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We’re scaring the kids — not helping them
When a parent toured her 5-year-old daughter’s future kindergarten near Boston, she noticed a poem on the board set to the lyrics of ...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 14, 20182 min read


‘Teachers feel threatened but aren’t backed up’
Gang graffiti on a fence in suburban Long Island, where police blame MS-13 for 30 murders in the last two years. Photo: Sarah...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 13, 20182 min read


Lax discipline, bullying, chaos and death
A “once safe and supportive” New York City school “fell into chaos as new administrators implemented a supposedly more positive approach...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 12, 20183 min read


Why are kids killing themselves?
The number of teens “hospitalized for thinking about or attempting suicide doubled in less than a decade,” according to a recent study....

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 11, 20182 min read


Tackling ‘culture’ — but not tools — of violence
The Trump administration’s school safety commission will examine the “culture of violence,” but not the role of guns, Education Secretary...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 5, 20181 min read


Columbine copycats
The Columbine killers have “inspired” a wave of teen-age boys and young men to attack schools, colleges and other easy targets, reports...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 4, 20182 min read


Safety fears encourage homeschooling
School safety fears are pushing parents to consider homeschooling, writes Valerie Richardson in the Washington Times. After a gunman...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 3, 20182 min read
School Shootings–A Positive Trend?
What do the data tell us? Now, I’m not exactly known for being a Pollyanna, but I am willing to admit when things are not, in fact,...

Joanne Jacobs
May 21, 20181 min read


What if kids walked out for better schools?
What if kids walked out demanding better schools? Erika Sanzi imagines demands for school quality and protests of...

Joanne Jacobs
May 5, 20181 min read


Broken PROMISE
Today, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, students are being urged to walk out of school to protest school shootings, register...

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 19, 20183 min read


Remembering the class of ’18 at Douglas High
The New York Times has a touching story about the yearbook staff at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which faced the...

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 8, 20181 min read


Students — but not teachers — are safer
Students feel safer in school, according to a Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2017, an annual federal report that analyzed 2015-16...

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 1, 20181 min read


Don’t ask kids to befriend violent classmates
Parkland shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz at Broward County jail. Photo: Miguel Guttierez/AFP/Getty Images It’s up to adults to protect kids...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 30, 20182 min read


Safety last?
When he brought a knife to San Diego’s Lincoln High School, the student’s special education team decided he wasn’t responsible because it...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 29, 20182 min read


‘Fight for our lives’
If an armed intruder breaks into a classroom in rural Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain district, he “will face classroom full of students...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 26, 20182 min read


After jail, back to school
Broward County’s school system has built a prison-to-school pipeline, writes Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations. “Thousands of other...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 19, 20182 min read


Already safe at school
School shootings aren’t an epidemic, writes Martin Kaste on NPR. “Schools are safer today than they had been in previous decades,” says...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 18, 20182 min read


He sat in class — and got suspended
While other students walked out of school to protest gun violence, Jacob Shoemaker sat in class alone. The Hilliard Davidson High senior...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 16, 20181 min read


Safe at school — but nowhere else
School is a safe haven from the streets, students at Baltimore’s Excel Academy tell Kevin Rector, a Baltimore Sun reporter. Seven...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 12, 20183 min read


Young, passionate — but not wise
The Parkland survivors are experts on how it feels to be terrorized by a gunman. That doesn’t make them experts on what policies would...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 8, 20182 min read
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