A gaping hole in school security or am I being an over reactive parent?

[jim02]

I think you did the right thing calling the police, I would ask for a report to be written on the incident also from Boulder police and get a copy.
Each school is difffrent, my son is in a charter school and the front entrance you enter a little room and must present ID and have a valid reason to get the vistor pass and then you are beeped into the school.
I am sure someone could sneek in another entrance, heck people break out of prisons. So almost no place is absolutly secure.

If they had no pass and the school did a sweep, they should have called police.

[Batteriesnare]

Where was the school's SRO during this? I would bring this issue up with the school board.

SROs are worthless. Didn't the SRO at Columbine run to his car and hide waiting for back up instead of intervening? I'm rather sure he did.

[Irving]

I'd be on board with the schools mostly being locked and having to be buzzed in. You'd have to open up for recess, and would be a lot less realistic at a high school, but better than now and not too much like a prison.

[iamhunter]

If you guys want to give the school district the power to lock your children in a building, go for it, but I find it absurd.

And if that happens, how far of a stretch is it before the school district has more power over your children then you do?

What happens when they decide to strip search your thirteen year old daughter in search of "drugs" or "weapons?

Or when they send your kids home with remotely activated web cam on their computers?

Or decide to charge your child with a crime they didn't commit?

All of these things have happened, the first two in the news, and the last one to my brother.

If your answer to the problems and dangers of the world is to lock your children in a giant cage, and hand the government the key, so be it.

but keep in mind the words of one of our great founding fathers,

"Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" - Benjamin Franklin

[275RLTW]

SROs are worthless. Didn't the SRO at Columbine run to his car and hide waiting for back up instead of intervening? I'm rather sure he did.

That was when the idea of "Active Shooter" was ignored and procedures were containment based compared to current methods. That officer did as he was trained to do: secure the perimiter and wait for help. Training now dictates otherwise.

[ronaldrwl]

Geez, I've been to my kids schools a 1000 times for one thing or another. I've said hello to the neighborhood kids while there and none of the teachers would know me. Call the cops?

[275RLTW]

[quote=iamhunter;193933]If you guys want to give the school district the power to lock your children in a building, go for it, but I find it absurd. /quote]

I don't think anyone here wants to lock people IN, just keep unauthorized persons OUT. And yes, if I can not be there to guarantee their safety and I am paying for it (directly or indirectly), then lock everyone else out.

[Irving]

Not lock kids in, lock strangers out.


Think of it the same way as if your kids go to another kids house for a birthday party. The kids are there to party, but that doesn't mean that the parents should just let anyone into the house without finding out who they are first. I'm not a big advocate of government control (I don't think any of us are) but it seems like simply locking an external door isn't out of line and won't generate any additional costs.

[SNAFU]

Guess it would have been asking to much for the teacher to simply ask the "stranger" to ID himself.

[iamhunter]

It may be about keeping strangers OUT to you,
but you're locking children IN as a means to that end.

You give people an inch of power, they take a mile.

Like I pointed out previously, there are numerous examples of schools grossly abusing their power over children.

And it make me VERY hesitant to grant them ANY more control.

I grew up in a big city, and towards the end of my younger brother's high school education, his high school was more like juvenile detention than an educational institute,

and I for one find that tragic.