Closer to home

[adina]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15060698/

I never understand why this happens. You like to believe you send your kids off to school, and they are relatively safe. Our elementary is locked down. You can only get into the front hallway, then you have to buzzed in by the office. When I was little, I remember a guy with a gun in our school. The classroom doors were all closed and locked, and the police showed up and took him away. Never would it have occured to me that he was going to shoot anyone. Now that's the first thought that comes to peoples minds.

Makes me sad...

[adina]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html
http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends..._violence.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/...-shooting.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/se...mont-s15.shtml
http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/n...0414&qs=1;bp=t

this is nuts.

[julsoph]

I can't even imagine being that close to things, Adina...that has to be terrifying.

My kids are just starting school...preschool...and I'm sure I'll be a nervous wreck about stuff like this when they get into grade school.

[SmartWombat]

Our local schools in the UK have nothing like this security.
But when Charles was at school in the USA (he went back to his dad for a few years) they had metal detectors on the doors - normal to them, scary for us.

[Lara]

Things have drastically changed for us Adina. I work in 2 elementary, 1 middle and 1 high school. All of them are locked once school begins. But I don't feel completely safe for the children or the staff. Who is to say someone wouldn't walk in before the lockdown? The town I work in is small and people were very trusting. But since Columbine we are all watching out for strangers, or out of the ordinary goings on by students. The high school has surveillance cameras around the perimeter of the building. Still, will we ever feel truly safe? I don't think so.