The Character Education Partnership, in its first of eleven principles of character education programs, describes character education by stating:

     "Character education holds, as a starting philosophical principle, that there are widely shared, pivotally important core ethical values – such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others – that form the basis of good character. A school committed to character education explicitly names and publicly stands for these values; promulgates them to all members of the school community; defines them in terms of behaviors that can be observed in the life of the school; models these values; studies and discusses them; uses them as the basis of human relations in the school; celebrates their manifestations in the school and community; and upholds them by making all school members accountable to standards of conduct consistent with the core values."

The Character Counts! program holds that the "six pillars" of character include:

1.  Trustworthiness
2.  Respect
3.  Responsibility
4.  Fairness
5.  Caring
6.  Citizenship

National School Safety and Security Services believes that such ethical values play a significant role in creating a safe school climate, as well as a safe society.  We believe that the teaching of these values should begin at home.  Parents, schools, and our broader society must also be consistent in the messages they send to children by demonstrating these values and in holding children accountable for their behavior.

The following are offered as leads for information on character education. The sites also have links to additional related resources: 

The Character Education Partnership
Character Counts! 
Character Education Pages
Jefferson Center for Character Education 

Effective school safety programs include a balance of strategies focused on school climate, firm and fair discipline, prevention and intervention programs, strong academic and extracurricular programs, community involvement, proactive security measures, and crisis preparedness guidelines.  Character education issues can clearly play a role in enhancing the school climate component of overall comprehensive safe schools plans.