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Sunday, October 8, 2006
Schools not as safe as we assume
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dawn Peeples went to school to have lunch with her fourth-grade daughter the day after the shootings in Amish country.
Good thing she didn’t have foul intentions. She walked right in the main building at Alcova Elementary, undeterred and unnoticed by any kind of gatekeeper. Peeples checked in at the office, as visitors are required to do.
“All they have are signs on the front doors that say please register at the front office,” Peeples said. “There’s no desk or anything to stop anyone from getting in.”
And that concerns Peeples, not just for Alcova Elementary, but for all county public schools. She got to wondering how safe our campuses are, and what we — not just Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks and his lieutenants — can do to beef up security.
It’s easy to accuse Peeples of being overzealous, of overreacting and having a fortress mentality. Don’t. This mom’s on point. When it comes to kids, potential danger commands attention. This is a worthy subject anytime, but especially now, in light of Monday. A nut walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., and systematically killed five little girls.
It’s been said that schools are the safest places for kids. Rare anecdotal incidents to the contrary make that concept a tough sell, though. Last month, we had campus killings in Colorado and Wisconsin; in August, it was Vermont.
Ronald D. Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center in Los Angeles, Calif. , has conducted thousands of safety assessments on public schools, including some in metro Atlanta. His experience, like Peeples’, is sobering.
“Typically, I find that I can get on any campus anywhere,” he said.
Bobby Crowson, associate superintendent for academic support for Gwinnett schools, responded to an e-mail with a litany of safety measures employed in the district.
Every campus has a safe school plan that’s updated yearly. The district has 20 full-time law enforcement officers, assigned to high schools and some middle schools. Visitors, as well as employees, must wear badges when on campus. Some schools have their sign-in desks in the hallways; others don’t.
Classrooms have call-back buttons to communicate with the front office. Tips about threats and weapons can be called in to an anonymous hotline ( 770-822-6513).
Yet school security remains vulnerable. In February 2002, a man walked into Mountain Park Elementary School and hit a fourth-grade girl in the head with a hammer. At the time, school officials called the incident an extreme rare occurrence.
Of course it was. But would you want your child, grandchild, sister or brother to be the recipient of one?
And that’s Peeples’ point.
“Our children are the most important thing we have,” she told me. “You can’t replace those little angels. There’s no way to stop anyone from walking into these schools, and we need to get that out to parents so something can be done about it. I think schools react well when something does happen, but I’m talking about preventive measures.”
You can e-mail Dawn Peeples with your ideas and input.
