Safe communities, safe schools, safe kids

Opinion

As families prepare their kids to head back to school one thought is in the back of everyone’s mind: safety.  Prince William County schools are a reflection of Prince William County communities. 

Potomac School Board Rep Betty Covington and I recently attended a safe schools presentation at Forest Park High School.  One thing is clear: safe schools start with safe communities. 

As Chairman of the Prince William County Safe Schools Advisory Council I have had the opportunity to chair public meetings with staff and parents at the Kelly Leadership Center.  The staff in our schools put forth impressive efforts to keep our kids safe during the school day.  In fact, I do believe our kids are safer today from outside threats than they were ten years ago.

However, challenges still remain which we need to address.  As Chairman of the School Board, I will work collaboratively with the community to promote these three priorities: (1) mobile devices and social media; (2) safety before and after school; (3) mental health safety.

Social media and mobile devices have simplified our lives in many ways, but they have created a host of safety challenges for our young people.  The Safe Schools Advisory Council hosted a social media information night in May, open to the community.  More than 250 members of the community came to learn about the long term implications of sexting and cyberbullying.  Most importantly, we provided resources to help families prevent these issues from happening in the future.  While 250 is an impressive number, the need for more education on this issue in the community is clear. 

While kids are safe during the school day, Prince William County needs to review and update safety protocols to answer these questions:  How can we ensure safety in the morning, while kids are meeting with teachers to collect missed assignments? How can we ensure safety in the afternoon while kids and staff are still on school grounds for clubs, tutoring and athletics?  Furthermore, how can we ensure kids are safe while in transit (walking or bus) to and from school?

Mental health can be at the root of many safety incidents in schools.  While we learn about mental health and develop protocols to keep kids and staff safe, we must balance this with a need to respect privacy and rights of individuals.  The Safe Schools Advisory Council hosted a Mental Health Information night, also open to the community, in October 2014.  Parents sent a message: they need a more responsive school system with respect to mental health.  Some of these issues overlapped with Special Education.  As with most challenges, the best solutions come from collaboration. 

Candidates (including myself) will be talking about class size reduction, competitive teacher pay and common core during this election season.  These are prominent issues for Prince William County.  However, the 2015 conversation would be incomplete without robust dialogue on how to maintain a safe, healthy and drug free learning environment for our kids and staff.  Safe Communities – Safe Schools – Safe Kids. 

*Singstock is a candidate for the Chairman of the Prince William County School Board.