are not alone
Aftermath of School Violence
Students that have experienced school violence, such as bullying, are likely to
develop symptoms of trauma.

Trauma

- “Trauma is the experience of severe psychological distress following any terrible or life-threatening
event. Sufferers may develop emotional disturbances such as extreme anxiety, anger, sadness,
survivor’s guilt, or PTSD.” (Psychology Today)
- Trauma affects every aspect of life for a student- from their mood, to their willingness to participate
in class or finish assignments.
Aftermath of School Violence cont.
What can students do?

- Tell a trusted adult, friend, teacher, etc.

- According to The Role of Parental and Community Involvement, students are apprehensive to stop bullying as it happens, for fear
that it will make them a target.
- This fear may also prevent them from reporting if a friend or classmate has brought a weapon to class.

What can parents do?

- Talk to their children about school violence.

- Search for resources to help their children.
- Therapy or counseling after violence at school can help students learn about their trauma and how to handle it, as well as helping
students understand bullying- why it happens and how it affects others.

What can faculty do?

Team building and education, pre and post-event Therapy dogs, mental health week, and open discussions about school violence can help
improve student relationship and school culture
School Security
Simpler and a more cost-effective way is to add perimeter fences to deter trespassing. “Fences and perimeter
boundary definition serve as the first layer of security for persons to gain access to the main entrance.”

Another line of defense a school can use and by using this also makes it cost effective is only have one point of entry
to channel the security resources. This is more unrealistic for a bigger school then it is for a smaller school to do.

A way that I have seen a lot of information about is arming teachers with firearms, or at least a select few that have
been trained to do so. One of the reason parents don’t want to do this is that it’s making the teacher feel more like
guards then teachers.
School Security
“In the morning of January 3, 2018, a 15-year-old white male walked into Marshall County High School in Benton,
Kentucky with a Ruger 9mm semiautomatic pistol and within 10 sec of shooting, he killed 2 and wounded 14
schoolmates. Armed school personnel would have needed to be in the exact same spot in the school as the shooter to
significantly reduce this level of trauma. Ten seconds is too fast to stop a school shooter with a semiautomatic
firearm when the armed school guard is in another place in the school.”

“They added exterior cameras in selected locations around the facility to monitor common areas and enhance the
overall security of the campus. Two high-definition video surveillance cameras with analytics technology at the
main entrance to monitor vehicles. A high-quality CCTV system with remote viewing access and remote video
surveillance capabilities. A Network Video Recorder (NVR) via a wireless access point, and on-site guarding on
weekends.” (Securitas Inc.2017). All of what the school added to their security would have cost them a minimum of
5,000 dollars depends on how many cameras they bought.
School Security
One of the ways to prevent youths from bring guns into schools is to have metal detectors. “According to the most
recent data available, from 2015-2016 only 11 percent had metal detectors.” (Strauss. 2019).

One of the biggest problems is how to make our school safer at the same time if we do add more security measures
it’s more like the school turning into a prison. We don’t want that to happen, but it seems as a society we are turning
into that way.

We all want our students to be safe but what is the practical solution to make all of our school a safe place for our
students to go.
References
Informa UK Limited (2019). Cyberbullying in High School: A Study of Students’ Behaviors and Beliefs about this New Phenomenon. Retrieved from:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771003788979

Maedica (2013). A Journal of Clinical Medicine: Bullying Among High School Students. Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3865123/

Securitas Inc. USA .2017. Prep School Taps Best in Class Security, from https://www.securitasinc.com/globalassets/us/files/case-studies/case-
study_k-12_school.pdf

The Authors (2017). Bullying effect on students performance. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1517758017300218

Valerie, Strauss. April 16, 2019 Study: There’s no evidence that hardening schools to make kids safer from gun violence actually works, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/04/16/study-theres-no-evidence-that-hardening-schools-make-kids-safer-gun-violence-actually-
works/

Randy Atlas, Ph.D., FAIA, CPP. March 23, 2017 8 Ways to Improve School Entrance Security from
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/8_ways_to_improve_school_entrance_security/

Vital Signs: Trends in State Suicide Rates - United States, 1999-2016 and Circumstances Contributing to Suicide- 27 States, 2015. (2019, June 10).
Retrieved From https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6722a1.htm?s_cid=mm6722a1_e