“Down to Gehenna or up to the throne, he travels the fastest who travels alone.”

That line is from Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Winners and it makes sense. If you want to go fast, go alone. Waiting for others to have a change of heart, join you, or lend a hand will only slow you down.

Instead…travel alone and you'll go faster.

In many ways this describes school safety in America. A stand-alone effort done by a few who work hard to make their school safer. They do a great job and they get a lot accomplished because they do it themselves—they go it alone so they go fast.

While this is good there is a better way.

Instead, we should embrace an African proverb that is similar to Kipling’s line but includes a distinct variation. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

It is better to have everyone doing a little more instead of a few doing everything. No doubt a few can do it faster but your safety will not go as far. Our school safety must become holistic in thought and action. It must be blended into the school day. It must be something that everyone does. Everyone must work together and play their part, regardless of how big or how little it is. No one should do everything but everyone should do a little bit more.

If we embrace this concept of travelling together we’ll go further and that’s much better than going fast.

One way to get everyone moving together is to have everyone join the safety team.

It’s unrealistic to think that you can have one team with 60 or more staff members. It’s too big and too unwieldy. Instead, create 15-20 (or more) smaller teacher safety teams until everyone is on a team.

Try to do it organically by following these principles.

1. Meet with your core group of leader teachers and ask for their help. Tell them what you want to do and ask them to help organize and promote the effort.
2. Together, tell the staff that you want everyone to join a safety team.
3. Let teachers and staff members pick the size, composition, and members of their team. Let it be up to them!
4. Piggyback on established lines of personal or professional communications. If there’s a group of teachers who already enjoy each other’s company, routinely share information, or have an invested interest—have them form a team.
5. Encourage staff members to create teams by building location, topics, subjects, personal hobbies, favorite football teams—whatever makes it easier and more enjoyable.
6. Have each team pick their leader.
7. Compile the list of leaders and when it is necessary to pass safety related information, send it to the leader and ask them to share it with their team—their friends!
8. By decentralizing the process it will accelerate the spread of information. Instead of one person telling sixty—it’s twenty telling three.
9. This smaller and more personal exchange of information will give every teacher and staff member a chance to ask questions, get clarifications, and offer suggestions through their leader who can then pass it up. This will help to create unity, a shared purpose, and a feeling of togetherness. This will make your teachers feel safer and more loved.
10. Use this new network to spread information on other important topics.

Whenever possible, find the purpose in what you’re doing and use that to inspire your staff members. Teachers and staff members are noble people doing passionate work. They don’t want to simply follow orders but follow a purpose they can believe in. Try to give them a purpose!

Here's a script you can use to introduce this idea.

“When it comes to school safety everyone should have a chance to have their voice heard, their suggestion considered, and their opinion valued. For this to happen our level of communication, trust, and support must be enhanced. The best way to do this is to put everyone on the safety team. Because it’s impossible to have one big team, we’re going to create many smaller teams so the flow of information will be easier, faster, and more enjoyable. Join the team, group, wing, or topic that best suits you—the team that’s the easiest and most enjoyable for you to ask questions, share suggestions, and get clarification on issues concerning school safety. We’re doing this because it’s the best thing for us. It will make us safer, happier, and more successful because we will be better connected!”

Safety should not be a stand-alone effort done by a few people. Instead, it should be blended into the school day and done by everyone. This way everyone will have a say in their own protection as well as have their suggestions considered and their opinions heard. The smaller the groups pulling together the more possible this becomes.

If you do this it will help your teachers and staff members to feel more valued, respected, and supported. Yes, they will have to do more but only a little bit more. By working and traveling together your safety will go so much further!

Don’t go it alone—go it together!

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If you’d like to prepare and inspire your teachers, consider scheduling a Safe & Loved teacher professional development. We still have some dates available for the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

Presentations can be 3-8 hours long and fit perfectly into in-service training.

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