Students Teach Classmates How to Stay Safe

When a fire destroyed the home of one of their classmates, students at the Rochester (NY) City School District’s Clara Barton School found out how vulnerable any of them could be. But they did something about it. They teamed up with educators at Prevention 1st, a non-profit dedicated to reducing preventable injuries.

A dozen 5th and 6th graders at Clara Barton School now make up the Clara Barton Prevention 1st Home Safety Team, dedicated to helping their classmates stay safe. On a December day, they will teach the home safety training they’ve learned to the entire 5th grade.

“They’re taking a real sense of pride in this,” said Bob Crandall, a Prevention 1st educator who is a retired firefighter.  “They were chosen to teach this very important information to their peers.”

The Prevention 1st Home Safety Team has been working since October to learn about home fire hazards, the speed and danger of smoke and fire, and the importance of smoke alarms and practiced escape plans. Then they chose which topic they wanted to take charge of as their fellow students rotate through five teaching stations.

“Teaching others really internalizes the message” says Alicia Collier, a 5th grade teacher at the school.

In addition to life-saving safety skills, the students learned research, communication, presentation, and  leadership skills. They identified the 3 most important things they wanted to teach other students at each station, discussed how to teach these, and practiced their presentations. Topics were planned using feedback from the kids themselves. For example, the Kitchen Safety lesson focuses on the location where most of the Home Safety Team members reported their own experience with a fire at home—especially involving microwaves.

The lessons could well reach beyond the walls of the school.

“This is definitely empowering the kids to talk to their families,” said Ellie Stauffer, Program Manager for Prevention 1st, noting that the kids are going home and talking with their parents and other members of their households about putting away hazards, and how to prevent and survive a fire.

A seed grant for this pilot project of The Clara Barton Prevention 1st Home Safety Team was provided by the Marie C. and Joseph C. Wilson Foundation.