5 Tips Every Parent Should Teach Their Kid About Staying Safe In School

5 Tips Every Parent Should Teach Their Kid About Staying Safe In School

One of the hardest things about being a parent is coming to terms with the fact that you cannot always be there to watch over your kid. There will be times where they are out of sight and out of reach, and these tend to be some of the most nerve-wracking moments for any parent, especially young parents. In order to combat this feeling, it is important that parents equip their children with the necessary tools that will ensure they are always safe and secure. When it comes to school, its importance can even be overshadowed by the scariness of trusting others with your child.

Now, do not take this as me trying to knock the education system (that is a different conversation). Instead, take it as an honest look at the way school works, and begin to analyze school security. Each child comes from a different home where they learn different things and have different values, and in addition to that, there are teachers, staff and other people that students will interact with. This is why it is important to make sure your child knows how to stay safe when they are interacting with so many different people for a majority of their day. Not only is that important, but it is also crucial that they know what to do should an emergency arise. There is no better-suited person than a parent to help teach kids the basics about staying safe in school. Here are some of the things parents should make sure their kids know about staying safe.

1. Memorizing Contact Information

This is a safety tip that parents can teach children to make sure that they always know who to call. It is best to make sure that the child knows their full name as well as their own contact information, which includes full address and home phone number. In this day and age, there may not be a home phone, so a child will have to have one or both parents numbers. They should ideally memorize the contact information as well, but if a child is too young a laminated call sheet in their backpack can offer some peace of mind. If you are relying on a call sheet, be sure that your child can be relied on to remember that it is there. Memorization is always best, as it shows that the child understands the information as well as remembering it.

In some cases, the emergency contact could be a doctor or specialists, depending on if the child has any special medical needs. This safety tip has come in handy for a countless number of children in school. If they are ever in a tight spot or injured, you want to make sure that they are able to provide necessary information that will allow you as a parent, to be notified. These type of records are often kept on file in a school office, but in severe emergencies it may be difficult to refer to those documents. Having the information memorized offers faster response in emergency situations.

2. Not To Talk To Strangers

Now, this may sound mundane and colloquial to some, but it is an extremely important part of keeping your child safe when they are at school. There is an ample amount of time during the school day for children to come into contact with strangers. This could be on their ride to school, during a break, or even on their way back home. It is crucial that your child understands that they should not engage with strangers, even those who might know their names, because this could end up jeopardizing their safety.

Knowing How To React In Emergency Situations

An important part of staying safe in school involves knowing how to react in emergency situations. There are many children whose lives have been put in danger because they did not know what to do. Regardless of how your child might react in that moment, it is best to make sure they have all the necessary tools and information to safely navigate a distressing and/or dangerous event. It is important to teach them emergency contact numbers, as well as protocols they should engage in the case of a fire, flood, active shooter situation etc.

Make sure that your child understands that they need to pay close attention to their authority figures during an emergency situation and follow their instructions. These authority figures could either be teachers or emergency personnel. Furthermore, parents should make it a point to regularly go over emergency safety plans with their children so that they have an idea of how well prepared their children are.

4. Pay Attention To Your Surroundings

In this day and age, children are presented with much more distractions outside of the home than ever before. These distractions are mostly centered around technology and smartphones, so it is important to make sure your child understands that they should not always have their head buried in their phone or some other distraction. The danger in this is that children tend to get distracted easily, and this puts them in a uniquely dangerous position.

A huge part of navigating school safely involves paying attention to the things that are going on around you so that you are always prepared to react. There are many children who have lost their lives or been injured simply because they were not paying attention in a school parking lot. The cliche way to put it is ‘Heads up, phone down’, and it helps keep them safe.

5. Personal Space Is Important

The world is unfortunately not the utopia. Many of us would like to imagine it to be, but there are some very bad things that can happen, and the sad part about it is you might never even know. Safety does not only encompass things like crossing the street safely and not talking to dangers, it also involves making sure that your child knows that their body is of the utmost importance and that no one has the right to touch them improperly.

In order to achieve this, parents have to be able to help their children understand the boundaries of their own bodies so that they know when someone is placing them in danger. However, this is only one-half of the equation. The other half involves cultivating a healthy environment for conversation so that your child can always feel safe coming to you to tell you anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.

Conclusion

Safety isn’t stagnant, although many people tend to think that it is. It is necessary for parents and children to actively pursue safety and remain vigilant about it. There is no one party that is responsible for making sure children stay safe in school, rather it is an intersection of different concerned parties that will result in effective school safety. However, parents are almost always the first place children go for information, so it is important that parents take advantage of this to teach their kids how to stay safe while they are in school. Also, do not be fooled into thinking that the points described above are the only ways that you can keep your kids completely safe. Make sure you keep the conversation going with them so that you can address any of their safety concerns or steer them in the right direction.