Those bomb drills are probably the genesis of my deep seated cynicism over our school district’s decision making ability. Although the campus has moved since I went there, my boys go to the same school I did. When I was in school a million years ago, we had bomb/nuclear attack drills and tornado drills. I distinctly remember even as a kid thinking how stupid it was to spend hours of class and admin time teaching kids and having them practice nuclear bomb safety by crouching under a school desk housed inside a ‘portable’ building that was as well built as a '50s mobile home. Probably my first exposure to the idea that school officials are into making people feel better, even if the action is symbolic and won’t make a whit of actual difference.
But the very best example of that type of thinking was shown in our school’s tornado drill. This is a school in Florida - so there are no basements and the school consisted of dozens of ‘portable’ single rooms (again, think cheap mobile homes) propped up on cinder blocks so there really was no safe place to shelter in the event of a tornado. At that time the campus was surrounded on all four sides by roads and at the edge of each of those roads was an 18" wide, 3"-4" deep concrete gutter for drainage. So the school’s tornado plan - which we dutifully practiced - was to have the kids all go out to the side of the road, lay face down in the gutter and cover the back of their heads and neck with their hands. No joke. At our high school reunion, we laughingly remembered in disbelief all those times the school had several hundred kids laying the face down in the gutter by the side of the road as traffic drove by… as part of a mandated school safety drill.
So forgive me if I don’t share the trust that others appear to have that their school officials make wise choices about how best to protect children or how to spend time and money. Because even a 9 year old crouched under a desk to practice a nuclear war drill or laying in a gutter to practice a tornado drill will tell you that schools make a lot of dumb choices in order to pacify parents and say that they are “doing something.” The problem is the “something” isn’t always a great idea.
D20’s school has armed SROs. They aren’t “retired guys in their 60s” but rather current officers who patrol the school. We also have plain-clothed district employees hired as security. The school has about 2,500 students, a fair number of whom come from rival street gangs. Two entrances have metal detectors that can be activated if there is a known threat but are otherwise not generally used due to the amount of time it takes to get the kids through them.
So, do I feel safe sending my kids there? Yes, but because of the school’s entire emergency procedure plan, not just because we have one or two armed officers. I know the system works because we have at least one incident a month where a student is caught trying to get a gun onto campus. The school is forthcoming about these incidents and explains how the student(s) were caught. Fortunately our school has not been in the news because all of the incidents have been thwarted. For our school, the system has proven itself. Will it thwart every potential act of violence cannot be known, nor can we know how many students and former students are alive today because someone was caught before it was too late.
I’m a survivor of an EF3 tornado that ripped my school apart. Hiding under desks may seem trivial, but they do protect you from flying debris. No one from my school lost their life and only a couple of people had minor injuries (both of whom were by glass and not under a desk where they were supposed to have been).
Except if you’ll re-read, you’d find that in the event of an EF3 tornado, all the kids wouldn’t be under the desk (the desk was the nuclear bomb protection device), we’d all have been laying in the gutter hoping the cars didn’t hit us.
I understand as a parent we want to feel like the schools are “doing something.” We will just have to agree to disagree whether the “doing something” is helpful, hurtful, cost effective or window dressing.
I remember my high school had an armed police officer. I didn’t really seem to think about it at the time but looking back I would say that having an armed police officer around gives more reassurance about the security of the school because it indicates that the school has taken measures to protect the students. I think it contributes to the safety of the school as I was less worried about getting hurt. It could also be due to the factor that my school was in a good area.
I wouldn’t feel more or less secure if the officer was not armed. As long as there is an officer around to protect the students, that’s fine by me. That also answers the last question where I would definitely add one if my school didn’t have an officer.
My youngest son graduated hs in 2006. For sure they did at that time. I am quite sure our schools implemented this after Columbine in the middle schools and high schools. Our older sons graduated in '98 and '02 and I am pretty sure it was after Columbine which was 1999.