Make it make sense. Background information:
In one of the school districts I taught in, I was the chair of the building crisis committee. This entailed planning for all different types of crisis situations that could occur during the school day, ranging from gas leaks, to tornadoes, fires, and even unauthorized personnel coming to the building. I also lead professional development for the staff in the area of potential crises.
In addition, I served on that school district’s crisis team.
In a previous district, the summer before I began teaching there, the district had upgraded security measures in the form of metal over the lower parts of windows and changing out glass doors for metal ones ... .in most of the building.
Are you tracking me?
So, I moved to this new school. The staff there was telling me about the security upgrades. Those upgrades stopped at the preschool wing. Given my past experience with what needed to be done to help secure buildings and the close proximity to a busy thoroughfare through the city, I immediately began to advocate for the same security measures to be applied to the preschool wing that had been used for the rest of the building. I was told “we’ll ask” and "we'll look into it” for FOUR YEARS!!
One of the doors of concern led directly into my classroom.I was the only classroom with a door that led directly to the parking lot. During my tenure in this building. I had a couple of parents who were asked to sign in at the office before coming to my classroom due to their aggressive behavior towards me. When one of these two parents came to my classroom door. I reminded him that he needed to sign in at the office if he wanted to enter my classroom. He pushed me out of the way and came in anyway. I renewed my efforts to secure my classroom.
The administration went as far as to have someone from the Buildings & Ground crew come out and talk to me and take notes and measurements. They told me it would be taken care of over Spring Break of that year. It was not.
Fast forward to the school shooting last month in Oregon. I found out that the security upgrade had STILL not been remedied. I know. I know. I should have left it alone. I don’t work there anymore. I should have let it go. But to those of you who know me, you know that I couldn’t. I couldn’t continue to let the safety of students and former colleagues be at risk. It just wasn’t right.
So, I fired off an email to the school board members. I received an email back from one of my favorite board members…AND the superintendent. The board member was very supportive. The superintendent, not so much. She wanted to know why SHE wasn’t aware of my concerns. I told her that I didn’t know. That I had followed my chain of command. If they didn’t report it, that wasn’t on me. She also said that the safety of students and staff was of utmost concern to the district. Really? I had been fighting for four years to get the preschool wing as secure as the rest of the building and nothing had changed.
I stand firm in the belief that notifying the school board was the right thing to do. In the event of a God forbid, school shooting or any other kind of intruder, I am helping to prevent a lawsuit. You can’t just keep sweeping the safety of children and their teachers under the rug and not acting on the best interests of those people. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You can’t put a price tag on the life of a child!
