About SSA: Recent Successes

This morning a Safe School Ambassador reported a serious safety concern to his teacher/family group advisor. Ambassadors are trained to report to an adult if there is a serious safety concern. He said there were rumors about a serious fight that was going to happen after school, with lots of weapons involved. He said one student had shown him a crow bar in his backpack. We worked on this situation from about 9:30 - 3:30 today. We did find two students in possession of 3 and 3 1/2" locking blade knives. We did find the crow bar, intended for use in the fight. We prevented the fight and did end up with three five day suspensions and two expulsion recommendations....but our kids are safe, no one was hurt, and there wasn't a fight.

You can't measure the success of this by a reduction in suspension numbers, but you can measure the success by a safer school where students are trained to and feel comfortable reporting to adults on campus. It was a tough day, but I am proud of many of our students. When I told the young boy I was proud of him for being brave and smart, reporting to us, he replied, "Of course I did that. I am a Safe School Ambassador!"

- Principal, Middle School, California