How to submit your story

You have an idea, an opinion, safety story, war story or a thought you've wanted to talk about for some time. Our idea section might be just the spot for your story. Or perhaps Front Page or Adult to Adult is where your story will debut. (Safe Schools usually does not solicit stories on Religion, Evolution and Sci-Fi from the general public. Nevertheless, if you send a story in one of these areas we'll consider it for publication).

Here are other Safe Schools sections for you to consider

Quaker Oats: Quaker Oats is the place where frustrated parents seek your morning tips and sound, effective advice on getting kids ready for school. Getting kids up, cleaned up, appropriately dressed, breakfast ate, teeth brushed, school books, lunch and off to school or the school bus stop ... and accomplishing all this without going crazy. When writing a Quaker Oats story please identify the age group you're discussing ... kindergarten, elementary, middle school age, etc.

The way it was: This section refers to true events in mom or dad's school years. We walked 5 miles to school, sometimes in blistering heat (or in near death, bitter temperatures). It was my turn to stok our one room school's pot belly stove. While playing by the creek during recess... On a warm Spring day I went with my parents on a family picnic at our school.

Try to include and describe in your reminiscing things like class size, the school's geographic area, (mountain town, desert town, there was a lake by the school), possibly your parents occupations, the economy at that time (we were a poor family, a certain candy bar was only 3 cents each), and possibly how discipline was handled when appropriate for the story. Senior Grandma's and grandpa's are especially encouraged to write stories for this section, but remember that mom and dad stories are also most welcomed.

Stories you can read to your kids: This section refers to pretend true events, suitable for reading to kids, from the very young through middle school age. The story should eventually promote the use of common sense, decency and honor.

More about short stories: Are you thinking about entering the field of writing short stories for kids? Safe Schools Short Stories may be just the place to try out some of your writing and receive some exposure. (Safe Schools doesn't purchase stories, nor do we sell space to publish stories. Concerning the stories we publish, we do reserve the non-exclusive right to reprint stories at our web sites, in our journals and in other publications from time to time. See below for more information.)

He Says/She Says: This is an area where we at Safe Schools invite participants to look at and answer questions concerning the public school system. This area is presented in an open discussion format and is not intended to give legal, medical, psychological or other professional services. Straightforward opinions are encouraged in the hope you find an alternative thought to consider.

Experts in the field, including Moms & Dads are invited to host this section from time to time. If your interested in becoming a He Says/She Says host, E-mail your area of interest and a little about yourself. On occasion Safe Schools will e-mail a reader's question for you and your partner to discuss. Write down the complete discussion in He Says/She Says format and e-mail it back to Safe Schools: safeschs@dnc.net

Safe Schools Note: Eventually a forum will also be available where you can route questions to various occupational levels, such as a question routed to elementary school principals.

Typesetting and preparing your story

The easiest way to prepare a story is to type your story using your most popular word processor. Save the story to your word processor's document file in ASC11 Text (DOS) or other compatible format for safe keeping, then copy the story through your edit funtion.

Now go to your e-mail (or one of our e-mail links) and paste the text into the e-mail's body area, instead of attaching a file. Safe Schools does not open clips unless we know the source. Fill in the needed information and send your story to safeschs@dnc.net.

Do not send pictures, but if you have pictures available in gif or jpeg format, include a brief description in your e-mail. In the event we want a picture a request with instructions will be made. Thanks in advance for your story --Safe Schools

Your comments

E-Mail your story

Every person has a great school or school bus story, safety story, idea, war story or "something funny happened today" story. Perhaps something for the rest of us grown-ups to think about or perhaps to affirm, encourage and support other adults.

When e-mailing a story please include your name, contact address and something about yourself. If the story is controversial and you wish to remain anonymous we can often do that, depending on the story, or not print the story until it can be verified through another source.

E-mail stories to: safeschs@dnc.net

Safe Schools Note: We reserve the right to print, reprint and include your story in our Safe Schools web site publications, Journal's and other publications free of any fees, royalties or payment of any kind to you, other than the exposure benefit you might receive as a result of publishing your story through Safe Schools. Unless otherwise arranged and in writing with Safe Schools (James Kraemer) reserves publication rights to your story for our non-exclusive publishing and reprint rights only. We may also extend this right to other publications without charging a fee to them or you. You may freely submit your story to other publications with no obligation to Safe Schools.

Copyright ©1998 James Kraemer. Click on this Copyright

Notice to view copy without charge limitations.