Opinion: School Safety Must be Top Priority for Antioch School District

One of my top priorities if elected to the Antioch School Board is working to improve student and teacher safety on campus. I say this not only because I have two children in the District who I want safe at all times, but as a community I want everyone to feel safer.

I’ll be honest, school safety is not something a parent should have to worry about, unfortunately, today parents do worry after local and national events have occurred across the country.

During a September candidate’s forum, the question was asked “What is the biggest issue facing the Antioch Schools and what can be done about it?”

The answers included:

• I don’t know how to answer that because all issues must be addressed with the same energy
• Improve graduation rates
• Providing a quality education
• Personnel
• Going backwards to old school teaching

Those are all general statements. My answer was school safety because without safety, none of the other goals can be achieved.  For example, if a school is on “lockdown”, education stops and blood pressure rises while nerves get rattled.

If students do not feel safe, they will not achieve their full potential. If teachers feel unsafe, they cannot do their job to the best of their ability. If parents do not feel their child is safe, they simply will find a way to transfer their child to another district or move out of the area sometime between middle school and high school.  Teachers and staff will continue to use the district as a stepping stone for employment elsewhere.

As the only school board candidate endorsed by the Antioch Police Officers Association, here are areas I plan to focus on:

Improving Communication with Parents: Too many young girls have been approached by men while walking to and from school. The lag time between incidents to informing parents is too long. This goes for incidents that may also occur on campus or off near schools. Parents deserve faster and more direct information when it comes to their children. Far too many times, parents received an alarming text message from their child before the school sends out an alert. This is not acceptable.

Safer Routes to School: the cities and school district need to work together to ensure students can safely get to and from school without incident. I would like to see the school district work with neighborhood watch groups (or parent groups) to see if more “eyes and ears” can be available 30-minutes before and after school to report possible issues or just be a deterrent to potential bad behavior.  The District should also take an active role in ensuring trail safety, such as reporting homeless camps within reach of a school, ensuring trails with heavy brush and trees are appropriately trimmed for more visibility. Some schools, such as Orchard Park in Oakley, fail to even have a sidewalk for students to walk or bicycle to school—this has to be a priority.

School Resource Officers (SRO): I am a supporter of bringing back school resource officers. This of course won’t happen until Antioch Police get their staffing up, but the District should be prepared and have the budget ready to go. There are many benefits to having a SRO on campus beyond community policing. Other benefits include creating a positive impact on youths; relationship building and more importantly, you are not taking officers off the street to respond to schools.  Ultimately, it helps build bridges between law enforcement and the community. It’s a worthy investment.

Anti-bullying Messaging: We must better communicate the anti-bully message at all grade levels and instill in our students that bullying is not acceptable. This includes on campus education as well as use of social media. We must strongly invest in these types of educational programs. I would like to find enhanced ways to improve reporting of bullying whether it be directly or anonymously.

Adult Fingerprinting: Currently, the district does not fingerprint adults who volunteer in the classroom or take children on field trips. This policy must be addressed because the lack of fingerprinting invites the potential for adults with a troubled past into classrooms. The community deserves a chance to weigh in on this topic and have that discussion.

Restoratative Justice is Just the Start – this great program is making a positive impact. Now it’s time to take the next step, create a mentorship program for our students. We must find proactive ways to work with troubled youths on campus to insure a safer environment.

As trustee, I promise to work with our superintendent and board to create policy that allows a principal to foster a safe, orderly, yet warm and inviting environment that includes a zero tolerance policy to disrespectful behavior.

I believe if we work together to implement these policies we will create a safer enriching classroom for teachers and students alike, resulting in better attendance, higher test scores and a positive perception from the community.

By Mike Burkholder
Candidate for Antioch School Board

For more information on Mike, visit his www.mikeburkholder.com or follow him on Facebook.