Quakertown High School Student Safety and Mental Health

Students are considered safe in their school when they attend and take part in healthy school activities, environments, and groups. When a student feels safe in their school, they have a better opportunity to learn and grow academically, socially, and emotionally. Students who do not feel safe in their school will be negatively affected by the environment, limiting their learning experience to something that is drowned by the constant worrying of safety in their surroundings. Safe school conditions are vital to any child’s happiness and success. 

The definition of student safety is, “schools and school-related activities where students are safe from violence, bullying and harassment, and the influence of substance use.” To what extent does this carry on into Quakertown High School?  

PawPrints surveyed a total of 178 students on their personal feelings on fights in school, nurse visits, and fire/ALICE drills. 

Earlier in the school year, Quakertown High School experienced a chain of physical fights over a short period of time. Numerous fights broke out at football games, during lunch, in the hallways, and other places throughout the school. If these outbreaks continued, the administration insisted they would have to cancel homecoming. That was the end of the fights. 

Only six point seven percent of students said they had not seen a single fight. Forty-one percent witnessed the fights from videos sent to them, and fifty-two percent had viewed them firsthand with their own eyes.  

What PawPrints was wondering was how this affected the student body, and whether they still felt safe in their community amidst the constant fighting around them. The question was posed, “Have the fights in the High School made you fear for your own safety?” Luckily only fourteen percent said yes, but that percentage should be zero. Although the administration was not able to plan for or be completely prepared for an outbreak of fights, they should have been stopped after the first one, and why weren’t consequences enforced?

Fire and Alice Drills are continuously practiced throughout the school years. PawPrints asked the students, on a scale of 1-10, how safe and prepared these drills make them feel.

These drills are designed to prepare the students for the case of a real fire or intruder and prevent possible casualties. 

The PAYS 2021 Pennsylvania Youth Survey was sent out to the population of Bucks County, surveying a wide portion of middle and high school students on bullying, suicide risk, mental health, and other topics. Some of that data will not be included in this article, but you can find the survey information here if you are interested in looking further into these topics. 

A total of around 4,000 students participated in the survey. The charts show the data for grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. There was a question that asked about the student’s overall feelings about their safety in their school. They could answer either “yes” that they feel safe at their school, or “no,” that they don’t. The average between the high school grades was 18.7% for no, which is about 800 students across Bucks County high schools. Similar to these results, the PawPrints survey asked a related question, asking, “On a scale of 1-10, to what extent do you feel the high school and district administration keeps you and your peers safe?”

The results show a trend of votes accumulating in the 5-8 region. This cluster of votes proves that Quakertown’s attempts to continue the safety of their students are working, showing very few students who don’t feel safe in their school. Keeping the school safe encourages students to look forward to being in a positive environment, promoting high-quality learning, and less stress. Safe schools are able to promote protection from violence, bullying, and confidence during safety drills.