1. General Guidelines

- Read the label and check if the product meets the US Consumer Safety Commission standard for the particular furniture type or model – products especially for babies and young kids require this rating

- Consult the US Consumer Safety Commission website for any furniture recall to know what to avoid when buying a specific furniture

- Look at the furniture construction. Make sure it is sturdy, durable and rated to carry your childs weight, size or age

- Avoid furniture with rough or sharp edges. This is an obvious hazard to your child. If you cannot avoid such, buy corner or edge guards from Home Depot and install it before letting your child use the piece of furniture

2. Prevent Furniture From Tipping Over

- Anchor furniture to the wall or floor to ensure that they do not tip over on the kid. Children are very adventurous and they always want to climb, conquer and test furniture, so avoid having one of the 10,000 children brought annually to the hospital for furniture tip over injury

- Place heavy items like TVs or heavy books at the lower part of bookcases or display cabinets. This also ensures the furniture will not have a tendency to tip over

- Keep your kids stuff low and within their reach. Avoid placing them on top of bookcases or display cabinets. No matter where his or her favorite teddy is, your child will climb to get it. So discourage that

3. Toy Chests, Closets

- When buying toy chests, avoid buying the ones with a vertically opening lid. Such an opening has a danger of having the lid fall onto your child when he or she reaches inside to get a toy. If you cannot avoid buying a vertically opening toy chest, make sure that it has a hinge that locks into position and prevents a free falling lid. Test it yourself before buying

- Place a lock or door guard on swing-out or pullout closets to avoid being accidentally pulled open by your infant

- Choose painted finishes for closets and avoid top pressed laminates. Laminate adhesive can wear out over time and due to humidity. When the laminate lifts, it can be a splinter hazard to your child

4. Bunk Bed Safety

- As your child outgrows his crib, the next logical sleeping furniture is a bunk bed. It is perfect when sharing the room with other siblings or when optimizing bedroom space by locating storage or the study area, under the elevated bed. However, there are still reported cases of injuries or hospitalizations due to defective bunk beds. Entrapment, falling and suffocation are the most common cases. Follow the advice below to avoid them

- Make sure the space between the guardrail and the mattress or bed frame is wide enough to allow your child to slip through. Death by strangulation has occurred on children whose head get stuck in such spaces

- Check the durability of the way the guardrail is attached. Make sure it can resist your childs weight so it cannot dislodge and let your child fall while sleeping

- When lodging the bunk bed against a wall, make sure that there is no gap between the bed or bed frame and the wall. Reported deaths have occurred when kids rolled off the beds wall side and got stuck in between the wall and the side of the bed. If there is a remote possibility that this can happen, install a second durable guardrail

- If using a double bunk bed, an unsecured mattress foundation can dislodge when the kid in the lower bed kicks upwards to the upper bunk. Avoid this by securing the upper bed mattress foundation by placing additional cross ties underneath the foundation

- Make sure that the size of the mattress fits the structure of the bunk bed structures. A mattress that is too short will have a gap with the frame. Your child can fall or be strangled on such an opening

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To raise awareness of school safety and security issues, the National Crime Prevention Council – best known for its icon McGruff the Crime Dog – developed the “Be Safe and Sound” initiative. The initiative offers tools and tips on how schools can be made safer and more secure for students and staff.

There are several basic measures that schools can take to help ensure a secure learning environment for children. The National Crime Prevention Council offers the following guidelines:

* Visitors should be required to sign in or show proper identification.

* Unmonitored doors should be locked from the outside at all times to prevent unauthorized persons or items from entering the building unnoticed.

* Students entering and exiting the school property should be monitored.

* The receptionist should be equipped with a panic button for emergencies, a camera with a monitor at another location and a high-security lock on the front door that can be controlled.

* Access to identification badges, office keys and codes should be restricted and a process for reporting missing badges and keys should be in place.

* All doors should have high-security locks or electronic access control units. This applies especially to closets that have private information or hazardous materials, as well as outside doors and basements.

* Motion-sensitive and constant lights should be used outdoors.

* Dark places around the building should be illuminated and shrubs should be cut back so light can penetrate these areas.

* Stairwells and out-of-the-way corridors should be well-lighted.

* All doors should be solid. Sheet steel should cover both sides of the back and basement doors.

* Door frames and hinges should be strong enough to prevent them from being pried open.

The National Crime Prevention Council suggests that parents talk to their children’s principal and work with the school’s PTA to encourage the school to implement these measures. If they remain concerned, they can team up with other parents to insist that their local school board make building security one of its top priorities.

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