NC Center for Safer Schools NEWSLETTER - October, 2021

	NEWSLETTER
Karen W. Fairley, Executive Director	October, 2021

INTERNET SAFETY FOR STUDENTS

As students spend more and more time online, it is essential that we remind them of the dangers of inappropriate online activity, including viewing explicit adult content. This type of online content is prevalent, and it is essential that we educate students on its dangers and how to avoid it.

According to The Third Talk, an organization whose mission is to initiate conversations between parents and their children about avoiding exposure to explicit adult material online, the proliferation of this content virtually assures every young person in middle and high school will feel its impact, whether they personally view it or not.

Explicit adult content can have a negative physical effect on young developing brains. It can lead to depression, aggression, loneliness, and despair, as well as unrealistic relationship expectations, intimate partner violence, and even assault. Young people can also begin to normalize the actions they view online, facilitating potential child exploitation by adults and others.

The North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, indicated that the number of cyber tips they received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has recently doubled. Online threats are growing and they are not going to go away, so it is essential that young people have the information and tools to deal with them.

Karen Fairley, Executive Director of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools, stresses the need to raise awareness with students of the potentially dangerous situations that they may encounter online, their role in protecting themselves and their friends, and the importance of reaching out to trusted adults for assistance and guidance.

To help raise awareness of this important issue, we encourage you to watch the Internet Safety for Children* video. Superintendents, principals, school counselors, school social workers and school safety directors are invited to share this with their middle and high school students. 

*This video was produced in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools, the State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and The Third Talk.

 

SAY SOMETHING ANONYMOUS REPORTING SYSTEM

About the National Crisis Center

When tips come into the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS), they are directed to and coordinated through the Sandy Hook Promise’s National Crisis Center. The Center was launched in the fall of 2019 with a mission to provide a safe and confidential “trusted adult” for students to reach out to for help when seeing warning signs of someone who wants to harm themselves or others.

The Center has grown to become the only crisis center dedicated to school-based anonymous reporting nationwide, supported by highly trained and compassionate counselors who monitor the app, website, and hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Crisis Counselors are there to listen to the students’ concerns, provide relevant resources, and reach out for help when warranted. When an immediate, life-threatening situation is identified, the counselors quickly go into action, calling the local response teams that include school administrators, social workers, and law enforcement officials, into action. Shootings have been averted, suicides prevented, and countless lives have already been saved by getting students the help they need.

The Crisis Counselors go through extensive and ongoing training that includes evidence-based best practices, as well as accredited suicide prevention and crisis counseling certification programs. They also work for more than six weeks under the watchful eyes of an experienced counselor before handling any student tips on their own.

The SS-ARS is a companion to the core Say Something program that teaches students and educators what the warning signs for potential violence or self-harm are, when, and how to tell a trusted adult to get help. Regular Say Something trainings are required for a school or district to be authorized to use the system.

If you have questions about the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, please contact Carl Wilkins (Carl.Wilkins@dpi.nc.gov; 984-236-1040) or Mike Anderson (mike.anderson@dpi.nc.gov; 984.236.2242).

 

SCHOOL SAFETY 

To improve in the timely sharing of information of immediate and emerging threats facing our schools, the Center for Safer Schools (CFSS) has partnered with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the Homeland Security Section of Emergency Management to staff to a School Safety Intelligence Analyst at the NC Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAAC). 

For those not familiar with ISAAC, it is a fusion center administered by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) responsible for identifying actionable intelligence to share with public safety, emergency management, critical infrastructure, and local, state and federal partners. The School Safety Intelligence Analyst focuses on school safety both in the physical and cyber realms. 

So, what should schools personnel expect if an immediate threat related to school safety has been identified?  The information will be immediately forwarded to the local and state public safety personnel for your school system. The information is also shared with school systems by the CFSS’s State School Safety Coordinator who will also offer assistance and resources available through our school safety collaborative partners.  

State School Safety Coordinator: Jay Jackson; 828-244-5858; jay.jackson@dpi.nc.gov

 

TASK FORCE FOR SAFER SCHOOLS MEETING

• Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2021
• Time: 9:00am – 11:00am
• Location: Virtual

 

SCHOOL CULTURE

It is critical now more than ever before that schools and communities start addressing school climate. School climate is an all-encompassing term used to refer to a school's quality and character. According to The National School Climate Center (NSCC), school climate is based on patterns of students', parents', and school personnel's experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures.

School climate affects not only students' feeling of safety and interpersonal relationships but also their ability to succeed academically. School Climate is difficult to impact due to its intangibility and all-encompassing nature; however, below are some tips and recommendations from the National Association of Secondary School Principals that schools can do to improve it:

• Build an environment of respect, empathy, and kindness by modeling these behaviors throughout the day.
• Provide professional development and support for all staff to provide the best support to students.
• Create a gratitude board in the staff lounge and hallways to shift the focus from negative to positive.
• Support cultural competence through pre-service and in-service training to develop individual awareness of cultural identity and cultural differences.

 

EARTHQUAKE DRILL - THE GREAT SHAKEOUT

North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM) and the Center for Safer Schools (CFSS) invites school districts across the state to participate in the 2021 Great Southeast ShakeOut on October 21, 2021 at 10:21 a.m. The ShakeOut is an annual public earthquake drill where millions of people in schools, organizations, and homes simultaneously practice ‘Drop, Cover, and Hold On’ which is the recommended action for people to take during an earthquake to reduce the risk of injury.

Although October 21st is the official ShakeOut date this year, school districts and individual schools can choose their own date (or multiple dates) to accommodate as many people and schedules as possible. While we continue to face challenges related to COVID-19, natural hazards such as earthquakes are still occurring. The drill can be completed together in-person or at home via video-conferencing, and offers your schools and community an opportunity to consider how they would respond to an earthquake while identifying potential refinements to your district’s emergency response plan.

Please visit https://www.shakeout.org/southeast/register/ to register your school district today and perform a ‘Drop, Cover, and Hold On’ drill on October 21, 2021 at 10:21 a.m. (or a date and time that works best for you). Once registered you will:

• Learn how your schools can be more prepared for earthquakes.
• Be counted in the world’s largest earthquake drill.
• Receive ShakeOut news and other information about earthquakes and preparedness.
• Make a difference by motivating others to participate and be prepared.

The ShakeOut website includes drill planning resources, general preparedness information, mitigation guidance, and educational activities including lesson plans. The Great Southeast ShakeOut is organized by the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) and its member and associate state emergency management agencies. While infrequent, damaging earthquake can occur at any time across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic United States, and information about earthquakes in North Carolina can be found by visiting the NC Geological Survey website.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Kevin Kalbaugh with NCEM at kevin.kalbaugh@ncdps.gov or call (919) 368-0787.

 

SCHOOL SAFETY GRANTS

The 2020 School Safety Grant provided districts and schools the opportunity to apply for a total of $18 million in grant funds* for each year of this 2-year grant. Approximately $16.7million has been awarded. Current awardees who have submitted their mid-term and final reports will automatically receive their requested funds* for year 2, i.e., the 2021-22 school year.

Since approximately $1.3 million of the $18 million has not been awarded, the Center for Safer Schools is opening a new application for year 2 of the grant to utilize these funds. The new application, which opened on September 1, 2021 in CCIP and will close on October 8th, is available all eligible schools and districts, but preference will be giving to those who have not already been awarded School Safety Grant funds.

* All state funding is contingent upon state appropriations by the NC General Assembly.

If you have questions, contact David Prickett at Dave.Prickett@dpi.nc.gov or 984-236-2810.

 

FYI

Links

• Resource Guide on Safer Schools
• Say Something Anonymous Reporting System

Follow Center for Safer Schools

• FACEBOOK
• TWITTER
• INSTAGRAM