Be a Part of Change for School Safety
- Brandon Bain
- Oct 17, 2016
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 6, 2024
<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-4743 alignright lazyload" src="https://safeandsoundschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/1-120x300.png" alt="1" width="240" height="600" />Recently, I received an email from a parent asking me, “What can I do to help Safe and Sound Schools? What can change to improve school safety?” It’s the same question that I receive from everyone I meet online and on the road – from parents to students to teachers to first responders.
As I think about this question, it brings me back to when Alissa and I first started Safe and Sound Schools. We never imagined that 20 beautiful and innocent young students and six dedicated school staff and teachers would lose their lives to a horrible tragedy on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut. We never imagined that our own children, Josephine and Emilie, would be among the names of the children killed that day. We never imagined how much our lives would change, including those of our families and the world around us.
We just knew that after what happened, we had to do something. We had to make sure that what happened at Sandy Hook didn’t happen anywhere else.
In creating Safe and Sound Schools, Alissa and I believed that we needed to educate communities and empower them to make school safety a priority. But through our travels, we found out that school safety issues varied from state to state, city to city. Communities want resources. Students want to get involved in the school safety conversation. Parents want to know what steps and policies are in place to protect their children at school. First responders want to be prepared for any type of crisis that happens at a school. And we want everyone to be safe and sound. But how do we get there?
To provide more resources, get students involved, and continue the school safety conversation online and on the ground, we need your help. We cannot do this work alone. We need everyone to be a part of the Change for School Safety. By collecting loose change and saving it as a donation to give on #GivingTuesday (November 29), you can make a difference in school safety.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-4749 alignleft lazyload" src="https://safeandsoundschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Photos-for-Change-Blog-2-1-200x300.png" alt="photos-for-change-blog-2" width="200" height="300" />
Continue to travel to communities and empower them to put school safety first;
Develop and share student-centered programs that will encourage students to speak out and do something about school safety issues affecting them; and
Connect with school administrators, mental health and emergency professionals, and parents with the resources they need to keep their schools and students safe and sound.
There is so much work to be done. But in the words of Richard Bach, we know that “a tiny change today can bring a dramatically different tomorrow.”
Will you be part of the change for school safety?
To find out more about being a part of Change for School Safety, click here.
Michele Gay, Co-founder & Executive Director of Safe and Sound Schools
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