One of the most recent shootings happened about an hour away from where we live. My mind is buzzing with many questions, including why. Why bring a gun and kill innocent children? Oh, but first lets molest them so their last bits of memory on earth are horrifying! What mentality makes a person think that shooting children, teachers or administrators will make their problems go away? Psychologists will have the answers to that one, or the morning news shows, but what bothers me today is the safety of our schools.
What I am finding most disturbing is the fact that most schools across the country are not guarded against this type of action.
The school one of my daughters attends has a locked door. You are not allowed in the door without ringing a door bell and being let in by a school official. Even at that, a person could easily shoot the secretary and proceed on.
The school I have begun to substitute at has an open door policy. The secretary is required to stay in the office and keep parents in the hallway away from the classrooms. Again, shoot the secretary and move on.
Meanwhile, at the local Junior High and High School there is no stopping an armed gunman from letting loose on a rampage.
Even if doors were locked weapons can very easily be concealed in clothing and book bags.
So what's the answer? I wish I knew. There will ALWAYS be a way around security. My suggestion is that everyone should be aware of suspicious behavior and report it no matter how insignificant it might seem at the time.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
It's Tuesday how about a light topic?
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4 comments:
It is still hard for me to comprehend how different is in schools now than it was for me. How sad we have let violence get in schools, at one time this would have been unimaginable. But even the kids from the roughest homes in the old days were disciplined at home for being disruptive in class. Where has the respect gone? I don't think you can ever go back to that once it is gone.
I was so happy to hear you had lessons coming up! I thought of you yesterday....knowing how you ride but are a bit unsure like me. I wondered if you had taken classes similiar to mine and I thought of your girls when I visited the facility and all these young girls had horses there. I would be with the tiny kiddies if I weren't paying for the private lessons! I could see me with the tiny pink hat on my head! lol. Please let me know how you do! I am sure you are doing way more advanced things than me but I would love to hear about your lessons!
People going into schools and killing kids is so...bizarre. What's realy weird is how it is becoming such a uniquely American expression of rage. It hasn't happened so far here in Turkey even though there are a lot of guns in the culture. What is common is for people to shoot off guns at weddings and after soccer matches and accidentally kill people at random ("ooops!").
At schools like my daughters (rich private schools where some students have family members who are former presidents, or famous entertainers or billionare buisenssmen), kidnapping is a concern, so you can't drive on to the campus without a car sticker, and you can't go into the building without a ID badge. The guards will detain irate mothers at the door if they don't have their ID cards ("Do you KNOW who I am?!") Kids cannot leave the building without their names on a list, and parents have to call at least two hours before school get out to get their kids' names on the list, or send a note in the morning (note has to be hand written).
Bodyguards have to leave their weapons at the front gates.
School shootings are a terrifying phenomenon. My son started kindergarten this year, and so far has had two drills: a fire drill and a lockdown drill. All that remains is the earthquake drill, which terrifies my son the most. The idea that we even need a lockdown drill is scariest to me.
I know that schools in Ontario do practice lockdown drills (herd kids into the corner, away from the doors and windows). How horrible that it's come to this. :(
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