TxSSC
School Safety Spotlight Awards
Student-Led Groups or Programs
(Past Winners)
- indicates an overall recipient for fiscal year.
Mart High School Teen CERT
Student-Led Groups or Programs
The Mart High School (MHS) Teen Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a highly dedicated team of students who serve the Mart community. The goal of the program is to adequately train students to respond in times of disaster. Students are trained in accordance with the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians skills - beyond the required CERT training.
Each year, MHS Teen CERT organizes and leads required campus drills and puts on a year-long “See Something, Say Something” campaign. Spirit days, costume contests, prizes, and assemblies throughout the year involve local police and officials. By creating a positive working relationship with law enforcement, students see the best of those in uniform and learn to stay informed and speak up about safety issues.
MHS Teen CERT conducts annual safety walk-throughs and sends recommendations for changes to the administration. Members teach CPR, first aid, and bleeding control to students and staff. The team attends city functions, such as National Night Out, serving as a medical stop for emergencies and injuries. The life-saving skills these students learn impact their lives, as well as the lives of other students and community members.
"CERT has benefited me in many ways, from teaching me how to help others to being more vigilant in emergent situations.”
"CERT has helped me with being cautious as well as being prepared for real-life emergencies that could happen around me.”
Quarter 4 (FY21)
New Tech High @ Coppell Fuze Class, Coppell ISD
Student-Led Groups or Programs
The New Tech High @ Coppell Fuze Class creates videos to help students learn about school safety. The class collaborates with the New Tech High @ Coppell Networking Captains to create a video and present it to the school during networking time. This year the class created a video showing what to do and not to do during a fire drill to help students learn about safety in a light humorous way. The class took a scene from the famous show, “The Office,” and re-created a scene about what not to do when the fire alarm goes off. The video also addressed the proper procedures.
The short informational film was created, written, directed, and filmed by Fuze students and overseen by New Tech High @ Coppell Facilitator, Kaleb Broadstreet (educator) and Assistant Principal, Raheela Shaikh. The students involved in the making of this video are James Goode, Hannah Deavenport, Abigail Turner, Sam Petty, Jacob Granada, and Cole Ramirez.
Fire Drill
Quarter 3 (FY21)
Tatum Reeves, Christoval ISD
Student-Led Groups or Programs
Tatum Reeves, a student at Christoval High School, attended the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s Standard Response Protocol (SRP) training. She then organized a project to lead SRP training for Christoval ISD and community partners and to build go-kits for all classrooms. The entire district participated in the training, which was hosted by local law enforcement and the community church.
Tatum created a video presentation that she shared with Education Service Center 15, the State Title IV Initiative group and the "I Love U Guys" Foundation. The 14-minute video explains the SRP and communicates how all schools, but especially rural schools, can build a positive school culture around school safety. In addition, every classroom in Christoval ISD has a go-kit with Stop the Bleed and first aid supplies as well as other safety items.
Christoval ISD - Safety Presentation
“School Safety is important because our school is our second home.”
Clear Creek ISD Students for Safety
Student-Led Groups or Programs
Clear Creek ISD Students Zahra Virani, Adam Colman, Sophie Snapp, Esther Jin, Sarayu Parthasarathy, and Surya Chinnappa helped form CCISD Students for Safety, a group of students from Clear Lake, Clear Brook, and Clear Springs high schools. This student committee used research-based practices from the CDC and researched data from infectious disease specialists to extend research-based recommendations to district and campus administrators as they planned to transition from online learning to hybrid options for the 2020-2021 school year.
The students worked tirelessly to research and gather data to safely reopen their campuses. They returned before school started and walked buildings, met with campus administrators, and devised a plan for one-way hallways, classroom seating arrangements, and lunch seating that minimized adjacencies to protect everyone.
The group produced a video that addressed common questions in a meaningful way. Their research-based presentation enabled students to buy into the messages being delivered as the district transitioned learning back on to campuses.
Back to School 101 - CCISD Students For Safety
“My favorite aspect of being a part of the CCISD Students for Safety Executive Committee has been making new friends through a commitment to shared values and a passion to make a positive difference in the world. Each member of the executive committee brought different talents and experiences, and pooling our skills together, we were able to amplify our impact. I played a major role in creating policy proposals and helping strategize our communications with district leaders to establish a collaborative relationship. Other leaders in the group who had strengths in community outreach were able to amass a social media following of over 800 and use this platform to spread important safety information to the community. Still others coordinated efforts to assemble and donate 1200 face shields to the district.”
Quarter 2 (FY-19)
Teen CERT Officers, Westlake High School Eanes ISD
Student/Peer-Led Groups and Programs
Teen Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Officers from Westlake High School have taught hands-only CPR, including how to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), to staff and more than 1500 students in Eanes ISD during the past three years. The officers also coordinate safety teams, first aid, and crowd control measures for football games, calling for professional responders when needed. The Teen CERT Officers have worked with administration, police, EMS, community members and the district safety and health manager to have CERT programs approved. The Teen CERT Officers have made the student body more aware of safety concerns, mitigation plans, and have made an impact on the environment of the Westlake High School campus.
“My students continue to amaze me with their intrinsic passion for preparedness and their peer-to-peer training and accountability. They are driving this program and deserve this recognition. I am so proud of each of them.”
Quarter 1 (FY-19)
Jayme Petersen, PALS Teacher, and Stephanie Jess, Student Council Sponsor, Brazosport ISD
Student/Peer-Led Groups and/or Programs
Students from the Brazosport ISD worked on a Prom Promise program to educate their peers, as well as parents and local businesses, about the dangers of drinking and driving. Students collaborated with the Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol, Brazosport ISD Police, organization sponsors, campus administrators, and the District’s Prevention Coordinator to develop the knowledgebase needed to effectively provide education about the dangers of drinking and driving. Students selected prom weekend as their campaign focus because of increased peer pressure to drink during that weekend. Students brainstormed activities and then developed a plan, divided up tasks, assigned jobs, and carried out activities.
This was a direct effort to engage and empower students and community partners. This partnership was more than just consultation, but rather consisted of ongoing support between two student groups, district staff, and community partners to first build the students’ knowledge base and then enable them to take active roles in decisions about the project’s direction. Empowering students to learn and take action about issues that matter to them has a substantial impact on shaping school safety measures within the school community.
“What I liked about our Prom Promise was that our kids were standing in line to sign the Prom Promise card before we had even opened our booth! It was something our kids wanted to do….maybe the goodie bags we had assembled had something to do with it…but, the eagerness of our kids to sign and take selfies with the cards was great. Once the cards were signed, we attached them to butcher paper and hung them up at the actual Prom entrance to serve as a reminder of the Promises made. Prom Promise helped our parents to know their child would not drink and drive and helped our school know we were setting up our children to have positive lasting memories.”
Quarter 1 (FY-19)
Dr. James Largent, Superintendent, Granbury ISD
Student/Peer-Led Groups and/or Programs
The Granbury ISD Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee (SSAC) initiated a focus on school safety, security, and youth preparedness for 2018. This youth-based advocacy committee is representative of the entire student body, provides a venue for students’ concerns to be heard, and has even resulted in the acquisition of a narcotics dog (Ben the drug dog) as a result of concerns about increased drug usage in the community.
“The Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee meets quarterly with Superintendent Dr. James Largent to share the students’ viewpoints—insights, concerns, and recommendations—pertaining to improving the school district. With a focus on school safety, security, and youth preparedness in 2018…this strategic collaboration between the youth, school leaders, and community stakeholders is employed to harness the leadership of youth as positive influencers in establishing a whole-community approach to …emergency preparedness.”
- indicates an overall recipient for fiscal year.