My wife retired from teaching a few years ago. She still volunteers at the school. I bought her soft armor for her backpack, but she won't carry it. My kids are older now, but it they were still in school I would get them some too.

Some day a person with a gun sticker on their car is going to drive past a school and the panic button will be hit causing a lock down. They do them all the time over nothing. Children should not live in fear.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:
As for communicating with parents, dispatchers and clerical types can't tell whether the person on the line is legit or not. At least from the LE side, they aren't about to tell an unknown person where our assets are or what they are doing.

Whether a person is legit or not? You're a public entity. If there are a bunch of police officers outside of a public school, the public most certainly has a right to know why (excepting certain extenuating circumstances).

When someone calls in on the phone, how is dispatch supposed to know who they are and what their motives are?

We did the dope sniff too. Dog handler and and backup just walked the lockers and restrooms. It was conducted while the classes were in session and the hallways were empty. Some of the kids even got to pet the dog. It was more of a deterrent than an enforcement action. And a good School Resource cop knows who is moving dope.
The whole "lockdown" and multiple units is over the top BS. And then lying about it, both by the school and the cops is more BS.
Another example of how stupid our schools have become.
A great example of not what was done, but how it was done.

quote:

Originally posted by Maestro:

BEFORE the rash of school shootings, .......

In this climate of school violence, I would have handled the situation that you described MUCH differently.

What are you taking about?

Can you define statistically exactly how common this "Rash of school shootings" is that you speak of? I mean compared to other risks that kids face.

The way I see it, these are very rare events, and on the list of dangers to my 2 kids, I worry about a lot of other things before I worry about the "Rash of school shootings." Schools, for the most part, are a fairly safe place for kids to be.

On the top ten list of things that cause death to children, um, school shootings aren't anywhere near the top.

Yet school administrators and the "Demand Action" groups seem very quick to want to scare the kids (and to some extent the parents) into thinking their school is next, so my 3rd graders gets to ask me questions about when their school will be shot up.

I'd say more attention should be paid to accident prevention, and preventing teen suicide. But the school administrators seem to be worried about what the "Demand Action" people say they need to be worried about. And so, we get to hear terms like the "Rash of school shootings."

For the OP, it seems it was a bunch of adults on a power trip. Odd that the school has the right to do such a thing and detain everyone like that. Imagine if this happened anyplace else other than a school. People would never put up with it. But because it's a school and there are people with power over the kids, these things seem to happen. Is it a jail or a school?

Your daughter wasn't in any danger, you are over reacting, and she is illprepared. Your reaction is normal and so is hers.

Lockdown drills, fire drills, tornado drills are a fact of school life. All of the events being prepared for are rare, but they do happen. All three have happened at my kids' school. About 3 years ago a tornado touched down with 1 mile from the school. About 4 years ago, a UPS in one of the computer rooms shorted which smelled awful, I was there that day in the building thks happened, and someone pulled the fire alarm.

Twice in the 8 years at least one of my kids has been going there, the school has been on lockdown for something other than a drill. The first time, an armed robbery had happened nearby and the second, a crazy girl, not from the school, was running around with a knife. I had just left the school before the second lockdown, saw the deputies going to the school and the Sheriff's Department's helicopter in the air. It took some time to find out what was going on. Yes, I found it frustrating and my reaction to it was similar to your own.

If there's a lockdown for a perceived threat, what would you expect the school or law enforcement to do? Let me come back to that.

What if there were a real fire? Would you expect the fire chief to keep you apprised of the situation? Would you expect the school to answer the phone? Or would you stay out of the way and let people do their jobs? Would you expect the school to let the kids run loose? Or would you expect the school to keep the kids orderly and out of the way?

Coming back to a lockdown. Why should a lockdown be different? Some people here seem to be advocating letting the kids run loose. That would be 450 students ranging from 2 years old to 18 years old running 450 different directions. Let's call all the parents in while we're at it and clog up the roads and parking lots to.

Keeping the kids contained lets the professionals deal with the threat. As a parent, yes I want to know what's going on, I don't want my kids to be scared, I want my kids to be safe, and in the event of a real threat, I want to go in guns blazing to save them.

Your daughter wasn't in any danger. She panicked despite the lack of any evidence that there was a real problem. I'd work with her on that and explain that there are a variety of reasons the school could be locked down and panicking never solves anything. I have a daughter, it's much easier said than done.

Nope.
I would be pissed, too.
Lockdown drill? Fine, lock it down, then use the PA to announce that it is a drill and let the kids sit tight while you check the doors and time the cop response.
Drug sweep? Same thing. Lock it down, announce it over the PA, and let the sweep finish.

I would be a very well known personality, at the next board meeting, if they pulled that crap AND blew me off when I telephoned to check on my kid.
Light them UP.

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:
As for communicating with parents, dispatchers and clerical types can't tell whether the person on the line is legit or not. At least from the LE side, they aren't about to tell an unknown person where our assets are or what they are doing.

Whether a person is legit or not? You're a public entity. If there are a bunch of police officers outside of a public school, the public most certainly has a right to know why (excepting certain extenuating circumstances).

When someone calls in on the phone, how is dispatch supposed to know who they are and what their motives are?

Why is that relevant?

That's not cool in so many ways. There is no reason the school could not have told OP they were conducting K9 searches for drugs, everything is OK. Similarly the school should have announced what was going as soon as they confirmed the halls were clear and lockdown drill was completed (5 min max). No need to leave parents or kids in the dark and scared. I can understand to some extent police wanting to not disclose actions currently underway, but it's a drug sweep, no big deal, tell the parents "hey we are just running some drug dogs down the hallway, go back to work and relax."

When I was a kid they did the same shit usually twice a year. They'd do lockdown, then announce they were sweeping the lockers and to stay in the room if you didn't want to be bitten or suspended.

I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

it seems like the OP tried, but it seems he ran into either people who did not know anything, or were willing to lie. He didn't mention about anyone offering to follow up with him after the fact either.

Here in Colorado the method that they use for "active shooter" drills is to come over tha public address system and announce the active shooter situation and also state that it is "NOT A DRILL".
One occurrence of this happened 2 weeks ago.
This is outrageous.
I do believe that they are trying to traumatize the students so that they will become anti-gun at an early age.
Our school system has become evil.

quote:

Originally posted by arlen:

I do believe that they are trying to traumatize the students so that they will become anti-gun at an early age.

That thought had crossed my mind too. The "Demand Action" groups seem to be tight with the schools. For example, when they had their anti-gun student "walk-outs" a while back, the teachers, administrators, etc seemed to endorse the activity, all led by "Demand Action"

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by arlen:

I do believe that they are trying to traumatize the students so that they will become anti-gun at an early age.

That thought had crossed my mind too. The "Demand Action" groups seem to be tight with the schools. For example, when they had their anti-gun student "walk-outs" a while back, the teachers, administrators, etc seemed to endorse the activity, all led by "Demand Action"

I agree as well.

The intent to scare them appears to me to be quite evident.

For those of you who still have children at home -- especially younger childern -- let me ask you a question.

Do you ever teach your kids how to react to a fire at home? Or an intruder? Or natural disaster/bug-out situation?

If the answer is YES, do you teach them by simply waking them up at zero dark 30, screaming and yelling, and trying to scare the living hell out of them?

Seems to me that a 'high drama' and high stress drill that is not announced to kids will just scare them and ultimately be counter productive. I believe they will soon adapt to these 'Cry Wolf' scenarios. Then when/if the real event occurs instead of kicking into a higher gear of the learned responses, they will just blow it off as 'another stupid drill they don't tell us is a drill till after it's over'.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

From my point of view the "facts" were that my child and her classmates were scared for their lives.

Fact. The girls were told the school was being locked down and to lock themselves in the lab alone and not come out.

Fact. All the girls knew was what they could see out of the window. Which was multiple agencies with multiple K-9's congregating in front of the building.

Fact. The school wouldn't provide any useful information about the situation to me as a parent.

Fact. The Sheriffs office denied any involvement. I won't go so far as to say they lied to me but I find it hard to believe dispatch didn't know any officers were at the school. Every agency in the county and their K-9 teams move from school to school in a coordinated effort and nobody knows about it. Yeah right.

The whole idea of secrecy and misinformation is useless in this situation. If they had hit all four schools at once maybe but they didn't. I guarantee you after the first school was searched almost every teenager in the county knew about it through Social Media. Totally negating their whole effort. That explains to me why only one kid with a little bit of weed was caught out of 4 different schools.

I am trying to remain objective about this whole situation. I know we have law enforcement, teachers, and parents on this board. That's why I posted here for different view points. I am honestly curious what "rational facts" I should be locked on to because the only "facts" I have right now are the ones stated above.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

it seems like the OP tried, but it seems he ran into either people who did not know anything, or were willing to lie. He didn't mention about anyone offering to follow up with him after the fact either.

Who lied?

From his original post:

"I called the school and the office lady wouldn't give me a direct answer about what was going on. All she kept saying was there was no threat."

Seems truthful to me. We don't know what questions were asked, but the important information right there. "...there was no threat."

As far as the Sheriff's office, I'm assuming there was a miscommunication of some sort. How are deptuies whereabouts kept track of? How are preplanned school lockdown accounted for? Are the deputies considered dispatched or not for some thing like this? If not, could they honest answer be "we have no deputies dispatched at that location?"

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

it seems like the OP tried, but it seems he ran into either people who did not know anything, or were willing to lie. He didn't mention about anyone offering to follow up with him after the fact either.

Who lied?

From his original post:

Yeah, well, you missed this part then:

quote:

I asked if it was a drill. "Umm yes that is what it is" is the answer I got.

quote:

Originally posted by rtguy:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’d actually lock on to some rational facts before “addressing it” or “blistering” anyone.

From my point of view the "facts" were that my child and her classmates were scared for their lives.

Fact. The girls were told the school was being locked down and to lock themselves in the lab alone and not come out.

Fact. All the girls knew was what they could see out of the window. Which was multiple agencies with multiple K-9's congregating in front of the building.

Fact. The school wouldn't provide any useful information about the situation to me as a parent.

Fact. The Sheriffs office denied any involvement. I won't go so far as to say they lied to me but I find it hard to believe dispatch didn't know any officers were at the school. Every agency in the county and their K-9 teams move from school to school in a coordinated effort and nobody knows about it. Yeah right.

The whole idea of secrecy and misinformation is useless in this situation. If they had hit all four schools at once maybe but they didn't. I guarantee you after the first school was searched almost every teenager in the county knew about it through Social Media. Totally negating their whole effort. That explains to me why only one kid with a little bit of weed was caught out of 4 different schools.

I am trying to remain objective about this whole situation. I know we have law enforcement, teachers, and parents on this board. That's why I posted here for different view points. I am honestly curious what "rational facts" I should be locked on to because the only "facts" I have right now are the ones stated above.

Not a single “fact” that you have is Germaine to the situation depending on the why. If they fucked up, they fucked it. If they were locked down due to an event nearby such as an armed subject, then that justifies locking it down.

Bottom line- if you want to come off like a lunatic, go scorched earth. Make sure you tell them you pay their salary because you pay taxes or be sure to tell them who you know at the court house. If you want answers, I’d get some facts together before proceeding. You’re assuming a lot that may or may not be fact driven. Just because you called the school and spoke to someone means jack shit. At my daughters school, they have students answering the phone on work assignments, usually seniors. If there were that many cops there, you and none billion other parents were trying to call. The times I’ve gone scorched earth at my sons school, I got all the facts together, not what he emotionally thought, or what I assumed.

That’s all I’m saying.

quote:

Originally posted by Strambo:
Wow, seems like the six figure salaried administrators who run the public school systems are morons. Shocking!

Not really. I have noticed over the last few decades that the skill/education level of many of our "public school systems" has deteriorated rather dramatically.

Admittedly, there are a FEW good teachers out there, but my and large the system is worse than broken.

some 15-16 years ago here in Manassas, our grandson was caught skipping his math class. His mom was thoroughly pissed and chewed him out. His response was that he saw no reason to go to that class because the teacher could not even speak English.

Daughter went to school to monitor the class. The kid was right, the teacher was not capable of actually speaking an understandable English. She was apparently very good at Chinese, however.

Teacher's unions have been the major component of the system destruction.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by Maestro:

BEFORE the rash of school shootings, .......

In this climate of school violence, I would have handled the situation that you described MUCH differently.

What are you taking about?

Can you define statistically exactly how common this "Rash of school shootings" is that you speak of? I mean compared to other risks that kids face.

The way I see it, these are very rare events, and on the list of dangers to my 2 kids, I worry about a lot of other things before I worry about the "Rash of school shootings." Schools, for the most part, are a fairly safe place for kids to be.

On the top ten list of things that cause death to children, um, school shootings aren't anywhere near the top.

Yet school administrators and the "Demand Action" groups seem very quick to want to scare the kids (and to some extent the parents) into thinking their school is next, so my 3rd graders gets to ask me questions about when their school will be shot up.

I'd say more attention should be paid to accident prevention, and preventing teen suicide. But the school administrators seem to be worried about what the "Demand Action" people say they need to be worried about. And so, we get to hear terms like the "Rash of school shootings."

For the OP, it seems it was a bunch of adults on a power trip. Odd that the school has the right to do such a thing and detain everyone like that. Imagine if this happened anyplace else other than a school. People would never put up with it. But because it's a school and there are people with power over the kids, these things seem to happen. Is it a jail or a school?

I'm not sure I agree with the phrase, "Rash of school shootings", but I will say there have been 3 school shootings within a 10 mile radius of my house (Columbine HS, Platte Canyon HS and Arapahoe HS). The threat is real, at least here. It is on my mind from time to time. Last week there was a lockout at our local elementary school and they cancelled school for 1 day. My kids are in first and second grade.