School Safety Tips


Tips from the local Boards of Education and the Hamilton Police Service on having a safe school year!

• Get to know the school’s policies/procedures on things such as dress code and student code of conduct.
• Familiarize yourself with the services the school provides such as school resource officer, public health nurse, and social worker.
• Get to know the staff at the school - your child’s teachers, school principal, and vice-principal. Often your child will be assigned a particular vice-principal or guidance counsellor.
• Keep up-to-date on notes/letters that are sent home. This will help you keep track of important dates in the school year, or things like an early dismissal day or policy changes.
• Have a communication system set up with your child to talk about various events at school such as any problems he/she may be having with school work or other students. An open line of communication can help prevent problems before they get too big.
• Familiarize yourself with your child’s schedule - when his/her classes are, when school starts and finishes, does he/she have any breaks/spares. This will also help so that you know when your child is suppose to be at school, in class and at home.
• Make sure the emergency contact information is up-to-date with the school. All work, home, cell phones, pagers and other contact numbers are in place in case of an emergency.
• Know the school’s name, phone number and address in case of an emergency where you need to contact the school. The point above about knowing your child’s schedule will also be crucial for this.
• Have a plan around bringing valuables to school such as walkman, jewellery, money - are there locked areas to put them in? Know the serial numbers, make and model of the items that are brought to school in case they are lost or stolen.
• Know the way your child is getting to and from school such as bus, walking, or car pool. If walking, talk about reporting any strange events that take place such as strangers following students. Maybe even have a buddy system in place so that no one is walking alone. Go over the route taken so that parents are familiar with it and the safest route to the school is chosen.
• Try to get to know your child’s friends, the people who they are hanging out with. This is especially true in a new school or high school environment.
• What is your child doing during the lunch hour? Experience shows that the lunch hour is when most fights, drug use and thefts take place.