PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
Belonging, Safety & Security People and Community The ability for a student to find personal success in development and academia includes an environment in which they can feel safe and secure. The physical environment of the area surrounding the school, the neighborhood, and the school itself provide the foundation for spaces that give a visual sense of security. The design and use of the school which is accessible provides flexible use can provide a way for students to have a sense of inclusion and belonging providing a psychological sense of safety. The ways that students, teachers, and staff interact with the physical space with pride and ownership through activities like cleaning, showing school pride, and practice of what to do in emergencies can empower students and the greater school to come together and protect one another.
Safety and security The neighborhood around the school and the feeling of safety as an influence can impact the feeling of security on the way to school.348 The safety concerns of parents on the journey from home to school fall into several domains of general, road, and personal safety. A questionnaire was sent to 840 parents of 4th graders from 81 schools in Texas. Less than 19% of the parents reported that their children walked to school on most days of the week and that if the neighborhood around the school had a more favorable built environment of safe road crossings with available and maintained sidewalks then they were more likely to allow their kids to walk.361 When trying to understand why parents used private vehicles to send children to school instead of walking or more sustainable autonomous ways for youth to go to school, 2000 households in Georgia living a mile from school with children aged 5 to 15 stated safety was the greatest concern.431 In neighborhoods it is a multidimensional problem. Youth need safe places for physical activity and places to play. Outdoor spaces open to the community like playgrounds and parks help can help neighborhoods feel like a community with places to gather. With less place to spend time outdoors in green spaces and play areas in the neighborhoods children don’t get to casually meet friends and regular physical activity.362 Building safety and security is more important due to terrorism, natural disasters, and internal violence. Further methodologies and practice for design used for commercial buildings need to be applied to schools and academic institutions.363 Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is a strategy that gains input from students and researches the gaps.432 Nine hundred middle and high school students participated in a study looking at the relationship between CPTED and perceived safety. The results suggested that the CPTED approach may be an effective way to help with feelings of safety and psychological wellbeing in a majority of students.369 A survey of 4,717 students from 50 middle schools participated
University of Oregon
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