THE “SAFE SCHOOL” PERCEPTION OF CLASS PRESIDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reveal the “safe school” perceptions of secondary classpresidents. The sample of the study, which is a qualitative research and figured as“phenomenology design”, is constituted by eight class president students in vocational andtechnical secondary schools. The data were collected with a semi-structured interview formconsisting of three open-ended questions to determine the opinions of the class presidents.The responses of the participants to the questions in writing were analyzed by descriptiveanalysis. In the study, the “school safety” perception was examined with the perspective ofthe class presidents in high schools. Some of the remarkable results of the research can besummarized as follows: The participants reply the question “To what extent is a safe schoolenvironment important for you?” such that they generally consider the school’s physical,social and psychological environment as problematic. They indicate the importance of solvingthe problems of these environments in creating a safe school climate. Participants point out tothe parent-school cooperation for the question regarding the duties of the school management,staff and students. Some of the participants emphasized the risks arising from the schoolenvironment.