The Role of Parents in Preventing School Violence
Parents and/or guardians play an essential in school violence prevention. Demonstrating an interest in their children’s lives is one of the most important steps parents and/or guardians can take to help prevent youth violence. Open communication between children and their parents or guardians is critical.
Topics for Parents to Discuss with Children
- Their school’s discipline policy. Parents and/or guardians should know the policy, communicate their support for it, discuss the reasons behind it, and expect their children to comply.
- Their school’s safety and security procedures. Parents and/or guardians should know the procedures, make certain their children know them, and communicate why they expect their children to follow them.
- Their own positive household rules, family values and traditions, behavior expectations, and the reasons behind them.
- Violence in television shows, video games, movies, and books. Talk about the impact of violence in the media and its real-life consequences.
- How to solve problems peacefully.
- The value of individual differences.
- Their children’s concerns about friends and other people who may be exhibiting threatening or violent behavior. Parents and/or guardians should share this information with the friends’ parents or guardians, a trusted adult at the school, or other appropriate authorities in a way that protects the confidentiality of their own children as needed and possible.
- Personal safety issues and appropriate responses to them.
- Their children’s day-to-day activities, accomplishments, concerns, and problems.