Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Now that the new school year is upon us, many of us are thinking about back-to-school. While children look forward to spending time with their friends in classes and shopping for back-to-school items, this is also great time to talk about school safety.
While schools do much to keep children safe, children spend a lot of time in school and any type of negligence which can affect your child’s safety can lead to serious injuries. A few preventative measures today can help ensure your child stays safe:
- Talk to your child about bullying. Websites such as Stomp Out Bullying and Stop Bullying have plenty of information on how you can get a conversation started. Adults sometimes dismiss bullying as just harmful words or teasing, but students have committed suicide over these hurtful words and in some cases the aggression can escalate to physical assault and severe violence. It can even be fatal. Preventing bullying before it starts is essential.
- Make sure your child has a safe route to and from school. If you drop your child off at school, make sure the school has a safe drop-off and pickup zone and review your routes to and from school to choose the safest alternative. If your child will be walking or biking to school, especially for the first time, review the route together and make sure they have a safe path as well as the know-how to get to school safely.
- Review sports safety. Sports injuries in Hollywood and Florida are quite common among student athletes. Make sure that the coaches and staff at your child’s school are qualified and have the background and training to keep your child safe. Make sure that they pull children with suspected head injuries out of games, especially, and keep them out of play until a doctor can evaluate the potential concussion. If your child needs safety year for their sport, this is a great time to pick up new gear to protect your young athlete.
- Talk about school safety. Sit down with your children and review how they can stay safe at school. This conversation will go best if you let your child take an active part in the discussion. For younger kids, especially, you can make a game of it. Have them come up with a list of all the ways they can get injured at school and then have them imagine with possible ways they can help prevent or avoid the dangers. For example, if they know that they could trip and fall on the sidewalk outside of school, perhaps they will come up with the idea of looking where they’re going or wearing sturdy shoes. When children come up with their own solutions, they become more excited about implementing those solutions and they may be more likely to remember.
If your child is injured at school, contact Flaxman Law Group for a free accident consultation. Our legal team has more than six decades of combined experience and we have helped thousands of families and individuals who have been injured due to someone’s negligence. In a consultation, we can answer your questions and help you understand whether you have a claim in your situation.