On a recent episode of Secured, a critical truth emerged—one that too often goes unsaid in conversations about school safety and violence prevention.
Care isn’t a job that ends when the bell rings or the office closes. The responsibility to protect and support students extends beyond working hours, past Friday afternoons, and into weekends, holidays, and quiet moments when no one is watching. It's a 24/7, 365 commitment.
That commitment doesn’t just apply to the student in crisis. It includes the student considering self-harm, the one struggling with suicidal thoughts, and—perhaps most controversially—the student who may be on a path toward harming others. We don’t get to pick and choose who is “worth saving.” Violence prevention demands that we care about all of them.
This mindset shift requires more than just policy updates. It calls for a deeper investment from educators, mental health professionals, and school leaders—a willingness to lean into uncomfortable conversations, show up when it’s inconvenient, and build systems that prioritize people over optics.
If we’re serious about prevention, it starts with refusing to clock out on care.
