Posted on 05/31/2022 12:20:49 PM PDT by Starman417
A police officer once told me, "You can't stop crazy." Unfortunately, mentally ill people permeate our society and are increasingly putting students and school staff members at risk. The name Laurie Dann immediately comes to mind. Laurie murdered one boy and wounded two girls at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Illinois in 1957. Schools are no longer guaranteed safe havens and security protocols must must be instituted. Vigilance must always remain high.
There is no magic bullet in achieving school security. Security is achieved in layers: the more layers you have the more effective security becomes. Some school administrators slap Gun-Free Zone stickers on entrance doors and call it a day. I would fire all of those lazy administrators. Someone has to be passionate about protecting kids and staff members from evil predators who roam the country searching for innocent victims.
There were 7 layers of security that I implemented at my Chicago suburban high school by 2000. That was 22 years ago but apparently, some educators today forgot the harsh lessons learned from horrific school massacres in America.
1. WE HAD A FULL-TIME ARMED POLICE LIAISON OFFICER (PLO) IN THE BUILDING. An armed PLO is a critical layer of security for all schools. Our school served two communities and both police departments were extremely cooperative and suggested methods of improving security at our campus. Our PLO could be at the scene of an incident in our school within minutes. TIME MATTERS! We provided both police departments with elaborate blueprints of our building and invited police officers to actually visit the school and become acclimated with the layout. We met with the faculty and explained that in the case of an emergency, the PLO and I would immediately rush to the scene. Help would be on the way within minutes. Both police departments promised that their officers would immediately respond, enter our building and engage the intruder. Apparently, at both Columbine and Robb Elementary School, police officers responded but botched the rescue attempt through delay, confusion, incompetence and fear.
2. WE NUMBERED ALL EXTERIOR DOORS WITH WHITE REFLECTIVE PAINT VISIBLE FROM THE ROAD. It is extremely important to direct emergency vehicles, in a timely manner, to the precise location where help is needed. One day at my high school a student collapsed in PE and stopped breathing. He was temporarily revived by our school nurse who used a portable Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Those devices were procured to revive anyone experiencing cardiac arrest. Para-Professional staff members met the ambulance at the entrance of the campus and directed paramedics to the exact door where the student needed help. The student survived. TIME MATTERS!
3. CODE RED LOCKDOWNS. Hopefully by now, all schools have implemented Code Red Lockdowns. I started them at our high school immediately after the massacre at Columbine High School. Whenever a threat to our school was perceived, a Code Red Lockdown was announced over the PA system. All teachers immediately locked down their classrooms and moved students away from the doors. It is very important that all classrooms have a thumb turn lock on the inside of the classroom door. Teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School died valiantly trying to hide their students from an evil, deranged, assailant. Those amazing heroes hid vulnerable kids in closets and tried to barricade the entrances. A thumb turn lock can secure a room within 20 seconds. TIME MATTERS!
4. ALL EXTERIOR DOORS SHOULD REMAIN CLOSED DURING THE DAY. That sounds simple in theory, but we constantly had to berate PE teachers who propped the gym doors open, "because it was hot." Robb Elementary School in Uvade, texas was under lockdown because of shots fired in the vicinity of the school but a teacher propped open an exterior door. An armed, deranged, psychopath accessed that door and gained entry into the school. One teacher made one careless mistake and negated an entire layer of security. In an ironic twist of fate, responding officers had to use that same exact door to gain entry to the school because all of the other exterior doors were closed and secure.
5. PARA-PROFESSIONAL STAFF MONITORED THE HALLWAYS. Our high school employed un-armed Para-Professional staff to monitor all hallways. Each Para-Pro was equipped with a state of the art walkie-talkie and served as the first line of defense.
6. ACTIVE CAMERA SYSTEM WAS INSTALLED. Twenty-two years ago we installed cameras in our school. We had Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras and stationary cameras mounted strategically throughout the building. We also installed cameras on the exterior of the building. Our system was active. One of my Para-Professional staff members was tasked with monitoring the cameras during the entire school day.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
No.
Nothing is stopping you from posting your whole blog right here.
Do you figure the world owes you a living?
Get a job.
Thanks for posting this.
Get a job.
What’s going on here? Are we debating whether someone should post a blog here, or are we going to discuss the issues presented in the attached?
She didn't post it, she excerpted it.
Can you think of any good reason WHY she did that?
What stopped her from posting the whole thing, do you think?
I’m not knowledgeable enough about the issue of posting excerpts from a blog, as opposed to an entire blog entry, to understand the problem. Is this a problem on this site? Is it against the rules?
It's trashy. It's using FR's traffic to score money for hookers and crack.
It's deceptive and sinful and ought to get somebody horsewhipped.
“Laurie murdered one boy and wounded two girls at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Illinois in 1957.”
1987, not 1957... and she also kidnapped some people and tried to poison people as well, if I remember correctly.
“Each Para-Pro was equipped with a state of the art walkie-talkie...”
Don’t bring a walkie-talkie to a gunfight.
Thanks for posting this.
Schools were never perfect safe havens. Read “Farmer Boy!”
(Laura Ingalls Wilder). They had kids killing teachers.
All good ideas.
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