Elementary Entrepreneurs - 2nd graders labor to produce safety device for schools

KRCTV ^

[chance33_98]

Elementary Entrepreneurs    
   As the country looks toward tightening security -- one Chico school has designed a little tool to make their classrooms more secure.     
   NewsChannel 7's Brian Close reports on the elementary entrepreneurs.

Until now, the doors at Neal Dow Elementary school were left unlocked, or propped open with pieces of cardboard -- but a group of second-graders are constructing special door wraps. The invention is a piece of denim that blocks the latch from closing, except in an emergency, when teachers can remove them and the door will lock.

If you don't want to get locked out of the classroom...if there is an emergency, and there is a bad guy in the hallway, you take it off and you are locked in. Katie King\2nd Grade

The process is set up like an assembly line, with each kid doing their part. The inventor, and floor boss, teacher Debbie Wakefield, says the kids are learning about how a product is designed and constructed.

We are working very hard and we have to make 175 Debbie Wakefield\Teacher

And of course, like any job, they know the importance of keeping busy.

Everybody is working hard because if there is any goofing off they will be fired, and they will be sitting in the principals office, sitting down. Sydney Sprague\2nd Grade

Other schools have ordered their product, and the proceeds will go to buy a new sprinkler and playground equipment. Brian Close NewsChannel 7, Chico.

[chance33_98]

< crack that whip > Hey - what about child labor laws? :)

[Betty Jane]

What about OSHA? Have they been contacted? Are these doors not hazards? Why does the school get real doorknobs that can be left locked or unlocked

Have these passed fire inspections? A child could be trapped because the door is locked.

These seem perfectly unsafe to me.

[Not now, Not ever!]

Just shows who has the brains in the schools of this state!

[Not now, Not ever!]

The kids are not trapped IN the classroom, It just keeps a bad guy out of the classroom, Stuck in the hall, the kids can open the door and leave if they want to, but the door is locked from entry to the classroom, I think?

[Vidalia]

These are 2nd graders, a.k.a. 7 year olds?

These kids look like fat and happy McDonalds and Ritalin happy meal-eaters from the "New & Improved" Government funded schools in Montana.    From the pic, there are two instructors for every 4 new unionized children.

It is obvious from this quote from one underaged and over-worked child what the reality is..., and in her own feverish words said to us all...

".....Everybody is working hard because if there is any goofing off they will be fired, and they will be sitting in the principals(sic) office, sitting down."
That from Sydney Sprague\2nd Grade..