South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District Creates Safe Spaces for Students and Teachers to Self-Regulate their Mental Health

South Euclid-Lyndhurst City Schools have created Safe Spaces in their kindergarten through third grade classrooms as part of their Conscious Discipline program. 

These Safe Spaces feature elements to help students self-soothe, such as comfortable seating and posters depicting a five-step calming process that can be followed when one is feeling strong emotions such as anxiety, stress or anger. The goal for the Safe Spaces is to provide an environment where students are able to step outside of their current emotion and self-regulate their overwhelming feelings. “It’s not a time out and it’s not a quiet corner that you just go to,” said School Counselor Lisa Artino. “There is a process of self-regulation where students are moving from the lower centers of the brain to higher centers of the brain where optimal problem solving, and learning can occur.”

District teachers have been trained in the Conscious Discipline methods and the recommended five-step calming process. “You don’t want to go to the principal’s office, but honestly I don’t deal with a lot of behaviors or negative things because what our teachers are doing in the classroom with their Safe Spaces is really helping students stay in the classroom,” said Rowland Elementary School Assistant Principal Sylvia Marshall.

One second grader who has yet to use the Safe Space in his classroom has noticed the changes in the behavior of his peers after their use of one of the spaces. “They are ready to learn. They are ready to do their reading and their math and they feel better,” said second grader Josiah Morgan.

South Euclid Lyndhurst has also created a Safe Space in each elementary building specifically for staff members. This gives staff the opportunity to re-evaluate and decompress their own emotions before heading back into a classroom setting. The district intends to install Safe Spaces in every building within the district.  

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