What strategies do you use to cope with school violence?

Suggesting the following:

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Prevalence, Fears, and Prevention, Jaana Juvonen

School shootings such as the one at Columbine High School in 1999 have left deep scars in our nation. The apparently random nature of these highly publicized shootings has raised public fears to epidemic proportions. According to 2001 polls, more than 50 percent of parents with children in grades K-12 and 75 percent of secondary school students now think that a school shooting could occur in their community.

Schools are taking a variety of measures to improve school safety. These include the use of metal detectors, the presence of security guards on campus, rules and regulations regarding student conduct and dress, profiling of potentially violent students, anti-bullying instructional programs, and counseling and mediation. Which of these approaches work? Which will reduce the incidence of violence in our schools and alleviate the fears of parents and children? How can school and district administrators choose among the myriad possibilities, and how can they know where to allocate precious resources?

RAND examined the literature regarding these programs and found that only a handful have been evaluated, and even fewer have been deemed effective or even promising. The goal of this paper is to describe the options that are currently available for schools. An analysis of the key components of various approaches in terms of their potential positive and negative effects can assist in the selection of policies, programs, and procedures while we wait for evaluations to be conducted."...

please, see the link for detail...

http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP219/index2.html

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Service Learning--A School Violence Prevention Strategy

........

School Safety Projects: Place School Violence on the Education Agenda

Have students create materials and presentations designed to persuade the student body, the principal, superintendent, and school board that quality education requires safe, disciplined, and peaceful schools. Stress the notion that school safety is a community concern requiring a community response.

• Develop and suggest school-wide procedures for dealing with specific school-safety crises that occur in your school. Look for methods to advocate the safety of students and school personnel.
• Create a school-safety clearing house in your school library. Feature up-to-date literature and other data on school safety. Topics might include: school-based crime and violence, causes of school violence, drug abuse, vandalism, weapons, child abuse, security measures, or school discipline.
• Have students consult with teachers and administrators to design and distribute a school-safety brochure. Useful information might include: types of school crime and violence, response techniques, contact information for reporting incidents ("Incident Reporting System" below), and more.
• Help school administrators implement reporting systems on incidents of school crime and violence and discipline or security problems.
• Develop and maintain a school safety bulletin board. Provide updated statistics on school crime and violence incidents at your school, attendance and dropout rates, incidents of vandalism and their costs. Compare your school crime and violence rates with those reported by local, state, and national juvenile-justice agencies.
• Form a school-safety student-advisory group. Work with school administrators, school boards, and the PTA to create a forum on school crime, violence, and safety. Bring in outside resource people from law enforcement, the juvenile justice system, social-service professionals, parents, and the media.
• Form a student-leadership group that gathers representatives from student-body organizations. Use them to form a student safety committee to identify school safety problems and solutions.
• Support America's Safe Schools Week. The third week in October is designated as a Safe Schools week. This would be an appropriate time to introduce any of the school-safety projects listed above.
• Create a student court to address student violations of school-safety laws. Called youth courts, these courts often include student judges, lawyers, jurors, bailiffs and court clerks. For more information on student courts, visit theFederal Youth Court Program web site.
• Develop a "buddy system" that pairs current students with newcomers to help them become acquainted with the school. Older students can also mentor smaller, younger students who may be vulnerable to bullying."...
• Please, see the link for more detail...

http://www.crf-usa.org/school-violence/school-violence-prevention-strategy.html

the best way to counter school violence is to communicate with children's and also to do the civic education of children

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Strategies to Stop Violence in Schools

School systems can implement a number of strategies to prevent violence in schools. One of those strategies is to put measures in place to identify bullying. Another is to recognize gang behavior, while a third is to be able to identify students who may be a potential threat to the student body and the staff. By having strategies in place, the administration can be on the same page and the lives of students can be saved.

Bullying

Bullying can be difficult to identify and at other times it may not be difficult to identify at all. Signs to look for include:

• A student cornering another student and the cornered student having a look of fear on their face.
• A student who avoids another student or group of students in the hallways.
• A student or group of students who seem aggressive toward others.

There are other signs as well, including a bullying student hanging out with a group of kids that teachers and school employees know are rough individuals.

Dealing with Violent Students

When you believe that a student may be violent, it is important that educators know how to deal with them. Here are some ways to deal with violent students:

When talking to a violent or potentially violent student, respect their silence and let them talk when they need to talk.

• Find what is considered a “safe zone” within the school and always have others present.
• Avoid language that may tease or shame them because they may retaliate when they feel that emotion.
• Respond with short statements rather than long ones because this is the violent student’s time to talk.

When dealing with violence as a whole, the school can hold assemblies and other meetings to teach children about anger management and the alternatives to violence. These alternatives can include turning to school staff to resolve a situation rather than resolving it on their own with violence.

Preventing Violence

There are a number of reasons why children may become violent at school. Some of those reasons include poverty that can lead to anger and discontent, family breakdown, domestic violence and child abuse, drug culture, immigration from countries where education is less valued, violent imagery such as that on television and video games, high parent expectations and competitiveness, and, of course, other causes that are unique to the child.

To prevent violence, school districts have responded in different ways. These ways include alternative programs, expulsion, suspension, locker searches, metal detectors, mentoring programs, closed lunches, dress codes, support groups, security guards, and conflict mediation training for teachers and administrators. The solution simply depends on the type of violence facing the school district and its severity. Unfortunately, budgets usually dictate the degree of safety children receive."

Please, see the link...

http://www.abusivekids.com/prevention-strategies.html

In the Philippines, the Department of Education has issued a policy to combat school violence prevention and management, advocating zero tolerance policy on school violence. This policy had become the subject of research of Ancho and Park (see the link below) where they recommend that conducting lectures on nonviolence and human rights education as a compulsory part of the curriculum serves as a strategic move in instilling values among students and the Philippine education system could also incorporate classes in values education, social studies, physical education, and language education, among others with discussion on peer relation, respect and nonviolence.

http://onlinepresent.org/proceedings/vol36_2013/7.pdf

Firstly, dialogue is the key to mutual understanding of each other in the social environment. Secondly,  you can read and adopt this strategy titled "Strategy: Violence Prevention And Problem Solving Education For Children" The link below will help you more. However, for any policy, strategy and dialogue to function effectively, both parties must be work together to develop and implement students goals. 

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/bullying/strategies/strategy-violence-prevention-and-problem-solving-education-for-children

A School Violence Prevention Strategy

Educators, school staff and administrators, and--most important--students agree that school violence represents a real threat to school safety and can deprive students--and teachers--of a safe and productive learning environment.

According to "Service-Learning: An Education strategy for Preventing School Violence," schools can address this problem as part of the educational agenda. They can provide meaningful educational structures that young people recognize on their own terms. They can offer students emotional as well as academic support, establish clear guidelines defining what behaviors are appropriate and which are not, and develop restorative responses to misconduct.

Alienated and disaffected students sometimes feel that they exist separate from their school and community, that they are different, that no one cares about them, and that it doesn't matter if they live or die. By grouping alienated and disaffected students with more motivated students and teachers, volunteers, school resource officers, and other adult mentors, service-learning projects can foster shared goals, objectives, and activities that can counteract all-too-familiar alienated, "nobody cares" attitudes.

By working together in service-learning projects designed to address real school and community problems, motivated and alienated students alike can engage in cooperative learning. Well- planned and -supervised, service-learning projects can help students develop new and useful skills, attitudes, and behavior. By interacting with groups and individuals outside their peer groups and subcultures, students may model new behaviors from positive role models they can respect on their own terms.

By allowing students to participate in the planning and implementation of service-learning projects, schools can encourage students to "buy in," to activities that demonstrate genuine value and offer opportunities for success to young people who are used to feeling helpless and uncared for, unsuccessful, and, therefore, uncaring.

The National School Safety Center (NSSC) has developed a useful white paper, "Working Together to Create Safe Schools." According to the NSSC, a comprehensive school safety plan should include "an ongoing process that encompasses the development of district-wide crime prevention policies, in-service training, crisis preparation, interagency cooperation, and student/parent participation."

Obviously, no single classroom, or even service-learning team should anticipate implementing a comprehensive set of school-safety strategies and objectives. Within an overall school-safety plan, however, there are many strategies that can be generated from classroom work to culminate in do-able service-learning projects.

The following school-safety strategies serve as guidelines for teachers and students to choose, plan, and implement practical, classroom-based, school safety service-learning projects.*

School Safety Projects: Place School Violence on the Education AgendaHave students create materials and presentations designed to persuade the student body, the principal, superintendent, and school board that quality education requires safe, disciplined, and peaceful schools. Stress the notion that school safety is a community concern requiring a community response.

Develop and suggest school-wide procedures for dealing with specific school-safety crises that occur in your school. Look for methods to advocate the safety of students and school personnel.

Create a school-safety clearing house in your school library. Feature up-to-date literature and other data on school safety. Topics might include: school-based crime and violence, causes of school violence, drug abuse, vandalism, weapons, child abuse, security measures, or school discipline.

Have students consult with teachers and administrators to design and distribute a school-safety brochure. Useful information might include: types of school crime and violence, response techniques, contact information for reporting incidents ("Incident Reporting System" below), and more.

Help school administrators implement reporting systems on incidents of school crime and violence and discipline or security problems.

Develop and maintain a school safety bulletin board. Provide updated statistics on school crime and violence incidents at your school, attendance and dropout rates, incidents of vandalism and their costs. Compare your school crime and violence rates with those reported by local, state, and national juvenile-justice agencies.

Form a school-safety student-advisory group. Work with school administrators, school boards, and the PTA to create a forum on school crime, violence, and safety. Bring in outside resource people from law enforcement, the juvenile justice system, social-service professionals, parents, and the media.

Form a student-leadership group that gathers representatives from student-body organizations. Use them to form a student safety committee to identify school safety problems and solutions.

Support America's Safe Schools Week. The third week in October is designated as a Safe Schools week. This would be an appropriate time to introduce any of the school-safety projects listed above.

Create a student court to address student violations of school-safety laws. Called youth courts, these courts often include student judges, lawyers, jurors, bailiffs and court clerks. For more information on student courts, visit theFederal Youth Court Program web site.

Develop a "buddy system" that pairs current students with newcomers to help them become acquainted with the school. Older students can also mentor smaller, younger students who may be vulnerable to bullying.

Additional strategies and methods to partner with school boards, school staff, students, parents, service organizations, business, government and community leaders, law enforcement professionals, and the media can be found on the National School Safety Center web site.

http://www.crf-usa.org/school-violence/school-violence-prevention-strategy.html

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001841/184162e.pdf

ı hope it may help you

I hope it may be a useful source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322132121_Initiatives_aimed_at_counteracting_school_violence_in_Poland

See the abstract where you will find further information.

Being as strict as possible. Fine will be a good option I think.

To implement each strategy or technique that we see below, it is necessary to adapt them to the context and age where we want to apply them. It also advises diaries and records of the activities and their evolutions for the evaluation of the procedures and see the effectiveness in prolonged periods of time.

- Emotional education: A child or adolescent who knows his emotions and how to act in front of them will undoubtedly generate significant learning to deal with various situations that generate stress or frustration. It is important to generate a space for dialogue where children can tell what is happening to them and contemplate what answers they can develop in the face of certain situations. The lack of competition at this level is what results in maladaptive responses and disruptive behaviors. Teaching emotions skills prevents interrelational problems, improves empathy, contributes to problem solving in assertive conversations and increases the feeling of belonging to the group.

- Cooperative learning: Create learning situations that are not competitive, that are designed for a student to achieve an objective, only if the other students also achieve it. These types of activities encourage peer cooperation, mutual learning and role exchange.

- KIVA method: It is an anti bullying program where different agents of the education system are involved: students, teachers, parents and non-teaching staff; that not only prevents but intervenes and supervises in situations of harassment.

- Awareness: It is very important that children from the beginning of school understand and know that all human beings are different and that these differences are rich to create a community of respect among all. This point is fundamental in school inclusión in order to create spaces where diversity is a topic of learning and not discrimination.

Normalmente tendemos a asociar el acoso escolar con las agresiones físicas, nos centramos en los golpes, empujones, etc… Probablemente este tipo de agresiones sean las más fáciles de reconocer, demostrar y por lo tanto son las más susceptibles de ser condenadas. Tenemos una creencia errónea acerca del maltrato.

Es cierto que las agresiones físicas, causan daños y que son una de las manifestaciones del acoso escolar, también es cierto que sus consecuencias son graves, pero no son las únicas manifestaciones del acoso escolar. Existen otras manifestaciones, más frecuentes, que son mucho más sutiles y a las que no solemos prestar demasiada atención cuyas consecuencias pueden ser mucho más graves. El acoso no empieza con golpes, empieza por pequeños actos silenciosos, que pueden pasar desapercibidos que poco a poco introducen a la víctima en ese rol del que será muy difícil salir.

El maltrato verbal y la exclusión social son formas de violencia que gozan de una cierta permisividad entre los adultos y compañeros de la víctima. Se convierten de este modo es acciones sutiles, pero con un gran impacto en el desarrollo emocional de la víctima, cuyo impacto es mucho más intenso que el daño físico y puede afectar al bienestar actual y futuro del niño.

The first thing is to sensitize the educational centers and teachers themselves and teach them enough knowledge to detect bullying. We must also avoid the thought that many people have, such as saying that they are children's things.