SCHOOL SAFETY AND

SECURITYTOOLKITA Guide for

Parents, Schools,and CommunitiesNATIONAL

CRIMEPREVENTIONCOUNCIL

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) is a private, nonprofit tax-exempt [501(c)(3)] organizationwhose primary mission is to be the nation’s leader in helping people keep themselves, their families, and theircommunities safe from crime. NCPC’s strategic plan for 2007 through 2011 is centered on four goals: protectchildren and youth; partner with government and law enforcement to prevent crime; promote crime preven-tion and personal safety basics; and respond to emerging crime trends. NCPC publishes books, kits of camera-ready program materials, posters, and informational and policy reports on a variety of crime prevention andcommunity-building subjects. NCPC offers training, technical assistance, and a national focus for crime pre-vention: it acts as secretariat for the Crime Prevention Coalition of America, more than 400 national, federal,state, and local organizations representing thousands of constituents who are committed to preventing crime.NCPC also sponsors the National Crime Prevention Association, an individual membership association topromote resources and career development to crime prevention practitioners. It hosts two websites: www.ncpc.org for adults and www.mcgruff.org for children. It operates demonstration programs in schools, neighbor-hoods, and entire jurisdictions and takes a major leadership role in youth crime prevention and youth service.NCPC manages the McGruff® “Take A Bite Out Of Crime®” public service advertising campaign and theCircle of Respect initiative, which initially focuses on bullying and cyberbullying. NCPC is funded through avariety of government agencies, corporate and private foundations, and donations from private individuals.

This project was supported by Cooperative Funding Agreement No. 2007-DD-BX-K071 awarded by theBureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of JusticePrograms, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Officeof Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points of view oropinions in this document are those of the author and do not represent the official position or policies ofthe U.S. Department of Justice.

Copyright © 2009 National Crime Prevention Council

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of AmericaDecember 2009

National Crime Prevention Council2345 Crystal Drive, Suite 500Arlington, VA 22202Phone: 202-466-6272Fax: 202-296-1356www.ncpc.org

NATIONALCRIMEPREVENTIONCOUNCIL

SCHOOL SAFETY AND

SECURITYTOOLKITA Guide for

Parents, Schools,and Communities

NATIONALCRIMEPREVENTIONCOUNCIL

Dear School Administrator, Teacher, or Counselor:

We are pleased to present you with the second edition of School Safety and Security Toolkit: AComprehensive Guide for Schools. We hope that it will enable you to work together to make ourschools safe places in which our children can learn and grow and become the responsible citizens oftomorrow.

Although reports of school shootings dominate the media, we must remember that other less deadlyoutbreaks of violence take place in schools across the country every day. These events may seeminsignificant compared to the horror of the much-publicized shootings, but they are symptoms ofproblems that should be addressed. Bullying, intimidation, and harassment can serve as the founda-tion for lethal events in the future, and educators now consider them to be predictors of more seriouscrimes in schools and elsewhere.

Be Safe and Sound in School (B3S) is an initiative of the National Crime Prevention Council in col-laboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department ofJustice. It seeks to mobilize parents, policymakers, school officials, and students to take action to pre-vent violence in our schools by enhancing school safety and security in schools across the nation. Thegoals of Be Safe and Sound in School are to educate these audiences on the elements of school safety,engage all stakeholders in making schools safer, and facilitate the development of strategic plans thatwill effectively address each school’s unique safety and security concerns.

This toolkit is an easy-to-use guide that will assist administrators in implementing the B3S model intheir schools. It includes a step-by-step procedure for assessing school safety and security, forming anaction team, identifying problems, holding a forum with stakeholders to brainstorm solutions, devel-oping an action plan and building support for it, and evaluating the results. The appendices provideall the materials you will need to implement this process from surveys to identify the problems to asample press release and media advisory to publicize your efforts.

We encourage you to fill out the Be Safe and Sound in School registration form in the front of thistoolkit. This will enable us to provide you with updates and ideas from other B3S sites.

Our children are our most important resource. Ensuring that they are safe and secure in the schoolsacross our country is our most important task.

Cordially,

Ann M. HarkinsPresident and CEONational Crime Prevention Council

Register Your Initiative!Registering your school with B3S helps us get in touch with updates and ideas from other B3S sites, as wellas learn what else you need to make your initiative successful. The form should be completed by the individual who is using the toolkit.

Be Safe and Sound in School Registration Form

Contact name

Contact address

Contact Email

Day phone (optional)

Please tell us more about the school where this Be Safe and Sound in School initiative will be conducted:

Name of school

School address

School website

Number of students attending the school:

School setting (check one): M Rural city or town M Urban M Suburban

Grade levels attending the school (circle all that apply):

K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

My connection to the school is as (check the most relevant)

M Parent M School counselor M School resource officer

M School principal M Teacher M PTA Officer

M Other (please indicate):

Thank you for registering your Be Safe and Sound initiative! Please fold this form so the NCPC address shows,seal it, add a stamp, and drop it in the mail.

FOLD

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Introduction 1School Safety and Security: A Growing Concern 1

How To Get Involved 3What This Kit Will Help You Accomplish 3What’s the Time Frame? 4

S T E P

1 Form an Action Team 5Getting Together 6

2 Identify Safety and Security Problems 8Existing Data 8Planning Checklist 8Safety and Security Surveys 9Safety and Security Assessment 10The Principles of Crime Prevention Through

Environmental Design 11CPTED and Your School’s

Physical Security 11Interpreting the Data 12

3 Brainstorm Solutions 14Should a Focus Group or Forum Be Held? 14When and Where Should the Forum

or Focus Group Be Held 14Who Should Participate? 14Planning Checklist 15Inviting Stakeholders 15Facilitating the Forum or Focus Group 16

4 Develop an Action Plan 19Developing the Plan 19Planning Checklist 19

5 Publicize Your Initiative 21Working With the Media 21Planning Checklist 24

6 Promote Your Cause 25Elected Officials 25Businesses 25

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Contents

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7 Evaluate Success and Revise the Plan 27Measuring Up 27Following Up 27Planning Checklist 28

A P P E N D I C E S

A School Resource Inventory Guide 29

B Sample School Safety and Security Surveys 31

C Basic School Safety and Security Assessment 37

D Action Planning Chart 42

E Sample Safety and Security Action Plan 43

F Planning a Press Event 44

G Sample Media Advisory 47

H Sample Press Release 48

I Sample Promotion Letters 49

Resources 51

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Did all of this work pay off? Absolutely!GECAC Charter School experienced a dramaticdecrease in disciplinary referrals once the Be Safeand Sound program was fully under way. Referralsinvolving bathroom areas dropped from 2.7 perday in January to 0.56 per day in May. Similarly,lunchroom referrals fell from 2.4 per day to 0.5per day. Ultimately, the school achieved a demon-strably safer climate for its students and staff.

Maybe your school hasn’t had a crisis that war-rants national news coverage, but you’ve probablybecome increasingly aware of disturbing incidentsthat aren’t as harmless as they once seemed.Perhaps you’ve seen graffiti on the bleachers or abroken classroom window. Maybe you’ve heardthat a teacher’s car was stolen from the parking lotof a nearby school or that evidence of drug dealingwas found at the playground. Even if you haven’tnoticed anything unusual, it’s never too early tostart thinking about school safety and security.Preventive action can keep minor problems fromturning into serious ones.

Schools are among the safest places for our chil-dren, with more victimizations occurring awayfrom school than at school. And yet, in 2005, stu-dents ages 12 through 18 were victims of about1.5 million non-fatal crimes at school, includingtheft and violent crimes. That same year, about 29

percent of students in grades 9 through 12reported that someone had offered, sold, or giventhem an illegal drug on school property.1 Whileviolence, gangs, and drugs are still present inschools, it’s even more likely that students willexperience bullying, teasing, or personal propertydamage and theft during and on the way to andfrom school. Although such incidents are seem-ingly minor, they can escalate into crisis situations.Some notable statistics from Indicators of SchoolCrime and Safety: 2007 include

n Most school crime is theft, not serious violentcrime. In 2005, 33 thefts per 1,000 studentsoccurred at school. Generally, students ages 12to18 were more likely to be victims of theft atschool than away from school.2

n In 2005–06, 86 percent of public schoolsreported one or more serious violent incidents.3

n A higher percentage of middle schools than pri-mary (generally K–5) schools report varioustypes of discipline problems. Additionally, ahigher percentage of middle schools than highschools report daily or weekly occurrences ofschool bullying and sexual harassment.4

n During the 2005–06 school year, 48 percent ofpublic schools took serious disciplinary actionagainst a student. Thirty-two percent of schools

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IntroductionSchool Safety and Security: A Growing Concern

About a mile east of the center of Erie, PA, is a one-story building that was oncehome to the offices of a paper mill. It is now called the Greater Erie CommunityAction Committee (GECAC) Charter School. Striving to make an active contri-bution to the community and its members, the school dedicates itself to meetingthe special education needs of its approximately 320 children who are deemededucationally “at risk.” Unfortunately, in 2006, behavior referrals within theschool were as high as 100 per month and the intensive supervision room had asmany as 14 referrals each day. Teachers and staff grew increasingly concernedabout the bullying, fighting, and overall school climate that hindered their abilityto help their students succeed. With the help of the Be Safe and Sound program,the action team outlined its objectives to reduce fighting and bullying in areassuch as the hallways and bathrooms and moved forward with concrete activitiesto address these concerns. Such activities included the installation of a four-cam-era surveillance system for specific problem areas as well as the implementation ofa character development curriculum that stressed respect and responsibility.

reported taking a serious disciplinary action forphysical attacks or fights.5

n Students are not the only ones affected byschool crime. Teachers and other staff membersare also intimidated and victimized while atschool.6

n In 2005, 28 percent of students between theages of 12 and 18 reported that they had beenbullied at least once in the last six months.7

n In 2005, more than one-third of the studentpopulation had seen hate-related graffiti atschool, and 11 percent reported that someonehad used hate-related words towards them.8

Although it is necessary to address overt safetyand security issues, it is also important to note thatthe perception of crime can be just as debilitatingas crime itself. In 2005, 6 percent of studentsreported that they feared that they would beattacked or harmed at school; 6 percent of stu-dents also said that they avoided activities or placeswithin the school because of this fear.9 The fear ofbecoming a victim is real and can affect not only astudent’s social development and well-being butalso his or her readiness and ability to learn.Attendance and academic performance are closely

linked to how safe students perceive the schoolenvironment to be. It’s hard for young people toconcentrate on learning when they feel vulnerable,and a climate of fear forces teachers to shift theirfocus from teaching to policing.

School safety concerns are fast becoming animportant part of any dialog about improvingschool-wide academic performance. Fortunately,educators, like you, have come to realize that thefoundation of all learning is safety and securityand have begun to take the necessary steps to pro-mote a safe and secure learning environment forall students.

Notes

1. Rachel Dinkes et al., Indicators of School Crime andSafety: 2007 (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statisticsand National Center for Education Statistics, 2007), availableat http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008021.pdf.2. Ibid.3. Ibid.4. Ibid.5. Ibid.6. Ibid.7. Ibid.8. Ibid.9. Ibid.

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Did You Know?

Parent and caregiver involvement is crucial when it comes to creating safer schools. Nearlyall parents believe it is important to be involved in their child’s education. Most importantly,68 percent believe that it is important to help plan or implement school activities! Make aneffort to engage all parents and caregivers, as you move forward with your B3S program.

What This Kit Will Help YouAccomplish

Here is an outline of what you’ll find in thistoolkit.

S T E P

1 Form an Action TeamFinding partners who are equally con-cerned about school safety and security willbe important. You’ll work to form a BeSafe and Sound in School action team thatwill include teachers, students, parents, andother community members. This kit willdetail the duties and goals of the actionteam.

2 Identify Safety and SecurityProblemsThe action team will use various researchtools to get a clear picture of safety andsecurity risks at the school. NCPC has pro-vided several research tools in this kit.

3 Hold a School Safety andSecurity Forum or Focus GroupOnce the action team has identified a list ofschool safety and security problemsthrough research, it will convene a largergroup of community members in a forumor focus group. Participants will decidewhich problems need the most attentionand will brainstorm strategies for address-ing those problems. In this toolkit, NCPCprovides an outline and description of thisbrainstorming process.

4 Develop an Action PlanRecommendations from the forum or focusgroup will form the basis for a safety andsecurity action plan. The plan will spell outspecific safety and security improvements atthe school and how the action team willimplement them.

5 Publicize Your InitiativeYour action team will get the word outabout its Be Safe and Sound in School ini-tiative and begin follow-through on actionplan items. Media coverage of your initia-tive will build community support forsafety and security improvements at theschool. This kit provides you with helpfulresources such as a sample press release andmedia advisory.

6 Promote Your CauseEstablish relationships and ongoing com-munication with business leaders andelected officials. This will encourage themto advocate and lobby for your cause andultimately take your school safety and secu-rity efforts to the next level.

7 Evaluate Success and Revise the PlanOnce safety and security improvementshave been made at the school, the actionteam will conduct follow-up research todetermine whether the changes are makinga difference. This research will help theteam make adjustments to the action plan.

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How To Get InvolvedImproving the safety and security of your school may seem like a big task; how-ever it is not complicated when you follow a few basic steps. Be Safe and Soundin School (B3S) comprises a seven-step model that encourages schools to establishpartnerships among all stakeholders in a collaborative effort to improve schoolsafety and security.

What’s the Time Frame?

B3S can be used on an ongoing basis to make school safety and security improve-ments. Getting an initiative started at your school will take about a year. A typicaltimeline might look like this:

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July–August September–October

November December–April May–June

FormActionTeam

PerformSecurity

Assessments

HoldForum and

DevelopActionPlan

Implement Evaluateand

Reassess

To accomplish this, you’ll need to build partner-ships with other school administrators, staff, coun-selors, and parents, as well as with the studentswithin your school. Keep in mind that studentsare vital resources when undertaking a schoolsafety and security action plan as they are mostdirectly affected by the results and can be pivotalin ensuring the continued success of the project iftheir involvement is encouraged from the onset. Ifteens have been victims of crime or abuse atschool, participating in safety improvements canbe empowering and a step toward overcomingtheir victimization. Students at the high schoollevel are important to include in your efforts toassess and improve school safety and security.When recruiting students for the action team,consider approaching clubs that may have aninterest in an element of school safety or classes(such as statistics or art) that can help in analyzingsurveys or developing fliers

Other potential recruits for your safety andsecurity action team may include those listedbelow.

PTA/PTO officers and other concerned parents—Research has shown that when parentsare involved in any aspect of their children’s edu-cation, their children do better. Safety is essentialto a healthy learning environment and few otherswould advocate as passionately as a concerned par-ent. Many parents often have questions or valuableideas to offer but may feel intimidated by theschool system. Send fliers or develop newsletters,and invite parents to your meetings. Encouragetheir participation in discussions, let them knowthat their opinions and suggestions are valued andneeded.

Business and community leaders—Businessesmay have access to supplies and resources that theycould contribute to your school safety efforts.They are often connected to local, elected policy-makers and can advocate for change in your

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Step 1: Form an Action TeamA school safety and security action team is a group dedicated to assessing safetyand security threats, developing strategies for action, facilitating improvements,and evaluating outcomes. Your school may already have a safety and securitycommittee or an action team. If not, now is the time to organize one.

Parent Tip: EncourageParents To Become Involvedin Your School Safety Efforts

Only one in three parents has beeninvolved in discussions regardingschool safety issues such as bullying orweapons in school. Increasing parentalinvolvement in your school safetyefforts must begin with including par-ents in the conversation.

n Invite parents to meetings aboutschool safety and encourage theirparticipation in the discussion.

n Host a walk-through of the buildingwhere parents can learn about yourplans for improvement and offer theirinsight as well.

n Create a discussion forum on yourschool’s website where parents canvoice their concerns and sugges-tions, and receive a response from aschool official.

school. Reach out to your local businesses andinvite them to events and/or forums and informthem that getting involved in your cause couldhave a positive impact on their image in the com-munity.

Law enforcement, school resource officers,and security personnel are an invaluable asset toany action team as they are often trained on recog-nizing physical security concerns as well as diffus-ing conflicts and violent situations. Local policeagencies often have officers who are assigned to aparticular school or schools. Contact these officersand let them know of your plans and your desireto involve them and use their expertise.

Once formed, the action team should meet ona regular basis. However, it is important to con-sider each action team member’s schedule whendeciding meeting times. For example, a parent orschool bus driver may not be able to meet untilthe late evening due to work or other commit-ments. If you are unable to meet in person, con-sider a conference call or other meetingalternatives. Try to secure a committed group ofabout 10 people for the team. Make sure that time

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commitments are clear to all action team mem-bers. Finally, use the technology available to youto communicate with your team members. Youmay wish to start an Internet group to post mes-sages, send mass emails, or even post meeting min-utes on your school’s website.

Getting Together

The goal of the first meeting will be to get theaction team started on collecting research and dataabout school safety and security. The agenda foryour first meeting should look something like this:

1. Welcome2. Introduce attendees/participants (and explain

what brings each person to the table)3. Provide an overview of the Be Safe and Sound

in School steps in this toolkit4. Clarify mission/purpose of B3S action team

and discuss a timeline for program implemen-tation

5. Discuss potential threats to school safety andsecurity: Are there any lighting concerns? Arehallways monitored between classes to preventfights?

6. Identify research methods: Would it be best toconduct a survey? What about a focus group?

7. Identify available assets and resources alreadyin place (See Appendix A for helpful inventoryguide)

8. Discuss whether additional members shouldbe recruited for the team

9. Set time, date, and location for next meetingand share that the meeting will focus on howto assess concerns

10. Adjourn

Parent Tip: Fitting SchoolSafety Into Parents’ BusySchedules

Today’s parents often have to juggle avariety of commitments, such as vary-ing work schedules and caring for otherchildren and family members. Conse-quently, these factors tend to limit theirinvolvement in school activities andprovide educators with unique chal-lenges to overcome when consideringways in which to engage them. Considera few of the suggestions below to over-come parent scheduling conflicts.

n Provide alternative ways for parentsto get involved. Some parents maynot be able to make it to each actionteam meeting. However, they may bewilling to perform at-home taskssuch as preparing mailings or post-ing fliers in their neighborhoods for aschool safety event.

n Create a drop-box or email accountin which parents can submit theirconcerns or suggestions.

n Encourage parents to bring theirfamilies to your school safety event.Consider planning and conductingactivities that will occupy very youngchildren while parents attend theevent.

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Tips for Your First Safety and Security Action Team Meeting

n Be sure your meeting time doesn’t conflict with other important events.

n Plan to keep the meeting fairly brief—less than 60 minutes is enough time.

n Share the work so that people work together from the beginning. Put one person in chargeof organizing refreshments. Another can be in charge of setting up the room. Someoneelse can take notes and write up minutes.

n Allow people to share their concerns, but don’t get caught up in a gripe session.

n Make sure that everyone, especially student members, has an opportunity to speak.

n Make clear decisions. Remember, you are there as a group to organize your safety andsecurity campaign, not just to chat.

n List the next steps and who will take them. Assign deadlines for these tasks.

n Build some checkpoints into your timeline so that expectations and deadlines can beadjusted as needed.

n Agree on a date, time, and place for the meeting and the subjects that will be covered.

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n Existing data: Statistics about school safety andsecurity that are readily available through theschool, police department, or other communitygroups

n Survey data: Opinions about school safety andsecurity collected from students, faculty, andparents

n Assessment data: Observations about safetyand security threats resulting from a thoroughassessment of the school’s physical environment

Note that all research must be done in accor-dance with state laws and the policies of your localboard of education. For example, you may not beable to conduct student surveys without first get-ting signed permission slips from parents andapproval from the school district.

Existing Data

Statistics collected by the school system may beuseful in identifying safety and security problems.Your action team should consider collecting infor-mation surrounding

n Violations of state and federal laws on schoolproperty, including homicide, robbery, sexualassault, drugs, assault, theft, auto theft, arson,and vandalism

n Disruptive incidents on school property (whichmay or may not be in violation of the law);these include fights, students “acting out,” andother incidents that interrupt the flow of aschool day or event

n Accidents or injuries involving students andstaff

Step 2: Identify Safety and Security ProblemsFormal research will help the action team confirm or dispute suspected safety andsecurity problems. This process of identifying areas for improvement is calledneeds assessment. In conducting a thorough school safety and security needsassessment, there are three kinds of information your action team should obtain:

PLANNING CHECKLIST

Before your action team begins its research, it will be helpful to consider these questions:

M How and where will you obtain existing data? Who will be in charge of this?

M Who will analyze the data?

M Who will organize the survey process? How and when will surveys be administered?

M Who will tally the survey results?

M Who will secure an outside assessor for the security assessment?

M If an outside assessor cannot be secured, who will conduct the basic security assess-ment included in this guide?

M Who will compare different sets of data and identify patterns pointing to specificproblems?

M Who will be in charge of preparing a report of the research findings for use at the schoolsafety and security forum or focus group?

n Attendance and graduation ratesn Levels of student participation in extracurricular

activities

Statistics tracking incidents that occur beyondschool grounds may also be relevant to schoolsafety. For example, a high number of juveniledrug arrests in the community suggests drug use isa potential problem at school.

What do you do with all these data? In review-ing incident-related data (such as the number ofassaults, drug arrests, or cases of vandalism atschool), you’ll want to look for patterns. Do inci-dents all seem to happen in one part of the build-ing? At a specific time of day? On the same day ofthe week? During basketball season? Just before theend of the school year? Are the perpetrators studentsor nonstudents? The diverse members of the safetyaction team will have valuable insights into differ-ent facets of the school’s environment and shouldreview existing data to pull out any patterns.

If the school hasn’t already done so, it is helpfulto log incidents into a database that can be sorted by

n Kind of activityn Date and time of activityn Location of activityn Injuries, if anyn Property damagen Disciplinary action taken

Categorizing data this way will allow your actionteam to compare incidents by date, time, place, orthe nature of the problem. This will make it easierto identify specific patterns that deserve attention.

Safety and Security Surveys

Safety and security surveys administered to stu-dents, school staff, and parents are another helpfultool for assessing safety and security threats (bothreal and perceived). Survey research reveals infor-mation about the school climate—the social andemotional atmosphere inside the school. Surveysmight ask respondents to indicate specific areas ofthe school where they feel unsafe or ask for their

opinions about which types of threats (for exam-ple, theft, bullying, or drugs) are the most seriousat the school. Surveys can be particularly helpfulbecause they monitor feelings, not just physicalactivities. Keep in mind that it may not be possi-ble to survey every student in the school. In thiscase, the safety action team can help identify asample group of students representing all gradelevels and the diversity of the student body.Surveys should be administered not only at thebeginning of the Be Safe and Sound in School ini-tiative but also after safety and security improve-ments have been made. As part of the evaluationprocess, use surveys to determine whether thechanges are making a difference. Surveys for stu-dents, school staff, and parents can be found inAppendix B. Instructions for administering andevaluating the surveys is provided below.

To gain a clear picture of the school environ-ment, you’ll need a variety of perspectives. Con-sequently you will need to use different surveys foreach audience and the approach that you use toobtain surveys may also vary.

Student Survey

Tell students that an action team has been formedto improve safety and security at the school and itincludes student, staff, and community representa-tives. Explain that the action team values their inputregarding existing safety concerns. Assure studentsthat the survey is completely anonymous and thatthey are not even to put their first names on theirpapers. Also, be sure to emphasize that there are noright or wrong answers—just the answer eachstudent thinks is best. The survey provided in thistoolkit is for high school and middle school studentsand is designed to take no more than 15 minutesto complete. (See Appendix B)

The person administering the survey should askstudents to look at it before they begin filling it outto be sure they understand the questions. Questionsthat are unclear should be identified and answeredbefore students begin. Students may ask how certainquestions are meant to be interpreted. In most cases,the “meaning of the question” is whatever it meansto the person responding.

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Evaluation

Before administering the survey, you may want tocheck with your school district’s computer technol-ogist to see if surveys can be posted online for elec-tronic completion and tabulation. If that’s not anoption, a spreadsheet can be set up to allow forquestion-by-question tallying of answers.

With the above method yes/no questions can betallied and the percentage of each response calcu-lated. For multiple-choice or scaled (“very safe,”“safe,” “somewhat unsafe,” “very unsafe”) ques-tions, numerical values must be assigned. Forexample, “very safe” would equal four points, “veryunsafe” would be one point, and the intermediateanswers would be three and two points. In thiscase, you would add up the values and divide bythe total number of questions to get an averagescore. In the above chart for example, the averagescore for question five is 3. For the same question,we can also see that 66.7 percent of respondentsfelt “very safe.”

Prepare a report that assigns values to theresponses to each question. It will be helpful toshow student, teacher/staff, and parent responsesto similar questions in a table. This will highlightareas of agreement and differences.

Safety and Security Assessment

A safety and security assessment of the physicalschool environment is an invaluable tool. Con-ducted on-site, a thorough assessment will takenote of locations that may be conducive to crime,

Once student surveys are completed, the personadministering the survey should circulate a large,sealable envelope or drop box to collect the surveys.The envelope should be marked only with the nameof the teacher, the room, the class period (if applic-able), the date, and the number of students present.

Administrators, Faculty, and Staff Survey

It’s probably easiest to administer this survey in astaff meeting—again, taking no more than 15minutes. A process similar to that used with stu-dents usually works best. It is important to explainthat students and parents are also being surveyedand that all surveys will be handled anonymouslyand reported only by groups.

Parent Survey

Reaching parents can be difficult. One way to getinput from parents is through a back-to-schoolnight, where every parent is handed a survey andasked to complete it to help improve school safety.Surveys can also be administered at sporting eventor other school events. A table set up near the en-trance or refreshment stand will be visible to parents.

A sign should state that surveys will be handledanonymously and that students and school staff arebeing asked similar questions with equal anonymity.Provide a box in which people can drop theircompleted surveys.

Another approach is to send parent surveyshome with students, along with a postage-paidenvelope for parents to mail their anonymous,completed surveys back to the school.

Respondent

#1

#2

#3

N = 3

Q1

Yes

Yes

No

66.7% = Y

Q2

Yes

No

No

66.7% = N

Q3

No

No

No

100% = N

Q5

Very Safe – 4

Very Safe – 4

Very Unsafe – 1

Avg. = 9/3 = 3

66.7% = 4 = orVery Safe

Q6

Safe – 3

Safe – 3

Safe – 3

Avg. = 9/3 = 3

66.7% = 4 = orVery Safe

Example:

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as well as any gaps in security equipment andprocedures. The assessment should be conductedby the action team with a crime prevention expertwho understands state laws and regulations relatedto school safety and security. To find a qualifiedassessor, contact your state school safety center, de-partment of education, or local law enforcementdepartment or college campus and ask for someonetrained in Crime Prevention Through Environ-mental Design (CPTED). You can also contact alocal chapter of ASIS International, the internationalorganization for security professionals, to see if freeassistance is available (visit www.asisonline.org).

What if your action team is unable to secure anoutside expert to perform the security assessment?Appendix C includes a basic school safety andsecurity assessment that is based on the principlesof CPTED and that can be conducted by theaction team. Detailed instructions on how toperform the assessment are also provided.

The Principles of CrimePrevention ThroughEnvironmental Design

Crime Prevention Through EnvironmentalDesign facilitates and enhances school safety andsecurity by ensuring that the physical layout andorganization of the school encourage positive stu-dent behavior. The principles of CPTED centeron four areas: 1) access control, 2) surveillance, 3)territorial reinforcement, and 4) maintenance.These principles can easily and effectively beapplied to schools. For example, schools can

1) Practice access control by

n Having a single access point of entry for visitorsn Planting or installing doors, shrubs, fences,

and gates that discourage criminal access tothe building

n Acquiring physical and mechanical means ofensuring access control

2) Reinforce surveillance by

n Ensuring clear lines of sight by removingunnecessary obstacles and trimming vegetation

n Limiting hiding places by raising signs offthe ground, lowering bushes, etc.

n Installing convex mirrors in dark or secludedareas

3) Reinforce territory by

n Defining the edges of school property withtree plantings or fences to emphasize that the school is not a public-access space

n Individualizing areas of the school (e.g.,arts department, science department) topromote boundaries or “ownership” andpride in the school as well as to make iteasier to identify unauthorized individuals

n Posting signs that identify the school build-ing and areas within the school

4) Maintain a safe environment by

n Keeping up good maintenance; a clean, well-cared-for school fosters school pride andorderliness

n Signaling that an owner, manager, or neigh-bor is watching out for the school property

n Keeping facilities in working order to pro-mote positive activities

CPTED and Your School’sPhysical Security

Security measures reduce the risk of crime andschool violence by enabling the school administra-tion to control and monitor access to any area ofthe facility. In facilities where there is a history ofcrime, physical security enhancements help to“harden targets,” sending the message that it willbe harder to commit a crime or act of violence atthe school. Target hardening includes installingvideo cameras, metal detectors, or alarm systems.Security technologies can increase detection anddelay or slow a perpetrator’s progress, but they arenot sufficient in themselves to reduce crime andviolence. To ensure the security of students, fac-ulty, and staff, schools should

n Require visitors to sign in or show proper iden-tification

n Lock unmonitored doors from the outside at alltimes to prevent unauthorized persons or itemsfrom entering the building unnoticed

n Monitor students entering and exiting theschool property

n Check that all doors have high security locks orelectronic access control units (this appliesespecially to closets that have private informa-tion or hazardous materials, outside doors, andbasements)

n Verify that electronic access control units areprotected from unauthorized mechanical over-ride with secure key bypass using patentedcontrol of duplication of keys

n Ensure that deadlocks are not accessible fromthe inside of the restroom

n Install sheet steel covers on both sides of backand basement doors

n Prevent doors from being pried open by ensur-ing that door frames and hinges are properlymaintained

n Secure all windowsn Change locks or re-key cylinders upon change

of staff or administration n Use motion-sensitive lights outsiden Add lighting to dark places around the building,

and cut back shrubs so light can penetraten Discourage violence by ensuring stairwells and

out-of-the-way corridors are well lightedn Equip the receptionist with a panic button for

emergencies, a camera with a monitor at anotherlocation, and a high security lock on the frontdoor that can be controlled from the desk

n Secure identification badges, office keys, andcodes and develop a process for reporting lostor missing badges and keys

n Develop a formal documentation policy thatdefines when documents should be destroyedand how

For nontechnical, nonvendor-specific informa-tion on security technologies, consult The Appro-priate and Effective Use of Security Technologies inU.S. Schools: A Guide for Schools and Law Enforce-ment Agencies, a research report from the NationalInstitute of Justice. It provides information on

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n Security productsn Strengths, weaknesses, and expected effective-

ness of these products in schoolsn Costs of products—installation, operation,

maintenance, manpower, and training expensesn Related legal issues

The report covers video surveillance (cameras, videorecording equipment), metal detectors (walk-through, hand-held scanners, x-ray baggage scan-ners), entry control technologies, and alarm devices.For more information, download or view the reportonline at www.ncjrs.org/school/home.html.

Interpreting the Data

Once you have obtained all statistical, survey, andassessment data, combine the results of these find-ings and one of three things may happen:

1. The three kinds of data all point toward thesame problems. In this case, the action team’sfocus will be clear.

2. The three kinds of data disagree; two data setsindicate a pattern that the third data set doesn’tfit. If this happens, the action team shouldquestion whether the data are consistent orsomehow distorted. For example, the schoolmay have had one isolated incident that createda lot of fear—even if the incident was minor—that may be affecting survey responses indicat-ing how people feel inside the school. Chancesare the two data sets that are in agreement pointtoward the areas you really need to focus on.But just to be sure, you might want to shareyour data with an expert or two. The schoolshould have access to experienced researchanalysts to help with this. Also, your police orsheriff’s department should be able to connectyou to experts specializing in crime analysis. Ifnot, contact a local college or university to see ifa staff member there may be able to provideassistance.

3. The three kinds of data all conflict. If all threedata sources (existing data, surveys, and securityassessments) fail to identify one clear and

persistent problem, the action team shoulddiscuss and determine which issues identifiedand supported by at least one data source are apriority for the school. If, for example, surveysshow that fear is rampant throughout theschool, yet that finding is not supported byother data, then fear is a real problemnonetheless and the action team may deter-

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mine that it is a primary issue that they wishto address.

Once the action team has reviewed all the dataand identified the school’s safety and securityproblems, the team should prepare a report topresent to students, parents, school staff, and com-munity members in preparation for the schoolsafety and security forum. The report shouldclearly present the issues facing the school, provid-ing data and research as support.

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Should a Focus Group or ForumBe Held?

As you approach the task of brainstorming solutions,you may want to consider various ways of collectinginput from members of the community or otherstakeholders. Two of the ways this can be accom-plished are through either a focus group or a com-munity forum. A focus group would gather a smallgroup together to discuss the school safety issuesand solutions. This group would be composed ofrepresentatives from larger groups such as parents,the student body, business leaders, etc. In contrast,a community forum would consist of the largerpublic and provide a medium for open discussionand voicing of opinions and solutions. There arepros and cons to each approach that should beconsidered when deciding how your action teamwishes to proceed.

Focus Group

Prosn The smaller environment may help the action

team better understand each group’s perspective.

n It is comparatively easy to conduct.n It is easier to encourage and direct group inter-

action.

Consn You cannot generalize the opinions of the

community based on the small sample.n Some participants may feel uncomfortable

acting as representatives and may not voicetheir opinions as readily as others.

n Group discussions can be difficult to steer andcontrol.

Forum

Prosn Forums allow the action team to invite a greater

number of community members.n They may generate more ideas for solutions to

problems, due to the number of participants.n They can be used to entice the media to get

involved in the project early on, especially ifthere appears to be strong community support.

Consn Due to the size of the group, the discussion

may be difficult to control or keep on track.n It may be difficult to get a large number of

community members to participate, due tolocation, time, and other commitments.

n If complaints are high, it may be difficult tokeep the forum from turning into a gripe session.

When and Where Should theForum or Focus Group Be Held?

The school is probably the best location for aforum or focus group. Participants can meet in the school auditorium or gymnasium for theopening and closing sessions. The brainstorminggroups can meet in separate classrooms, which willcut down on noise. The action team should pro-vide some means for brainstorming groups torecord their ideas, such as flip charts and markers.

Who Should Participate?

At the very least, your forum or focus groupshould include groups that each member of youraction team represents (e.g., school administrators,faculty and support staff, students, parents, etc.).

Step 3: Brainstorm SolutionsOnce your research and analysis are complete, the action team should invite addi-tional education and community representatives to participate in a school safetyand security forum or focus group. This process will be devoted to prioritizing themost critical safety and security problems and then figuring out what to do aboutthem. Inviting other stakeholders to participate will help the action team view itsresearch more objectively. Outside participants will also bring additional expertiseand ideas to the table during brainstorming sessions.

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You may also want to invite other communitymembers such as business leaders, law enforce-ment officers, and public health professionals.Think about people in the community who have avaluable perspective on school safety and security,as well as the ability to influence public action,opinion, and policy decisions. For example, youmay want to invite

n Public health and mental health professionalsn Local emergency service and healthcare providersn Local business owners and Chamber of

Commerce membersn Adult trainers specializing in group processes or

conflict resolution or youth trained in peermediation

n Elected officials such as city council membersand the mayor

n Local faith-based leaders

n Law enforcement personneln Juvenile and family court judges or other

juvenile justice personneln Leaders of neighborhood crime watch units and

crime prevention groupsn Staff from your state-level school safety center

(see Resources) or department of educationn Security specialists (contact ASIS to request

pro bono assistance; see Resources)n Members of the media

Inviting Stakeholders

Once you’ve established a list of potential forumor focus group participants, designate an actionteam member to get in touch with each group ororganization. Discuss how each stakeholder will beapproached and what will be said. Set a deadlinefor determining each group’s interest in participat-ing. The forum or focus group should either be a

PLANNING CHECKLIST

In preparing for the school safety and security forum of focus group, your Be Safe and Sound inSchool action team should ask the questions below:

M Who should be invited to participate in the forum/focus group? How will candidates beinvited? Who will issue invitations and follow up?

M When is the deadline for participant confirmation? Do you have backup candidates inmind in case your first choices are unavailable?

M Where will the forum or focus group be held? Who will be in charge of securing a location?

M Who will organize refreshments?

M Who will organize supplies, including flip charts and markers (or chalk), paper and pens?

M Who will open and adjourn the forum or focus group?

M Who will be in charge of disseminating the report of research findings to participants inadvance of the event?

M Who will organize the participants into brainstorming groups of no more than ten?

M Who will facilitate brainstorming at the forum or focus group? Who is in charge of liningup facilitators and ensuring that they are familiar with the problem-solving process thatwill be used?

M Who will be in charge of sending thank-you letters and a follow-up report to participantsafter the session is over?

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half-day event or a series of half-day events,depending on how much research you are askingparticipants to review. Make sure potential partici-pants understand how much time they will needto commit when you issue invitations. After par-ticipants are confirmed, send each one an overviewof the major safety and security risks they will beasked to consider. Provide relevant findings fromany surveys or security assessments you’ve con-ducted. Do this at least two weeks before the dateof the forum or focus group to give participantstime to review the material.

Facilitating the Forum or Focus Group

To keep the discussion running smoothly, youraction team will need to secure facilitators who areexperienced in leading strategy-building or problem-solving sessions.

A facilitator will lead the discussion group andcoordinate the work of the group as well as helpguide the discussion. It is important to note that

facilitators are not expected to be content experts,and may not have all the answers.

The facilitator may be a school administrator, abusinessperson, or someone from a local nonprofitorganization. The key here is objectivity. Avoidhaving action team members’ act as facilitators;they may find it difficult to leave their own viewsand biases out of the discussion.

If you are holding a forum and the group is quitelarge, you should divide the forum into smallergroups of no more than ten people for the brain-storming sessions. The small groups can workconcurrently and report back to the larger group.Determine in advance how forum or focus groupparticipants will be assigned to groups, makingsure that the expertise of participants is spread outamong the groups. For example, you won’t wantto have several law enforcement officers workingin the same small group. Each small brainstorminggroup should have its own facilitator.

Your facilitators should use a simple, effective,problem-solving model to guide participants inprioritizing safety and security concerns at the schooland discussing potential solutions. Because you’vesent out a preliminary research report, participantsshould arrive with an understanding of the problemsyour action team wants to address. However, it willbe a good idea to go over that data one more timebefore the brainstorming process begins. Oncebrainstorming is under way, participants will beasked to prioritize safety and security problems,identify potential barriers, and then discuss how toovercome those barriers to develop workablesolutions to the most critical problems.

The agenda for a successful school safety andsecurity brainstorming session might look some-thing like this:

1. Welcome2. Introduce action team, forum/focus group

participants, and facilitators3. Provide brief overview of the Be Safe and

Sound in School campaign4. Clarify goals and ground rules for the forum5. Review safety assessment data6. Provide overview of problems and

Parent Tip: EffectivelyCommunicate as ParentsPrefer

Telephone and email communication ispreferred by 54 percent and 53 percent(respectively) of parents as opposed toonline or mailed newsletters. As youbegin to prepare for your forum or focusgroup, ensure that you explore newways of disseminating informationabout your surveys and inviting parentsto your events.

n Send ecard invitations to your forumor school safety event.

n Make telephone calls instead ofsending information home with chil-dren. This can be done through anautomated message left on parents’answering machines.

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problem-solving process7. Break into brainstorming groups8. Prioritize problems (30 minutes)9. Brainstorm and prioritize barriers

(90 minutes)10. Brainstorm and prioritize solutions

(90 minutes)11. Brainstorm potential resources

(30 minutes)12. Reconvene as a forum

Prioritize Problems

Action team members will present problems thathave been identified by the school safety and securityassessments and other research. The forum partici-pants should identify and prioritize the top fiveproblems.

Identify Barriers

Barriers are issues or activities that prevent us fromeffectively addressing the problems. Barriers repre-sent a diagnosis of what’s at the heart of a prob-lem, i.e., what prevents progress toward a safer,more secure school. Participants should brain-storm and prioritize three barriers related to eachof the top five identified problems.

Identify Solutions

To make this exercise work as a tool for develop-ing a concrete action plan, participants shouldprovide solution statements that address specificbarriers that have been identified. The idea is thatonce barriers are removed, resources and programswill be identified easily. Solution statementsshould be as specific as possible. Solution state-ments should clearly identify the following:

n What is the activity required? n What is the outcome hoped for from the activity?n What needs to be accomplished?n Who should do it?n Why (if it is not obvious)?

Remember that the people developing theaction plan after the forum or focus group maynot have been present in each group, so the solu-tions should be easy for them to understand andshould be written in objective form (specifying anaction or objective that can be accomplishedwithin a certain time frame).

After the forum/focus group is adjourned, takethe time to clearly record each problem statement,its barrier and solution statements, and potential

Problem Statement

Example 1:Multiple thefts haveoccurred inside the schoolthis year.

Example 2:Survey data show that bothstudents and teachers per-ceive shoving and verbalabuse as a major problemin school hallways.

Barrier Statement

It is impossible to distin-guish between current stu-dents, former students,and other visitors to theschool building, so it’s hardto know who is stealing.

Strong SolutionStatement

The assistant principal andschool resource officer willestablish a check-in stationto record visitors to theschool and give them IDbadges.

Weak Solution Statement

Get ID badges.

Students won’t report indi-viduals who have pushedor teased them becausethey are afraid of beingteased more or beaten up.

Create a drop box so stu-dents can anonymouslyreport bullying incidents.The counselor will checkthe drop box daily and fol-low up with a report.

Tell students to report.

For example:

resources. Use a separate sheet of paper for eachproblem, and record only the prioritized state-ments (see example at right). This small step willsave a lot of time for the action team and greatlyassist in the development of objectives for theschool safety and security action plan.

Identify Resources

Participants will also brainstorm potential resourcesto identified solutions. When the brainstormingportion of the meeting concludes and participantsreconvene, action team members should thankparticipants for their insights and explain that theaction team will be using their ideas to formulate aschool safety and security action plan. The actionplan will recommend specific school safety andsecurity improvements, with instructions on howthe improvements can be accomplished. If you wantto recruit additional action team members, this isa good time to ask if any of the participants areinterested in a hands-on role.

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Problem 1

Barrier 1:

Barrier 2:

Barrier 3:

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

Potential Resources:

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Developing the Plan

The action plan should identify the safety andsecurity improvements you intend to pursue andhow you’ll pursue them. If the forum had manybrainstorming groups, the action team will have alarge amount of information to consider. Start bylooking at the problems prioritized by each group.Problems that ranked high in importance, orwhich multiple groups selected, should be consid-ered priority problems.

As a group, create a succinct, specific statementof what change you want to see around that issue.This will be your goal. For example, if a priorityissue is fights in the school cafeteria, a goal state-ment might be, “By the end of the school year, wewant to reduce the number of fights that occur inthe cafeteria.” Next, look at the prioritized barriersand solution statements that were developed andnarrow the list to a manageable size. You may findthat groups came up with similar solutions thatcan be combined.

If the forum has recommended solutions thatare not feasible, the action team will need to make

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Step 4: Develop an Action PlanYour Be Safe and Sound in School action team should reconvene after the schoolsafety and security forum. The solutions identified by the forum will serve as thebasis for the action plan. But before you start working on the action plan, take amoment to celebrate the team’s accomplishments thus far!

Parent Tip: Make Use ofParents’ Skills

As you begin to develop your actionplan, remember that some parents maybe exceptional at organizing, planning,and implementing activities. Make sureto recognize and tap into these abilitiesas you begin assigning the tasks foryour action plan.

PLANNING CHECKLIST

Here are some important questions to consider in developing the action plan.

M Which suggested solutions and activities are most feasible?

M Are there action team members who have contacts or professional expertise that will helpmove specific plan strategies forward?

M Have other schools in your area addressed similar safety and security problems with similar programs? Do they have insights to share?

M Who will be in charge of preparing the action plan and distributing the document to actionteam members as well as forum participants?

M Who will serve as the lead coordinator on action plan implementation?

a few judgment calls. Your group should use theideas generated at the forum to identify a fewprojects that can help you meet your goal. Theseare your objectives. For example, to reduce fight-ing in the cafeteria, your objectives might be

n Purchase rope barriers to guide studentsthrough the lunch line in a more orderlymanner

n Recruit lunch room monitors to increase supervision

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A Note About Funding

If you’re planning to implement safety and security strategies that require a lot of money,work to identify financial resources within the local school system. These might include build-ing funds or money from the board of education. If internal funding is not available, you mayneed to research alternative funding sources in your community and state. Locally basedfoundations and corporations (or local offices of national corporations) frequently have fundsset aside for community projects that local groups can access. Local and state government(and possibly federal agencies) may also make funds available through departments of com-munity action, school safety, drug prevention, public safety, neighborhood revitalization, andeconomic development.

Check the library for information on funding sources in your community. The library mayalso have special resources such as The Foundation Directory, which lists thousands ofgrants nationwide. (You can subscribe online at http://fconline.fdncenter.org/.) The Chamberof Commerce, the economic development office, and your state or federal legislators mayalso have some excellent suggestions about and how to secure financial backing. See Step6: Promote Your Cause to learn more about approaching businesses for funding.

n Establish a peer mediation program to givestudents a nonviolent way to resolve problems

Once you have your goals and objectives, you candevelop action plans for implementing your activi-

See Appendix D for an action planning chart and Appendix E for an example of an action plan.

Action Steps toCompletess Activity

1. Select students to belunch room monitors

2. Train lunch room monitors

Who WillTake Action

Mary

Deadlines

November 2010

Outcome

Empower students to takean active role in solvingtheir problem and improv-ing the environment

John January 2011 Provide students with thenecessary skills to detectand intervene when problems arise

Goal/Problem to Address:

By June 2008, Jones High School will reduce/eliminate fighting in the cafeteria.

Objective/Activity to implement:

Recruit lunch room monitors

ties. Identify specific tasks, people, deadlines, andanticipated outcomes. As a courtesy, send copiesof the completed action plan to forum partici-pants. See a sample action plan below.

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Passion is contagious. Media coverage may getthe attention of other community experts and vol-unteers who can help you address your safety andsecurity objectives more effectively and efficiently.

Positive public image. Community memberswill form a more positive view of the school whenthey see its desire for safety and commitment tocreating a safer environment for children.

Partners. Broadcast and newspaper coveragemay make it easier to attract potential partners orfunders (including businesses, corporations, foun-dations, and other grant-making organizations),not to mention elected officials who can lobby foryour cause or connect you to available governmentdollars. This may be critical if your school lackssufficient financial resources to implement all thesafety and security improvements that are spelledout in the action plan.

Recognition. Your Be Safe and Sound inSchool action team has been working hard anddeserves some applause! Savor the opportunity toreflect on how far you’ve come and to revitalizethe team for the work still ahead.

Momentum. Your safety and security improve-ment efforts should be viewed as ongoing, not as afinite project. Increased community awareness willmake it easier to generate support for new safetyand security improvements as your plan is revisedin the future. It may also attract additional actionteam members.

Accountability. Once your plan is made public,there will be more incentive for those who havemade commitments—including parents, students,business partners, and legislators—to follow through.

Working With the Media

Determine Your Message

Determining your message may be your mostimportant task in media relations. What exactly is

it you want to communicate? Identify three keystatements you can use in all your dealings withthe news media, no matter what the story is. Thesemessage points will help you frame the issue andmake your case consistently. They’ll also help youselect stories that best convey your action team’spriorities and goals for your school safety andsecurity campaign. The message points could relateto how serious your issue is, how the school andstudents are affected by it, why you believe youractivities will improve safety, how others could getinvolved in your efforts, or what they could per-sonally do to address the problem. Keep thesetalking points short, make the information rele-vant to your audience, and use action verbs to create a sense of excitement.

To be successful dealing with the media, youneed a story—something compelling to say, some-thing that merits wide dissemination in your com-munity. Put yourself in a reporter’s or an editor’splace. Think headlines: what is this story about inten words or fewer? Think public interest: whyshould people care? And think sources: where canyou and the media go for quotes, statistics, andother information that will provide the story’s afactual basis and relevancy?

Whatever is newsworthy about a story iscalled a “hook,” and, it’s your job to create thehook. Remember that reporters are looking forstories that are full of new information, newresearch, new programs, and new ideas. They’realso looking for compelling feature stories aboutinteresting people, programs, and activities inyour community. If your campaign can’t offer“breaking news,” focus on messages that empha-size the human interest angle. Whatever you cando to play up the local appeal of your story willalso improve its chances of being covered.

Note: Decide who will be your action team’spoint of contact (the person whom reporters orother media representatives should contact) for a

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Step 5: Publicize Your InitiativeYou’ve got a safety and security action plan, and you’re moving ahead. Great!Now here’s a way to create support for your efforts: publicize your Be Safe andSound in School initiative and action plan! There are several reasons for publiciz-ing your action team’s efforts:

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tact person for reporters to call if they havequestions.

n Create a catchy headline (no more than tenwords) that explains your story. Be creative andinformative in your headline to make your storystand out.

n Include your city and state on the release, evenif the event you are planning is local.

n Limit your release to no more than one or twopages, if possible.

n Develop a strong lead paragraph. The leadparagraph should offer a concise, engagingsummary of your news pitch.

n Use # # # at the bottom of the page to tell thereader that your release is finished.

n Include a brief overview of the organization (ororganizations) responsible for the news or event.

Media Advisories

Media advisories alert the media of upcomingevents, encouraging news organizations to send areporter and a photographer or television camerato cover a specific event. An advisory should besent out by 6:00 a.m. the Monday morning priorto your event (if your event is on Wednesday, the10th, your advisory should be at the news stationby 6:00 a.m. on Monday the 8th). Editors deter-mine what stories will be covered early in the week.

Advisories should be concise, offering bulletpoints explaining the “who, what, why, where,and when” of your event. The “why” of the eventshould be explained in one or two short para-graphs offering highlights and/or backgroundinformation. In telling the “why,” you’ll want toinclude enough details so the assignment editorfeels compelled to send someone to cover yourevent but not so much information that you“scoop” yourself and tell your whole story beforeit actually occurs. Try to keep the key text of youradvisory to one page.

Press Events

If you have hard news to report (i.e., breakingnews that affects your community), or are launch-ing a program, you could hold a press event. Youraction team may choose to hold a press event to

particular issue or story, and make sure he or sheis comfortable speaking to the press. Always pro-vide the name and telephone number of thepoint of contact so that media representativescan get answers quickly.

Getting Your Story Told

How your action team chooses to get its messageout is an important decision. Should you issue apress release? Hold a press conference? Write anop-ed article? Call a reporter and offer an exclu-sive? What you decide to do will depend on bothyour community and your story.

Press Releases

Press releases (also called news releases) form thebasis of a news story. An editor may run the releaseas is or assign a reporter to attend an event, conduct interviews, and write the story. Newsreleases may be sent out prior to an event foradvance publicity or after an event to describe whattook place. Informational releases can also be sentout whenever you have news or information toshare (even if you aren’t planning an event).

Write press releases in the inverted pyramid style.This means that the most important facts (who-what-when-where-how-why) come first. The lessimportant facts come next, and the least importantfacts come last. Note that importance is defined bywhat the media and the public will find important,not by what your group wants highlighted. Studynews articles to see what type of information is usu-ally emphasized. By following the inverted pyramidstyle of writing, you’ll make sure that your audienceor readers get the most important information first.Don’t bury the most important information at theend of a story or broadcast!

More tips for successful news releases

n Address your release to a specific person. Newsoutlets get tons of news pitches every day;addressing yours to a specific person willincrease its chances of being read.

n Include a release date. This tells the editor thatthe news is timely.

n Include the name and phone number of a con-

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announce its safety and security research results oraction plan. During a press event, you can announceyour new program with the help of local celebri-ties, experts, and community leaders. Students andparents could also speak in support of the program.Always issue an advisory to notify media of anupcoming press event.

News Availabilities

A news availability, a less structured version of apress event, gives media representatives the oppor-tunity for one-on-one interviews with key spokes-persons for your cause. For example, you mightschedule a news availability in which a local expertprovides background and perspective on new schoolviolence statistics, making sure to mention youraction team’s local efforts. Or maybe you want toinvite a select group of media representatives totalk with the school principal, a student, and keyaction team members about the school improve-ments recommended in your action plan.

Each person available for interview should workwith the action team to identify talking points aboutthe issue and activities. This will help send a con-sistent message about the school’s efforts.

Letters to the Editor

Usually, letters to the editor are written in responseto something that’s already in the news. Letters tothe editor can commend a newspaper or a reporterfor a fine story, offer additional perspective or infor-mation about an issue the paper covered, or disagreewith opinions expressed in a news article, a story, oran op-ed piece. The key is to keep it short and to thepoint. Don’t forget to reference the article you’reresponding to by its headline and date. An actionteam member might write a letter to the editor, for

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example, in response to an article discussing a newstate government report on youth violence. The let-ter could highlight your action team’s findings andefforts to prevent crimes against local youth.

Op-ed Articles

When a letter to the editor won’t suffice, thinkabout writing an op-ed article. In an op-ed article,you can develop your arguments at greater lengththan in a letter and comment on issues not neces-sarily covered in the paper. Call the paper to findout its op-ed policy. Generally, articles should be500–700 words in length. Keep it straightforwardand compelling with examples, stories, and facts toback up your argument.

Exclusives

An exclusive is a story pitch made to only onemedia organization or one reporter. The appeal ofan exclusive is that it gives the reporter more timeto investigate and develop the story without worrying that the competition will come out withit first. Sometimes an exclusive may be no morethan a “heads-up” to a friendly reporter or editorabout a possible feature or story. Or it may involvea more strategic and extensively researched pitch.A word of caution: By favoring one media organi-zation over others in your community, you mayalienate some important contacts. But perhapsyour action team will decide to maximize coverageby engaging a reporter in a long-term exclusive onthe school’s safety and security efforts and theresults.

For more information on working with themedia, including guidelines for planning a pressevent and a sample media advisory refer toAppendices F, G, and H.

Reaching Out to Students

If your school has a journalism class or publishes a school newspaper, reach out to the stu-dents active in them. Journalism students can help your action team develop talking points orprepare for interviews or get in touch with local papers. Stories in the school newspaper cankeep students updated on your action team’s efforts.

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PLANNING CHECKLIST

A successful media campaign requires care-ful planning and organization. As with allyour other action team efforts, you shouldwork together to determine direction and tomatch team members with specific tasks.

M What are the key messages your actionteam wants to communicate to themedia?

M What is the school’s current process fordealing with the media?

M What forms of media outreach will bemost effective in getting those messagesout?

M What are your local media outlets? Whatstate media outlets would be interestedin your story?

M Who will build the media list and obtaincontact information?

M Who will write and deliver advisories andpress releases to media outlets?

M Who will act as contact point for mediainquiries? Are there local experts whocould act as resources to the media orparticipate in a news conference? Whowill contact them?

M Who will watch the news for opportuni-ties to write letters to the editor? Whowill write the letters?

M Will someone write an op-ed?

If your action team chooses to hold a pressevent, you will need to consider the ques-tions below.

M Who will serve as the event host andspeak on behalf of the action team?

M Who will be in the audience? Will youhave a guaranteed audience? If not, howwill you get people there?

M Are there other people who should beinvited to attend or speak? Who willselect and secure speakers?

M Where will the event be held? Who willsecure the location?

M Who will coordinate technical needssuch as lighting, audio-visual equipment,a podium, and signage?

M Who will head up efforts to generatemedia interest and attract reporters andcamera crews to the event?

M Who will put together the press kits?

M Who will field press inquiries before andafter the event?

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Promoting your cause means educating policy-makers and elected officials (such as school boardmembers and state legislators) and business leadersabout your school’s needs. Your B3S action teamcan do this in a variety of ways— through site vis-its, letters, personal meetings, and hearings.Elected officials and businesses have differentinterests, and your approach should be tailored foreach group.

Elected Officials

The action team should identify elected officialswho are working in support of your cause. Thesemight include members of the local school board,the state board of education, and the city orcounty council, as well as federal, state, and localpoliticians. As part of its ongoing commitment toimproving school safety and security, the actionteam will need to convince and remind these lead-ers that its efforts

n Deal with a program of concern to a large seg-ment of the community (e.g., constituents)

n Can get even better results with backing orendorsements from the elected official

n Create a safer, more secure learning environ-ment for current and future voters

n Contribute to a valuable public image for theelected official

Businesses

Identify businesses that could benefit from theexposure of supporting your cause. These mightinclude companies or retailers that are located nearthe school, sell safety and security products or

services (such as a locksmith), employ a largenumber of students, count students among theircustomers, or have expressed a commitment toyouth issues. Remember that businesses are moti-vated by different factors than politicians. Youraction team should remind business decision mak-ers that its efforts

n Deal with a program of concern to a large segment of the community (e.g., customers,suppliers, and partners)

n Can achieve even better results with financialsupport, in-kind donations, pro bono services,or a visible partnership with the business

n Make the community in which the businessoperates safer

n Create a valuable public image for the business

Here are some tips on successful strategies thattarget businesses and elected officials.

n Write to each contact and explain the specificsafety and security issues. Explain the actionteam’s current or anticipated impact on theproblem and how the business or official canhelp increase that impact. For businesses, if youare dealing with a large corporation, call to findout where to direct your efforts. You may wantto ask who is in charge of community relationsor corporate giving. (See Appendix I for a sample letter.)

n Make an appointment to speak with businessleaders and/or elected officials about your program and your need for their support. Itmay be useful to develop a short presentation.

n Share information from surveys and audits to jus-tify your need for the program and their support.

Step 6: Promote Your Cause As you’ve learned through the partnerships you’ve established with forum/focusgroup participants, safe and secure schools are important to the community as awhole, not just to parents, faculty, and students. Law enforcement, social serviceagencies, businesses, nonprofits, and elected officials can be valuable partners forsafety and security on a number of levels. For example, while school officials mayagree that safety and security changes are necessary, the school may have limitedaccess to the resources needed for improvements. This is where other communitymembers become crucial to your cause.

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n Make sure business contacts and elected offi-cials are included on guest lists for specialevents and community meetings organized bythe Be Safe and Sound in School action team.

n Ask a business leader or elected official to speak(briefly) at or host one of your events.

n Don’t limit communication to times whenyou have a problem or need money. Sendthank-you letters when businesses or legislatorshave done something in support of your goalsor the issue of school safety and security ingeneral.

n Ask candidates to make school safety and secu-rity issues part of their platform and companiesto make it a priority item in their corporateresponsibility plan.

n Keep a log of calls and correspondence witheach business or company and elected officialsand their staff.

n Remind your contacts that while students maybe the perpetrators of some crimes, they are

more often the victims—and they are also anenormous pool of untapped energy, talent, andenthusiasm.

n Mobilize other schools, parents, and safety-ori-ented community groups to communicate tothe same legislators and businesses, so that yourgroup is not a lone voice.

While it is true that your efforts to reach out tobusinesses and elected officials can be combined, itis important to remember that businesses andlegislators have unique goals and concerns of theirown. Your efforts will need to appeal to theirunique needs and highlight how support of yourprogram will aid in the achievement of their dis-tinct objectives; for businesses this objective wouldbe to secure customers, while legislators have agreater concern in securing voters. Review thetable below for tips on how to show elected officialsand businesses ways that they can benefit fromsupporting your program.

ELECTED OFFICIALSMain Objective = Secure Voters

1. National surveys show that crime and safety is a topconcern for voters

BUSINESS LEADERSMain Objective = Secure Customers

1. School safety affects their communities

2. State and local grant funding opportunities are available

2. Opportunities to promote their logo or signs with give-away items or through press releases

3. Opportunity to meet and speak with parents who vote 3. Increase visibility in the community by getting employees involved and volunteering

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Remember to follow board of education policiesand state laws governing the collection of informa-tion from and about students.

Most importantly, try repeating the same sur-veys and collecting the same indicator data as lasttime. Then compare the results to your originalfindings. Have the numbers and attitudeschanged? Pull out your original school safety andsecurity assessment, and retrace the steps taken bythe original assessor. How many problem areas inthe school can you check off as addressed and corrected?

Measuring Up

In evaluating program success, you will considerthree types of measurements: process measures,outcome measures, and impact measures.

Process evaluation answers questions such asthose below.

n How well is your Be Safe and Sound in Schoolaction team functioning as a group?

n Are there changes that would make meetings,events, and deadlines more effective?

n If you experimented with different ways ofgetting things done, what effect did the varia-tions have? For example, was it easier to coor-dinate meeting times, dates, and locations byemail or by phone? Did more people show upfor meetings when you sent out follow-upreminders?

n Have you discovered that the action team lacksa certain type of expertise and could use anadditional recruit or two?

Outcome evaluation answers questions such asthose below.

n Did the action team accomplish the tasksspelled out in the action plan?

n Did your media outreach garner any publicity?n Did your advocacy efforts lead to new funding

opportunities or partnerships with businesses?n How many people did you reach through your

efforts?

Impact evaluation answers questions such asthose below.

n Did safety and security changes in the schoolenvironment have an effect on crime? Forexample, did the number of assaults in schooldecrease after a peer mediation program wasintroduced? Did the incidence of vandalism godown after new lights were installed in theschool parking lot?

n Did changes to the school environment affecthow safe students, parents, and faculty feelinside the school? Do they feel safer now thanthey did a year ago?

n Can the safety and security upgrades be corre-lated to positive changes in the school or com-munity, such as increased school attendancerates or fewer disciplinary actions?

n In short, were the goals stated in the action plan achieved?

Following Up

The best reward for your evaluation efforts will beconfirmation that your Be Safe and Sound in

Step 7: Evaluate Success and Revise the PlanIt’s now been about a year since Be Safe and Sound in School was introduced atthe school. Your action team has already used a variety of research tools to docu-ment school safety and security risks. Once the action team has implementedsafety and security improvements (and has given those changes some time to takeeffect), you’ll want to repeat your research. This time the action team will beusing its findings to determine whether it has met the goals and objectives statedin the action plan. Follow-up research will also determine whether changes at theschool are in fact making a difference.

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School action team is meeting (or has met) its goalsand objectives to create a safer, more secure school.If your evaluation research provides evidence ofpositive change, be sure to share the news with themedia and other important stakeholders, includingpast partners, forum participants, funders, electedofficials, business contacts, and the community.

Also important will be information about atti-tudes, events, and unanticipated results. Forexample, you’re likely to discover different feed-back when you repeat your surveys. A fresh look

at indicator data may show positive movementin some areas but also previously undetectedproblem areas. Don’t be discouraged by thesefindings, but use them as a starting point whenyou plan your next school safety and securityforum a year or two after the first one. The ideasgenerated in the second forum will help youbuild on past successes, make important adjust-ments to your safety and security action plan,and continue your efforts to creating a safer,more secure place.

PLANNING CHECKLIST

Before the action team begins its follow-up research, you will need to answer the questionsbelow.

M Who will be in charge of collecting new indicator data?

M Can the new indicator data be added to the same database we used last time (for comparison purposes)?

M Who will analyze and compare the data?

M Who will organize the second survey process? How and when will surveys be adminis-tered? Who will tally the survey results?

M Who will conduct the follow-up security assessment? Will we use an outside assessoragain?

M Who will compare different sets of data to track progress and identify new problems?

M Who will be in charge of reporting results to the school, students, and community? Whenand how? Who will share findings with the media and other important stakeholders? Arethe results significant enough to warrant another community event or press event?

School Safety Committee

Chair

Others involved

Primary activities

Existing Programs

Peer mediation/Conflict resolution Drug/Alcohol prevention

Teen victimization Bullying prevention

Gang prevention Truancy prevention

Security Hardware

Security cameras Metal detectors

Check-in desk Swipe card access system

Visitor badges Other

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School Resource Inventory GuideUse this guide to determine what resources, programs, or security policies yourschool already has in place.

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Training and Resources

Name of training

Who has attended

What was learned

Available resources

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Policies

Bullying

Visitors

Behavior

Drugs/Alcohol

Fights

Vandalism/Graffiti

Other

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Sample School Safety and Security SurveysSchool Safety and Security Survey of Students

Name of School

Date

In general, how safe do you feel at this school?

M Very safe M Generally safe M Somewhat safe M Not very safe M Unsafe

Please indicate all areas where you feel less than “generally safe.”

M Empty classroom M Cafeteria M Teachers’/staff lounge M Campus M Hallways M Stairwells M Office area grounds/athletic M Bathrooms M Parking lot M Gym/locker rooms fields

Please indicate the time(s) of day when you feel less than generally safe in any of these areas.

M Before school opens M During class change periods M Evenings after school eventsM During class sessions M After school is dismissed M Working late in buildingM During lunch period M Evenings during school events

Please indicate how much of a problem you think each of the following has been during the most recentschool year.

Somewhat Somewhat of Hardly or notSevere Serious serious a problem a problem

Theft of personal property M M M M M

Theft of school property M M M M M

Vandalism to school property M M M M M

Bullying/intimidation M M M M M

Fighting without weapons M M M M M

Fighting with weapons M M M M M

Drug use (including alcohol) M M M M M

Drug/alcohol sales M M M M M

Disrespect among students M M M M M

Disrespect of adults by students M M M M M

Students troubled while walking/biking to/from school M M M M M

Students troubled while at bus stop/on bus to/from school M M M M M

Student misbehavior at afterschool or school-related activities M M M M M

Student misbehavior in school’s immediate neighborhood M M M M M

Uncontrolled/unmonitored access by visitors M M M M M

What, from your perspective, is the single biggest crime/school security problem in this school?

Does your school have a student code of conduct or similar rules of behavior?M Yes M Uncertain M No

IF YES, is it well publicized to students and parents throughout the school year?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

If there is one, does the conduct code or set of rules (or a companion document) describe sanctions forviolations and processes for imposing sanctions?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Do you think that these rules are enforced fairly and that punishments are handed out fairly?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does the school have a way of recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviors among students?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Who would you go to if you knew about a threat of violence at school? Check all that apply.

M Principal/Assistant Principal M Teacher M Some other school staff person

M Counselor M School Secretary M Don’t feel I could go to anyone

If you were to report a problem or concern involving your personal safety or that of another student to anadult at school, how sure are you that he or she would know what action to take and how to take it?

M Very confident M Somewhat confident M Not very confident M Not at all confident

Does your school offer any of the following? Please check all that apply.

M Peer mediation training for students M Referrals for family counseling/parent training

M Anger management training for students M Parent involvement in school safety

M Classroom management training for teachers M Parent education on school safety policies, student behavior

M Prompt counseling for disturbed/upset students rules

M Afterschool programs for students M Don’t know

Do your teachers know how to maintain a good learning situation in the classroom?

M All of them do pretty well M Only some of them do pretty well

M Most of them do pretty well M Only a few do pretty well

What one thing would you do to improve safety and security at this school?

What grade are you currently in?

Are you a . . . M Male M Female

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School Safety and Security Survey of Administrators, Staff,

and FacultyName of School

Date

In general, how safe do you feel at this school?

M Very safe M Generally safe M Somewhat safe M Not very safe M Unsafe

Please indicate all areas where you feel less than “generally safe.”

M Empty classroom M Cafeteria M Teachers’/staff lounge M Campus M Hallways M Stairwells M Office area grounds/athletic M Bathrooms M Parking lot M Gym/locker rooms fields

Please indicate the time(s) of day when you feel less than generally safe in any of these areas.

M Before school opens M During class change periods M Evenings after school eventsM During class sessions M After school is dismissed M Working late in buildingM During lunch period M Evenings during school events

Please indicate how much of a problem you think each of the following has been during the most recentschool year.

Somewhat Somewhat of Hardly or notSevere Serious serious a problem a problem

Theft of personal property M M M M M

Theft of school property M M M M M

Vandalism to school property M M M M M

Bullying/intimidation M M M M M

Fighting without weapons M M M M M

Fighting with weapons M M M M M

Drug use (including alcohol) M M M M M

Drug/alcohol sales M M M M M

Disrespect among students M M M M M

Disrespect of adults by students M M M M M

Students troubled while walking/biking to/from school M M M M M

Students troubled while at bus stop/on bus to/from school M M M M M

Student misbehavior at afterschool or school-related activities M M M M M

Student misbehavior in school’s immediate neighborhood M M M M M

Uncontrolled/unmonitored access by visitors M M M M M

What, from your perspective, is the single biggest crime/school security problem in this school?

Does your school have a student code of conduct or similar rules of behavior?M Yes M Uncertain M No

IF YES, is it well publicized to students and parents throughout the school year?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

If there is one, does the conduct code or set of rules (or a companion document) describe sanctions forviolations and processes for imposing sanctions?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does the school have a way of recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviors among students?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Who would you go to if you knew about a threat of violence at school? Check all that apply.

M Principal/Assistant Principal M Teacher M Some other school staff person

M Counselor M School Secretary M Don’t feel I could go to anyone

If a student were to report a problem or concern to you involving his or her or another student’s personalsafety, would you know what action to take and how to take it?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does your school offer any of the following? Please check all that apply.

M Peer mediation training for students M Referrals for family counseling/parent trainingM Anger management training for students M Parent involvement in school safetyM Classroom management training for teachers M Parent education on school safety policies, student behavior M Prompt counseling for disturbed/upset students rulesM Afterschool programs for students M Don’t know

Do you feel you have appropriate, current training in maintaining a safe, orderly learning environment for theschool?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does your school have a crisis management plan? Do you understand your part in the plan?

M Yes M Uncertain M No M Yes M Uncertain M No

What one thing would you do to improve safety and security at this school?

Length of time at this school:M Less than one year M One to two years M Three to five years M Six to ten years M More than ten years

Please indicate your status: M Teacher M Administrator M Other staff

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School Safety and Security Survey of Parents Name of School

Date

Note: If you have more than one child at the school, please fill out only one survey.

In general, how safe do you feel your child is at this school?

M Very safe M Generally safe M Somewhat safe M Not very safe M Unsafe

Please indicate all areas where your child feels less than “generally safe.”

M Empty classroom M Cafeteria M Teachers’/staff lounge M Campus M Hallways M Stairwells M Office area grounds/athletic M Bathrooms M Parking lot M Gym/locker rooms fields

Please indicate the time(s) of day when you believe that your child feels less than generally safe in any ofthese areas.

M Before school opens M During class change periods M Evenings after school eventsM During class sessions M After school is dismissed M Working late in buildingM During lunch period M Evenings during school events

Please indicate how much of a problem you think each of the following has been for your child during themost recent school year.

Somewhat Somewhat of Hardly or notSevere Serious serious a problem a problem

Theft of personal property M M M M M

Theft of school property M M M M M

Vandalism to school property M M M M M

Bullying/intimidation M M M M M

Fighting without weapons M M M M M

Fighting with weapons M M M M M

Drug use (including alcohol) M M M M M

Drug/alcohol sales M M M M M

Disrespect among students M M M M M

Disrespect of adults by students M M M M M

Students troubled while walking/biking to/from school M M M M M

Students troubled while at bus stop/on bus to/from school M M M M M

Student misbehavior at afterschool or school-related activities M M M M M

Student misbehavior in school’s immediate neighborhood M M M M M

Uncontrolled/unmonitored access by visitors M M M M M

What, from your perspective, is the single biggest crime/school security problem in this school?

Does your child’s school have a student code of conduct or similar rules of behavior?M Yes M Uncertain M No

IF YES, is it well publicized to students and parents throughout the school year?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

If there is one, does the conduct code or set of rules (or a companion document) describe sanctions forviolations and processes for imposing sanctions?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does the school have a way of recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviors among students?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

If a student were to report a problem or concern to an adult in the school involving his or her or anotherstudent’s personal safety, would that adult know what action to take and how to take it?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does your child’s school offer any of the following? Please check all that apply.

M Peer mediation training for students M Referrals for family counseling/parent trainingM Anger management training for students M Parent involvement in school safetyM Classroom management training for teachers M Parent education on school safety policies, student behavior M Prompt counseling for disturbed/upset students rulesM Afterschool programs for students M Don’t know

Do you feel that teachers and other staff have appropriate, current training in maintaining a safe, orderlylearning environment for the school?

M Yes M Uncertain M No

Does your school have a crisis management plan? Do you understand your part in the plan?M Yes M Uncertain M No M Yes M Uncertain M No

What one thing would you do to improve safety and security at this school?

How long have you had at least one student in this school?M Less than one year M One to two years M Three to five years M Six to ten years M More than ten years

Please indicate current grade levels of your children at this school:

M Pre-K M First M Third M Fifth M Seventh M Ninth M EleventhM Kindergarten M Second M Fourth M Sixth M Eighth M Tenth M Twelfth

How long have you lived in this neighborhood?M Less than one year M One to two years M Three to five years M Six to ten years M More than ten years

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Who Can Perform This Assessment?

This assessment is designed for school staff, par-ents, and school safety and law enforcement per-sonnel who have not had specialized training insuch work. It may be helpful to work in teams;two or three sets of eyes and ears are more likely tonotice problems that need attention. Have oneperson complete the assessment checklist (seebelow), while others jot down specific situationnotes. One other helpful hint: If you’re planningto conduct parent, teacher/staff, and student sur-veys too (see Appendix B), do those first; the sur-vey results will help your assessment team zero inon problems more quickly.

How Do You Performan Assessment?

Full-blown school safety and security assessmentsrequire an experienced professional who can lookat the school objectively and in the context of sim-ilar schools in other settings. If this is not anoption, you can do a lot with a less formal assess-ment. The process will increase your knowledge ofthe building and the way the school is operated.

1. Collect information. If the school has had asafety assessment before, what were theresults? What do the student, teacher/staff,and parent surveys tell you about places andtimes people feel unsafe? What do schoolrecords (indicator data) reveal about when andwhere there have been problems? What do

neighborhood crime data show about inci-dents involving students?

2. Make a checklist of issues based on these data.Make sure there is space on the checklist tonote whether specific problems have beenfixed, partially fixed, or not fixed, as well asthe follow-up required and who will do it. Usethe assessment form so that the person record-ing that information can quickly note whereand when problems are spotted during theassessment. If possible, invite a local lawenforcement officer (the school resource offi-cer or an officer familiar with your neighbor-hood) to go with you on the assessment. Theofficer may not be trained in school safetyassessments, but he or she will most likelyhave had crime prevention training as well asexperience in the field.

3. Get a map or a set of maps of the school, onefor each level or floor of the building. Makesure that one of the maps includes all the out-side areas, well marked.

4. Recognize that this work will take some time.You may wish to schedule it over two days ifyour school is big.

5. Consider inviting some students to join you.Students offer a unique perspective and maybe able to bring problem areas to your atten-tion that you have not initially considered.

6. Note that the first section of the assessment,“All Areas,” should be repeated in each area ofthe building and grounds that you assess (e.g.,play/athletic areas, classrooms, driving/parkingareas, etc.). You should make additionalcopies of this section before the assessment.

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Basic School Safety and Security AssessmentThis assessment is designed as an initial scan of the school or as part of a follow-up to a professional safety assessment by a trained law enforcement, school secu-rity, or similar specialist. The assessment involves two key concepts: physicalclimate and social climate. Although these concepts will be examined chiefly onthe school campus, the immediate neighborhood will also be considered becausethe surrounding environment might create safety concerns.

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School Safety and Security Assessment Name of School

Date(s) conducted Completed by

All Areas

For each area of the building and grounds listed on the following pages (e.g., play/athletic areas, classrooms,driving/parking areas, etc.), note the following for all areas:

Yes Uncertain No

Doors: They are metal or metal-clad wood, not propped open, glass guarded against breakage, and no external hardware except on entry doors. M M M

Windows: They are locked from the inside guarded against breakage and entry. M M M

Ladders, fire escapes, etc.: The upper floors are secured against entry. M M M

Boundary lines: School property is clearly defined as viewed from this area. M M M

Lines of sight: From this area, people can see and be seen easily by others. M M M

Lines of sight: This area can be seen by persons inside the building. M M M

Lighting (check at night if possible): Sufficient light makes activity in this area visible to passersby on foot, in cars. M M M

Signage: There is a sign in this area telling visitors where to report. M M M

Signage: There is a sign easily visible in the main area of entry that gives school name and street address. M M M

Trash: The area is free of trash, debris, and graffiti. M M M

Trash: Trash bins are available. M M M

Pathways: Walkways or other pedestrian paths are clear and well lighted. M M M

Bike storage: Any bike racks in area are secured to the ground, in good repair, and visible from the building. M M M

Shrubbery and trees: All trees and shrubs are trimmed to prevent people from hiding and allow access to upper floors. M M M

Equipment: All maintenance and other equipment and all utility fixtures are either fenced off securely or under lock and key. M M M

General: Area is attractive, well kept, and in good repair. M M M

Play or Athletic Areas

Line of sight: Play areas are visible from the building. M M M

Boundaries: Play areas are clearly defined and fenced in. M M M

Yes Uncertain No

Access: Emergency vehicles can reach the area easily. M M M

Structures: Equipment sheds, field houses, etc., have sturdy doors and locks. M M M

Structures: Equipment sheds, field houses, etc., are visible from building and from roadways, etc. M M M

Equipment: Freestanding or loose equipment is properly locked up. M M M

Condition: There is no trash, debris, or graffiti. M M M

Classrooms

Lighting: Rooms are well lighted with interior lighting. M M M

Access: Doors are lockable, with deadbolt locks if warranted. M M M

Access: Vision panels in doors or classroom walls are clean and unobstructed. M M M

Access: Classroom doors that open to the outside are locked unless in use. M M M

Access: Students are not permitted in classrooms without proper supervision. M M M

Communication: There is a two-way communication system between the main office and the classroom. M M M

Temporary classrooms (trailers): All are visible from building, connected by communication and alarm systems. M M M

Materials: Any chemicals and other hazardous or potentially dangerous materials are kept in locked storage. M M M

Driving and Parking Areas

Traffic control: Stop signs and other devices adequately control inflow, outflow of traffic. M M M

Surveillance: Parking areas can be seen from within the building. M M M

Surveillance: Parking areas are visible from adjacent street(s). M M M

Surveillance: Parking areas are patrolled during school hours; student arrivals and departures are monitored. M M M

Lighting (check at night): Adequate lighting is in all areas of all lots to make vandals, car thieves visible. M M M

Condition: All areas are clear of trash, debris, and graffiti. M M M

Hallways, Stairways, Bathrooms, Other Common Areas

Lighting: Hallways and stairways are well lighted any time the building is in use. M M M

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Yes Uncertain No

Lighting: After-hours lighting provides sufficient light for navigation and surveillance. M M M

Lighting: Bathroom lights are controlled by a key switch rather than by a toggle switch. M M M

Lines of sight: Hallways can be monitored by several teachers/staff from their classrooms/offices. M M M

Lines of sight: Stairways are equipped, where appropriate, with convex mirrors for surveillance. M M M

Condition: All areas are clear of trash, debris, and graffiti. M M M

Traffic control: Signs and floor markings, in good condition, are provided as needed. M M M

Access: Hallways are kept clear and not used for storage. M M M

Access: Bathrooms are kept clear and not used for storage. M M M

Policies and Practices

Yes Uncertain No

Key control: Keys are kept under strict inventory and secured appropriately. M M M

Key control: Master keys are limited and numbered; holders must sign for them. M M M

Building management: Policies spell out responsibility for opening and closing security checks and for checks of the building at least once during the day. M M M

Student behavior: A code of conduct is established, clearly posted in several location, and reviewed at least twice yearly. M M M

Student behavior: A code of conduct spells out a procedure for violations and penalties. M M M

Student behavior: Students are reasonably orderly and quiet as they walk through hallways for class changes, recess, lunch, etc. M M M

Faculty/staff: Administrators/teachers monitor hallways with friendly “hello” attitude. M M M

Faculty/staff: Faculty are trained (and refresher-trained) in good classroom management techniques. M M M

Faculty/staff: Faculty/staff are kept up-to-date on resources for help for students. M M M

Faculty/staff: All know procedures for reporting crimes and agree to do so. M M M

Faculty/staff: When on campus, whether inside or outside building, they reasonably enforce rules and code of conduct. M M M

Parents: Parents are involved in developing discipline process, code of conduct. M M M

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Yes Uncertain No

Parents: Parents are provided annually with the current code of conduct and disciplinary process. M M M

Security: If ID badges are used, all faculty, staff, and students are required to wear them. M M M

Crisis management: The school has a crisis management plan in place and faculty, staff, students, and parents understand their roles in that plan. M M M

Law enforcement coordination: The school and key staff meet regularly with local law enforcement regarding school issues and potential concerns/crises. M M M

Policy development, volunteering: Parents are encouraged to get involved appropriately in school safety/security issues. M M M

Policy development, volunteering: Students are encouraged to get involved appropriately in school safety and security. M M M

Comments

Be sure to comment on areas marked “no” above.

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Action Planning ChartGoal/Problem To Address:

Objective/Activity To Implement:

Action Steps To Complete Activity

Who Will Take Action Deadline(s) Outcome

1.

2.

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5.

Objective 1

Acquire surveillance cameras to improve observa-tion of hallways.

Activity 1

Work with school technology coordinator toresearch and select state-of-the-art video surveillance camera system for installation.

Activity 2

Contact companies that might be willing todonate a swipe door lock system.

Objective 2

Engage and train parents on bullying and studentbehavior.

Activity 1

Send three parents from the community to attendthe state behavior instruction academy.

Activity 2

Host three evening and afternoon workshops onbullying prevention. Engage presenters fromPhysicians for Change.

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Sample Safety and Security Action PlanNorth County Middle School Action Plan

Goal: By June 2005, North County Middle School will have in place strategiesand equipment that will make the learning environment more safe and secure.

Objective 3

Train teachers/staff on building positive relation-ships with students.

Activity 1

Invite outside experts to provide three staff work-shops on building relationships with students, using the Behave In/Behave Out andBuilding Champions curriculum models.

Activity 2

Select school staff to attend safe schools confer-ence.

Activity 3

Hold forum in which teachers can share their suc-cess stories concerning positive student/teacherrelationships.

Determine Your Message

This is the most critical part of any event. Knowwhat you want to say, and be able to explain whyyou are having the event. If you are launching acampaign, what is the news and why? Look for thenewsworthy angle. Everything that follows will tieback to this decision. Take the time to think thisthrough.

Select Speakers

Who will be telling your story and why? This deci-sion is second only to the message. Your spokes-person can make or break your message. If you usea local celebrity, business leader, or elected official,make sure his or her personal track record andbehavior are parallel with your message. Considerstudents who may be willing to talk about a per-sonal experience or who represent a student groupwith which your action team will partner. If youwant your speaker to do personal interviews onyour message outside of this event, make sure thespeaker is comfortable with that and that he or sheknows enough about your message to speakunscripted on the topic. Provide talking points foryour speaker; everyone who speaks on your issueshould convey the same consistent message.

Determine a Background or Backdrop

If you are using signage, follow the tips below.

n Put your message behind your speaker—usewords or pictures. A wallpaper style banner onwhich the message/logo is small and repeated isthe most effective layout.

n Less is more; keep the background simple.n Use a matte, not glossy background. A shiny

background will create camera glare and dis-tract viewers. To create a matte effect on aglossy sign, spray it with hairspray.

Lighting

You can almost never have too much light forcameras. If you can stage an event outdoors dur-ing daylight hours, you’ll get great pictures. Ifnot, try to provide as much light as possible.Avoid locations in which there is back light (i.e.,from windows behind the speaker)—the back-lighting will make your speaker appear as a darkimage with few features. Ideal light is achievedwith white, incandescent (not fluorescent) bulbsand hits the speaker from above and from thefront. If poor lighting is unavoidable, be sure toprovide advance notice of this in your media advi-sory so camera crews and photographers can planaccordingly.

Press Riser and Cut-away

If you have a designated area for the press to filmfrom, it should be

n Directly in front of the speaker (known as ahead-on)

n At the same height as the speaker (if the speakerstage is 36 inches, the press riser should be 36inches)

n No more than 75 feet from the speaker. If thatdistance (known as the throw) is longer than 75feet, be sure to inform the media on the advisoryso they can plan accordingly.

A cut-away shot allows camera crews to film theevent from a different angle, reinforcing your mes-

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Planning a Press EventA press or community event to kick off your action plan will not only celebrateyour school’s commitment to safety and security and build excitement but alsorecognize the hard work your action team has done to date. The school is a nat-ural choice as an event venue. Consider planning a Be Safe and Sound in Schoolcampaign launch in coordination with a back-to-school fundraiser, parent night,PTA/PTO meeting, sporting event, or pep rally. Having a built-in audience foryour event will make it easier to attract elected officials and the media.

sage with an alternative visual. For example, yourhead-on shot may have a wallpaper backgroundwith the words “Be Safe and Sound in School”behind the speaker, while the cut-away shot offersa close-up from the right, capturing poster-sizedyearbook images of the student body. Cut-awaysare a great way to get creative and add interest toyour pictures.

Audio-Visual Equipment

Each event varies in audio-visual (A/V) needs. Agood rule is that the larger the event, the morepress you’ll have attending and the greater theneed for A/V. Possible A/V items include

n Staging. Remember, if you have the speaker on a stage, the press should be seated at equalheight, so order accordingly.

n Lighting. See above. n Sound. Use equipment that can be adjusted for

the size of the room and the number of attendees.A/V technicians will give you good advice.

n Mult box. Mult boxes allow press to plugdirectly into the primary microphone to elimi-nate excess noise. If you expect to have morethan three cameras and/or radio stations attend-ing, or you have a long throw (distance betweenyour speaker and where your cameras will be),provide a mult box as a courtesy. This willensure that TV viewers get the best possiblesound quality to hear your message.

Press Kits

All media who attend your event should receive apress kit that provides all the information neededto write a story on your event. The kit shouldinclude, as available

n A copy of any speech or statement given at theevent

n Copies of the media advisory and press releasen Compelling statistics about school safety and

securityn An overview of the school safety and security

improvements that your action plan will beintroducing

n Biographical information about event speakers,key action team members, and communityleaders who participated in the school safetyand security forum

Media Outreach

n Fax, email, mail, or deliver a media advisory tolocal media outlets. Be considerate of deadlines,as well as preferred lead times for stories.Broadcast stations will need at least 24 hoursadvance notice if you want camera crews tocover your event. Daily newspaper reportersusually need at least two days advance notice. Agood rule of thumb is to send your advisory by6:00 a.m. on the Monday prior to your event.

n Follow up on your advisory with a phone call24 hours before the event. Be prepared to giveevent details and re-send the original advisory.

n At the event: Provide press kits to the mediaand have your speaker ready for interviews. Havesomeone at your event who can take qualityphotos or video, in case the press doesn’t showup.

n Send a press release immediately after your event.Include pictures or film with your release, andbe sure to provide the names of people in thephotos. If photos include students, be sure toobtain consent from their parents for thosephotos to be shown.

n Follow up with a phone call to make sure theinformation was received and to answer anyquestions.

Key Terms

Angle: A unique or compelling way of telling yourstory to captivate the interest of a news editoror reporter.

Lead time: The amount of time a news organiza-tion needs to receive information in advance inorder to fit the news into a specific publicationor broadcast.

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Media advisory: A notice of an upcoming eventthat highlights why media should be interested.See Appendix G for more details and a sampleadvisory.

Mult box: A piece of A/V equipment that allowspress to plug directly into the primary microphone.

Press kit: A kit of background information, statistics, and quotes provided to reportersabout a specific program or event.

Press release: A story that tells the “who, what,when, where, how, and why” of an event or

activity that has taken place and provides inter-esting quotes or illustrations that may form thebasis of a news story. See Appendix H for moredetails and a sample release.

Talking points: Key campaign messages thatshould be communicated consistently inevents, correspondence, media interviews, andmeetings.

Throw: The distance between the speaker and thecameras.

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Sample Media AdvisoryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ann SmithMonday, August 30, 2010 xxx-xxx-xxxx

West Lake High School To Launch Be Safe and Sound Campaign

WHO: West Lake High School, in partnership with the National Crime PreventionCouncil (NCPC), Acme Lighting Supply, Software Solutions Inc., and the [state]Center for School Safety.

WHAT: Press event to introduce West Lake High School’s (WLHS) Be Safe and Sound inSchool campaign, focusing on school safety and security improvements. Corporatepartners Acme Lighting Supply and Software Solutions, Inc., will pledge in-kindsupport to WLHS in the implementation of a school safety and security action plan.The principal will announce the receipt of $5,000.00 in funding from NCPC tosupport the initiative. This event will coincide with the school’s annual Open Housenight, with an expected 150 parents in attendance.

InviteesThe Honorable Diane Smart, xx, State SenateThe Honorable Charles Lane, xx, State LegislatureThe Honorable Andrew Fletcher, Commissioner, [state] Department of EducationMs. Kay Roberts, Director, [state] Center for School SafetyThe Honorable Fred Sanders, Mayor, City of xxxMr. John Jackson, Police Chief, City of xxxMs. Nancy Johnson, Superintendent, City of xxx School District

WHERE: West Lake High School Gymnasium200 Main StreetCity, State, ZipSchool Contact Number: xxx-xxx-xxxx

WHEN: Friday, September 3, 2010, 6:00 p.m.

WHY: Over the next few months, WLHS plans to conduct several surveys and audits inorder to identify safety and security problems on its campus. Using the Be Safe andSound in School campaign model of the National Crime Prevention Council, theschool plans to engage parents and community members in developing solutions toaddress safety and security issues and construct a comprehensive action plan.

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Sample Press ReleaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ann SmithFriday, September 3, 2010 xxx-xxx-xxxx

West Lake High School Launches Be Safe and Sound Campaign

Anywhere, USA. On September 3, 2010, more than 120 parents, 600 students, 30 Chamber ofCommerce representatives, and the xxx city mayor and police chief attended a kickoff event at West LakeHigh School (WLHS) to introduce the school’s new Be Safe and Sound in School campaign. The cam-paign, adopted from a National Crime Prevention Council model, is dedicated to improving school safetyand security with a particular focus on efforts to reduce bullying, vandalism, and theft.

WLHS Principal John Doe—last year’s state principal of the year—spoke to attendees about the school’ssafety accomplishments thus far. During the last semester, the school conducted several surveys and auditsin order to identify safety and security problems on campus. The school has since engaged parents, stu-dents, faculty, and community members in developing solutions to address these issues and constructing acomprehensive action plan.

“Every child should be able to attend school feeling that he or she is in a safe and secure learning environ-ment,” said Doe. “Our Be Safe and Sound in School action team of parents, teachers, students, and localbusiness partners is working to make this a reality.”

School improvements this year will include the introduction of anti-bullying curricula in classrooms, an IDbadge system for students and faculty, and new outdoor lighting in the west parking lot. WLHS was one ofonly twelve schools in the country to receive $5,000.00 in funding from the National Crime PreventionCouncil to support school safety improvements. Outdoor lighting will be donated by Acme LightingSupply Co. Software for the ID badge system is being provided by Software Solutions, Inc.

West Lake High School is the largest public high school in the county, with 1,200 students in grades 9through 12. Last year, the school ranked fifth in the state for academic performance.

Be Safe and Sound in School is a national campaign that seeks to promote awareness about safety and secu-rity issues, advocate for safety and security improvements, and challenge those environments where peopleare potentially at risk. The campaign is an initiative of the National Crime Prevention Council with fund-ing from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.

For further information, call Ann Smith at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

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Sample Promotion LettersSample Letter to Elected Official

April 1, 2010

The Honorable Andrew FletcherCommissioner [state] Department of Education100 Maple StreetCity, State, Zip

Dear Commissioner:

Last year, students ages 12 through 18 were victims of about 35,000 crimes at schools in our state, includ-ing about 2,200 serious violent crimes. While school crime rates in our state are below the national average,students’ feelings of vulnerability do not always correlate with actual crime rates. Studies have shown thatthe fear of being victimized can be as powerful as victimization itself. Students who feel unsafe at schoolhave a harder time focusing on learning, and their academic performance suffers as a result.

That’s why we’re asking for your support of a new school safety and security initiative at West Lake HighSchool (WLHS) in [city]. During the fall, WLHS conducted several surveys and audits in order to identifysafety and security problems on its campus. Using the Be Safe and Sound in School campaign model of theNational Crime Prevention Council, the school has engaged parents, students, and community membersin developing solutions to address these problems and constructing a comprehensive action plan. Theplan’s initial focus is on reducing rates of bullying, vandalism, and theft. Initial building improvements(new outdoor lighting and security cameras) have already reduced the number of graffiti-related incidents,and we are introducing anti-bullying curricula to family life classrooms with the start of the new schoolyear. It is our hope that this program will continue to achieve notable results and ultimately serve as a pilotfor other schools throughout the state.

In today’s communities, it is difficult, if not impossible, to improve academic performance without consid-ering levels of safety and security inside a school. Therefore, we are hoping you will consider incorporatingthis important issue into your reelection campaign. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would likefurther information about Be Safe and Sound in School and the specific successes we’ve achieved at WestLake High School.

Sincerely,

John DoePrincipal

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Sample Letter to Business

April 1, 2010

Ms. Janice BrooksDirector of Community RelationsWild Ride Theme ParkCity, State, Zip

Dear Ms. Brooks:

National news coverage in recent years has shown that bullying and taunting are not the innocuous “ritesof passage” we once believed them to be. Chronic bullying can cause low self-esteem, poor academic per-formance, and depression. In the worst cases, children who are repeatedly bullied respond with violencetoward their tormentors, others, or themselves.

Bullying is a problem that sometimes starts at school but can easily spread to other parts of the community—particularly to businesses such as yours that employ large numbers of students and enjoyteenage customers.

That’s why we’re asking for your support of a new school safety and security initiative at West Lake HighSchool (WLHS) in [city]. During the fall, WLHS conducted several surveys and audits in order to identifysafety and security problems on its campus. Using the Be Safe and Sound in School campaign model of theNational Crime Prevention Council, the school has engaged parents, students, and community membersin developing solutions to address these problems and constructing a comprehensive action plan. One ofour major areas of focus is on reducing rates of bullying at school. Next year we plan to introduce angermanagement and conflict resolution curricula to family life classrooms, as well as a series of workshops tohelp teachers and parents recognize signs of bullying. It is our hope that this program will continue toachieve notable results and ultimately serve as a pilot for other schools throughout the state.

In light of your corporate commitment to youth in our community, I am writing to ask if your companywould be interested in becoming an official Be Safe and Sound in School campaign partner. As part of thiscommitment, we would ask that you publicize the campaign in your internal employee newsletter andcommunity outreach materials, and sponsor one of three bullying prevention workshops we have slated forthis summer. I will give you a call later this week to follow up with more details.

Sincerely,

John DoePrincipal

Resources for Elementary Schools

NCPC’s publications for children and youth address awide range of topics including home and neighborhoodsafety, bullying, alcohol and drugs, conflict manage-ment, media violence, diversity, and Internet safety.Below is a sampling of publications that deal with chil-dren’s behavior and school-related safety issues.

Get the Message! McGruff’s Tool Kit To Keep Children Safe

Give children in grades K through five the knowledgeand skills to stay safe and prevent crime with this inno-vative kit featuring McGruff the Crime Dog® and hisnephew Scruff®. Topics include bullying, home andneighborhood safety, conflict management, and alcoholand drug prevention. The kit includes backgroundinformation for educators, daily messages for studentsto be read over the school’s PA system, classroom activ-ities, reproducible brochures for parents (in English andSpanish), and a colorful poster.

Helping Kids Handle Conflict

This guide teaches children in grades K through fiveage-appropriate activities to help learn nonviolent waysto settle arguments, deal with bullying, and avoid fights.Children will build problem-solving and communicationskills as they learn about bullying, gender and culturaldifferences, media violence, and weapons.

Keeping Kids Safe: A Kit for CaringCommunities

This comprehensive kit for teachers, law enforcementofficers, youth organization leaders, and other communitymembers contains a variety of materials for children ingrades pre-K through five. Background papers, interactiveactivities, worksheets, and posters cover topics such asbullies; guns and other weapons; alcohol, tobacco, andother drugs; conflict management; and much more. The kit includes a cassette tape and songbook.

Teaching Tales for Caring Kids

Teaching Tales for Caring Kids tells traditional tales fromaround the world and relates their morals to contempo-rary issues to help prevent crime, drug, and violence

problems among children in grades K through five. Thepublication includes learning activities, reproduciblehandouts, letters to parents, and four brightly coloredposters. Topics include anger management, appreciatingdiversity, treating others with respect, and resistingnegative peer pressure.

Resources for Middle and High Schools

Cyberbullying Media Campaign

Cyberbullying occurs when teens use the Internet, cellphones, or other devices to send or post text or imagesintended to hurt or embarrass another person. NCPC’scurrent cyberbullying media campaign offers online infor-mation for youth and parents on how to protect youthfrom online bullying. Visit http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying.

Teens, Crime, and the Community

The Teens, Crime, and the Community (TCC) initia-tive has motivated more than one million young peopleto create safer schools and neighborhoods. TCC’sCommunity Works program is a national youth violence prevention program that supports the conceptof education and action to create safer, more caringcommunities for youth by youth. Since its founding in1985, thousands of educators, law enforcement officers,and other community members who serve youth haveparticipated in the Community Works program.

Community Works is a skill-building program thatincludes 31 topical lessons that are designed to increasecrime prevention awareness and teach teens how toresolve conflict nonviolently. The program also includesa service component that supports teens in the develop-ment of projects that can create safer, more enrichedenvironments for themselves and their families.Community Works topics include

n Conflict management n Bullying and intimidationn Handguns and violence n Gangs n Substance abuse and drug dealing n Violent and property crimesn Reporting a crime n Designing a community service project

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Resources National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC)202-466-6272www.ncpc.org

For more information about the Community Works pro-gram, visit www.ncpc.org.

Theft Presentation Posters

Teens today are faced with theft in schools and thelooming threat of identity theft as they become youngadults. NCPC offers identity theft and property theftposters that will help teens learn how to protect theiridentities and possessions. Facts sheets are also availablefor download at www.ncpc.org/preventtheft.

Youth Outreach for Victim Assistance (YOVA)

The Youth Outreach for Victim Assistance projectmobilizes teams of youth and adults to create outreachcampaigns that raise young people’s awareness of teenvictimization and services that can assist teen victims ofcrime. In the past three years, 60 organizations in 32states have participated in YOVA. YOVA sites havedirectly reached more than 60,000 individuals throughyouth-led presentations, sociodramas, outreach events,posters and brochures, and millions more have seen orheard public service announcements created by YOVAsites. A key resource for this project is the publicationReaching and Serving Teen Victims: A PracticalHandbook. This innovative new resource was designedto help adults work more effectively with teenage vic-tims of crime. The handbook gives an overview of ado-lescent development and the way that victimizationaffects teens uniquely. It provides strategies for assessingthe extent and nature of teen victimization in the com-munity, creating effective outreach, making the serviceenvironment teen-friendly, and interacting with teensin helpful and productive ways. It also includes guid-ance on parent and family involvement and mandatoryreporting. To obtain a copy of this publication, visithttp://www.ncpc.org/resources.

Youth Safety Corps

Youth Safety Corps (YSC) seeks to recruit, train, andmobilize a diverse student population to improve thelearning environment of America’s schools by designingand running projects to prevent youth crime, violence,and drug abuse. Through the development ofyouth/adult partnerships, students learn specific skills,including leadership and team work, to bring aboutpositive changes in their schools. With guidance fromtheir adult partners, students facilitate the developmentof prevention designs that may include teen courts,school safety audits, mentoring and tutoring, and a

wide array of other service learning projects. For moreinformation about Youth Safety Corps, visitwww.ncpc.org and click on Programs.

NCPC’s Youth Safety Corps Project ImplementationToolkit is designed to help start a Youth Safety Corps inyour school. The kit includes information on identify-ing the safety problems in your school, developing aproject that addresses that problem, and getting theword out. The kit examines eight specific skill-buildingareas and 12 project examples.

Crime Prevention Through EnvironmentalDesign (CPTED)

See Getting Started in this kit to learn more aboutCPTED.

Designing Safer Communities: A Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Handbook

A guide to the principles and application of CPTED,this NCPC publication presents a framework for devel-oping policies and partnerships that address situationalcrime prevention. It reviews the experiences of severalstates and localities that have successfully incorporatedCPTED as part of a strategic approach to public safety

Designing Safe Spaces: Involving Children and Youth in CrimePrevention Through Environmental Design

Designing Safe Spaces focuses on Crime PreventionThrough Environmental Design (CPTED), a methodof designing or modifying the physical environment ina way that positively influences human behavior. Theguide features lessons and field trips to introduce chil-dren and youth (ages eight to 15) to CPTED, and itoffers ideas for projects that use CPTED principles tomake communities safer. Designing Safe Spaces is a use-ful resource for adults who work with young people inschools, Boys & Girls Clubs, or other community set-tings; crime prevention practitioners and law enforce-ment officers; Neighborhood Watch groups; andgroups already participating in NCPC programs forchildren and youth.

Safer Schools by Design Training

Safer Schools by Design offers participants an agendapacked with interactive sessions using advancedCPTED strategies and solutions to promote safety,orderly behavior, and a reduction of fear in the school

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environment. Technical sessions cover transportation,signage, landscaping, and lighting. Participants areguided through a comprehensive school assessmentprocess followed by a real assessment of a school.Working in teams, participants will develop, prioritize,and present feasible recommendations. This is a three-day training.

For more information on CPTED trainings, visitwww.ncpc.org.

Additional Resources

Creating a Blueprint for Community Safety: A Guide for Local Action

Strategic and effective crime prevention planning andaction help sustain prevention. This NCPC documentprovides operational guidelines and suggests resourcesfor those who lead major action planning initiatives atthe local level.

How Are We Doing? A Guide to Local Program Evaluation

This handbook for designing local program evaluationsincludes checklists, process outlines, methods choices,and key decision and timeline constructs for local pro-grams that want to develop their own evaluations ofprogram activities in crime prevention.

Partner With the Media To Build Safer Communities

This helpful kit offers information and resources toenlist the media as partners in crime prevention. It pre-sents suggestions for an individual or group on reachingout to the media, tips on getting prevention-orientedpublic service announcements on the air and in print,and an overview of ways to achieve sustained mediacoverage for prevention activities. It includes stories ofhow crime prevention and the media have workedtogether to make crime prevention a priority.

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Federal Agencies and ClearinghousesNote: Agency and organizational descriptions areexcerpted from the referenced website.

Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS)Toll-free: 800-USA-LEARNwww.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/OSDFS supports efforts to create safe schools, respondto crises, prevent drug and alcohol abuse, ensure thehealth and well-being of students, and teach studentsgood citizenship and character. The OSDFS website’sReports & Resources page includes online publications,a directory of print publications, and links to other relevant resources and publications. The Programs/Initiatives page includes information about grantopportunities.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)www.eric.ed.govERIC is a national information system funded by theInstitute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Departmentof Education to provide access to education literatureand resources. “The world’s largest source of educationinformation,” ERIC can be intimidating for new users.Before beginning your search, click on Help and visitthe New ERIC Users page to orient yourself to thedatabase.

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National Criminal Justice Reference Services(NCJRS)www.ncjrs.orgNCJRS is a federally funded resource offering justiceand substance abuse information to support research,policy, and program development worldwide. Itincludes resources from the Office for Victims ofCrime, the Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention, and the Department of HomelandSecurity.

ASCA (American School Counselor Association)Toll-free: (800) 306-4722www.schoolcounselor.org

ASIS International (formerly American Society for Industrial Security)703-519-6200www.asisonline.org

Communities In Schools (CIS)Toll-free: 800-CIS-4KIDSwww.cisnet.org

National Association of Elementary SchoolPrincipals (NAESP)Toll-free: 800-386-2377www.naesp.org

National Association of School Resource Officers(NASRO)Toll-free: 888-31-NASROwww.nasro.org

National Association of Secondary School Principals(NASSP)703-860-0200www.nassp.org

National PTAToll-free: 800-307-4PTAwww.pta.org

National School Boards Association703-838-6722 www.nsba.org

National School Safety Center805-373-9977www.nssc1.org

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California Safe and Healthy Kids Program Office, Department of Education 916-319-0920www.cde.ca.gov/ls/

Colorado Safe Communities-Safe Schools, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence303-492-1032www.colorado.edu/UCB/Research/cspv/safeschools/index.html

Connecticut Safe Schools and Communities Coalition, The Governor’s Prevention Partnership860-523-8042www.preventionworksct.org/ssc/index.html

Florida Office of Safe Schools, Department of Education850-245-0416www.fldoe.org/safeschools/

Georgia School Safety Project, Georgia Emergency Management AgencyToll Free: 800-TRY-GEMAwww2.state.ga.us/GEMA/broadcast/kids/schoolsafety.htm

Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy, Department of Education317-232-6610www.doe.in.gov/welcome.html

Kentucky Center for School Safety, Eastern Kentucky UniversityToll-free: 877-805-4277www.kysafeschools.org

Mississippi Office of Healthy Schools601-359-1737www.healthyschoolsms.org/index.html

Missouri Center for Safe Schools, University of Missouri, Kansas City816-235-5656http://education.umkc.edu/safe-school/

Nebraska Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities, Department of Education402-471-2295www.nde.state.ne.us/

New York State Center for School Safety845-255-8989http://nyscenterforschoolsafety.org/

North Carolina Center for the Prevention of School Violence, Department of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPreventionToll-free: 800-299-6054www.juvjus.state.nc.us/cpsv/

Ohio Resource Network for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities, University of CincinnatiToll-free: 800-788-7254www.ebasedprevention.org

Oregon Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior, University of Oregon541-346-3591www.uoregon.edu/~ivdb

Pennsylvania Center for Safe Schools 717-763-1661 www.center-school.org/viol_prev/css/about.html

South Carolina Center for Safe Schools, Department of Education Toll-free: 866-300-9326 www.myscschools.com/offices/ssys/safe_schools/sccss/

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State School Safety Centers and OfficesSchool safety centers have been established in 20 states. Although some centers are moreactive than others, they share a common mission: to provide school districts and staff,parents, and students with training, tools, and technical assistance to enhance the safetyand security of America’s schools. For an up-to-date list, visit www.ncpc.org/programs/be-safe-and-sound-campaign

For more information about this campaign and for a detailed list of resources on schoolsafety and security issues, visit the Be Safe and Sound in School website atwww.ncpc.org/programs/be-safe-and-sound-campaign.

Be Safe and Sound Founding Partners

National Crime Prevention Councilwww.ncpc.orgThe National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) is a private, nonprofittax-exempt [501(c)(3)] organization whose primary mission is to be thenation’s leader in helping people keep themselves, their families, and theircommunities safe from crime.

The Allstate Foundationwww.allstate.com/foundationThe Allstate Foundation is an independent, charitable organiza-

tion made possible by funding from the Allstate Corporation. The foundation fundsprograms in three focus areas: safe and vital communities; tolerance, inclusion, anddiversity; and economic empowerment.

ASSA ABLOY Groupwww.assaabloy.com

ASSA ABLOY is the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of locks and is dedi-cated to understanding its customers’ current and future security and safety needs.Based in Sweden, the ASSA ABLOY Group comprises 100 companies in 40 countriesand holds market-leading positions in Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, Canada, andMexico and is the second largest player in the U.S. market.

Security Industry Associationwww.siaonline.comFormed in 1969, SIA provides its members with a full-service, internationaltrade association promoting the growth, expansion, and professionalism of thesecurity industry through providing education, research, technical standards,

representation, and defense of members’ interests. SIA has more than 300 membercompanies, including manufacturers, distributors, service providers, and others.

2345 Crystal DriveSuite 500Arlington, VA 22202

202-466-6272Fax 202-296-1356www.ncpc.org

Tennessee School Safety Center, Department of Education 615-741-3248 www.state.tn.us/education/learningsupport/schsafetyctr/

Texas School Safety Center, Texas State University-San MarcosToll Free: 877-304-2727 www.txssc.txstate.edu/txssc.htm

Virginia Center for School Safety, Department of Criminal Justice Services 804-786-4000 www.virginiaschoolsafety.com/

Washington State School Safety Center, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction 360-725-6044www.k12.wa.us/safetycenter

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