Hey folks, welcome back. J.C. here. And it's that time of year again, where our kids are getting ready to go back to school. There's a lot of organization and planning that takes place in our household. Prior to going back to school, you gotta go out and buy school supplies and get everything ready, school clothes, all that stuff. It's amazing. When I was a kid, we didn't get new clothes for school. We actually, went to the Goodwill, did a few Minister shopping.
A lot of stuff for my brothers was hand downs from stuff that I hadn't gone through, but different world we live in today, we gotta address our kids. Thank God. I have the wherewithal and the ability to be able to do that much different world for my children than when I grew up. But I wanna talk a little bit about school safety and security, because it's important. It's not something that we should take for granted. We actually need to find out what our school security and safety plan is.
When dealing with situations like a fire in the school, any form of lockdown due to unwelcome intruders into the school, and then you have the more serious subjects and topics that we have to discuss such as what are the security apparatus is put in place in case of an active shooter event. it's just a simple conversation. Get together with your school administrator, the principal, or whoever's in charge of the school. And just have a simple conversation.
There's nothing wrong with asking and you have a right to know what are the contingency plans in case there is a need for a lockdown? How will they contact you? The parent, if a lockdown takes place, who you will be receiving information from during a lockdown situation, as well as what is the reunification plan for you to retrieve your child from your school? During a lockdown or after a lockdown, this is important. And it will also give you a great piece of mind.
I know I had talks with the administrators at my son's school, and I just wanted to find out what security apparatus were put in place to ensure my child's safety. And these are things. Parents have a right to know and should know all schools are required to have a plan in place. And most importantly, that all the staff knows the plan and has trained on the plan for so that they can execute the plan in a moment's notice without fail.
You also want to be sure that your children know the plan and that they have been taught and run through a drill in case of an emergency or critical life. Situ. As well as you, as a parent, have a responsibility. If you get that call that your school's in lockdown, what is your responsibility? What are you expected to do? And how do you function to find out your child is safe in the event of a critical life emergency?
Do not assume that the kids understand that plan, all schools should be conducting drills. With staff and students involved all at the same time, we cannot take this stuff for granted any longer. You also need to figure out what to do and who to talk to in case your student has a problem. I think that's just normal. I am very active in my children's education. I will ask as many questions necessary to get the answers that satisfy.
There are a lot of dynamics at play with children going to school these days. And I take nothing for granted. It's not all about academia, although that is an important part. And also parents, we have to talk to our children on the way to school. I actually drive my son to school each day. And on the way to school, we have conversations about different stuff. I want to keep open lines of communication. Too many times we hear of tragedies unfolding that maybe could have been thwarted.
If we actually communicated with our kids, talk to 'em, give them some positive reinforcement, make sure that they understand that you are backing their education, that if they have any needs or they're experiencing any problems or worries or concerns, our children need to know that we're there for them. That's our job as parent. We're not gonna be perfect at it, but we need to strive to be the best we can be at it. That's their only support system.
Otherwise they have to rely on their friends to be a support system. And sometimes that doesn't work out so well. When I was a kid, my dad was a disciplinarian and he was tough as nails. He was really great at teaching my brothers and sisters and I about survival in the world and how to prepare for our futures. how to stand up and be honorable and respect others and things of that nature. So he taught us all the right lessons.
However, there wasn't many times that I got to talk to him about things that were bothering me or things that were affecting my life. We also have to be careful that were not judgemental towards our children. Yes, parents. We must be parents. We must be leaders. We must set the example, but.
Also must make sure that we show compassion and kindness towards our children, because we expect so much from them that oftentimes our expectations, crowd and overshadow just the times that they need somebody to talk to and somebody to lean on over the years, one of my favorite parts of the morning has taken my sons out to breakfast on the way to school. And we pretty much talk about anything and everything.
And the thing that I think is accomplished most by our breakfast and our talks is that my sons understand that no matter how old they are, what age, what they're going through, they can always talk to me we'll decide what direction to go from there. Just simple stuff, folks, It's just about paying attention, making sure that you know, the staff at. And you feel comfortable with them.
And if there's any situations that you do not feel comfortable with, you need that to bring that to somebody's attention, making sure your kids are comfortable in school. The first day is always very important. At the end of this school day, I will be talking to my son about how the day was, what he thinks of his teachers. If there's any concerns that he has, don't let this stuff fester and go.
Sometimes we have to talk to our kids and get them to talk to us about things that maybe they're uncomfortable with. These are the important things that we wanna start at the beginning of the year habits that we want to put in place. Make sure we're keeping open lines of communication with our children instead of sending 'em to the bus stop or dropping 'em off of school and let that be the end of it. These conversations are important. We need to pay attention to what's going on in their lives.
We need to instill the importance of their education. Treating others kindly. All of the values that we want to impress upon those. I think the morning time is the best time. Although at the end of the day, like I said, my son and I will discuss the first day and see how he is doing. I always try to keep very close contact with my kids in the form of conversation. And if you're not. Maybe it's a good time to start.
And for many of you that are already, you are experiencing the good stuff because this type of participation reinforces good solid values in a family. So I know y'all know most of this stuff, but just a couple tips. That's my safety tip of the day. Find out about your school safety and security plan in case a situation or incident would happen to take place. And that way you are not in the dark and you.
The school's responsibility and what's taking place inside in an effort to protect your children, as well as what you're supposed to be doing during a lockdown, so that you're assisting the school and doing their job as best as possible from a parent's position during lockdown situations and things like that. Hey, this is J.C. Owens. I hope you have a great day and I am outta here.