School Safety
Support CCS Admin October 10, 2024At Support CCS, we’re committed to ensuring Carmel residents know exactly where our organization and its endorsed candidates stand. We want residents to vote confidently and share their enthusiasm about our candidates with their neighbors and friends.
Support CCS stands on six pillars–six values we believe will ensure the continued success and improvement of the Carmel Clay Schools:
- Global Preparedness
- Academic Excellence
- School Safety
- Parent Partnership
- Supporting Teachers
- Mental Well-Being
In the coming weeks, we’ll continue diving into these pillars one by one, showing:
- Why they matter;
- Why Jon and Kristina are the right candidates to uphold them; and
- How YOU can help CCS thrive by promoting them.
What School Safety Means to Us
School should be a place in which every student feels safe. Support CCS believes this requires an environment in which all students feel protected from both physical and mental harm. This requires partnering with and supporting the Director of Student Services, the specially trained School Resource Officers (SROs), building safety specialists, counselors, social workers, and all other staff working to foster a safe and non-threatening learning environment for students. It’s through these efforts our students can head to school, focused only on learning and growing. But maintaining this environment also requires smart and forward-thinking budget oversight, as the schools’ ability to preempt and respond to crises depends on our ability to have resources available when they are needed.
A large component of school safety is our ability to cultivate a community of care. We understand that SROs rely on support they get from counselors, student services personnel, the equity and inclusion office, and Ascension St. Vincent interventions to create an atmosphere of safety. As these support services were explicitly named as intended targets for safety spending when the Safety Referendum passed in 2019, we also see maintaining their presence in our schools as keeping faith with Carmel voters and taxpayers on the priorities that matter to us all.
The Risks Of Getting It Wrong
We must do everything in our power to prevent violence like we’ve seen in the news and in neighboring districts. But even in the absence of physical violence, school safety is essential for our students’ ability to thrive. If we do not have robust resources in place to make students feel safe and welcome, they will not be able to learn. Students cannot learn when they are afraid for their lives, or when they or their peers are in crisis. Safety is not a purely physical concept.
CCS led the Hoosier state in passing a safety referendum. This referendum has allowed our district to implement safety measures that former, current and future students can and will benefit from. The referendum is up for renewal in 2027–within the terms of whomever we elect on November 5. We must elect school board members who will fully support school safety as envisioned by our community in that groundbreaking referendum.
Why Jon Shapiro and Kristina Wheeler are the Right Candidates to Further School Safety in CCS
Jon Shapiro and Kristina Wheeler are committed to creating an environment in which all students feel safe from physical and mental harm, so they can focus on learning and growing. These candidates understand that school safety can only be achieved if SROs are supported both financially and with the array of mental health and wellness services that our district provides or partners to provide for students. Partnership is necessary to creating a community of care that frees our children to learn in safety.
“We need to keep our students safe–physically safe, of course, but also mentally safe. Students need to show up at school and be their authentic selves and know that they are safe at school. That way they are set up to be academically successful.”
-Jon Shapiro
“I believe that one of the best ways to ensure our schools are safe is to make sure all students feel heard and supported. Many school shootings happen when children have serious mental health issues unaddressed. The safety referendum supported more than a thousand referrals for students in our district to access mental health services, and I absolutely support that.”
-Kristina Wheeler
There are LOTS of ways to help us make the case that School Safety at CCS will best be served by electing Shapiro and Wheeler!
- Speak up within your core groups of friends and neighbors
- Your support of our candidates is the greatest power we have! Share your support for Jon Shapiro and Kristina Wheeler by talking with your neighbors and friends. Ask, “Have you heard about this year’s School Board race?” to start a conversation.
- Display yard signs at your home
- Your neighbors KNOW that you care about safety within our schools. When you put up a “Shapiro” or “Wheeler” yard sign, that tells your neighbors you trust Jon and Kristina to build on the success your family has found at CCS.
- Share your stories of School Safety in CCS with us
- We’re always looking for testimonials to share on our website! What does School Safety” mean to you? How have your children been empowered to feel wholly safe while attending CCS? Share them here!
Support Carmel Clay Schools: Who We Are
Support CCS is a non-partisan political action committee working to support Carmel Clay Schools. We believe that public education is the foundation of a healthy democracy: accessible to all, it brings communities together across differences while respecting the individuality of all. We therefore seek to support the election of school board candidates who will fulfill the mission and guiding principles of Carmel Clay Schools.
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