Is Your Child's School Safe?

The Connecticut shooting has awakened many parents, especially me. Most teachers and school administrators focus on ways to make sure students are present in class, safely getting to the right bus and safely making it home, but the thought of some random person walking into your school and shooting students is not something that we prepare for. Every school goes through the traditional fire drill and hurricane drill, but what about the “Stranger-Danger” drill? The president said it best that this is becoming all too familiar to our nation. So is your child’s school safe?

Over the last two months, I took the time to visit a few elementary schools within Lawrenceville. My son will be attending kindergarten next year so before we make the move, I wanted to make sure that we were choosing the right school. I won’t list the schools I visited, but what I will tell you is that four of the five schools I visited had no one at the door nor was anyone at the front desk. I simply walked in. No one buzzed me in, no one greeted me. I had to find the main office. Now this is not to say that those schools are in the wrong. They have an open door policy for a reason, like most schools. Parents are welcome to visit their child’s school unannounced, but of course parents would normally visit the main office to obtain a visitor’s pass. A person who is trying to do harm to those children could easily walk down the hallway instead of visiting the office first. This is real.

I have a few ideas on ways to keep our children safe while they are in school. My hope is that somehow these ideas can be implemented within Gwinnett County. Please note that these are ideas, there is never a guarantee that a gunman like in Newtown could have been stopped by these measures. I believe the principal and teachers of that school did their very best to protect those children. I am merely listing ideas that can help us protect our schools.

#1 Bullet Proof Glass/Bullet Proof Doors

I know this may sound a little silly, but the truth of the matter is that the gunman in Connecticut shot off the front door to the school. Had that door been bullet proof the administration may have had more time to contact the police.

Read the complete story on Lawrenceville Patch.