Talking with Older Students
Parents of middle school, junior high and high school students:
Your student has or will watch the Run Hide Fight video at school. Middle school and high school students will have strong and varying opinions about the causes of violence in schools and society. They will share concrete suggestions about how to make school safer and how to prevent tragedies in society. If you want to follow up with your student, here are some talking points to consider:
- How did you feel when you watched the video?
- How do you think you would react if you were in a threatening situation?
- What can I do (as a parent) or the school do to make you feel more confident?
- If you are concerned about what to do or how to react, who could you talk to?
- Not every question has to be answered. It often depends on the age of your students and their maturity level. You know your child best.
- Emphasize the role students have in maintaining safe schools:
- Not providing building access to strangers, reporting strangers on campus
- Reporting any information relating to a school threat
- Communicating any personal safety concerns to school administrators
- Accessing support for emotional needs
- This could also be an opportunity to discuss proper protocol to report threats (i.e. reporting to parents, tip line, faculty/staff and even law enforcement). Examples include: direct/indirect threats; potential bullying or harassment; sexually explicit information; the impact of sharing information through social media.
- Talk to your child about your neighborhood and the area around the places they often visit (school, shopping malls, restaurants, movie theater). Identify safe places, such as a church or fire station, they could run to if they had to run away from an emergency situation.