DisruptED TV Magazine

Four Ways that Student Leaders Transform School Safety

By Nicole Biscotti

When we discuss school safety at best we discuss measures to improve mental health services, fund more School Resource Officers and at worst find ourselves mired in debates about gun control that do not have a foreseeable outcome. We consider increased police, infrastructural changes, even teachers carrying guns. We are looking at school safety without considering the thousands of people that we are trying to keep safe.

Culture impacts safety, and students are the biggest influencers of school culture.

How can student leadership transform school safety?

Most schools have a framework to support their culture; many use Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) although there are many Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and character programs that schools are implementing. A powerful component of PBIS is a group of student leaders usually referred to as Student Ambassadors. Every school can initiate a similar student leadership group.

We usually choose students for leadership groups on campus that exhibit leadership ability and are “model students” based on their grades and positive conduct. For most schools, this group is a small percentage of the student body. When we look past model students, we are able to engage students on a much larger scale.