Having students feel safe within their schools is not only important after a horrific school shooting, state leaders say it is important every day.
"The intent is to work with young people or folks in the community to work with young people to help identify what are safe and unsafe spaces in their schools or communities," says Danielle Tuft, Sexual Violence Prevention Program manager.
Tuft runs the Hot Spot Mapping program for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Twelve schools around the state are engaged in the program where students are pinpointing areas on a school map where they feel safe and they don't feel safe while explaining why.
"And. a school may say okay, we'll change the locker room for you or we'll add a door to this space," Tuft says.
Tuft says schools can also duplicate spaces where students say they feel safe like welcoming classrooms or by placing teachers in certain areas of the school.
While preventing sexual violence may have been the initial goal of this project, Tuft says this can also address other issues like bullying and suicide.
She says one of the most important aspects of the program is gathering data from different students of different ages to gauge what makes them feel safe or not safe.
"What are their experiences as a young person, as a freshman versus a sophomore, as a boy versus a girl understanding those sort of nuances that we as adults don't necessarily understand," Tuft says. "But, it's also about a process around building youth development."
This program is in its first year and Tuft says CDPHE will determine how to move the project forward and if this type of data should be collected at more schools around Colorado.
