This fact sheet provides guidance on how to manage aggression and crime prevention in schools.
General tips
- Practice evacuation and emergency response drills with employees and students annually.
- Keep a complete list of staff members who have keys to the building(s).
- Establish a social media policy for staff and students to adhere to. Regularly monitor social media to identify potential risks.
- Establish a policy to have the school campus fully lighted or totally dark at night.
- Cover drainpipes so they cannot be climbed.
- Limit roof access by keeping rubbish bins and other materials that could be used to climb onto away from building walls.
- Prohibit posters in classroom windows.
- Close off unused stairwells or do not leave areas of the school unused.
- If the basketball, netball, volleyball or tennis courts are attracting unwanted behaviour after school hours, remove the nets and hoops at the end of the school day as this will reduce their opportunity for use and the attractiveness of the site.
- Consider providing duress alarms to teachers in isolated locations.
- Conduct a thorough background check on anyone applying to work in the school to assure that no one is hired who has been convicted of sexual assault, child molestation, or pornography, or has a history of violent criminal behaviour. Do not make a hiring decision before the check is completed. (i.e. Working with children check and Police Clearance).
- Offer school- or community-based activities for students after school.
- Do not allow graffiti to linger on walls. Follow the three ‘Rs’ after discovery- read, record (i.e. photograph or videotape) and remove.
- Inflammatory bathroom graffiti needs to be removed daily.