Two weeks ago, a little girl was murdered, presumably by her stepfather. He has, apparently, confessed to the crime and is awaiting trial. While this is a horrible tragedy, the local school districts have taken the knee-jerk response to solving a problem that does not exist.
The playground gates are locked, infrared cameras patrol 24/7 and two adults maintain vigilance while 220 Community Christian School children leave the grounds each day. Cedar Canyon Elementary School has 12 to 15 adults outside the school after every school day as children are picked up by parents or loaded onto buses. Cedar Canyon Principal Betty Smith locks the front gate to the schoolyard nightly.
The actions are not a response to any single incident but prudent precautions in a wayward world, Community Christian School Principal Chris Geary said.
“We know we live in a sin-sick world,” Geary said. “(The precautions) help our families feel secure. We just try to be vigilant.”
While the schools are responsible for students during school hours and it is good that the schools want to ensure student safety, doing something to make parents feel secure does nothing to actually make anyone more safe or more secure.
Being vigilant may be noble, but all the extra security since this little girl was murdered is still missing the point. She was never taken to school, so there was never a chance that school officials would have seen her on that fateful day. She also was not taken by a stranger as most people feared. The fact remains that children who are abused and/or murdered often find the perpetrator to be a family member or someone close to the family.
In the Minitare Public School District, they are going beyond vigilant and into the realm of paranoia.
“The discussion at the developmental meeting next week will be to be aware, remember as many kids as you can and ask for help from other parents in being aware of surroundings.”
The district would like to install more cameras than it already has in place. Since much of the public funding has dried up for security cameras, Cody said he would welcome someone stepping forward to donate the equipment.
Asking parents to be aware of surrounds is akin to “see something say something.” It creates fear and panic when it isn’t necessary. Installing more cameras instills an atmosphere of distrust. It indicates that every single person who comes near the school is automatically a suspect whose every move must be watched and scrutinized.
“My concern as administrator is that situations will occur; we can’t control everything,” Cody said. “We’ll do the best we can do to keep students safe as long as they are on our property. We can only control the things we can control. That would go for all school districts.”
This is the sensible approach. Unfortunately, it’s buried at the end of the story where most people won’t see or read it because they’re too busy being afraid of the first part of the story. There is no way for a school district to control everything. You cannot predict how people are going to behave, nor can you completely control their behavior even when they are on your property. If this were possible, there would be no incidents of bullying, racism, or fighting at school.
Most adults know and understand when something is out of place and when it’s nothing to be concerned about. Creating a permanent atmosphere of fear and panic in people, particularly parents, only results in freedoms lost and innocent lives at risk. Protecting children is never a bad thing, but ignoring the facts of who really hurts children only results in adult lives being destroyed due to misguided accusations.
