With such a high crime rate in today's society how can we, as parents, keep our children safe from crimes such as school shootings??
I would like to see schools add a lot of security for all the schools around. Now I know shootings don't just happen at school, but I feel as a mother with sending my children somewhere five days a week for seven hours a day it is our job to make sure they are safe. I think we should figure out a way to have a few extra security precautions all around the school. A police officer at every school, everyday walking around the inside and outside of the school would be one of the new safety precautions. I also feel that there should be a way to add metal detectors. No not the big huge metal scary ones, but some fun colorful ones that play music or something so that your first grader isn't scared of them. Parents would have to learn on how to downsize on all the metal accessories that goes with their son or daughters outfit that day, but I think parents would much rather do that than to loose a child like all those parents at Sandy Hook Elementary did. I feel that there are many ways to protect our students and it is up to us as parents to step up our game and have schools do it!
I think a lot of people would be concerned about money. They would say it is a waste of good money that people already don't have. Some parents may say having a police officer walking around the schools will scare their child while others may say they love the idea. I can see parents saying having the metal detectors will make them feel like their child is a prisoner. Again some parents who have the same fear as I do may love the idea of taking these extra safety precautions.
I want to find out and remind everybody of all the children and staff members that have been lost due to school shootings in the last five years. Also I want to find out how much it would cost to actually have a police officer at a school to watch over our children. I would love to get the viewpoint or perspective of somebody who knows or knew a staff member or child that has been affected by a school shooting. I believe that if my readers could read a post from a mother or father who have to drag their second grader into school everyday because they are scared to go, if we could show that child the security they have while at school, I feel like we could change a lot of peoples mind about the added security.
I have homeschooled my kids since preschool and this year my daughter decided she wanted to go to high school. She is in 9th grade, so I told her to go for it. Every day after she says goodbye, I say a little prayer for her safety. Nobody knows what is going to happen in the schools. I think that if somebody is going to do something, they are going to do it no matter what. I don't think metal detectors or a police officer will stop them. They could do it when the bell rings at the end of the day and everybody is leaving or while they are at recess. It doesn't have to take place inside of the school. I think one thing that makes these school shootings continue to happen is the media. They spend days with coverage on this stuff and kind of draws attention to the shooter. I think it is one thing to report the news, but I think that when others watch this over and over after every incident, it makes it seem like it is good way to take out the anger and frustration that a person has and take it out on innocent people. They know that they will get revenge and they will also gain their rise to fame in a sense, so that everybody will know their name. I think that metal detector could be a better deterrent than one police officer because it could catch more things like knives, chains and guns. The officer will show a presence, but can't be in more than one place at a time.
ReplyDeleteThe elementary school that my son goes to installed a new security system over the summer that locks the school up ten minutes after school starts. To get in, all children now have to use the main entrance, and all people who come to the school have to show two forms of identification to be granted access to the building. There is also a few different police that randomly show up at different times of the day, so that their schedules or routines can not be tracked by anyone. This all sounds great, and as a parent going into the school year I felt a little safer letting my little one go.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is not completely successful. The school realized that the students all entering the same door at the same time was overwhelming and making students late to their classrooms, and changed the rules. So now students can again enter any door. The school still locks down after the day starts, but that is the only time it is useful.
There are also other fears that I have for the children. Recess is one of them. There are no boundaries for the school grounds, just the building itself. Also, the children have a drill of escaping the school and running to the nearest park should there be an incident they need to run from. What if it was planned to attack the school to get all the children out to the park?
It seems almost like at this point, the only thing that would keep our children completely safe and our minds as parents settled would be to have large buildings that were secured like the President is.