EDITORIAL: Taking responsibility for school safety

In addition to fears about school violence, parents and school administrators now have to worry about playground safety following two recent deaths resulting from goalpost injuries.

As news spread on Thursday of the tragic death of a student of Sts Peter and Paul Preparatory School in St Andrew, Youth and Culture Minister Olivia Grange asked the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) to investigate and recommend new standards for the design, construction and installation of goalposts.

That will be a useful exercise since the SDF has expertise in sports infrastructure development and would be able to recommend standards as far as sporting equipment goes. But that is simply not good enough, because that's for the long term. Right now, what is needed is an immediate safety audit of all schools.

Administrators in both public and private schools should be taking a critical look at all school-safety procedures. A safety checklist developed with input from security experts such as the police and fire department should be standard for all schools. This is an essential step in developing a safe-school plan that will assure parents that reasonable efforts have been implemented to keep their children safe.

Today, many parents must be asking themselves whether or not their children are being exposed to dangers which would not be tolerated in a supervised work environment. If the answer is yes, we anticipate that some parents may contemplate legal action if harm should come to their children.

parents expect safety

Despite the best-laid plans, accidents will happen as active children run around and develop their motor skills. In addition to which, rough play and aggressive behaviour may result in broken bones, cuts and bruises. But every parent who sends a child to school expects him or her to return home safely.

School principals have an overarching responsibility to ensure that they provide a safe and secure environment conducive to learning. And they must do this in a changing education climate which features growing disorder and increased violence. The safety checklist should also take into account the protection given to children when they participate in off-campus activities sponsored by their schools.

We ought not to forget the recent incident when a young boy jumped from a bus to his death in circumstances not altogether clear. From news reports, the bus was engaged in transporting students of Balmagie All-Age School who were participating in sports-day activities.

However, let's be clear about one thing: principals are not safety officers and have no expertise in this area. Responsibility for overall school safety should be shared by school boards, parents, teachers, the community as well as those who design, install and maintain their equipment. The Ministry of Education, which has the responsibility of running our schools, must ultimately be blamed for safety deficiencies.

A way has to be found to identify and train safety officers in schools so that the business of identifying, assessing and monitoring potentially hazardous or life-threatening situations is undertaken by competent professionals.

Students are entitled to a safe, orderly school environment in which to learn, and that is not asking too much.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.