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

[275RLTW]

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

[iamhunter]

Come on guys, it's a school, not a prison.

I understand worrying about the safety of your children, really, I do, but at what point does worry become paranoia?


I'm fairly young, and even in my lifetime I watched school evolve from something nominally enjoyable into a rigid, terrible system of rules and regulations.


Dogs? Guard Patrols? Buzzing people in?

Is that really the environment you want your kids growing up in?

One of control and fear?

Seriously, ok, so there was an unknown guy in the hall. There's dozens of different plausible reasons why he could've been there, and only ONE bad one.

[275RLTW]

I understand worrying about the safety of your children, really, I do, but at what point does worry become paranoia?

Hopefully before something happens to your own kids....

[Irving]

The reality is that there aren't enough staff around to baby sit every kid all day long. For how unprotected schools are (in general) I'd say it says something positive about society that hardly anything ever happens.

[BigBear]

The reality is that there aren't enough staff around to baby sit every kid all day long.

That's the sad part, IMO. Teachers have to babysit/raise the kids instead of having the time to teach them...

[ChunkyMonkey]

... and the worst part of this is we still have to pay k12 tax even if our kids were in more secure private school.

[coop68]

I'm surprised on this being in boulder i live 5 min from there! sounds like the principle was trying to cover his or her own a#& not calling the cops cause of somthing they didn't do! just sounds very shady i am glad your daughter is ok! heck if niwot high can get on the news for having asbestos problems and getting school canceled i am kind of shocked 9 news or or channel 7 isn't at your door step asking for your comments and or calling you!

if you can give the name of the school this happend at would be nice to know, but i understand that is private information maybe more suited in Pm's.

[BigBear]

Come on guys, it's a school, not a prison. Well, with gangs/drugs, non-parent involvement, lack of respect of authority/elders, state/government mandates, certain laws, etc... it get's turned into a prison pretty quick.


Dogs? Guard Patrols? Buzzing people in? In my defense, I was over-seas in a military school during a tricky time in American-European diplomacy. But talk about "feeling safe", I sure did.

[cmailliard]

Reading a few pages of this thread I may have missed some comments so excuse me if I repeat something.

GlockShooter I would still go to the press with this event. After Platte Canyon and Deer Creek this is something that every parent, teacher, administrator should be made acutely aware of.

My daughter is 3 1/2 and not yet in a public school, her daycare/school is pretty tight on security with key card access and parents being "talked with" if they let somebody else in.

I just returned from West Virginia where I talked about this very topic during my Mass Violence Planning and Response to LE, Fire, EMS and other responders. We even did Threat Assessments on a few schools while we were down there. We need to teach our kids what to do. We are the parents and school officials. Schools, Hospitals and other facilities have a see no evil, speak no evil attitude towards these events and mass violence events.

Let me ask all of you this - We have the Fire Code for public buildings and how many times a year must a school do a fire drill? How many kids have died in a school fire in the last 20 years? ZERO. How many have died in a mass violence event? How many schools talk about this with their students? Bring this up at your next school event.

New York City has See Something Say Something - Very simple rule to live by. Schools are way to behind the times in dealing with these events and they will come around until one of two things happen - 1) Parents scream loud enough and in enough numbers or 2) it happens to them.

Talk with your kids and educate them. Stay Safe.

[gnihcraes]

This might be of some help too that I just learned of:

Website and 800 number for kids to leave anonymous tips for anything...
http://safe2tell.org/

Safe2Tell® provides young people a way to report any threatening behaviors or activities endangering themselves or someone they know, in a way that keeps them safe and anonymous.

Safe2Tell® is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization based on the Colorado Prevention Initiative for School Safety with initial funding from The Colorado Trust.
The program focuses on kids and the issues they face today. This program was based on the Columbine Commission Report’s recommendation that students need a safe and anonymous way to keep lines of communication open. They realized that tragedies could be prevented if young people had a way to tell someone what they knew without fearing retaliation.



The anonymity of all Safe2Tell reports is protected by C.R.S. 07-197. This means the reporting party remains UNKNOWN by Colorado state law, signed by Governor Bill Ritter on May 3, 2007.


Now, using Safe2Tell®, they only have to make a call to make a difference. By calling 1-877-542-7233 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-877-542-7233 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or submitting a tip through this web-site, young people can help anyone who is in trouble or prevent a tragedy.