Because drug abuse, alcohol, violence and gang activity plague many schools across the nation, a student’s well-being and a campus’s security are at the heart of any safety program.
Since students spend about eight hours a day at school, administrators and other school officials take steps to ensure that they are kept safe while on campus.
After time spent in a public school district, Principal Todd Bennett sees Fresno Christian as a comparably safe environment for both students and faculty.
“I was in public schools for 20 years and an administrator there for 12 years,” Bennett said. “Compared to that [public schools], there’s not really a big deal here. I’m confident we have a very safe campus. The biggest thing here is making sure that visitors check in, that there are the right people around campus.”
Due to the size of public schools, problems there may occur on a broader scale. In an attempt to counteract this, many campuses have a police officer along with several student liaison officers, whose job is to monitor the campus and build relationships with the students.
Safety regulations on campus
While security issues are a rarity on the FC campus, there are safeguards put in place to make for a secure environment. According to Bennett, the school administration has a campus-wide security program that includes the Peoples Church staff.
Recently, a new action plan for threatening situations has been put into place campus-wide; the updated plan was used Feb. 14 during an after-school lockdown.
“We updated our plan last year; we carry information cards with safety codes, needed action and emergency contacts,” Bennett said. “Because the lockdown happened so late in the day, it was just a matter of getting in the golf cart and rounding everyone up. We feel pretty confident; I think knowing what to do definitely helps.”
Although few major adjustments have been made this year, administrators made an effort to improve safety by providing every senior with a locker instead of allowing students to use their cars for storage.
“In some cases, kids were making bad decisions and doing some dumb things out there [in the parking lot],” Bennett said. “If we can just take that opportunity away from them, that would probably be the biggest change we’ve made this year.”
Despite the precautions in place, there have been some instances of vandalism this year, according to the church’s facility manager,