DOCUMENT RESUME EA 029 885 ED 432 032 Hamby, John V. AUTHOR Developing a Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan: A TITLE Practical Guide. National Dropout Prevention Center, Clemson, SC. INSTITUTION 1999-00-00 PUB DATE NOTE 46p. Clemson University, National Dropout Prevention Center, 209 AVAILABLE FROM Martin Street, Clemson, SC 29634-0726 ($15). Non-Classroom (055) Guides PUB TYPE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Discipline Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; DESCRIPTORS *Prevention; Risk Management; School Policy; *School Security; *Violence ABSTRACT This guide provides a conceptual framework and a step-by-step process to help educators implement a comprehensive violence-prevention plan. The plan is presented in four parts: (1) the four (3) the step-by-step (2) the three supporting actions; problem types; process; and (4) references and resources. The four types of problems related to violence prevention--what to do with a student who commits a violent act, how to keep violent students and weapons out of school, how to change the lives of potentially violent students so as to prevent violent incidents in the future, and how to ensure that all students will develop long-lasting, socially acceptable behavior--are all detailed, accompanied by suggested practices designed to solve each type of problem. Three supporting actions to foster the plan are also detailed: identify and institute policies, regulations, and contracts; initiate inservice programs for school personnel and others; and implement strategies for involving parents and the community. The step-by-step process entails organizing a school-safety committee, assessing the problems of violence, identifying existing policies, and using an assessment instrument. The assessment instrument, along with an overall priority-ranking form and planning worksheet, are provided in an appendix. (RJM) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Developing Comprehensive a Violence Prevent ion Plan AbirLmmal Practical Guide A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 0ftica1 Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION EDU DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRAN.TED BY This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position or policy. 1 John V. Hamby By 2 BESTCOPYAVA1LABLE Developing a Comprehensive ev Violencepr ention Plan /, / ( ,-- -, ; ) L ; , ,,,-,'N//-' __/ , /--. 7-/ ----- - \ z- A Practical Guide John V. Hamby By 3 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 0 1999, National Dropout Prevention Center College of Health, Education, and Human Development 209 Martin Street Clemson University Clemson, SC 29634-0726 (864) 656-0136 (fax) (864) 656-2599 e-mail: [email protected] www.dropoutprevention.org 4 AVAILABLE BEST COPY Cont ent s Introduction 1 Part One 5 The Four Problem Types Part Two 13 The Three Supporting Actions 19 Part Three The Step-by-Step Process 27 Part Four References and Resources Appendix 31 Reproducible Forms 5 INTRODUCTION Violence in Today's Sdhools A female student stabs an ex-boyfriend who jilted her. Two rival gangs fight in the parking lot because one gang member "dissed" another gang mem- ber. A student puts rat poison in her teacher's coffee after receiving a low grade on a test. A third grader pulls a knife on the playground when kids refuse to allow him to join the kickball game. Two high school students drag a female student into a janitor's closet and rape her. A recently suspended student returns to school with a pistol and threatens to kill the principal. Have any of these acts of violence occurred in your school? The media are replete with stories of these and many other acts of violence and threats of violence in our public schools at all grade levels. You may never have experienced acts such as those just described and consider that they could never happen in your school. However, violence often occurs unexpectedly, leaving schools, parents, and the community in shock and wondering why they had not seen it coming and asking how they could have prevented it. Just because violence has not occurred in the past does not mean that it may not occur in the future. Therefore, while violence may not be a serious problem in your school at present, it never hurts to be prepared. The Need for a Violence Prevention Plan It is important that you go beyond simple preparations for dealing with violent acts; it is vital that you put in place procedures that will prevent violent acts from occurring in the first place. You and your school must deal with the potential for violence as well as acts of violence. Thus, violence preven- tion is more than deciding what you will do with a student who commits a violent actalthough it is that. Violence prevention is more than keeping weapons out of schoolalthough it is that. Vio- lence prevention is more than helping students with behavioral problems learn new, more positive ways to cope with their anger and hostilityalthough it is that, too. Truly effective violence preven- tion means providing daily experiencesembedded in the school curriculumthat will engender and enhance in all students positive social attitudes and effective interpersonal skills necessary for group living. 6 AVA1LABL BEST COPY It is obvious, then, that an effective violence prevention plan requires that you address a variety of short-term and long-term issues. This means that you and your school staff must develop a compre- hensive planone that considers a range of problems and possible solutions for all students at all grade levels. Without such a plan, you and others in your school are likely to pursue a haphazard course resulting in a piecemeal set of unrelated practices. A Rational and Practical Approach This guide is designed to help you develop such a comprehensive plan. It presents a rational struc- ture and practical suggestions for developing a plan to deal with both violence and potential vio- lence. The structure has a "problem-solution" perspective. Four types of problems related to vio- lence prevention are identified that reflect those you and your staff are most likely to face. Sug- gested practices designed to solve each type of problem are presented, and these practices provide multiple options for each type of problem. They were selected from a variety of sources including ongoing programs, journals, books, and curriculum guides. The Problem-Solution Approadh Problem Type I What do we do with a student who commits a violent act? Solution Isolate: Remove the student from school. Problem Type II How do we keep violent students and weapons out of school? Solution Insulate: Develop policies and institute practices that identify and screen out undesirable intruders and weapons. Problem Type Ill How do we positively change the lives of potentially violent students in hopes of preventing violent incidents in the future? Solution Intervene: Provide direct instruction and ancillary experiences to help students who are potentially violent learn more socially acceptable behavior and alternatives to violence. 2 7 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Problem Type IV How do we ensure that all students will develop long-lasting socially-acceptable behavior? Solution Provide a school climate, classroom instruction, and enrichment experiences Immunize: that will help all young people learn to have self-control, to develop prosocial behavior, and to use nonviolent means of expressing themselves. Proactive and Reactive Comprehensiveness: These four categories progress from strategies dealing with right-now crises to strategies for estab- lishing long-range, educationally-related solutions. The emphasis shifts from reaction to proaction, It is obvious that policies and practices must from suppressing violence to enhancing nonviolence. be in place to deal with the here-and-now circumstanceswe must address the violent acts that are happening in the present. However, if our total approach to violence is to only react to events as they happen, we will find ourselves constantly dealing with the same problems over and over. Our attitudes toward comprehensive violence prevention must be the same as that for comprehensive dropout prevention or comprehensive drug abuse preventionwe must deal with immediate situa- tions while at the same time institutionalizing an educational plan that will keep violence from happening at all. Therefore, while it is tempting to put priority on policies and practices for Type I and ll problems, you and your staff must also see the need for and practicality of implementing policies and practices for Type III and IV problems as well. Supporting Actions Any violence prevention plan must incorporate some supporting actions: necessary school and dis- trict policies in place; in-service for teachers, administrators, and staff; and parent and community involvement. No program for violence reduction and prevention will succeed without needed poli- cies in place, training for the entire school staff, and the cooperation of parents and community institutions. Getting Started This guide is just a beginninga conceptual framework and a step-by-step process to help you get It is not, in and of itself, a program nor a completed plan. There is great variability across started. school districts and even schools within the same district. Although the guide sets forth four types of problems related to violence prevention and offers a wide range of strategies, it leaves the determi- nation of what constitutes violence and the choice of strategies for dealing with violence to the local school staff and community. This guide provides you with a myriad of suggested strategies within a conceptual framework so you can think through your problems and potential for problems in a logical fashion and come up with a rational, comprehensive plan tailored for your situation. And, if you already have a program of violence prevention in place, the process can help you assess the comprehensiveness of your efforts and suggest help where it is needed. 3 8 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Organization of This Guide This guide has been designed to assist you in developing the logical framework of a comprehensive violence prevention plan. Part One contains the four types of problems each with a corresponding list of suggested solu- tion strategies. Part Two describes the supporting actions, each with a corresponding list of suggested options. Part Three provides you with the step-by-step process to facilitate your use of this guide. Part Four includes a list of references, sources, and organizations to which you can refer for additional information. The Appendix includes the Assessment Instrument which will help you determine your needs and priorities; an Overall Priority Ranking Form to guide you in selecting a needed and compre- hensive set of strategies; and a Planning Worksheet to help you design the details for implement- ing each strategy you select. (Please note that the numbers in parentheses following each of the suggested strategies in Parts One, Two, and Three correspond to the numbers of the references found at the end of this guidebook from which the strategies were selected. You can refer to these sources for additional information about strategies.) 4 PART ONE Problem Type I What do we do with a student who commits a violent act? We must teach students that if they commit violence at school, they must pay the consequence. This perspective requires that the school define violent acts and the consequences that accrue to these Isolation might mean banishment from school, but it should not mean banishment from a acts. supervised educational setting. There should be a place to send studentseither alternative schools (night, separate schools) or a residential facility run by the state (boot camps, juvenile justice institu- tion, etc.). IsolateSuggested Solution Strategies Administer automatic suspension from school or placement in an in-school suspension program to a student for minor violent or aggressive acts (5). Administer automatic expulsion and referral to law enforcement or family court to a student for possession of a gun (5). Arrest and prosecute a student or a nonstudent intruder for use of a weapon or for commiting other serious acts of violence (5). Establish laws making parents financially liable for damage done by their children (6). Any time a student is suspended or expelled from school, work closely with law enforcement and human services agencies, parents, churches, and other community-based organizations to develop, fund, and staff alternatives that will separate the student from a regular school setting but provide for educational needs and rehabilitation (7). I 6