For safe schooling, try an urban school

By Paul Kerstein

Did you know, despite common misconceptions and stereotypes, the safest schools, on average, are in urban areas?

According to Dale Yeager, CEO of Seraph, a security consulting and training firm, two-thirds of roughly 3 million crimes committed in schools occur in suburban and rural areas. In late November, Mr. Yeager addressed local parents, school officials and law enforcement of Sussex County, New Jersey about crime trends, according to an article on the Website for The New Jersey Herald.

He explained to the audience that school crime is not an urban problem, but a quality of life issue. While rural and suburban areas are usually more peaceful, the citizens in those communities are certainly not immune to what happens around the country. With that, he spoke of the warning signs that can be seen in any type of school and how negative cliques can form.

It’s refreshing to read about security experts and analysts going to communities to address the core of school safety issues and what communities can do at a grass roots level, rather than trying to sell a school system fancy metal detectors and security systems.

The article brings to mind one of my blog posts in 2006 about school safety and the debate on whether it was the responsibility of children to bring security matters to school and law enforcement officials.

Yeager’s comments to the citizens of Sussex County should ring loudly to those looking to involve children and adults at the grass roots level of school security. How can we know if anything is wrong if there is no communication with students?