Safety and security in our schools

By Guillermo P. "Memo" Morantes

Ensuring a safe learning environment for students

The first should be a uniform, county-wide policy that clearly defines student rules of conduct and the penalty for violating those rules.

Such a policy issued with written guidelines, would keep some schools from harshly punishing a student for minor infractions and letting more serious violations pass with no real penalty.

Uniform interpretation of "threats" is important to guarantee uniform discipline. Students should know there is a zero tolerance for violence on our schoolgrounds and they should know that there will be no exceptions to the penalties.

Installing emergency telephones in each classroom or making cell phones available to each teacher should also be a district policy.

We should also implement district-wide good citizenship awards to recognize deserving students.