As the culture has changed, educators and school officials are faced with safety and security issues as well as educating students. Taking a proactive step in enhancing school safety, the Pea Ridge School Board approved superintendent Rick Neal's recommendation to create a new position and hired Jamie Woods as the director of school counseling.
Woods, along with social worker Amanda Childs, and counselors on each campus, are working hard to provide a safe environment for the students and staff in the district.
"We have to ask 'what are we doing to keep us safe?'" Neal said. "School safety and security are big pieces I want our district focusing on."
Neal said there are video cameras inside and outside of all buildings and the staff in the technology department are ensuring the effectiveness of those cameras and the ability to see all areas on the four campuses. He said there are now spaces between the entrance to the schools and the offices to contain visitors and the school has hired an additional school resource officer with the cooperation of city officials.
"We're targeting mental health and behavioral issues," he said, "and have a strategic plan.
"By hiring a teacher on special assignment to deal with behavioral issues and a director of counseling services to connect the dots with outside organizations, we're putting in significant pieces for security," Neal said.
Adding "Conscious Discipline," a program to equip educators to integrate social-emotional learning, discipline and self-regulation for students and provides a method for classroom management, is another piece of the puzzle to improve safety.
"We are teaching teachers how to deal with difficult situations," Neal said. "We are expecting adults to educate children who have no respect for authority."
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Neal said.
As teachers face volatile behavior and challenges from students, they must be educated on how to deal with severe behaviors. "We can no longer just teach teachers about content," Neal said, adding "They've always been masters of their content and have not had to deal with the ... depression, anxiety disorders, severe mental health issues. We're trying to target and dig deeper into our students and meet their needs."
"This needs to be an ongoing focus in our community," he said. "The district is focused on keeping our district safe."
Mental health has been a taboo subject, Neal said but explained that mental health and behavior are two very different things and teachers must be educated how to recognize that. He said the public needs to know that school counselors are there to help.
"This is not just a school issue, it's a community issue," he said.
General News on 09/06/2018