Growing up is hard, especially for students dealing with struggles outside of the classroom. Challenging home lives, difficulty fitting in, mental health struggles, and learning disabilities can take a tremendous emotional toll on kids. These challenges can lead to outbursts or dysregulated responses that negatively impact students and their classroom environment. When students struggle with harnessing their emotions, teachers can focus on de-escalating tense situations to maintain a healthy classroom environment and ensure students feel supported and heard.
School de-escalation strategies and techniques manage and reduce conflict, helping students defuse tension and return to a state conducive to learning. When emotionally dysregulated, students lose the ability to process information effectively. De-escalation techniques can turn this around by responding to the student’s emotional needs and protecting a stable classroom environment. The right school alert system can help teachers request help without drawing the attention of the distressed student.
Let’s discuss how your staff can use de-escalation techniques to create a culture of safety and support in your classrooms and how an innovative school emergency alert system can help.
Understanding Stress in the Classroom
Stress can appear in classrooms, from behavioral outbursts to withdrawal. It creates an anxious, stressed, or fearful state of mind, resulting in poor decision-making, an inability to think with clarity and impulsive behaviors. Students cannot engage in productive learning or interact positively with their peers when upset.
Students often struggle with:
- Academic pressure
- Social challenges
- Bullying
- Family issues
- Homework
- Transitions or changes in routine
Depending on the age of the student, stress from these challenges can manifest differently:
- Pre-K and kindergarten students might complain of stomach aches or headaches, struggle with incontinence, become more clingy, or develop habits like hair twirling or thumb-sucking.
- Elementary students might cry easily, frequently visit the bathroom or school nurse, struggle with staying seated, or become irritable. Some may display anger, opposition, or defiance with disruptive outbursts, while others laugh excessively.
- Middle school students might show signs of worry, anxiety, or feelings of isolation and loneliness. Some students may react with anger, opposition, defiance, or excessive and out-of-place humor.
- High school students might isolate themselves, easily give up in frustrating situations, react with intense emotions such as anger or hostility, or develop harmful coping mechanisms.
Remember, what is stressful for one student may not be equally stressful for another. For example, students with special needs are particularly affected by disruptions or difficult situations, often responding with extreme emotional reactions. Sensory stimulation in a classroom—such as bright lights and loud noises—can be extremely overwhelming, making it harder for both special needs students to process information and control their responses.
How Do Teachers De-escalate Stressful Situations?
Effective de-escalation in classrooms should take 4-6 minutes, depending on the student’s level of distress. During de-escalation, teachers must show empathy, use a soothing voice, offer students choices to regain control, and encourage them to reflect on their emotions after the stress has passed.
Here is a walkthrough of the general techniques at each stage:
- Draw Attention Away. Task the rest of the class with an activity that draws the attention away from the distressed student so you can speak with them privately. Teachers should request assistance from a coworker, teacher’s aide, or even administration if needed.
- Breathe. Kneel and get on the student’s level. Invite the student to take a moment to breathe and reassure them they are safe and supported.
- Name the Emotions. Direct the student to focus on their thoughts and feelings, asking them to describe what they are experiencing.
- Positive Thinking. Redirect the student to think about positive thoughts, situations they enjoy, or challenges they have already overcome.
- Positive Feedback. Praise the student for their willingness and ability to regain control, and assure them if they need more time, they can have it.
- Refocus. Encourage the student to take time to refocus physically. If necessary, encourage them to walk in the hallway or take a quiet moment in another area of the school or classroom under the supervision of a school aide or another teacher.
- Reflection. Ask the student to think about this situation the next time they feel stressed and remind them that they have the power to calm themselves.
For students who need additional time to cool down, teachers can send them on an errand or give them a task that will pivot their mindset to a new responsibility. For many students, special tasks are a great way to help them shift their perspective from the verge of a possible meltdown to regain focus and emotional stability. When they have fulfilled the task, they will have a small “win” they can be proud of.
Using techniques like this paired with a discreet school emergency alert system, teachers create a calm and supportive environment that minimizes the stressors that cause students to escalate. Mark Martin, Superintendent of Meade County Schools in Kentucky, recalled an incident involving a student with special needs: “We had a student with special needs who was starting to destroy property in the library […] Within 20 to 30 seconds, the assistant principal was there and de-escalated the student. We avoided putting hands on the student,” demonstrating support and rapid response as keys to successful de-escalation.
School Safety Solutions: Creating an Environment of Calm
From daily incidents, such as mild medical emergencies, to campus-wide emergencies, like unauthorized visitors, the proper techniques and safety technology can rapidly deescalate classroom stress. For many schools, an emergency is all it takes for a classroom to tip over into chaos.
However, school safety measures can help regain a stable environment. A reliable yet discreet school emergency alert system can prioritize de-escalation while providing teachers with an immediate way to request support. Through solutions like wearable panic buttons, teachers can instantly request help to their exact location without triggering sensory interruptions like alarms, intercom announcements, or walkie-talkies. These solutions allow teachers to remain focused on the distressed student without worrying about whether they’ll be able to get additional help.
The CENTEGIX SafetyPlatform™ excels at providing this type of assistance during de-escalation. CENTEGIX Chief Development Officer Dr. Roderick Sams said, “The ability to de-escalate situations allows teachers and their classrooms to return to instruction. If your teachers know they can request help quietly and orderly, it allows teachers to focus on the student in distress and be supportive. This also contributes to getting back to instruction a lot faster.”
How CENTEGIX Safety Platform De-escalates Emergencies
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform empowers schools to facilitate a calm but safe environment for all students, staff, and visitors.
- CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ wearable panic button enables teachers to discreetly request help at the exact location of an incident without triggering visual and audio alerts that escalate stressful situations.
- CENTEGIX SafetyBlueprint™ critical incident mapping displays safety assets that may be useful in managing an incident. Visible in CrisisAlert, responders can see the exact location and floor level of an incident to reduce response times that assist in de-escalation.
- CENTEGIX Visitor Management system screens every visitor, every time, through multiple databases to ensure anyone walking through your doors is welcome. With the Enhanced Visitor Management feature, administrators and responders will know the exact location of all guests in real time, allowing them to remove anyone triggering from a situation.
- CENTEGIX Reunification rapidly reunites students with designated caregivers following an incident to reduce the duration of stressful situations.
One Kansas elementary school teacher needed help de-escalating a situation with a student and described her experience using CENTEGIX CrisisAlert. “I like that our CrisisAlert button is very subtle. Other methods, such as pulling out a walkie-talkie or calling on the phone, take time and draw more attention to our students.”
School emergency alert systems are constantly changing and adapting to evolving threats and the needs of students. CENTEGIX customer Meade County Schools Superintendent Mark Martin says, “You’re never done talking about safety.” CENTEGIX technology has assisted his school system in accelerating emergency response to various safety issues, including students with special needs engaged in harmful behavior, a student experiencing a seizure, and other urgent needs. CENTEGIX technology helps school districts meet students’ and staff’s basic safety needs so learning and teaching can occur. Superintendent Martin adds, “And you can’t really have a conversation about optimal learning and closing gaps for underrepresented populations if they’re not safe. You have to have those basic needs met.”
How discreet CrisisAlert is, especially in situations involving students with special needs or behavioral issues, plays a crucial role in managing a healthy classroom environment by allowing teachers to get the help they need without having to leave the student’s side. The one-button activation, discreet alert, and rapid response capabilities mean incidents can be addressed without escalating into more significant crises.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform can not only serve as the foundation of your school’s layered safety plan but also foster a proactive approach to de-escalation and stress management, ensuring schools maintain spaces where learning can flourish uninterrupted.
Click here to learn more about how the CENTEGIX school emergency alert system can help your teachers de-escalate stressful situations and create a culture of safety and support for your students.
