Keeping Kids Safe in School

The vast majority of students that participate in school sports find it a positive, beneficial experience. There is a small minority, however, that do not enjoy, and are even put at risk, by sports. Unlike making sure there is appropriate and plentiful school furniture available to students, creating a safe environment for children to participate in sports is often neglected.

There are three main reasons for this neglect: denial, blame and minimization. Clubs, organizations, funding bodies and governments, engage in these reasons to not do anything about keeping children safe. They react by either saying: this does not happen here; it is someone else’s problem; or it is an isolated incident. Due to these types of responses leave children, coaches, clubs, sports bodies, and funding bodies isolated, vulnerable and powerless.

Keeping children safe requires both a preventative component and a reactive part. There must be appropriate policies, practices and procedures in place to limit the harm from occurring in the first place, while there also needs to be procedures, practices and policies to allow all those who participate in sports the ability to report any unsafe activities.