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STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Statement of Purpose Public school safety has become a topic at the forefront of many educators and parents minds. The purpose of this study is to gather information in regards to how safe the educators and people from the surrounding area feel their schools are. The study will also explore ideas and will examine which options seem most viable in this area. The reason this topic is important is because it’s vital to protect our students and faculty in the public school system. If educators, students, parents, and families don’t feel safe then we need to take the steps necessary to find ways of allowing them to feel safe. This study is meant to gather opinions on the success of current school systems and if there could be better options. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Statement of Research Methodology Participants will be men and women over the age of 18 who are from St. Joseph and the surrounding area. Some participants will be educators, while others are a part of the general public. Participants will be told about the study in the cover letter and will be informed they need not answer any question they do not feel comfortable answering. They will then be given a questionnaire that will not include their names. The participants will be asked questions regarding their knowledge of the current system, if they feel these systems are working, how they feel other systems will work, and whether or not there is an overall feeling of safety in the public school setting. A copy of the results will be offered to any persons participating that would like a copy. ANTICIPATED RISKS AND BENEFITS Anticipated Risks and Benefits The participants should experience minimal risk in joining this study. There is no physical risk. Participants are free to skip any question in which they do not feel comfortable answering. All questionnaires are kept anonymous posing minimal risk of exposure. A cover letter will be provided to explain the purpose of the questionnaire allowing opportunity to back out for those who do not wish to participate. The benefits of the questionnaire are to provide the information to local school boards to hopefully help improve the safety measures in the public school setting. SUBJECT SELECTION Subject Selection The questionnaire will be given in two locations. The first is to the faculty of Riverside school district to gather the opinions of the educators on how they feel they are being kept safe. The second location is a St. Joseph doctor’s office where the questionnaires will be given to those waiting in the office to gather information from the general public. The doctor’s office services people from the surrounding area as well as St. Joseph. This survey will at no time be given to a person under the age of 18. The two locations have been selected to guarantee both educators and persons from the general public participate in the study. Both populations are a convenient sample and I am anticipating approximately 50-75 participants. CONFIDENTIALITY Confidentiality No identifying markers will be found on the questionnaires and they will be kept completely anonymous. The questionnaires will be kept in a locked box in which only the researcher will have access to. They will also be destroyed upon completion of this project. During data entry each survey will be given a number and will be associated this way through the duration of the study. Final Report on 05-06-2013 The School Security project has been completed. Everything went as planned. All data was collected, analyzed, then destroyed. The completed paper was handed to the professor April 22nd.