When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, public safety departments at four-year institutions of higher education in the U.S. were vulnerable. This vulnerability was because of the limited time they had to initiate their pandemic response to help protect their campus communities, and the need to create or revise institutional emergency response…

Colleges are charged with providing safe and secure campus environments, which are conducive to learning for all students. It is the duty of the college leadership to ensure that their campuses are not only visually appealing, but also that they ensure the safety of all. Recent events have shown that efforts to protect our campuses and…

The present study explored LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non heterosexual/cisgender identities) engineering students' navigation of engineering educational contexts and reported the impacts of the engineering educational culture on LGBTQ+ students' well-being. Drawing from a sample of ten LGBTQ+ university students…

Although lockdown drills are a practice widely used in K-12 public schools across the United States to prepare students and staff to respond to acts of violence, research has only just begun to consider the impacts of these practices on those who participate in them. This study adds to the growing body of literature by examining the potential…

Bullying is prevalent in many schools worldwide. Providing bullying prevention training to preservice teachers can make a significant difference in preventing school bullying. There is a lack of training in bullying prevention for preservice teachers in China, and the effectiveness of such training for bullying prevention has not yet been…

This qualitative study explored essential characteristics attributed to highly effective School Resource Officers (SROs) as perceived by experienced Indiana high school principals. Through semi-structured interviews with five high school principals from Indiana, the study sought to identify key responsibilities, outcomes, proactive activities, and…

Emotions associated with prior mathematics learning experiences endure for some pre-service teachers, leaching into their own teaching of mathematics. Taking a sociology of emotions framing, the naturalistic study used event-oriented social inquiry and employed multiple methods (classroom transcripts, interviews, email conversations and reflective…

Widespread concern exists that participating in lockdown and active shooter drills, practices that although discussed synonymously are different, may be similarly traumatizing for students. This study examined state anxiety levels--anxiety-present (i.e., anxiety) and anxiety-absent (i.e., well-being)--among students in one rural high school, as…

Although several studies have focused on why school climate is important, the timing of the collection of climate measures should be considered. This is of particular interest to schools that gauge school improvement efforts within a school year and are interested in how climate changes from the beginning to the end of the academic year. We show…

School climate is crucial for understanding everyday school life. For pupils, breaktime seems to be associated with how they feel about their school climate. To better understand school climate and what social processes pupils address, this study explores pupils' perspectives on school climate with attention on how they perceive their breaktimes.…

This article explores organisational infrastructure in the movement for safe schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on several qualitative studies of educator organising during the pandemic, this article shows that educators across the United States have organised through a range of social movement organisations, including national…

Increased attention has been given the safety of students and school staff members following highly publicized acts of violence within schools, including the mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in 2022, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, and Columbine High School in 1999. In response to these tragic events, schools have implemented various…

Little research addresses the schooling experiences of non-binary students; no prior work explores their experiences in cyber schools. Using unique data from a US multi-state cyber charter school, we compare the factors parents of non-binary students and parents of other students stated as reasons for leaving their prior schools to attend a cyber…

Sexual assault is a deeply rooted issue on American college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine the systems that enable a culture of sexual assault and then enact an action step that strengthened the institutional strategies for preventing these incidents on campus. This qualitative action research study took place at a mid-sized…

Collaboration is the key to a balanced and well-planned response to an emergency and subsequent recovery. Schools and school districts should explore existing resources within their communities that can provide services to their students during and after an emergency that negatively impacts school operations. One such resource to consider is local…