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While the physical design of a school, including its grounds, is a critical factor in increasing the safety and security of students, faculty and staff, other factors also contribute to creating a safe school climate. For example, pre-

service training for all teachers and administrators in character building, student responsibility, and anti-bullying has been shown to dramatically

improve safe school climates. (See Section VII.A.2, ―Training and professional

development,‖ infra, at 188.)

Additionally, relationship building is key to ensuring and maintaining a culture of safety in every school. Dr. George Sugai, of the University of Connecticut‘s Neag School of Education and an expert on school climate and student behavior, stressed that preventing school violence at every level requires better communication between parents, students, teachers, and administrators. Dr. Sugai testified that communication and interpersonal relationships are critical to preventing school violence. The most important thing parents and educators can do, according to Dr. Sugai, is to make sure that they are involved with their children, to prevent a sense of isolation and the breakdown in communication channels that can lead to violence. Respectful, collaborative relationships between and among parents and teachers; teachers and administrators; teachers and students; administrators and the community including law enforcement, first responders, and mental/behavioral health specialists are essential if we are to have greater situational awareness in creating a nonthreatening, accepting, inviting, information sharing and therefore safe environment. Staff, teachers and community members must feel comfortable referring a student whose behavior raises concern. This will happen in a supportive non-threatening community.

(See Section VI.A.7, ―From prediction to prevention,‖ infra, at 168.)

Safe School Climates are also known to depend upon maintaining acceptable behavioral interactions between students, students and teachers and staff. To assist in assessing the dimensions which help determine and foster a safe school environment, the National School Climate Center has

developed a chart2 _{which will provide schools with the opportunity to assess}

2 _{Available at: http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/lib/malloy/shac_doc_final_report_-} _13_csci_dimension_chart_final.pdf

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and measure their climates. The Commission advocates for the inclusion of a requirement for every school in the State to assess the quality of their Safe School Climates by using the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) process. It is envisioned that this would assist in reducing the negative effects of bullying and other unacceptable behaviors. This would provide a valid/reliable and ―gold standard‖ process to accomplish the goals of improving Safe School Climates. The CSCI surveys parent/guardians, faculty/staff and students (grades 3 – 12).

Site and school designs play a significant role in creating and supporting a ―safe school climate.‖ Good things tend to happen in good places. Bad things tend to happen in bad places. Employing the well accepted industry best practices of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), security sensitive architecturally spatial designs and space planning adjacencies for school spaces and grounds, and specifying the appropriate selection of security responsive building materials and components, has been shown to contribute to and create spaces which both feel and act secure.

Being in a place/space where one feels secure allows the focus to be on the school‘s mission and the roles teachers and students need and want to fulfill. Self-protection from perceived threats requires expenditures of deleterious and defensive negative energy, a fundamentally subtle distraction from core school activities and accomplishments.

Situational awareness, the ability to know what is happening around you, also plays a fundamental role in providing a sense of comfort, safety, security, and/or heightened anxiety. These perceptions participate in an individual‘s response to benevolent or threatening circumstances thereby aiding the opportunity to concentrate on school activities planned for that space or to provide an early warning and opportunity for more effective event management. CPTED design strategies and security sensitive architectural and landscape designs foster situational awareness and assist in the creation of a safe school climate.

F. Safe School Design and Operations Strategies Must Be Tailored To The Needs Of Particular Communities And Specific Schools. Although the Commission‘s recommendations grew out of a particular event at a particular school, they are general in nature and are intended to serve as a basis for safe school design and operation strategies in communities throughout Connecticut and across the country. However, every community is different and every school district and school is different. Thus, the recommendations set forth herein are offered with the expectation that they will be modified to address the particular needs of specific communities, school systems, and schools.

To illustrate, Connecticut has 169 towns and cities and 165 school districts. Some districts have a large number of local police and public safety personnel who can respond to a major event at a school within a few minutes. Other districts are small, may have no local police department at all, and thus rely on State Police, making for potentially significantly longer response times. A community that faces longer response times may decide to undertake additional design and operational measures to delay a potential violent offender‘s entry into a school or onto its grounds. In short, the basic SSDO standards set forth in the Commission‘s recommendations are intended to be adjusted on a community and site-specific basis.

The Commission notes that the SSIC acknowledged this issue in its report:

Central to the security assessment process and the development of the School Security and Safety Plan is the need to conduct an emergency response time analysis (ERTA) to deter- mine the actual amount of time needed for a police response to a specific school in a crisis situation. This exercise will also help in appropriate design decisions related to architectural safeguards, locking technologies and locations, and other measures that could deter or delay an intruder for an amount of time necessary to ensure an onsite public safety response prior to deep building penetration. An Emergency Response Time Analysis should be conducted for each proposed school design plan to better inform local planners on which school security design features may be appropriate for impeding the entry of unwanted individuals or preventing or delaying the free movement of such parties in a school facility.

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(Knowing what the critical response time is can help planners build in essential design components to limit movement, isolate intruders and facilitate response efforts.)

The need to balance uniform school security infrastructure standards with the needs of local communities to design and build schools that are responsive to local educational needs and objectives.

The need to preserve an educational environment for children; The need to establish a uniform school security infrastructure assessment procedure;

The need to ensure the school building planning process is inclusive of all local decision makers, public safety, building code and fire and life safety code personnel; and

The need to establish a cooperative and constructive compliance system that facilitates attainment of the new standards.

SSIC Report at 9.

G. Safe School Design And Operation Standards Are Not Static.