School Safety: More Than One Dimension

When you think of school safety, it's hard not to think of school shootings. And there is no question that gun violence in schools is tragic, harrowing, and gut wrenching. It shatters our vision of schools as a sanctuary. And yet, gun violence, while way too common, is still exceedingly rare, and there are many ways that kids are harmed in our schools on a daily basis that don't generate the same attention.  Dr. Meg Caven, a passionate educational researcher, focuses on issues of safety and equity in the educational landscape. With particular attention on school discipline and its impact on racial inequity, Dr. Caven's work highlights the importance of addressing social and emotional safety in addition to physical safety. As a queer-identified individual, she draws from her own experiences of freedom and safety in her educational journey to advocate for a more holistic approach to safety in schools. In this episode, Dr. Caven pushes us beyond the one-dimensional conversation around gun violence in our schools, to consider a broader and more expansive view of what it means to be safe in school. From mental health to emotional health, from protection from bullying and structural violence, from disrupting the school to prison pipeline, she argues that a nuanced, multi-dimensional view of school safety is what is required if we truly care about equity, and want to see schools live up to the ideal of being incubators of democracy.    LINKS: Dr. Caven's article in Kappan The Education Development Center Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum's quote about the smog of racism is from Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria Ani DiFranco - To The Teeth News story on a "rapid deploy bullet-proof safe room" for schools  ACTION STEPS: Expand your idea of safety  Talk to the young people and other caregivers in your life about what it means to feel safe at school Don't use "safety" as an excuse to not enroll in a particular school Engage in conversations in your school communities about what I means for k