Terrible day at our high school.... What is your safety plan?

[Kyoko]

OK, so early this morning, someone placed a call stating that there are bombs at the high school, and anyone who shows up will be shot. Kids were still on the bus, and no kids were in the building, so the buses were re-routed to the athletic center which is a in-door football practice field. Kids were dropped off there, and teachers & administrators were sent there. Some of the walkers walked home, drivers were turned away at the gate. Kids started texting parent, and others people, and confusion and chaos started.

Once at the athletic center, bunch of fight broke out, they said it was like a war zone. Once the riot got so bad, police officers told them all to go home and kicked them out of the athletic center. Kids were told to get back on the bus to be transported back home, and they protested just to be defiant and fight happened again....12 police cars were dispatched and 4 dogs were present. Parents were angry for no being able to pick the kids up ( they were not able to identify if they were really parents or not, etc... ), other paretns were angry for their kids walking home ( safety concern).

I think this could have handled much differently... Plus, for the kids, why did they have to fight? Why couldn't they safely evacuated and wait for the next instructions? Here's the link to the local news.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/02/02/police-called-to-incident...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Kyoko, teeagers are not working with a full brain. The love to take advantage of any situation and just stir up trouble.  Then parents have nothing better to do than complain rather than see that, while it might have been handled better or differently, that people tried to do their best to keep everyone safe. We learn by doing and from our mistakes.  If there is a next time, police and school staff will have a much better way of handling it.  As for kicking our the problem kids, kudos to the cops for doing that.

[Doris]

I'm so sorry to hear this news.  We had a bomb scare at our high school about 3 years ago.  Our students did not fight. They were moved to a nearby bus garage where parents could pick them up.  I guess it was a zoo, but everyone kept their cool.  Later that night they discovered that a teacher had passed away in the building.  Was it a heart attack from stress?  We don't know.

Our school did not have a great plan.  My two children were picked up by an administrator from another building.They went out a rear door. There was no check out system . . . . All of the children were safe, but I felt horrible for the teacher's family.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Kyoko, that is so sad.  Yes, it is great to have a plan in case of any emergency.  It was also a bad day here in California for education today as a school principal got shot and killed by a custodian.  No children were involved, but they were also all evacuated.

[Kyoko]

OMG!! I am so sorry to hear about this...... This world is getting crazy.....Sometime ago, I saw it on youtube that fired staff ( I forgot who it was... it could even be the fired staff's husband..) went to the board meeting and open fired!!! My thoughs and prayer for that principal's family.....

[shelly]

Oh boy, Kyoko!  We (both the district I work in and the one my kids go to) have emergency evacuation and stay in school lock down drills... but not sure how they would actually go IF in fact they were truly used for a true emergency.  I can understand all points of view of the parents as well, but those kids!  I swear any chance some of them can get to really throw a wrench into something - they do... It's a shame that 'those' kids overshadowed those who were cooperative and may have even done something to help another student.  I hope those stories come to the surface too.  Some must have been scared.  I am sorry you had to go through that today!

[Kyoko]

Shortly after 9/11, the district I work at then used to do monthly evacuation drills, and each grade level was designated to local church, etc.... I wish we did that in case of emergency like this.

[Holly Paterniti]

Oh Kyoko, I am so sorry that happened.  We have had evacuations with bomb threats and recently the police calling a lockdown at our schools.  I do have to say the lockdown was handled much better because we learned from the bomb threat.  When we evacuated for the bomb threat we went over to the high school, the kids called and text their parents.  At that time we did not have a policy about cells like we do now.  No matter what we are not going to stop all kids from texting their parents, but that caused chaos and parents were coming and picking up their kids.......it was INSANE!!

I think that is why we cracked down on the cell phones and put it in our handbooks.  Actually, a parent on Facebook complained about the lockdown saying they knew nothing about it til the school did a blast call to all parents.....well I explained to this parent that we are there to keep the kids safe and to call the parents during or soon after just causes more issues than help.

Ok, so I got off the topic.....sorry.....what I do not understand is why did they have 400 to 500 students all together in one place.  That cries fights and problems......the administrators of the school really need to look at that if this ever comes up again.  It is a learning situation, but it is sad that these kids could not for this situation stayed away from each other to not cause a problem.  But if there is no other place for these kids to go the the police department needs to step in and assist.

Again, I am so sorry that happened.........

[Kyoko]

I think some heads are going to roll out of this situations...... Parents went carzy at the most recent board meeting....