GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As rush hour traffic drove up and down Hall Street on Wednesday night, a small crowd of people was gathered around a conference table on the first floor of a brick, multi-purpose building. They were talking about school safety, one of the most talked about issues in the country.
The meeting's host, Urban Core Collective, describes itself as a racial justice organization that works in the organizing and advocacy space. They focus on a number of different issues, and their education team makes sure that "students and families have a meaningful say in decisions that are happening" at Grand Rapids Public Schools.
Cameras were not allowed inside Wednesday night's meeting so attendees could feel free to share their ideas about education. However, education team member Erika VanDyke talked to 13 ON YOUR SIDE about the issues that might be discussed.
"We're hearing that folks don't always feel safe and they don't feel like they have a voice in things that could make them feel more safe in school - whether that's students, whether that's parents wanting to be informed about what's happening, or whether that's staff members who maybe are seeking more training, or who are seeking different support and prevention tools," she said.
"We know that school safety doesn't have to look like metal detectors. It can look like more social workers. It can look like more mental health providers. Safety is also about psychological safety in a space. Do parents feel comfortable coming to leaders in their school building? Do students feel like there's a trusted adult they can go to if they're feeling unsafe, or if they've seen something they feel like they need to share?"
Leaders from the collective plan to take the concerns and ideas they take away from the meeting and work to develop research.
"One of the ideas that we're really interested in is the community school model. This is this idea that if we bring in mental health services, sometimes even physical health services, directly into the school building, that's an opportunity to not only provide stronger community support for the building, but really improve those school-level, district-level, neighborhood-level outcomes," VanDyke said.
"GRPS already does have some community schools, thanks to the Kent School Services Network, and they're doing really great work, but what would it look like to expand that?"
If you have an idea about how to improve school safety in Grand Rapids, but you didn't get to attend Wednesday night's meeting, you can email VanDyke at erika@uccgr.org.
The collective will also be hosting another town hall on April 10 focusing on culture and structure inside schools. If you'd like to attend, you're asked to RSVP.
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