What would create a safer environment for your child’s school; a Relationship Officer or a Resource Officer? A Student Relationship Officer is essentially a person that is either a teacher, an administrator, or a guidance counselor that takes on an additional role which helps create and foster healthy relationships with students that are struggling either academically, socially, or a combination of both. A Resource Officer is responsible for the safety and crime prevention in schools.
Is there a way to combine the two roles? We know that we have a school safety issue in the United States. We know that we need to find safety solutions for our children, but what is more important; mentoring and nurturing or policing? In an ideal world, we would be able to have both in our schools. Unfortunately, budgets exist and this isn’t feasible. “An integral part of preventing school violence involves knowing students individually, building relationships with them, and noticing subtle, gradual, or dramatic behavioral changes, according to a school safety expert. And school counselors, whose roles and responsibilities focus on understanding the students, their interests, worries, and behavioral concerns, are essential contributors to an effective violence prevention plan”. The safest schools are generally the schools that have learned how to balance healthy relationship building among students and faculty and better security.
We believe that one way to create a safer environment and help bring together the roles of Resource Officers and Relationship Officers is to encourage kids to utilize the free safety resources that your schools offer. From FriendWatch to Anonymous Report, app systems are a great way to get our children engaged with creating a safer environment for themselves. Resource Officers, administration, and school employees should all be well versed in the technology that your school is providing. App systems also help bridge the gap that currently exists between overworked teachers and students that don’t feel comfortable talking to adults. Apps like Anonymous Report in our EducationShield app system are here to help students, teachers, and all of the adults that are employed within the schools to work together and create a safer environment for everyone.
We need to work together to create a safer school environment.