Goal 15 Reflection

Goal 15: Develop a safe, inclusive, and healthy learning environment that promotes respect, value
differences, and mediate conflicts according to state laws and local protocol.
Artifact 1: Lab Safety
Artifact 2: Bullying Incident Report
Artifact 3: Order to Cease and Desist
Reflection:
My AP of Discipline says his first priority is to ensure the safety of students. That makes sense to me
because Ive learned how easily students can be distracted. Anything that is sub-optimal in a students
condition can cause them to perform at a lower level than they are capable. A distraction can be minor,
such as a boy or girl the student is attracted to, or major, such as feeling unsafe. There is no point in
trying to teach a student who does not feel safe or whose parent does not feel that the student is safe.
This was evident to me in the most recent incident we had at school where, despite the school and the
news reporting that the school was safe to attend and that the on-line threat made about the school
had been contained, a third of the parents kept their students at home simply for their own piece of
mind. One student told me they had to convince their parent to let them come to school by pointing out
that the school would hardly say it was safe to come to school unless it actually was.
Thus, my first artifact deals with safety, particularly lab safety. Lab safety has the dual purpose of (1)
making the procedures and expectations clear to both parents and students during lab work and (2)
giving legitimacy to the work being done. (1) Every student is given a packet which includes a copy of the
lab safety and the parts that are relevant to a particular lab are reviewed before the lab begins. This
provides accountability and lets students know that they are active participants in establishing their own
safety. (2) Providing safety procedures also validates the idea that there is a real danger with the labs.
Therefore, the procedures should be followed.
Ive become aware of how seriously the school takes safety as well. Artifact 2 shows a form detailing the
definition of bullying along with space to write down any bullying incident and the proper consequence.
After at least one intervention, an administrator may choose to recommend expulsion. Additionally,
new teachers are required to attend a workshop on bullying, including the frequency, severity, and
various forms of bullying. Bullying is actually defined in the districts ed. Code.
Artifact 3, similar to Artifact 2, deals with student-student interaction and allows administrators to enact
what is essentially an in-school restraining order. I inquired about the possibility for reconciliation, but it
turns out the school is more concerned with providing safety for the victim first, ahead of reconciliatory
measures, especially if an imbalance of power exists between the bully and the victim, then the victim
may not want to be near the bully regardless of the reason. Thus, when dealing with negative student-
student interaction, it is important to student safety that a teacher understands what bullying is, pays
attention to the details of an incident to assist administrators, and is aware of the consequences in
order to be an effective part of a network of staff supporting school policies.