Concern over school security....

[TheIncredibles!]

You don't have to let your doctor's office receptionist know who you are? Do they just take you right into the exam room? Wow. We even have to show ID to get into our own workplace. Maybe it's because of location/proximity to a major city with high levels of crime.

When I go to the doctor I tell them my name. I do not show Id. As far as location, I live approx an hour outside of NYC. Major city, high level of crime.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

When I go to the doctor I tell them my name. I do not show Id. As far as location, I live approx an hour outside of NYC. Major city, high level of crime.

As of 2013, NYC has the 3rd lowest crime rate in the country.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Hey Kim, how about leaving the worrying to the parents. Can you give us the data regarding incidences of people not associated with being in a school, coming in and causing harm. How many thousands? Hundreds? Dozens? Schools do have some very serious issues to throw very limited funds at. I'm 10 miles from NYC - not on the boonies somewhere. Come back when you have kids in school - you have given me quite the chuckle, as well, but at least I have some ponies in this race.

I honestly cannot think of any place where I have had to show my id to enter. Who knew NJ was such a backwoods state that was so behind the times. If we're lucky then things will change soon and before you know it we will start scanning our license just to get into Shop Rite.

 

[msjprincess]

You don't have to let your doctor's office receptionist know who you are? Do they just take you right into the exam room? Wow. We even have to show ID to get into our own workplace.

Maybe it's because of location/proximity to a major city with high levels of crime.

I've never had to show ID at the doctor's office. Yes I do have to give them my name, so they know I am there. It has nothing to do with security. So I really don't see how a doctor's office is relevant to this topic.

Were you waiting in the lobby or walking around the building?

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I once lost my ID and didn't get around to getting it replaced for a year. Other than one time when I had to ask a friend to pick up a controlled substance for painkillers for my son, I didn't need it once.

 

[aprilgail2]

I once lost my ID and didn't get around to getting it replaced for a year. Other than one time when I had to ask a friend to pick up a controlled substance for painkillers for my son, I didn't need it once.

I needed mine last week at a new dr I went to and also at the place I got an MRI at 3 days after that. I always need it entering the schools. Also needed it Saturday at a new dentist.

 

[laura.anne]

The only doctor I have ever had to show an ID for is at our university health center.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I once lost my ID and didn't get around to getting it replaced for a year. Other than one time when I had to ask a friend to pick up a controlled substance for painkillers for my son, I didn't need it once.

I need it daily as it's illegal to drive without your driver's license on you.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Hey Kim, how about leaving the worrying to the parents. Can you give us the data regarding incidences of people not associated with being in a school, coming in and causing harm. How many thousands? Hundreds? Dozens? Schools do have some very serious issues to throw very limited funds at. I'm 10 miles from NYC - not on the boonies somewhere.

Come back when you have kids in school - you have given me quite the chuckle, as well, but at least I have some ponies in this race.

The OP is just worrying about the safety of children. There is nothing wrong with that. Why do you need to be so snarky and rude?

 

[Susiequsie60]

To the OP - this is a sincere question. I haven't read every post here word for word, so if someone has already asked or addressed this, I apologize.

In your first post you said that you pick-up your niece 6-8 times a year, over the last 5 years. As I already mentioned, I work in a school, so I'm speaking from my personal experience.

If someone has been coming to our school to pick-up a child for 5 years, 6-8 times each of those years (and coming inside each time) - we would recognize them in the office. Honestly, we'd recognize them after just a couple of times in one year. I don't know how big your school is. The one I work at is about 800 kids. Really - we recognize people after we've seen them 2 or 3 times.

Also, I feel like the security has really been tightened in the past 2 years - especially after the Newtown shooting. I doubt that the security was as tight when you started picking up your niece 5 years ago. Is it possible that who ever is buzzing you in recognizes you and therefore doesn't need to see ID? Didn't you say that the mother of the child gives them notice that you're coming to get her daughter?

I'm not trying to trivialize what you're saying, I just think that maybe you're over-reacting to what you see as a lapse in security.

And another point - I'm not sure what looking at someone's ID really does as far as keeping the students any safer. If a parent informs us that Janie's Aunt Mary is picking her up at 2:00, when we buzz a woman in a 2:00 pm and she says she's there to pick-up Janie, we don't ask her for ID. We do have her sign out the student if it is before the end of the day. Again, I'm not 100% clear if you are picking up your niece before dismissal or after. If it's after dismissal, well honestly, I don't know why you're even going in to the school. All of our kids (even at the grammar schools) are met outside the building after dismissal. Is your niece being called down to the office to meet you? Is there only one door that all students exit out of? Again, I think that you might be seeing poor security where it really doesn't exist.

In your original post you asked if people thought it would be inappropriate for a non-parent to write a letter to express concern over this issue. I kind of think it would. If the parents of the school had a problem with the systems in place, they would make themselves heard - at least in the district where I work. You said yourself that even your own sister has not voiced any concerns. I think you're over-thinking the situation.

 

[Susiequsie60]

The school really has no way of knowing if every person that enters is a parent or not. I mean, if someone wearing a UPS uniform buzzes the door, they'd let him in. That's how lax the security is in this school. To me, that's scary.

I've been trying to read all of these posts - and I just have to ask:

What would you like them to do when someone wearing a UPS uniform buzzes the door? NOT let them in? Go out and physically be sure the UPS truck is parked in the lot? Hold up an official UPS ID, because I'm sure everyone could certainly be positive about what an official UPS ID looks like. Exactly how tough should the security be? Yes, of course we want to keep the children as safe as possible, but I'm a secretary, not a security guard.

 

[Styx Fan]

I was always under the impression you had to show an ID at some doctors offices to prove the person appearing for treatment is the person who is insured/responsible for paying the bill. Not in any way to provide any safety to the office staff.

At most of my doctors, at the first visit and maybe every so many years, they take a photo copy of your Drivers License. They also take a copy of your insurance card. If the insurance is for Jane Smith, they want to make sure Jane is in the office and not her friend Suzie Q taking advantage of Janes insurance.

 

[NHdisneylover]

OP, up to your ranting post where you say people are mocking you, I did not see a single rude or snarky post at all
People do not agree with you and are stating why, but not in rude or mocking ways.

I am still not sure what you want. Yes, someone COULD potentially dress a sa UPS driver and then get into the building, somehow not be noticed as they go deeper into the building, hide in a bathroom, and molest a child. It is very far fetched, but I suppose it is possible.

Should the school refuse all deliveries? How would they get books and materials?
What would prevent a "bad guy" dressed as a UPS driver from signing in with a fake ID? If you are investing in a fake UPS uniform, a realistic looking fake ID would probably not be hard to find.

You don't have to let your doctor's office receptionist know who you are? Do they just take you right into the exam room? Wow. We even have to show ID to get into our own workplace.

Maybe it's because of location/proximity to a major city with high levels of crime.

I take my kids to doctors and have accompanied both my husband and my mother at times (and my husband has accompanied me) even back into the exam room. NEVER at any doctor'S office in any country has the person who is not the patient been asked to sign in or show any ID. The ID is (as others say) jsut to make sure the correct person is being treated and billed. Not a security thing.

And how many of us have told you our experience is that we can enter most government buildings without ID? A list of places, in the US that I can think of that have required I show ID to enter even an outer waiting area (like a lobby):

The Federal Mint

that is it. Even the airport lets me in the outer terminals, but I do need ID to get to the gates (and a ticket)

 

[kimblebee]

I can't imagine living with this kind of fear on a daily basis. No schools in my city are locked down. All doors are open and no one needs to be buzzed in. Ok, maybe there is one or two but I've never heard of one. If I have to go pick up my daughter, I walk in the door, down the hall, around two corners to get to the office. I give her name and they call her down.

I honestly don't think there's been a case in the last 30 years of someone bringing a gun into a school. Yes, schools have been locked down because there's a possible gun in the area, but never in a school. It just isn't on my radar. To have parents display numbers to match up to their kids...I have no words.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I need it daily as it's illegal to drive without your driver's license on you.

At that point in my life I was living in the city, and didn't have either a car or a driver's license.

But when I've had both, I could easily go a year without needing to show it to anyone.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I can't imagine living with this kind of fear on a daily basis. No schools in my city are locked down. All doors are open and no one needs to be buzzed in. Ok, maybe there is one or two but I've never heard of one. If I have to go pick up my daughter, I walk in the door, down the hall, around two corners to get to the office. I give her name and they call her down.

I honestly don't think there's been a case in the last 30 years of someone bringing a gun into a school. Yes, schools have been locked down because there's a possible gun in the area, but never in a school. It just isn't on my radar. To have parents display numbers to match up to their kids...I have no words.

The number thing is in no way a security thing. It's so that you can tell which kids belong to whom at a distance and get them out the door and into the right car quickly.

 

[Aliceacc]

We live in the suburbs, about 40 minutes from Manhattan. Up until Newtown last year, the policies were pretty lax. But things have changed.

The policy in my kids' district:

Each time you visit each of the schools you give them your license and it's scanned. The first time, you register, and it's quicker from that point onward. This is new this year, and I love it.

For my Catholic high school: the front door is locked during school hours. Anyone who wants to enter is allowed in-- there's a "porter" whose job is to sign people in and give them a pass.

But the reality is that someone with the intention of doing harm can't be stopped. Someone with a gun can blast through the door and do whatever harm he/she wants. If he or she doesn't have his own safety as a primary concern, then there's nothing to lose.

That reality isn't limited to schools-- it applies to malls and airports and any other place in the world. There's no place on the planet that's "safe." Think back to the scenes of the school shootings since Columbine. For the most part, they weren't in big bad scary cities, they were in places like Newtown Ct, Goddard Kansas, Concord New Hampshire-- places that had always been thought of as "safe."

We used to have good friends-- my kids called them "Aunt and Uncle", we spent endless hours at each other's houses, we babysat each other's kids. He got a job transfer, so they moved to the midwest. Imagine our shock when he was arrested for sexually abusing a minor! (And that minor was a part of his family-- it happened in his own house. He didn't have to lure her in; she was there on vacation.) And he's not living in some big city; he lives in a small town in the midwest. Nope, he's not legally supposed to be in his son's school, but if no one is checking ID, I'm not sure what would prevent him from being there.

He's been there for a good decade. He's someone's next door neighbor, the one someone waves to every day on the train or bus. He's the onw mowing his lawn and doing such a great job of it. He may be the one your friend finds on match.com, since his wife divorced him after the nightmare. You may see him at church, or at the school car wash.

And if no one runs his ID, he'll be trusted. And he'll have the opportunity to do immeasurable harm to another child.

If we have any hopes at all of keeping our kids safe, the very first step is to realize that evil knows no borders. That there aren't "safe" places, merely places that haven't had evil visit yet.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We live in the suburbs, about 40 minutes from Manhattan. Up until Newtown last year, the policies were pretty lax. But things have changed.

The policy in my kids' district:

Each time you visit each of the schools you give them your license and it's scanned. The first time, you register, and it's quicker from that point onward. This is new this year, and I love it.

For my Catholic high school: the front door is locked during school hours. Anyone who wants to enter is allowed in-- there's a "porter" whose job is to sign people in and give them a pass.

But the reality is that someone with the intention of doing harm can't be stopped. Someone with a gun can blast through the door and do whatever harm he/she wants. If he or she doesn't have his own safety as a primary concern, then there's nothing to lose.

That reality isn't limited to schools-- it applies to malls and airports and any other place in the world. There's no place on the planet that's "safe." Think back to the scenes of the school shootings since Columbine. For the most part, they weren't in big bad scary cities, they were in places like Newtown Ct, Goddard Kansas, Concord New Hampshire-- places that had always been thought of as "safe."

We used to have good friends-- my kids called them "Aunt and Uncle", we spent endless hours at each other's houses, we babysat each other's kids. He got a job transfer, so they moved to the midwest. Imagine our shock when he was arrested for sexually abusing a minor! And he's not living in some big city; he lives in a small town in the midwest. Nope, he's not legally supposed to be in his son's school, but if no one is checking ID, I'm not sure what would prevent him from being there.

He's been there for a good decade. He's someone's next door neighbor, the one someone waves to every day on the train or bus. He's the onw mowing his lawn and doing such a great job of it. He may be the one your friend finds on match.com, since his wife divorced him after the nightmare. You may see him at church, or at the school car wash.

And if no one runs his ID, he'll be trusted. And he'll have the opportunity to do immeasurable harm to another child.

What happened in Concord? I am surprised to not know about that.

 

[Aliceacc]

What happened in Concord? I am surprised to not know about that.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/3438627-95/1985-concord-shooting-believe

Google "US school shootings" and you'll see the names of lots of small-town-America places.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Oh wow, that predated Columbine by several years. No wonder I did not know of it, I was just a kid myself.

I do agree with you that these tragedies are just as likely (or more so) to happen in small "safe" places as in big cities. Even a one room Amish school house was not immune.

It is so sad, every single time.