Has your child’s class been evacuated today?

Classrooms are meant to be safe and welcoming spaces where kids can learn and grow.  Unfortunately, the rise in violence is making this increasingly difficult. When a child is in distress and their behaviour becomes unsafe, the rest of the class may need to evacuate the room. This is often a necessary step to keeping everyone safe.

These evacuations can happen daily — sometimes more than once in a day. To make the process less scary for kids, teachers often use gentler terms like ‘going on a bulletin board walk,’ ‘hallway picnic,’ ‘learning walk,’ ‘leave our room,’ or just ‘evacuation.’ Has your child come home using one of these phrases? While these terms are meant to reduce anxiety, witnessing violence and experiencing classroom evacuations can be deeply upsetting. It can create an environment of fear and anxiety where kids may struggle to feel safe or focus on learning. This raises a serious question: are we unintentionally normalizing violence in their school experience?

Schools are in urgent need of support to ensure children can learn in safe and nurturing environments. Every child deserves to be happy, safe, and focused on learning, but achieving this requires the right resources to address the root causes of this crisis. These supports are essential to meet the needs of our students, and to provide the individualized attention they deserve.