Safety Resources
Bel Air Safety Procedures
Bel Air is prepared for urgent situations. We practice our fire, lock-down, and shelter-in-place drills on a regular basis, and we work with the Sheriffs Department to provide any additional guidance and support they have to offer. All parents are reminded to follow the safety rules currently in place:
* Sign in and get volunteer badges at the office when you enter school grounds during the school day.
* Report anyone who does not have an ID badge.
* Bring your child to school after 7:25 a.m. (when we have supervision provided).
* Sign out your child in the office if you take him/her prior to dismissal.
* Pick up your child promptly at dismissal or supervise play after school.
* Follow all directions if you hear an emergency announcement (including drills) over the intercom.
* Follow all drop-off and pick-up rules, which include remaining with your car in the drive-thru lane.
Our School's Safety Plan can be found HERE
Helping Children Cope with School Violence
We urge you to note these valuable highlights from the articles for helping children cope:
* Give children a chance to voice their fears and answer their questions honestly and patiently. They may need processing time between questions. It's important for children struggling to process a disturbing experience or terrifying disruption in their lives to be listened to and heard.
* Stay calm. This situation is literally a nightmare for parents. Avoid telegraphing your fears to your children.
* Turn the TV off when young children are present. Repeated news reports can make children anxious. Young children may also think that there are many shootings occurring rather than a repeated conversation of one incident.
* As adults we need to process this tragedy, too, but NOT around our children. Please remember that your children listen to you, to your phone conversations, to your adult dinner conversations. Process when your children are not present.
* Be direct, but also developmentally appropriate in your conversations. And remember, it is always a series of conversations, not a single sit-down.
* Make children feel safe and loved with continued routines. There is perhaps nothing more damaging to a child's development than a feeling that the world is on balance a negative place. Security gives children confidence and boundaries let them be kids while they need to be.
* Finally, keep an eye on children and be alert to signs that they might not be recovering in a healthy way- watch for changes in their patterns of sleep and eating, unusual irritability or trouble focusing, obsessive or pervasive worry.