In the suburban Southern community where I grew up, homicide deaths of teenagers were unheard of. Incidents of fighting did occur occasionally, but they were extinguished quickly. I never felt physically unsafe in my school or neighborhood.
In a midsized urban center some 20 minutes away, several young people lost their lives each year to violence. Frequently, I would hear stories of fights and lockdowns from friends who attended schools there. There are hundreds of communities throughout the country like this nearby city where students feel—and are—unsafe. For each one, there is at least one community like my hometown—nearby in distance, but comparatively sheltered.
The disconnect between the privilege and opportunity I experienced and the profound disinvestment and even danger faced by my peers just 20 minutes away is a portrait in miniature of the single most significant problem faced by schools today—that of inequity. Youth violence can be viewed as a facet of that problem.
April 7 to April 11 is National Youth Violence Prevention Week, a week devoted to building awareness and promoting prevention of youth violence. Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE)—a student-based organization with chapters in schools throughout the United States—is the organization behind the week’s planned activities. Their goal: to empower students to make schools and communities safer.
None of us can afford to ignore youth violence. Despite its overall decline in the past 20 years, homicide remains the second most common cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24. That such deaths occur at all means they are still far too common. There is no acceptable threshold for youth violence.
We can help stop the cycle of youth violence by strengthening our commitment to (and our belief in) all young people. Use National Youth Violence Prevention Week as a starting place to initiate year-round efforts to keep students safe. SAVE offers a plethora of ideas for how to get started. Teaching Tolerance—one of SAVE’s partners for National Youth Violence Prevention Week—also offers several helpful suggestions and resources to aid these efforts.
Establish your classroom as a physically, emotionally and socially safe space. Safety is a prerequisite for learning. To create a safe classroom climate, teach social-emotional skills throughout the year. Build opportunities for group interaction and relationship building into your instructional plans. Be ready to respond when moments of unintentional bias and disrespect occur; they can be great opportunities to instruct.
Develop an action plan to prevent and address future crises. Incidents of violence can sometimes occur at even the most sheltered schools and communities. Responding to Hate and Bias at School will give you the tools you need to put a plan in place.
Engage your students in the discussion. Try incorporating lessons like this one to give your students the opportunity for informed dialogue on school violence issues. Want to extend student involvement even further? Start a student-run chapter of SAVE at your own school.
Moyer is a teaching and learning fellow at Teaching Tolerance.