Kim Etingoff - Natural Disasters

Natural Disasters

Bully on Campus & Online

Drugs & Alcohol

Gunman on Campus

Natural Disasters

Navigating Cyberspace

Peer Pressure & Relationships

Protecting Your Body: Germs,
Superbugs, Poison, & Deadly Diseases

Road Safety

Sports

Stranger Danger

Terrorism & Perceived Terrorism Threats

Natural Disasters

Kim Etingoff

Contents

No task is more important than creating safe schools for all children. It should not require an act of courage for parents to send their children to school nor for children to come to school. As adults, we must do everything reasonable to provide a school climate that is safe, secure, and welcomingan environment where learning can flourish. The educational effectiveness and the strength of any nation is dependent upon a strong and effective educational system that empowers and prepares young people for meaningful and purposeful lives that will promote economic competitiveness, national defense, and quality of life.

Clearly adults are charged with the vital responsibility of creating a positive educational climate. However, the success of young people is also affected by their own participation. The purpose of this series of books is to articulate what young adults can do to ensure their own safety, while at the same time educating them as to the steps that educators, parents, and communities are taking to create and maintain safe schools. Each book in the series gives young people tools that will empower them as participants in this process. The result is a model where students have the information they need to work alongside parents, educators, and community leaders to tackle the safety challenges that face young people every day.

Perhaps one of the most enduring and yet underrated challenges facing young adults is bullying. Ask parents if they can remember the schoolyard bully from when they were in school, and the answers are quite revealing. Unfortunately, the situation is no better todayand new venues for bullying exist in the twenty-first-century world that never existed before. A single bully can intimidate not only a single student but an entire classroom, an entire school, and even an entire community. The problem is underscored by research from the National School Safety Center and the United States Secret Service that indicates that bullying was involved in 80 percent of school shootings over the past two decades. The title in this series that addresses this problem is a valuable and essential tool for promoting safety and stopping bullying.

Another problem that has been highlighted by the media is the threat of violence on our school campuses. In reality, research tells us that schools are the safest place for young people to be. After an incident like Columbine or Sandy Hook, however, it is difficult for the public, including students, to understand that a youngster is a hundred times more likely to be assaulted or killed at home or in the community than at school. Students cannot help but absorb the fears that are so prevalent in our society. Therefore, a frank, realistic, discussion of this topic, one that avoids hysteria and exaggeration, is essential for our young people. This series offers a title on this topic that does exactly that. It addresses questions such as: How do you deal with a gunman on the campus? Should you run, hide, or confront? We do not want to scare our children; instead, we want to empower them and reassure them as we prepare them for such a crisis. The book also covers the changing laws and school policies that are being put in place to ensure that students are even safer from the threat of violence in the school.

Stranger danger is another safety threat that receives a great deal of attention in the modern world. Again, the goal should be to empower rather than terrify our children. The book in this series focusing on this topic provides young readers with the essential information that will help them be safety smart, not only at school but also between home and school, at play, and even when they are home alone.

Alcohol and drug abuse is another danger that looms over our young people. As many as 10 percent of American high school students are alcoholics. Meanwhile, when one student was asked, Is there a drug problem in your school? her reply was, No, I can get all the drugs I want. A book in this series focuses on this topic, giving young readers the information they need to truly comprehend that drugs and alcohol are major threats to their safety and well-being.

From peer pressure to natural disasters, from road dangers to sports safety, the Safety First series covers a wide range of other modern concerns. Keeping children and our schools safe is not an isolated challenge. It will require all of us working together to create a climate where young people can have safe access to the educational opportunities that will promote the success of all children as they transition into becoming responsible citizens. This series is an essential tool for classrooms, libraries, guidance counselors, and community centers as they face this challenge.

Dr. Ronald Stephens

Executive Director

National School Safety Center

www.schoolsafety.us

Words to Know

engulfed: Surrounded or covered (usually by fire).

traumatic: Emotionally troubling or damaging.

drought: A period of time with little or no rain.

evacuated: Cleared of people for safety reasons.

generosity: Caring about and giving to other people in need.

Natural disasters can be scary. People who live through them are often afraid for a long time after the disaster is over. For those people, sharing their stories can be really helpful.

One person shared her natural disaster story online. She wrote it on the website for the Experience Project, a place for people to share all kinds of stories.

The storyteller says, In the summer of 2003, a huge area of British Columbia [a province in Canada] was experience for thousands of people, residents and rescuers alike. I have never written about this before, not even in my journal, because just after it had happened I just did not want to go through all those emotions again. But now I can write about it. She continues to tell her story.

It was a hot, dry summer that came after two years of summers that were just as hot and just as dry. had turned the forests to tinder. The grass in yards and fields was so dry that if you grabbed a handful, it turned to dust in your hand. Gardens were so dry that the wind blew them away. And meanwhile, it just kept getting hotter!

The young woman who went through this was on her way home from a trip to Vancouver. As she neared her town, she saw five planes circling in the air above her. Then she saw rescue vehicles and fire trucks parked along the side of the road. She still wasnt worried, though, even when she saw a plume of smoke rising above the trees. With all the emergency vehicles around, she figured people would have the fire under control in no time.