Are you confident in your school's ability to respond to threats?
Posted at 5:00 AM on March 11, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(11 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Security
A reported shooting threat has prompted heightened security at schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Today's Question: Are you confident in your school's ability to respond to threats?
Comments (11)
I'm thoroughly disappointed in the way yesterday's situation was handled. Minneapolis public school district was aware of the threat by 7:30 am and Cretin by shortly after 8am. If they were taking the threat as seriously as they claimed to be, they should have turned away the school buses, and parent's dropping off student. I currently have 2 children in SPPS, and as much as I love our school district, I am far from confident in their ability to deal with a true emergency.
Teachers should have the option to get proper training / background check and then be allowed to carry a gun for protection at school. Obviously the "Gun free zone" signs are not working all that good... go figure.
DTOM
I have two kids at Minneapolis schools and was very happy with the way this issue was handled.
I felt my kids were will taken care of while I’m at work.
Comments texted to MPR:
I'm currently a student at Cretin-Derham Hall high school, and when our principal went on the loudspeaker I knew our safety was the administrations priority. In fact, I've never felt safer than I was yesterday during the lock down. -Annie, St. Paul
I feel that MPS has responded well to the crisis. I trust them with my daughter. -Laura Lochen, Minneapolis
I have a daughter at Windom Spanish Dual Immersion School. When I received the automated call yesterday I knew my child was safe. Although some parents had concerns, mostly due to the declaration of "You have received this call because you are listed as an Emergency Contcact" which made them feel that something had happened to their kid. Good system and response. -Bill Lochen
My school, Southwest (mpls), was one of those that is under a code yellow lockdown right now. it has been handled well: normal school day, and everyone is calm. -anonymous
Please dont call it lock down. Its not. I go to on of there schools. Code yellow just means no passes, no getting into class if your late. -anonymous
No I am not confident in the school's emergency plan. -anonymous
Not really. A deranged, armed person will not be stopped by cursory safety procedures. Unless we start posting multiple armed guards in schools, (which I don't think we're willing to do as a society), we simply have to live with the fact that mass shootings can and will happen anywhere, as we've seen time and time again.
NO... Just 5 years ago while attending a high school in the suberbs we started having bomb threats. The first one just canceled school. However, the following threats were solved by students being hoarded onto buses and parked in a parking lot until it was all-clear.
The problem is that with bomb threats, the response time is way too long. One threat didnt get the school evacuated completely until after 12:30pm... After talking with someone who saw the threat written on the bathroom wall, the threat read "At noon the bomb goes boom". Why we were not all evacuated until the buses came between noon and 12:30pm is beyond me.
I also do not understand the point of a lock-down drill. If someone enters with a gun, a lock-down forces everyone into the nearest classroom. What if the gunman was just put into a cramped classroom full of students? Not smart in my opinion.
I'm more than confident in my school's ability to respond to threats, but I'm less than confidant in the student's ability to respond appropriately to them. Whenever we run a code-red lockdown at our school, people continue their conversations, and instead of getting quieter, start getting louder. The doors are locked and the lights are off, but people inside the rooms won't shut up, which is a dead-giveaway that someone is in the room, which is one of the things you're trying to prevent with a code-red lockdown. The school (administration) does fine, the students screw up.
America is awash in guns. In reality no one is safe. As we see in the news Americans are being killed by firearms every week while at work, shopping, in college lecture halls, at home, anywhere, anytime. Sadly, in a society that values openness and accessibility, no amount of planning can prevent one deranged person with a gun from killing our friends, our children, our workers, ourselves.
As a parent of a child attending a Mpls. public school, I think they have handled the potential threat very well. They have taken no chances and have done all they can to keep parents informed and ultimately keep our children and the staff at the schools safe.
Yesterday, my daughters' south Minneapolis school had one teacher at the front door handing out notices about the lockdown. Wouldn't this have been a good time to have a police officer at every school's front door? Do we have so many schools that a little extra security at such a time is out of the question?
One last question for MN media outlets: Why was it so much easier yesterday to find out the status of Joe Nathan's elbow than the status of a security threat to our 34,000 district students, our sons and daughters?
It was not only the Mpls public schools but also Mpls private schools like Minnehaha Academy that were in lock down.
For the public schools, like Mpls, there are well developed and practiced procedures. Not so sure what the private schools have.
| March 2010 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Master Archive
Recent Entries
- Have changes to the airline passenger experience affected your willingness to fly?
- Should marijuana be available for medical use in Minnesota?
- Do the struggles of Minnesota's business icons signal trouble for the state's economy?
- Do you know whether insurance would cover your losses in a major storm?
- What kind of recycling program would you be likely to use the most?
- Would you support paying people for organ or tissue donations?
- Have personal relationships in the workplace ever presented a problem for you?
- Do you think Facebook is a passing fad?
- Will you be less likely to visit the Minnesota Zoo without its dolphins?
- Should authorities in the Twin Cities change the way they warn people about tornadoes?
Public Insight Network
The Public Insight Network draws upon your experiences to help shape our coverage.More
Categories
Services
In The Spotlight
-
Sound Learning
Looking for ways to ensure your students are doing quality research from credible sources? Sound Learning is a launching point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. -
The Current Music Blog
Your daily note for good music, news and pop culture. With attempted jokes.
- Become a Member
- Member Connect Accounts
- Leadership Circle
- Sustaining Members
- Member Discounts
- Become a Sponsor
- Tax Information
- Planned Giving
- Vehicle Donation
- Donate Stock