What safety procedures does your school use? - Page 4

[ollyoxenfree]

I also read this story about that 1975 Brampton shooting, where 16 people were shot with 3 (including the shooter, self-inflicted) of them killed (according to a different story). Unbelievably, students who were outside the school and told that there was a shooter inside ran into the school to see what was happening.  

[babymommy2]

klh

[babymommy2]

our canadian elementary school locks all side doors during school hours. No signing in or badges needed, but parents can only get in through the front. there are fire and lock down drills. Certainly being Canadain doesn't isolate you from shootings. Just look at Taber, AB. There was an incident in our city last year where a juior high student brought a loaded gun to school (not to shoot anyone purposely, but to show off) and the gun went off in the backpack. luckily no one was hurt. The father was charged for not storing firearms appropriatly. I'm not sure if the child was charged.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by babymommy2 

Certainly being Canadain doesn't isolate you from shootings. Just look at Taber, AB. 

As for school shootings in Canada, yes, they have happened. In the past hundred years there have been six people murdered in Canadian [pre-college-level] schools. Six in a hundred years. Two in the last twenty-five years. It's incredibly rare.

Locking the doors does nothing to make them secure against a person with an assault rifle intent on a mass shooting. Admitting only people who are signed in through the secretary at the front door does nothing to prevent the other sorts of risks either. Our principal cites irate parents as one of the risks, but those people would be signed in through the front door in a heartbeat. 

These measures do nothing to increase real safety; they only serve to promote institutional alienation of school from community, something which plays right into the culture of fear which is at the root of violence in North America.

Miranda

[lauren]

So what do folks think the answer IS?

The NRA says armed guards in every school and a national registry of mentally ill people. [If you have ever suffered from depression, would you want to be in their registry?]

[whatsnextmom]

Originally Posted by lauren 

The NRA says armed guards in every school and a national registry of mentally ill people. [If you have ever suffered from depression, would you want to be in their registry?]

And how are they going to pay for this? Our schools have some massive issues right now. Anything non-essential is being slashed. Teachers are being laid-off. Class sizes are getting bigger. We are going to find the money for armed guards while we systematically turn school into a MORE hostile environment thus creating MORE anger and resentment from students? 

A mental illness registry? How exactly is that going to help? Seems like half the country is diagnosed with something right now.

As for me, I actually feel we should be going the opposite way. I want more community involved in the school. I want schools to be smart and aware but I want them more open and hospitable. I want more compassion training. More fostering of multi-age friendships. I want more kids to graduate with a strong connection to their teachers, their schools, their communities. I'd like school to be the sort of place they want to protect than they want to escape.

[Fillyjonk]

"As for me, I actually feel we should be going the opposite way. I want more community involved in the school. I want schools to be smart and aware but I want them more open and hospitable. I want more compassion training. More fostering of multi-age friendships. I want more kids to graduate with a strong connection to their teachers, their schools, their communities. I'd like school to be the sort of place they want to protect than they want to escape."

Absolutely. This. If we had such a set up in our local school I'd be much MUCH less likely to homeschool. In fact a really high proportion of our homeschooling time is an effort to get the kids involved in local life at all levels. While I find the liberal gun laws of the US kind of mind boggling, and I truly object to the idea that kids should have to be more and more sheltered from the community in which they live to be safe, rather than making the weapons less available, I don't think that this is the real issue. The real issue is the separation of schools from their community, of learning from life. I find it crazy and annoying that there are SO many resources locked up in our local schools-not least, fgs, large meeting spaces-which the community could make such great use of. 

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by whatsnextmom 

As for me, I actually feel we should be going the opposite way. I want more community involved in the school. I want schools to be smart and aware but I want them more open and hospitable. I want more compassion training. More fostering of multi-age friendships. I want more kids to graduate with a strong connection to their teachers, their schools, their communities. I'd like school to be the sort of place they want to protect than they want to escape.

Yay! This is it! I totally agree.

Miranda