School Safety
I have so many ideas spinning around in my head for Blog #4. The stabbing incident in a Florida high school and the murder of a Yale graduate student has spiked my interest in school safety. A comment made by my husband struck me as interesting about the Florida incident. He thought it was surprising that the stabbing was even mentioned at all on national news. It is usually shootings that we hear about, and then the news media goes ballistic (pardon the pun) about them. Why is that?
When the incident happened in Florida on Sept. 15, it was reported immediately that the school went into lock down. That brought back memories of when our rinky-dink little school in the middle of no-where North Dakota had to be put into lock down. There was a bank robbery in a near by town and the thought was that the robber(s), who were thought to be armed, might be traveling our direction. We took action as we were told, not as we had planned or practiced. We had a plan for this, I think, but never had to use it. We were all assigned a class/grade and we took them to a classroom. We locked the door and hid in corners with the lights off. My particular set of students I was with was 3rd/4th grade. They kids did not take the situation seriously at all. It was just a big joke to them. But I felt the big joke was really on us. As I sat there and looked around my surroundings we were not safe at all. There are windows on either side of the door. A lot of good that would do against a person determined to get in the room. There are windows all along the outside walls of the classroom. This would have been an escape route for us, but also a way to break-in from the outside. As I sat there protecting my classroom flashes of the Virginia Tech massacre ran through my mind. This tragedy had just taken place. I remember hearing about the professors that stood in front of the door to help protect their students from the violence. It was then that the reality of the situation hit me. If I was put in the position to put my life in grave danger, would I be able to. At the time of the bank robbery and lock down my daughter was 1 ½ years old. This was first and foremost in my thoughts. Would I be able to act as expected for fear of my daughter?
The whole situation turned out to be uneventful. The day continued on as normal. We all went about our business as usual. Until actually faced with a situation like that you really don’t know how you will react. I don’t remember reading anything like that in the job description. How do you think you would handle things?
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I know what you mean about the classrooms being safe with all the windows. This year is the first year we are implementing a plan for lock down. We discussed it at our staff in-services before school started. We even had a local police officer who is very familiar with our school, because he's our DARE officer, come and talk to us. Fortunately for me, I have a very small storage closet in my room that I can get my students in if we have to have a lock down. However, if we had to be in ther for hours, it would never work. Unfortunately, most of the other classrooms in our building have windows and no where for the students to go.
ReplyDeleteI was reading in another class that I'm taking that even with all the school shootings and school violence, kids are much safer at school than anywhere outside of school.
I would almost dare to say that if you were put in a situation where you had to protect your students, you would even though you have a small child at home because part of your job is about protecting your students at great lengths.
Last Thursday we had a drill at our school and no one had a clue what to do outside of our normal procedures. When the principal came on and announced everyone should go to the gym, thoughts raced through my mind. She didn't say go inside or outside. She didn't give us a code and panic rain through my body, but I couldn't let my students see. I peeked out the back door and saw other classes going outside so I followed suit. I saw the panic in teachers’ eyes and the worry in my students. They refused to be quiet and some were crying. When I reached the gym I was still not assured this was a drill and I began to worry. In the end we were emailed that it was a drill. However, the school made one fatal mistake in this drill. Students had cell phones and most of them texted their parents. Our parking lot was full of parents for at least two hours after the drill. In times of crisis no one thinks about things clearly. As human beings we just do the best we can. I completely understand your panic because I felt my students were not protected.
ReplyDeleteBlaire
Panic is contagious. When you get the sense there is reason to panic, and show it, it is sent amongst everyone. Schools need to have regular drills. They need to notify teachers of the drills ahead of time and even teachers can tell students it's a drill. I think if it happens enough, and the drills are successful, nobody will actually panic in a situation that may be real.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that Blaire's school district chose to create an actual panic amongst teachers, students, and families to see how the situation would be handled. I do think it was probably a valuable lesson and I might suggest to my administration that a memo be sent home about how they should handle circumstances where their child sent them a text message or phone call about a situation in which they had no control and panic was setting in.
I think it would be important to include parents in this because emergency officials have so much more to deal with when you have hundreds of panicking parents pulling into the parking lots demanding to have their children. This would be chaos and create more panic. More life would be put in jeopardy. Parents need to know that.
Life's circumstances simply cannot be controlled by humans in these instances. There is nothing a person can do except stay calm in uncontrolled situations. Unfortunately, it's a gamble, walking through life everyday without protection. My opinion of it all is that God is in control. The moment we forget that is the moment we panic. Some people don't really know or want to know who God is because of one reason or another.
If I was involved in a lock down at my campus. If we were trapped in our own classrooms with windows all around, I could only hope that my strength and courage would be supported by God above. Tragedy happens and it seems to be more common place these days. The days were our families don't trust teachers and teachers don't trust students and nobody trusts a stranger are here. The milk man does not deliver to our refrigerator any longer. The packages cannot be left on our doorsteps. You cannot leave the doors unlocked. There is too much to worry about while considering educating kids in a classroom. I'm not going to worry about it, but be aware of it. We cannot simply hole ourselves up in a room with no windows or doors with our families. Just think of all the sacrifice previous families and people have made to make our country as safe as it really is. How many people have given their lives for the greater good? How many people have acted out of instinct? Not everyone can be a hero. Don't worry about being one as a teacher... you already are one.
Thanks for making me think about it and be aware of situations that may arise. Thanks for the drill.
School safety has become a huge issue at all schools nationwide. For many years, we felt safe because crime was low, or we lived in a small town in North Dakota. Back in the mid 1990's, a former student athlete who I have stayed close to through the years went into law enforcement. At that time, he told me that anyone here in Mandan or any part of North Dakota that didn't lock doors regularly were foolish. He said that we were just as susceptible to crimes as anyplace else.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I served on the committee for our high school to devise an emergency management plan so we would be prepared for any random acts of violence as we have seen at various schools throughout the nation. It makes me sad that we had to take these steps and that we are not as open of a school as we used to be. However, I do feel better about the fact that we as a staff are prepared and our students will be prepared that if the time ever comes, hopefully we will save a life.
Another threat to our schools is from registered sex offenders. We were informed just after the school year started that a high-risk sex offender was living across the street from Mandan High School. When I first heard that, I was amazed because I was under the impression that this was not legal. We found out that North Dakota law allows sex offenders to live anywhere they want unless the judge restricts them from being close to a school as a condition of parole or probation. I was apalled, to say the least. The owner of the house has since asked this person to move out, but this instance really struck a nerve at our school. Apparently, there are between 15 and 20 registered sex offenders living within a mile of Mandan High School. I believe it is time for citizens of North Dakota to lobby our legislature to change the law and restrict sex offenders from living close to any school.