*“We realize at first this may seem odd; however, it is a practice that would catch an intruder off guard,” the principal wrote in her letter. “The canned food item could stun the intruder or even knock him out until the police arrive.” *
Tin soldiers?
Just close your eyes and visualize hurled peas.
I always thought mopery was “exposing yourself to a blind person”. 
You are guilty of being a non-staff person inside a school building without having passed through security protocols. If you are a male, count your lucky stars that they didn’t summon the police. (If you think I am exaggerating, my local school called the police last year when a father came early and parked outside of the school, waiting to pick up his child for a dentist appointment. The staff member relating the story was proud of how rapidly the school and police responded. Of course, mothers do the same thing without the police needing to be summoned.)
I have had kids in the local schools for 20 years, and I am so irritated by the security systems that they have put in and the attitude/thought-processes that they represent that I dread days when I have to visit the school while it is in session.
When I was a kid in the 1970s (this same town, which happens to be an exceptionally safe town), none of the school doors were locked, and visitors could basically come and go as they pleased. I am not aware of any incidents.
Then in the 1980s there was Laurie Dann. A legitimately horrifying story, she was someone with psychological problems who went into a grade school and shot and killed a number of children. A true outlier also, but I can understand schools locking doors as a result.
When my kids started going to school 20 years ago, doors were locked except for the front door by the office. If you visited the school, you walked into the office, signed in, filled out a name tag, and went on your way. At the end of the school day, parents could wait in the lobby on winter days while waiting for their kids. (Kindergartners, 1st graders)
Now, if you visit the school, there is a double entryway for you to be buzzed in twice that leads directly into the office, where you have to have your ID scanned on a system that checks you against the sex offender registry (the Raptor system). Every time you visit. Parents are not allowed to wait in the school lobby, no matter how bitterly cold it is outside.
Of course, if you were to actually question the need for all of this, well, why don’t you want our children to be safe? Shouldn’t we do everything we can? What if something happened?..etc.
Good thing your art supplies didn’t include a squirt gun. You’d have been locked up for sure.
You are now on Double Secret Probation!
The only ‘security protocol’ they had in school when I was a kid were signs on the unlocked doors that said ‘All visitors must report to the office.’ Said office was on the second floor of the high school section of the building (small town).
Maybe, but this isn’t “academia” it’s an elementary school.
I’ve gotten those looks occasionally too, when I’ve shown up to substitute teach. I just tell them why I’m there, and after a few times they seem to remember me.
On the other hand, it’s also quite common to buzz the intercom by the door, and for the staff inside to respond by just opening the electronic lock, without even asking who I am. It’s also not uncommon to then walk right past a metal detector gate at the side of the hallway, without any restrictions to force you to walk through it, nor a security guard manning it. Those things must have cost a lot of money-- Why do they have them if they’re not going to use them?
I so wish I’d done just that. I’m going to have nightmares about some kid getting a splinter from a craft stick and me being stuck with a plastic surgery bill to repair the injury lest Little Snookums’ future career as a nail technician be jeopardized.
Elementary school is just its cover. It’s a little kingdom filled with presciousses who are guarded by the dragon lady in her lair. I volunteered in a similar school and it was a teacher v. principal war zone.
hangs head and promises not to do it again
Will I have to wear an ankle bracelet? I hope it’s a cute one.
Oh, dear … there are some clay cutters in a box. They are sharp. I didn’t put a blaze orange warning on the container! I am well and truly doomed. Who wants my yarn?
! yarn???
Oh, please, lighten up. I’d have followed every protocol, silly as many of them are, if the idiot teacher expecting the freebies had told me of them and told the principal about the freebies as well. They should have been thanking me for letting them know that their lock-down had a flaw. At a minimum, offer me a seat, SMILE, and begin a conversation that expresses concern and how can we handle this?
They can lock every damn door in the place and somebody armed can shoot out every non-bullet proof window in a flash and be gone before the two or three cops could get their car started.
cashmere, handspun Shetland, mohair, are you drooling yet?
I first regarded this with a chuckle but as I drove around town today I got a creepy feeling. Suppose someone had been armed? Or the doors alarmed? Things could have gotten serious very quickly. I don’t know what the answer to school safety is, but I don’t think growing up in an atmosphere of siege mentality is healthy, either.
Good thing we don’t have to worry about all the Adam Lanzas or Sex Offenders in the world using cheap AC Moore construction paper as an “in” to get at our kids in the classrooms.
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