Still not many details.
Mark said, when he came home, that the whole school was surrounded by cops, sheriffs, and state troopers. They came with drug sniffing dogs too.
They locked down the school at 8:30am.
How nice of them to let parents know at 2:30pm. *eye roll*
They went from class to class, investigating every single students back pack with the drug sniffing dogs, they had students dump out the contents of their back packs, no students were even allowed to leave their classrooms to use the bathroom from 8:30am until they left at the end of the day.
That is crazy.
No wonder he ran in the door and went straight to the bathroom.
Mark said he is not sure if any student was taken away by the cops, or if any weapons were actually found.
He also said that the school has decided that for the last remaining weeks of school, that all class room doors will be closed and locked. Students will be allowed to go to the bathroom at the teacher's discretion. For four and a half more weeks.
I understand that the school had the situation under control, the cops were present and in control all day.
What I do not understand, is why parents were not notified until school let out at 2:30pm.
What if an actual shooting had occurred?
Would they still have waited till the end of the school day to notify us of a problem?
I also understand that today is the anniversary of Columbine, 8 years ago today, and that they took extra precautions because of that, and because of Virgina Tech.
But is it ok to deliver this kind of news to parents at the end of the school day regardless of how under control it was, and then tell us to have a nice weekend with no actual details of what happened?
Comments
Parents should always be informed of what is going on, always.
Posted by: Jules | April 20, 2007 4:02 PM
No, the parents should have been notified IMMEDIATELY. If I had heard of something like that on the news, or from my kids AFTER THE FACT, school personnel would be sporting many new assholes.
Posted by: DSB | April 20, 2007 4:05 PM
Yikes Kat, it seems its happening all over the United States today. One of our local colleges here went on shut down when someone graffittied on the bathroom wall, VT today. I am glad everything is alright with Mark, that would surely scare the crap out of me. Makes you want to hold your babies forever ya know?
Posted by: Christie | April 20, 2007 4:08 PM
I agree with everyone else. You and all other parents should have been notified IMMEDIATELY. You should have been given the option to have Mark come home, if that was what you wanted.
Insane. What is the world coming to?
I'm just glad that Mark is okay!
Posted by: Christine | April 20, 2007 4:55 PM
Wow.. seriously I can't believe this as well. Are they waiting for something to happen before they inform parents? With the light on such incidents recently, I guess the school should have informed home folks straight away of such incidents, no matter how big or small.
Posted by: lyndonmaxewell | April 20, 2007 5:18 PM
I can see why they didn't call the parents. Usually when such calls are initiated the parents immediately RUSH to the school because they want to get their children. Be it parental instincts to keep the children out of harm.
However, this can cause a lot of problems. If parents were to rush into the school and there was a gun on campus there could be even more casualties. Not to mention, if the cops were actually able to keep the parents away from the school they have two things to worry about now.
Parents have a way of not being objective when it comes to their children. In the end, the are in the way of law enforcement officials in this case.
I remember hearing A LOT of 911 calls during Columbine because parents could not get to their children, their children were in the school and the cops would not allow them to enter the building. Um... hello? There are still two shooters in the building of course the police are not going to allow you in.
I'm not going to stay the parents are stupid by making these decisions. I think it has more to do with emotional responses and the adrenaline that goes through your body impairs your judgement and just makes everything much worse.
Now if the police left at noon and did not tell the parents until 3pm (meaning the made the first calls at 3pm) then I could see how this would cause a problem.
Posted by: Mike | April 20, 2007 5:45 PM
I am so glad that Mark is okay. Crazy things are happening every where.
Posted by: Mom | April 20, 2007 6:10 PM
One of the kids on my street staying home today because of a threat that something was going to happen at his school today. How crappy to have all of this happening. :(
Posted by: Tess | April 20, 2007 6:33 PM
Mike,
I can understand them not wanting all the parents at the school, but we have a right to know. I don't want to learn 8 hours later, my kid was in harms way. And yes, we parents do get emotional, but we have a right to be emotional, and no information should ever be with held from parents. Ever.
Posted by: kat | April 20, 2007 8:42 PM
No, that's not right at all! I can understand why they wouldn't let the students out until everything had been searched, but not tell the parents what was going on? But then, I guess if they had, there might have been pandemonium at the school with parents wanting to take their kids home, huh? I don't know. I don't think anyone really knows what the right answer is to any of this!
Posted by: Leigh | April 20, 2007 11:25 PM
I know, parents would freak out, wanting to go get their kids. But in the automated message, they could tell us that we must not go to the school. If we do, we will be turned away. That they will make another automated call when the all clear is given, or to update us with news. Tell us to wait by our phones.
I know not every parent would wait by their phones, but come on, telling us many, many hours after the fact is simply wrong.
Posted by: kat | April 21, 2007 12:37 AM