Back to School Safety Tips!

Back to School Safe­ty Tips!

Sep­tem­ber is a busy time, wrap­ping up Sum­mer vaca­tions, and of course, the mad scram­ble to get the kids ready for the return to school. Where do you start? And most impor­tant­ly, how do you keep every­one safe and secure? Here are some sim­ple sug­ges­tions to help.

SAFETY TIPS

1. As a par­ent, give your­self plen­ty of time, espe­cial­ly on the first few days. Pack some patience and dri­ve sen­si­bly: Obey the post­ed speed lim­its, do not pass oth­er vehi­cles, do not park ille­gal­ly, change lanes, or make U‑turns, while dri­ving in a school zone.

2. If you are lucky enough to be in walk­ing or cycling dis­tance to school, do a dry run with the kids a few days before school starts so they can be famil­iar with the route. Choose the most direct route, with the least num­ber of street cross­ings. If there is a route that will have a cross­ing guard, this is a good choice. If you are not walk­ing with your kids, the bud­dy sys­tem using sib­lings or neigh­bour­hood kids is a good idea.

3. Walk­ers should not use cell phones while walk­ing and should not wear head­phones or ear­buds. It’s vital­ly impor­tant to be ful­ly aware of the sur­round­ings.

4. If your kids will be bused, make sure you have con­firmed with the school and bus com­pa­ny about the route, and the approx­i­mate pick­up and drop off time. Be ear­ly, and accom­pa­ny your kids to the bus stop on the first few days!

5. Put your home phone #, and your mobile phone # on the inside of your child’s jack­ets and back­packs. Work on hav­ing them mem­o­rize your phone # and home address.

6. Make sure your kids know that it’s nev­er appro­pri­ate to accept a ride from a stranger or even a known adult with­out the absolute per­mis­sion of the par­ent.

7. Teach chil­dren about stranger dan­ger: Make sure kids know not to talk to strangers on their way home from school, even if they seem friend­ly or help­ful. They should nev­er accept gifts or rides from strangers. It’s also impor­tant to teach them about strangers whom they can go to for help in an emer­gency, such as police, secu­ri­ty, or oth­er par­ents with chil­dren.

8. When kids are the first to get home. They need to make sure the house is locked before walk­ing in. They should look for red flags that might sig­nal an intru­sion. If some­thing seems wrong, it is wrong. Kids should go to a pre­de­ter­mined safe place, such as a neighbour’s house and call their par­ents.

9. Set up your alarm sys­tem with “Smart Mon­i­tor­ing” where the alarm sys­tem will auto­mat­i­cal­ly send you a noti­fi­ca­tion when your kids enter their alarm code. If you have sur­veil­lance cam­eras, they too can send you a clip when the kids arrive home.

10. Have a plan for lost keys: Even respon­si­ble chil­dren can lose keys. A lost key in your neigh­bour­hood is a secu­ri­ty prob­lem. Make it easy for kids to stay safe and secure by invest­ing in a lock­set that can be eas­i­ly rekeyed or a key­less entry sys­tem.

Back to School Safety …

A big part of safe­ty and secu­ri­ty is aware­ness and edu­ca­tion. It’s easy to be com­pla­cent; we like to believe we are safe in our homes and com­mu­ni­ties. How­ev­er, to ensure we remain safe and secure, requires us all to main­tain a lev­el of dili­gence.

Have a great safe School Year!