A safe school climate: a systemic approach and the school counselor

Professional School Counseling, April, 2004 by Thomas J. Hernandez, Susan R. Seem

School violence continues to plague our nation's K-12 schools (Adams, 2000; Anderson, 1998; Lockwood, 1997; Welsh, 2000). Not only does school violence create a climate of fear and emotional unrest in a school, it is also an obstacle to the learning process (Gottfredson, 1989) and to the school's educational mission (Anderson; Sherman et al., 1997; Jenkins, 1997; Lockwood). While there have been dramatic incidences of school violence such as the school massacre that occurred in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, and the Jonesboro, Arkansas, schoolyard shooting on March 24, 1998, violence of a much more insidious and subtle nature occurs every school day. School violence is not only overt actions, such as shootings and physical fights, but is also subtly expressed in a school climate that can engender fear in any student (Dorsey, 2000). Examples are a student not speaking up in class for fear of being ridiculed; being called a "faggot" because of perceptions of a student's sexual orientation; backbiting; verbal teasing and insults; offensive touching such as throws, slaps and pushes; and racial, ethnic, and/or sexist comments that are based on a student's physical appearance. In fact, Hazier, Hoover, and Oliver (1996) reported that three-fourths of the school students they surveyed indicated that they experienced harassment and bullying to such an extent that they suffered academic, personal, and social difficulties. Thus school violence can be both obvious and insidious, and profoundly impact the school climate.

School climate consists of the related factors of attitude, feeling, and behavior of individuals within the school system. Dorsey (2000) views school climate as involving four key relationships: the relationship of a student to him or herself; a student to his or her peers; a student to his or her parents and community; and a student to his or her school workers, including teachers, administrators, and all staff. While focusing on interrelationships, Welsh (2000) also included cognitions in his definition; "The unwritten beliefs, values, and attitudes that become the style of interaction between students, teachers, and administrators. School climate sets the parameters of acceptable behavior among all school actors, and it assigns individual and institutional responsibility for school safety" (p. 89).

The climate of the school is central to the educational mission of a school (Anderson, 1998; Sherman et al., 1997; Jenkins, 1997; Lockwood, 1997). Anderson surveyed recent school safety research and found that altering a school's internal climate can have a significant positive effect on the feeling of safety in the school community. Gottfredson (1989) and Sherman et al. reviewed studies that examined school climate and concluded that how schools are run is directly related to the level of behavioral disruptions in schools. For example, schools in which administration and faculty lack communication and do not work together to problem solve have lower teacher morale and higher student disorder, and schools where rules and reward structures are unclear, and where there are ambiguous consequences (e.g., lowering of grades due to misbehaviors), experience more disorder. Further, schools in which students do not believe they belong and feel uncared for by school personnel experience higher levels of disorder (Gottfredson, Sherman et al.). Gottfredson delineated additional specific school climate factors that contribute to unsafe schools: schools that ignore misconduct; schools in which teachers and administrators have disagreement about or do not know the rules; and schools where students do not believe in the rules. Conversely, factors such as high expectations among school staff, students, and parents for student achievement, orderly school and classroom environments, high morale among school staff and students, positive treatment of students, active engagement of students, and positive social relationships among students positively impact school climate (Stockard & Mayberry, 1992). This research suggests that school violence is a reflection of the school climate.

Therefore, from a school climate perspective, school violence may be defined as "any action from or affecting youth that negatively impacts the social climate within a school" (Dorsey, 2000). This is consistent with the Center for the Prevention of School Violence's (2000) view that "any behavior that violates a school's educational mission or climate of respect or jeopardizes the intent of the school to be free of aggression against persons or property, drugs, weapons, disruptions, and disorder" (p. 2) may be characterized as school violence. Negative actions that such as mean or hurtful words and looks, signs or overt acts (e.g., slapping, hitting, tripping, hair pulling), and covert acts (e.g., ostracizing, manipulating friendships, ignoring or violating a person's wishes or rights) can be viewed as violence, according to this definition (Remboldt, 1994).