Know your rights

School safety plans

Nov 6, 2007 1:26 PM

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s why the UFT demands that the Department of Education mandate that every school have a comprehensive safety plan.

A good safety plan is a detailed blueprint of procedures designed to keep schools safe during normal school operations and in an emergency. It should include such things as the chain of command, where school safety agents are normally posted, visitor screening procedures, how to report an intruder, how to cover lunchrooms if staff on duty are absent and provisions for security before school, while classes are in session and during after-school programs.

Every school must prepare a safety plan, review it annually and update it as the school’s needs change.

Even a good safety plan is only worthwhile if the school community is familiar with its provisions. Staff and students should know clearly what to do in everyday situations and during a crisis.

You can help to make your school’s safety plan the powerful tool it was meant to be by exercising these important rights:

• The right to have ongoing input, through your UFT chapter, into the contents of your school’s safety plan;
• The right to enforce provisions of the safety plan through a fast-track complaint process.

Creating a safety plan

Both UFT contract Article 10B and Chancellor’s Regulation A-414 require the principal of every school to establish a safety committee. (Buildings that house more than one school must have one safety plan and one safety committee for the entire building.)

This committee, which needs to include the UFT chapter leader, must meet at least once a month. The committee is responsible for developing a comprehensive safety plan and then updating and signing off on it annually. While the school safety plan is formally approved each fall, the safety committee can recommend revisions at any time of year in order to “meet changing security needs and conditions.”

If you see a safety problem at your school that needs to be addressed — e.g., students who leave exit doors open when they go outside without authorization; areas of the school without adequate patrol by school safety agents — you have the right to bring it to the attention of your chapter leader or other members of the school safety committee. By exercising that right, you have a voice in shaping your school’s safety plan.

And once your school’s safety plan spells out specific steps or procedures, you can hold the administration accountable for fulfilling its responsibilities and you can enforce provisions of the safety plan through a fast-track grievance.

Enforcing the safety plan

Under Article 10B of the contract, you have the right to file an expedited safety complaint over violations of the safety plan.

But before resorting to the formal complaint process, your chapter and your principal should attempt to informally resolve the safety complaint. If those efforts fail, your chapter leader will complete a Step 1 Violation of School Safety Plan Complaint Form and present it to the principal, who must respond in writing within 24 hours. If the complaint is not resolved at Step 1, your UFT district representative will go to Step 2 by filing a Mediation Request Complaint Form. The Department of Education will arrange for a mediation session within 48 hours. If you, or your chapter leader, are not satisfied with the results of the mediation, the expedited arbitration process may be used to file an appeal.

The UFT is ready to assist any chapter that needs help creating a better safety plan or addressing a particular safety problem. Your chapter leader can ask the school safety specialist in your UFT borough office for a “Safety Plan Checklist,” a template of important provisions that every safety plan should contain. The school safety specialist can also arrange for a UFT safety inspection to help your school identify areas of vulnerability and suggest solutions.