Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The school year begins soon and for teachers across New York, their top concern is safety. They're focusing on all aspects of safety, not just gun violence.
In a news conference Tuesday, New York State United Teachers say it's not just about mass shootings to prepare for. "Educators, school leaders and policymakers must create a positive school safety climate and culture that supports student needs, guarantees adequate staffing in schools, improves communication among stakeholders and keeps children and staff safe from threats," says the union in a report.
Teacher Michael Muldrew says instead of arming teachers and locking down schools like a prison, "we have to start with the issue of give the school community what it needs to actually deal with the issues children are facing," says Muldrew. He says there is a program to train an entire school on crisis intervention, and he says outcomes have been positive.
Jackie Schildkraut says the likelihood of a mass shooting at a school is small, but can happen on any given day. "We still need to prepare for every bad day, not just the worst day," says Schildkraut. She says the goal is to standardize training across the board to respond to any given scenario. "In Onondaga County, we have 18 school districts and they're not all on the same page," says Schildkraut.
In West Seneca Schools, Keith Ersing says the safety of students is top priority each and every day. "Our teachers do everything that they can do to make sure that the kids that are under their care, are always cared for and protected at all times,."
Ersing says teachers by nature have a lot of training on how to deal with kids and some other educational battles. "But some of the things that we have never been trained on is how to handle some of the social and emotional battles that kids are bringing to the schools these days. And they haven't done that in the past," says Ersing. He adds coming out of COVID has been another challenge. "A student's responsibilities in the classroom, maybe are a little bit different than they had experienced when they were doing remote learning or sitting behind a computer. So part of our hopes, is to have the kids become a little bit more in tune with their social emotional health, and be able to identify when they need help," notes Ersing.