Social, emotional, and physical safety has been at the forefront of many people’s minds for some time now. And for good reason. The pandemic only exacerbated the issue. According to a 2020 survey by the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago of 1,000 parents around the country, 71% of parents said the pandemic had taken a toll on their child’s mental health.  Grandview Heights Schools has taken measured steps to ensure that students and staff feel safe when at school.

Our intent is for every student to have a trusted adult on staff to turn to and a team of trained professionals on-site to provide the support our students need.  The district has invested in a full-time licensed mental health counselor and has a long-standing partnership with Syntero Counseling that provides for a full-time, on-site licensed counselor.  Additionally, we have a full-time school counselor in every building and two full-time school psychologists on staff. 

We have implemented a screening filtration system that monitors all internet traffic on our school network and every device. This tool is now continuously scanning Grandview Heights Schools technology, both staff and student accounts, for potential issues such as threats of violence, cyberbullying, suicide, and more.  Our website Stay Safe. Speak Up! Student Hotline is available 24 hours a day for students to self-report a concern and receive a response.  And working closely with the Grandview Heights Police and Fire Departments, we routinely practice safety and fire drills.

The most important way to help protect our students and schools from any type of crisis is from the inside out.  This is to say that our culture and climate in Grandview Heights Schools is a critically important tool to help proactively address our students' needs. We do our best to help ensure that every single student who walks through our school doors each day is made to feel valued, heard, and a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

At Grandview Heights Schools, we also diligently work to build meaningful relationships with students so that they have a strong sense of belonging and ownership in their learning environment.   Our culture focus this school year is #BelongingMatters. We want every student who walks through our doors to feel supported and know there is a caring network of people who are here to help them when needed.

Yet everyone has a responsibility when it comes to keeping our community safe. I encourage you to keep having open and honest conversations with the students in your lives and please know that we are grateful for your efforts and partnership. Then and only then can we accomplish our goal of providing a positive learning environment that promotes personal safety, the safety of others, respect, dignity, and equality for every student.