Tackling school safety problems gets new impetus

More and more schools are facing increasing safety problems, including in Park City. Examples include fights, threats, transgressive parental behavior, drug dealing, recruiting, human trafficking and other forms of crime. You cannot separate this phenomenon from the social problems and poverty facing the region. These components provide an ideal breeding ground for crime. As a result, young people are very likely to be involved in crime. This does not stop at the school gates. In fact, the very schools are used for criminal activities. In short, there are major challenges and only through intensive cooperation can we tackle crime in schools. 

New regulation

In 2018, organizations from education, the Parkstad municipalities and security partners signed a covenant. With this, VIOS Parkstad became a fact. The parties made agreements to ensure more safety at schools within primary and secondary education and intermediate vocational education. Due to more and more serious problems, the steering committee VIOS Parkstad and the local triangle Parkstad (consisting of OM, police and mayors) decided at the end of 2023 that better cooperation is needed. To make this possible, money is released from regiodeal Parkstad and today we sign a new covenant.

Mayor Roel Wever , administrative driving force behind the collaboration: “What makes our approach in Parkstad unique nationally, but also challenging, is that the collaboration transcends municipal boundaries. We focus on an integrated approach. We not only focus on prevention, but also on offering perspective and setting clear boundaries when necessary. Learning and developing form the basis for a good future. A safe environment in which to do this is important and should be self-evident. We can only create this environment by working together.”

The approach 

Leading up to the new arrangement, there have already been actions to strengthen cooperation. We have appointed a director VIOS Parkstad to strengthen cooperation, realize a joint approach and share knowledge. Also, schools can now discuss concerns or signals in a weekly online consultation hour. These signals provide information about current trends and developments in the region. We tailor the knowledge sharing to the needs of the schools. Together with the police we have developed an action framework. We also organize meetings on data sharing between schools and external partners in case of safety problems. An annual plan with actions from the three pillars: prevention, perspective and repression will be released soon.