Let’s not allow school violence to escape our concerns. It will occur again. Somewhere “where things like this are not supposed to happen.” Be prepared, not scared!

The Whole Child Blog

February 27, 2013

by Stephen Sroka

I dealt with school violence before it was fashionable and funded. To me, any child killed anywhere, anytime, is a huge tragedy. But decades ago, when children were killed in the inner city of Cleveland, you probably never heard about them.

When the killings moved to suburbs such as Columbine, they became national news. The Newtown shootings shocked the U.S. like no other school violence. Now, school violence prevention is front-page news.

Working with school safety for more than 30 years, I have tried to help schools and communities keep our youth safe and healthy so that they can learn more and live better. Here are several lessons that I have learned.

School violence can happen anywhere, but not here. After school shootings, I often heard “I cannot believe that it can happen here.”

As we have learned, school violence can happen anywhere. But don’t be surprised after the next tragedy if someone says, “I cannot believe that it can happen here.” Denial is human.

Be prepared, not scared. Schools are not pow

via School Safety Lessons Learned: From Cleveland to Newtown — Whole Child Education.