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ASU associate professor part of developing an Arizona School Safety manual


December 01, 2020

Just over one year ago the Arizona Department of Education, led by Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, assembled the first-ever School Safety Task Force in partnership with the Arizona chapter of March for Our Lives, a youth-led advocacy movement. 

The School Safety Task Force was a multidisciplinary group convened to generate multipronged solutions to safety, health and violence issues. Invited to be among the 43 members of the task force was associate professor Sarah Lindstrom Johnson from ASU’s School of Social and Family Dynamics.

“I am honored to have been selected to work with Superintendent Hoffman and the diverse group of stakeholders including students, law enforcement, community groups, local foundations, and of course school professionals,” she said.

Lindstrom Johnson’s work involves identifying ways to prevent youth involvement in risk behaviors and focuses on supporting development assets and improving the environments in which youth learn and grow.

And she’s no stranger to issues of school safety and climate as she has spent considerable time researching the physical school environment. In a 2018 paper her research found that some security measures make students feel less safe in their schools.

As a member of the task force, she was pleasantly surprised with the general consensus that solutions to school safety needed to be broader than just those directly dealing with securitizing the school. “The monthly conversations were rich between members and highlighted ways to build the capacity of the Arizona Department of Education and educators to ensure a collaborative, preventive, relationship-based approach to ensure that Arizona students are physically and mentally safe,” she said.

The School Safety Task Force’s final report includes details about the task force’s work, the five key objectives, recommendations to legislation and school resources.

Looking to add future resources to support school efforts in creating a safe learning environment, Lindstrom Johnson is also involved in two of her own initiatives. The first is developing an app for use by school teams to diagnose and address problems with school climate. The second is thinking about ways to improve family/school relationships to better address the needs of students exposed to trauma and adversity. 

Be sure to view the School Safety Task Force’s full report and model plan.

Article source: Arizona Department of Education

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