As we return for the 2022-2023 school year, safety is the number one concern for school administrators, parents and students. Rest assured, the Department of Public Instruction and the Center for Safer Schools are concerned as well.

RALEIGH, N.C. — As we return for the 2022-2023 school year, safety is the number one concern for school administrators, parents and students. Rest assured, the Department of Public Instruction and the Center for Safer Schools are concerned as well.

The center hosted a statewide R.I.S.E. (Resiliency, Information, Support, Empowerment) School Safety Training event in early August. The goal, according to Director Karen Fairley, was to provide the most up-to-date school safety information and resources for districts and schools to assist in school safety planning and preparation for the upcoming school year.

“The Center is committed to providing the best possible services, training, and resources to support every North Carolina public and charter school, ensuring all North Carolina students and staff have an environment conducive for learning,” Fairley said.

The session facilitators were topic professionals from across the state. A few of the topics to assure you that your child was on their minds are as follows:

• Prevent School Safety Shooting and Violence
• Educating Kids about Guns and Gangs Violence
• Human Trafficking and Teen Dating Violence
• Gang Psychology
• Bullying Trends
• Youth Suicide Prevention
• Substance Use Disorder
• Internet Crimes Against Children
• Youth Legislative Assembly
• Reimagining Family-Community School Partnership-NC PTA
• Prevent School Shooting and Violence -Sandy Hook Promise

I, too, was a facilitator; my session was on Improving School Climate and Student Behavior with Life Coaching. I have traveled with the R.I.S.E. team since their inception in 2017, speaking on substance use disorder, parenting, and teen coaching.

I read an article from a convening of school safety experts and former director of mental health services and crisis intervention, Dr. Marleen Wong. She said, “It’s the relationships that exist in the building – relationships between students, relationships between teachers and students, and relationships between the school and parents, and every student should have a connection with an adult on campus. In most cases, at least one person knew about the attack before it happened.”

In the article, Mental Health crises is on the rise among U.S. teenagers. Duke Health Nathan Copeland, MD, MPH a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist says, “We saw increased loneliness. Increased isolation. Increased parental distress. Increased substance abuse disorders across the entire population. Before the Pandemic we had a substance use crisis and students were separated from their parents and families. Now the Pandemic has caused a similar situation, a great separation and the feeling of isolation and loneliness as well.”

The mental health of young people has intensified and causing concern. According to a Washington Post report, behavior issues, absenteeism, are up at school, classroom disruptions because of students’ misconduct, classroom rowdiness, reports of more fighting and threats of physical attacks between students. Dr. Gary Maslow, Duke Health child and adolescent psychiatrist says, “One of the most common things we see is increased irritability and increased anger.” Also, Duke Behavioral health analyst, Sherika Hill, said other issues like peer bullying have been a big factor, as well as children dealing with social drivers of health, racism, and bias.

A solution regarding loneness, isolation, parental distress, substance use, bullying, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, and aggression is peer support programs as they teach young people to provide effective support to other students, with a view to increasing social and emotional well-being and decreasing anti-social behavior.

It is a challenge for schools to find support services for students, such as school psychologists, school social workers, school counselors, school nurses and teachers. However, according to the National Association of School Psychologists, one role of a school psychologist is to train teachers to recognize problems students are having, provide assistance in intervention programs to prevent behavior problems, and support students going through difficulties. Working together especially is important because it is evident that not one discipline can independently address the complex mental health barriers to student learning.

An alternative is continued support to schools and students is to equip our students with peer-to-peer life coaching skills and techniques. A Life Coach trains youth to make good decisions, manage emotions, overcome obstacles, and motivate themselves and others to be their best. A Life Coach isn’t a therapist! Coaching is strength-based, and it carries less stigma than therapy. Life coaching is an effective tool for middle and high school students. It is associated with significant increases in cognitive hardiness and hope levels and significant decreases in levels of depression

Again, Dr. Nathan Copeland stressed the importance of starting a conversation with your child, even if it may feel uncomfortable! So, as a coach, I would start the conversation with questions as it is a great way to begin. A question causes one to connect with the other person. Remember to start with the heart and make it a safe space.

Questions:

1). What’s important for you now

2). Paint me a picture of what that would look like

3). What resources will you need to achieve this goal

Gale McKoy Wilkins is a wife, mom, grandparent, and family life coach. Gale is the founder of Project Arrow, an evidence-based peer-to-peer and leadership program teaching life coaching techniques to middle and high school students.

Gale is passionate about using life coaching and creative solutions to empower families and teens to help themselves and others. Gale is a Life Coach to parents and teens, and she teaches them coaching skills and techniques and trains teens on how to make good decisions, manage emotions, overcome obstacles, and motivate themselves and others to be their best. Gale is a North Carolina native that has worked with youth and families and served the triangle in various leadership positions; she has a graduate certificate in Family Life Coaching and a Master of Arts degree in Women’s Leadership from North Carolina State University.