School Safety

This paper reviews studies on school safety and safety precautionary measures in schools to safe guard the lives and properties in the school environment. To this end, the review is done under the following headings: theoretical framework; concept of safe school; relevance of the concept of safe school to health education; empirical evidences of studies on school safety. The primary responsibility of every Local Education Authority (LEA) is to ensure a safe and secure environment for students, staff and visitors. Specific actions that schools can take to increase school safety include ways to identify possible warning signs of students-at-risk and provide support to such students who do not feel that they belong in the school community. Working together, schools and community partners can focus their emergency planning using national guidance, including efforts to build a positive school climate to establish relations of trust and respect among students and staff in order to encourage them to share information about threatening behavior before an incident occurs. Students who do not feel safe at school stay home, and when students are not in school, they do not perform academically; it is therefore recommended that students’ perception of safe school is vital for progress in the entire educational endeavour.