Since Sandy Hook the after-school program keeps the fire doors to the educational wings locked. But they can’t do that during the school day. And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see the sign that says that all visitors must report to the office. I guess that’ll stop a Muslim terrorist, all right. Just like the Gun-Free Zone sign.
The day of the Sandy Hook attack, some of the kids wanted to talk about it. I was talking with them and my boss came and said that the kids should hear about this from their parents. My daughter later said that the teachers talked about it with the kids and that was fine. My understanding was that there is not supposed to be a discussion of how safe schools really are, because it might scare the kids. Better for nobody to think about it and hope everything is fine.
I don’t know. I think this country is suicidal, to be truthful. And they’re not going to be talked out of it either.
I went to an assembly at a school recently. They had sent invitations for this assembly. They wanted everyone to sign in at the office and to get a sticker so that everyone knew you were ok. I was a little obnoxious about how stupid it was. The girl who was trying to control this was unfamiliar to me, and she was frantic trying to yell at parents coming through the front door while she was behind a counter in the office. She yelled for the school nurse to help her. There was a long line of adults with toddlers. I loudly asked how signing in for an assembly and wearing a sticker was gonna stop a crazy person from shooting up the place. The nurse just shook her head at me and said, “I know. But this is what they said we have to do.” When I had my official sticker, I proceeded down the hallway and noticed multiple people with no ID. I think they are playground monitors. But they were not wearing ID. I looked around during the assembly and observed several teachers who did not have visible ID. My children’s teachers were wearing theirs. The high schools are more vigilant about visitors. You have to sign in at the gates. But once you are in is another story. Those places are zoos.