Replies to '07/11 Abducted from School'

I hope more schools will enforce stronger rules that will be followed.

When my school system(I've taught for 33 years)began working on safety plans for each school, some of the other schools were shocked to find the regulations we already had in place at our school:

1. Parents must fill out a paper at the beginning of the year that lists who is allowed to pick up their child.

2. When someone comes to sign out a child, this paper is pulled and checked.  The person picking up the child must provide identification before the child is called from the classroom.

3.  Students who normally ride a bus, MUST have a written note from home presented to the teacher that morning and the note has to be reviewed and approved by the assistant principal.  NO PHONE CALLS!  If the student does not have a note, they are put on the bus!  Changes are not made because little Johnny wants to go home with his friend, emergency changes only.  Assistant Principal makes calls for verification.

4. When our drivers take students home, any K-2 student taken home where there is not someone home, is returned to school and parents are notified to pick them up.

ANYONE who enters our school is required to sign in at the front office.  Our students are trained to know that anyone in our building should either: 1. Be wearing a school ID tag or 2. Have a visitors tag on.

All doors are locked except the front door to the building during the school day.  Our students are trained NOT TO OPEN AN OUTSIDE DOOR TO ANYONE!!  We actually practice this at times.  They should not let in a teacher or even the principal. 

The thing that SHOCKS me is the reaction we sometimes get from parents.  We sometimes have people who get quite upset at being asked to show ID when picking up a child.

Once a new superintendent was offended, "Don't you know who I am?", at being asked to sign in as a guest, but we expect it of EVERYONE who is not an employee of our school!

Joy Berryman