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I was wondering how elementary schools are in your area in regards to school safety. Obviously likely differences between urban vs rural districts. Question came up because a Fargo TV reporter went to a couple of schools in the Fargo metro area and just walked right in and was able to tape students, etc and this was put on air and exposed what the reporter thought was lax security...story done in wake of 1 yr anniversary of Newtown CT
I have only experience in my school district in a town of about 9000 pop 70 miles north of Fargo ND. Our son is 8 and in third grade. It is common practice for parents who want to pick up their kid at the end of the day to walk into school and wait in the cafeteria area and then the teachers bring the kids out room by room and teachers know before hand those who are picked up, those who go to after school programs by the district and those that take the bus home. The front doors are not locked and no bell to get in and no sign in for any parents. There is a sign up during regular class hours that visitors are to report to the office. But I have taken things for our son during the school day at times and could walk in and go to the office without any ID to drop something off and then they would call the teacher or student to come up. The office is within easy sight of the front doors. There is the first door and then an entry and a second door. I do think there are some cameras in the school hallways and maybe toward the front door, but dont recall. But I do remember TV monitors in the office.
This is what most elementary schools are like in our region and that is what as discovered from the TV station but this got many parents up in arms about security, etc.
Is it really that much different across other areas of the country? I realize that in urban areas it would be maybe more strict but in comparing what we call low to mid size towns/cities (say under 100k pop).
I live in a semi-rural school district. Shortly after Columbine, our schools all changed their security measures. All buildings are locked when school is in session and unless some public event is going on. To get in, you must ring a buzzer and be buzzed in. However, if you looked like a parent, my guess is you would be buzzed in. You are supposed to report to the office right away, but most of our schools don't have a containment area that would funnel you right to the office so if you were a bad person, you really could just go wherever. That said, teachers are required to keep their doors closed and locked.
When you go to the office, you need to sign in and get a visitors pass. For awhile at one school they also asked for your keys in exchange for the pass. I really didn't like anyone having keys to my house, church etc so I would just take off my car keys and give them away. Someone must have raised a fuss though, so they don't do that now.
At pick-up, no one is allowed IN the building, even in elementary schools unless you have a valid reason. Parents have to either go early and get their kids out of class (Not encouraged at all) or wait for the busses to leave and then pull up for pick up. Years ago it was common to go in and mill around the foyer and have your kids dismissed to you over the loud speaker.
As far as I know -- my kids are older now, but I don't think things have changed -- the doors are locked during school hours. Visitors are buzzed into the atrium where they sign in and receive a pass. Regular volunteers have their own photo IDs similar to those the teachers wear.
There is no bus service in my neighborhood, so the kids are dismissed as a pack. Those who need rides head for the driveway. Everyone else is dismissed from the side doors onto school grounds to walk home. Crossing guards are posted at the intersections around the school to direct traffic. It is common for parents to congregate on the playground and socialize while their kids play for 30-45 minutes after the school day has ended.
Edited to add: I live in a suburban district outside a major city.
Last edited by randomparent; 12-18-2013 at 09:04 AM..
Thanks for the feedback... at our schools in both East Grand Forks and Grand Forks the main door is always open with a sign visitors report to the office. There is no sign in nor badges/ID. For pick up us parents walk into the school and sit in the cafeteria area and wait for the students to come out. The teacher keeps a list of whom is picked up, who takes bus and who goes to afterschool program MASH.
Now for after school, our 8 yr old is in the EGF Youth basketball program (not school sponsored) and practice is at 530 pm T/Th. So for example like last night, the cleaning people were at the school, so we all just went in changed from the cold weather clothes to gym clothes/shoes and anyone is free to walk around as they see fit with the janitors somewhere in the building. Minnesota requires free bus service available to all students... North Dakota doesnt.
I live in a semi-rural school district. Shortly after Columbine, our schools all changed their security measures. All buildings are locked when school is in session and unless some public event is going on. To get in, you must ring a buzzer and be buzzed in. However, if you looked like a parent, my guess is you would be buzzed in. You are supposed to report to the office right away, but most of our schools don't have a containment area that would funnel you right to the office so if you were a bad person, you really could just go wherever. That said, teachers are required to keep their doors closed and locked.
When you go to the office, you need to sign in and get a visitors pass. For awhile at one school they also asked for your keys in exchange for the pass. I really didn't like anyone having keys to my house, church etc so I would just take off my car keys and give them away. Someone must have raised a fuss though, so they don't do that now.
At pick-up, no one is allowed IN the building, even in elementary schools unless you have a valid reason. Parents have to either go early and get their kids out of class (Not encouraged at all) or wait for the busses to leave and then pull up for pick up. Years ago it was common to go in and mill around the foyer and have your kids dismissed to you over the loud speaker.
your last sentence is how it is here. Us parents often go around 230-235 pm and mill around in the cafeteria area in the big open room in front of the office....chatting etc until the teacher leads the students out to us around 255 pm. I have seen many parents come in at 250 pm go and wait outside the teachers door or just go wherever/whenever. There is no monitoring. When I picked up our son for a 2 pm appointment they asked me if I wanted the office to buzz his room and have him come up to me or I could go back to his room and get him. I personally have never had any issues with security and how it is now....but just wanted to see how it was other places, esp non-big city places where I would suspect security is stronger.
Minnesota requires free bus service available to all students... North Dakota doesnt.
To clarify, my district does offer free bus service to students who live beyond walking distance, but my kids attended a neighborhood elementary where every student -- except those who open enrolled through school of choice -- is within walking distance. School of choice students are responsible for their own transportation.
To clarify, my district does offer free bus service to students who live beyond walking distance, but my kids attended a neighborhood elementary where every student -- except those who open enrolled through school of choice -- is within walking distance. School of choice students are responsible for their own transportation.
In our area we do have open enrollment, so if they wanted a kid could attend school 20 miles away, but the school district they attend must still pay for busing them back and forth. Most do stay in town though within the own district as the differences in schools are very minor. And in town, any student can ride the bus even though they may live within a block of a school. We live 5 houses down from our son's school and if we wanted, he could take the bus that picks him up at the corner and takes him the block to the school. We usually end up driving him and winter season is a bit dangerous as our town has few sidewalks in neighborhoods but wide streets. And with snow piled high on the edges and the kids having to walk in the street in the dark before school it is a bit dangerous.
We have one K-2 school in town and one 3-5 school in town all on the far south end of town so 95 pct of the kids are not within walking distance.
Our elementary was just retrofitted with a new entrance. This was due in part to a huge bond that just passed, but was also a reaction to Sandy Hook. Now the outer door leads only to a waiting room with secretaries behind glass (I assume bullet proof). A sign in computer is available - driver's license number is required every time a parent volunteer enters the school - then a pass is printed. After the pass is printed the secretary buzzes the inner door to let the person in. This happens during school hours and after school until the secretaries leave at 3:45. After that, someone inside the school has to open a door from the inside to let you in.
When I worked in an elementary school, pre-Newtown, but post Sniper, Columbine, VA Tech, etc., they kept trying to put security into place, but it wasn't practical. Locking the front door didn't last long, because it meant every time someone came to the door they had to be buzzed in. Tons of people, including teachers and other school personnel, delivery people, etc., as well as parents and visitors, were coming and going all day. That meant the front office staff were constantly interrupted to buzz people in. Moreover, there was no camera, and they couldn't see the door, so they were buzzing blind anyway (although I think that was rectified later). They couldn't afford a permanent security person, and it just wasn't practical to keep it up, so eventually the door ended up unlocked most of the time.
Then for a while they decided to lock all classroom doors, but that was also a disaster. Again, teachers and specialists who work between multiple classrooms all day were constantly locked out and having to knock, interrupt class, and wait for someone to answer the classroom door. Since there were no bathrooms in most of the classrooms, you also had kids coming and going all day and again having to knock and wait every time. Teachers got frustrated with it pretty fast and just left the doors unlocked. We won't even mention all the times someone got locked out of their own room after stepping into the hall for a moment.
The final thing that made real security nearly impossible was the fact that many classrooms were outside the school, in trailers (due to overcrowding). That meant that students and teachers in the trailers - about 40-50 at any given moment) had to walk into the school through one of the side doors whenever they wanted to use the bathroom, go to lunch, music, pe, art, etc. Since there were no buzzers on the side doors, and no one there to let you in if the door was locked, locking them would have meant locking everyone in the trailers out of the building permanently. Walking to the front door was not an option because it was so far out of the way and also involved walking along a road (not really safe for students traveling on their own to the bathroom).
I'm not sure what they are doing these days, but hopefully they've worked through some of that and don't just have four open doors all day. In any case, you can see that our schools are not built to be prisons, and it's not so easy to implement that kind of security with the current staffing, funding, and layout.
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