I am curious to see if you feel your children are safe at school. This latest sicko has really got me looking around at the schools. Here our children are really sitting targets in the public schools. They may have some type of guard, but if someone wanted to come in with an evil intent, anything could happen. Our daycare and Callan's school have security systems and the doors are locked. I can't even imagine what those parents are going through now. One family had 2 killed and another family had one killed and one in serious condition. I am just curious about others thoughts.

Kayla

The westside shooting hapened here several years ago. Now today a kid at Nettleton schools brought a malatov coctail. The school was on lockdown all afternoon. So to answer your question, no I don't feel my children are safe....

I feel totally helpless. When I dropped Elayna off, I just prayed as I left to keep her safe. I am really shaken up by this and it's really hard to watch the news segments. I saw an Amish man on the news this morning saying he had already forgiven. I can't say I would be so ready to forgive. There are truly evil people in this world....and the gunman was one of them. I pray that their faith is strong and they can have the strength to go on without their precious children. What a tragedy....there are no words to describe the pain these innocent families must feel.

Oh, and last week someone was shotting at a daycare. My kids go to the #1 school in Arkansas. Somehow that doesn't comfort me at all.

It's a sad state of affairs and it seems to happen everywhere. But the worst of it is is that it's been happening for years and years. The worst attack on a school actually took place in 1927 when a member of the school board blew the school up and then a vehicle he was in after people had gathered outside. In all that killing took 45 people and injured 58 more. It sort of makes you wonder how much of this is just awareness of these incidents occurring rather than them just increasing.

It's a worrying thing either way.

Katie's School is locked at all times you press a buzzer and a lady at the front desk will let you in. But that really means nothing if someone wanted to get in they will.

My take on it? This goes back to my belief system that God knows all our days before we're even a thought in our parents minds.

Our kids are as safe as God intends them to be at the moment. The same goes for all the rest of us. HE knows when our time is up, how we're going out, and what the circumstances surrounding our death will be. There is nothing we can do to change HIS destiny for us. You're not going to change their destiny by having armed guards or anything else. It may just be that God plans for your child to live to 100, it may be that they'll die of a horrible disease, or worse yet an incident like those that have happened in the schools. Whatever it is, it's already been planned.....

That said, our school has some things I could see changed, but nothing significant. They're still kids, and they still have to live like kids, go to school like kids, etc.

You make an interesting point Leah and I can almost agree except that I think God gave us free will. Yes He already knows what is going to happen but we all have choices to make. He also gives us a brain to use. I think we have all been oblivious to bad things happening to our children and have really not made any attempt to protect them in any real way. I go to businesses all the time that you ring a bell to get in and yet in the same area you can walk freely into a school. I guess before I kiss my child goodbye in the morning I want to know that my child does have some semblance of protection. And I do agree that if someone wants in bad enough they will find a way. I just want to make it more difficult for them than our children as sitting ducks. I don't know why but I just can't shake the feeling that we are going to see this more and more simply because they are such easy targets for the crazies.

Kayla

I agree with Carson's mom. I should feel that my child's school is safe. Unfortunately, the arrogance of it all scares me. They boast their test scores, and the real estate in the school district is super expensive. I just feel like this school distict might be next. Miranda doesn't watch the news or read the newspaper. She knew nothing of the school shootings until yesterday. She comes home from school and tells me how her teacher and the class have practiced "intruder drills". They will hide in the coat closet behind the backpacks, the teacher will turn off the lights, and the teacher will grab the first aid kits. She said if she doesn't get to go in with them, they are to be quiet and wait for her. Her teacher's friend was one of the teachers who was killed in the Westside shootings. To hear my little girl tell about how she might have to hide whilesomeone comes in her school scares and saddens me. I know I am supposed to have faith, but it hurts to see her innocense ripped away. I'm really not one who lives in fear, I promise. Maybe it cuts close to home because it has already happened in my town. I just want my little girl to go to school without having to worry about being shot. When they had the lockdown at Nettleton today all I could do was worry about whether anything was going on at her school.

I don't know if you saw the thread on this or not, but some of us from Lancaster County have commented on this terrible tragedy.
http://www.downsyn.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=19988
If there was ever a school that you would have thought to be safe, it would be an amish school - no security or locks or planned procedures - just simple, peaceful, trusting people who mind their own business. Evil entered their peaceful lives this week and I wonder if it will change any 'policies' of how they conduct school from now on. There is talk of tearing down or burning the school house. The funerals are tomorrow and Friday. One little girl in the hospital talked to her mother today, that was some hopeful news.

I always did think it strange that they have such high security in the hospitals when your child is born and then the school doors are wide open. How many babies were stolen before the high security? It probably was one high profile case and everyone got on the bandwagon.

In this society I am scared whenever my children are out of my site. But it is also something I need to manage to stay sane. After that terrorist attack on children in Chechnya I fear for all our children...but sadly I don't have any answers except not letting them out of the house and that's not a very good answer...

I agree with Leah when she said

Quote:

Our kids are as safe as God intends them to be at the moment. The same goes for all the rest of us. HE knows when our time is up, how we're going out, and what the circumstances surrounding our death will be.

But I also want to say that part of our job as parents is to keep our children safe. I also want my children to be allowed to be children. Kids grow up too fast these days. It saddens me that children have to have intruder drills at school. Our decision to homeschool was based more on how we wanted our children raised than safety. However, in the last month that is becoming more of an issue.

Liz, I am so with you there. When the Beslan school shooting happened, it was barely discussed here. It was the most horrific tragedy I have ever seen. All because of terrorism, politics, and even religion. I followed that siege online, and it took a little piece of my heart, it really did. I remember one little boy who looked so much like Jesse's friend Braeden, and his face just burned into me. 186 kids died that day. I asked our principal at the time if it could happen here, and he said that it could, but that our school was modern and had exit doors from every classroom, that the kids are never all in the same place and that they have plans in place. Soon after, they started requiring visitors, including parents, sign in. All the doors are locked except 2, and they lead to the office. Right after Beslan, I bought my older 2 kids cell phones, I was thinking they should always be able to reach me. It scared me to death, and all these smaller school shootings scare me, too. And Im way past saying it cant happen here, it can. I just pray it never does. As for God? Yeah, he knows our days. But we do have free will, and we can and should fight for our lives. I hate to think of it happening here, I know my children would fight for each other, and the thought of them trying to get to one another makes me crazy with grief. Praying to God it never happens.

I'm with you. I keep praying and hoping that something like that never happens in our school. Both the shooting and the recent incident seemed to be kids that were getting picked on. That's what worries me the most. Last year my little girl's friend was half japanese and she was picked on several times through the year. When they studied the japanese in the war, one little girl told her that japanese people were evil and bad(she got her recess taken away). The last time it happened Miranda's friends had to old her back. She was going to knock one little boy out( the teacher gave him a talking to). Miranda also says there is another little girl who has mismatched clothes and they have stains on them. She says she goes and hides at recess and plays by herself. She recently asked her over to spend the night, but her parents won't let her. She's trying to talk to her friends and get them to play with her. After years of torture these are the kids that snap. We also had a korean kid at the high school two years ago. Anthony saw him run off after being beat up. He took him in and made his friends look out for him, and they ended up thinking he was so cool. Our city boasts how wonderful this school system is, but they fail to see the intolerence in it. They fail to see how minorities and people who are different are treated (and yes, I've talked to the school about it). I feel fairly confident that the school has measures in place to not let outsiders in. It's just the students I worry about. I'm not meaning to rant and rave. It's just something that has been on my mind, and I wish I could come up with a solution. I was humiliated and made miserable in school. My lunch was gone through, my clothes were made fun of, and I sat every day of sixth grade at the end of the table with not one person to talk to. When they got bored they spent the rest of the lunch period making my life hell. These are the kids I worry about. The teachers never saw a thing. They were oblivious to it all. In fact, the only reason the little girl got her recess taken away was because Miranda told the little japanese girl that she had to stand up and tell.

thank god here we dont have that kind of problems.... still kids can be in schools without having fear of been shoot.