| Curious about her students' views on safety in their school, Olivia Martinez asked her 3rd grade students to reponsd to the questions "Where do you feel safe at school?" and "Where don't you feel safe in school?" Martinez is a member of IDEA's course, "Teaching for Change: Towards a Students' Bill of Rights."
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I wish I could feel safe everywhere but I only feel safe in the classroom.
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 The place where I feel safe is in the classroom. I feel safe in the classroom because there are a lot of kids and we could go under the tables. The classroom is the safest place I could find in the whole school. I want to be in the classroom more then in the restroom or in the yard. I wish I could feel safe everywhere but I only feel safe in the classroom.
The place in the school that I don’t feel safe is in the restroom. I don’t feel safe in the restroom because if there is a fire and somebody locks the door, then no one can save us. The restroom is the worst place I could be in the whole school so that is why I don’t go to the restroom that much.
Where I feel safe in school is in the classroom. I feel safe in the classroom because there are a lot of emergency exits, there are a lot of people in the class to keep me company, and there is an emergency kit for reach of my classmates and me. Where I feel unsafe in the school is in the yard because there can be a shooting in the yard or bombs that are thrown in the yard or somebody can come in the yard and start hitting people. I feel like that in the yard because I don’t know what happened but there was once a police car and police officers arrested my uncle’s friends. Then I found out that they did graffiti or showed each other guns.
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The restroom is the worst place I could be in the whole school so that is why I don’t go to the restroom that much.
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Where I feel safe at school is in the cafeteria. I feel safe in the cafeteria because there is a lot of space. Where I don’t feel safe at school is the parking lot. I don’t feel safe there because it is dark and someone could steal me.
Where I feel safe at school is the classroom because there are two teachers, and I think it is safe because the teachers can protect me.
I feel unsafe at the yard because there are not enough teachers and a boy or girl could and punch you in the face or a man can act as if he’s a teacher and grab you.
I feel safe at my classroom because it is safe for me to be in it and I have two teachers watching over the kids because it is their job. I feel unsafe at the yard because there is nothing over our heads. And there are people shooting on the yard. We have to get on the dirty floor and it is all dirty.
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The place I feel unsafe in school is the yard. The yard is the unsafe place for me because somebody can do a drive-by while I'm playing. The yard also feels unsafe because there is no place to hide.
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I feel safe in the classroom because there are lots of kids and two teachers. We have more people on the next door to keep us safe. I feel unsafe in the bathroom because there’s no people to keep me safe. There are no neighbors in the bathroom and no teammates. There might be some fire and no one will save me. There might be somebody who wants to get me and there would not be someone to save me.
The place I feel safest at school is in the classroom. The classroom is the safest because you can go under the desk if somebody is shooting. Also, there are a lot of hiding places. The place I feel unsafe in school is the yard. The yard is the unsafe place for me because somebody can do a drive-by while I'm playing. The yard also feels unsafe because there is no place to hide.
The place where I am safe is in the classroom. I feel safe in my life and in a safe place. It is the classroom because no one can open the door. I don’t feel safe in the yard because they can throw bombs and it can hurt us, and we can get hurt.
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