# Serious incident at my kids' school **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026 "2015-10-09T13:48:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/41 "2015-10-09T17:35:35Z")
As traumatic as school shootings and/or child abductions are, they’re pretty darn rare. As a father of 3, I’d prefer it if schools did absolutely nothing. Unlock the doors, let the kids grow up in a calm, comforting environment, and just cross your fingers. I think there are improvements to be made in society at large, like discouraging people from keeping a bunch of guns in the house if you have teenagers, especially teenage boys with socialization issues. I also think we should dial back the stigma on pedophiles so they’re more willing to come forward and get help, but we’re getting way outside the scope of this thread, which is to mock this email I got and make bad chess puns. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/42 "2015-10-09T17:40:55Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > As traumatic as school shootings and/or child abductions are, they’re pretty darn rare. Yeah, there have only been three with multiple fatalities in the last week or so, with what appears to be a serious student-planned one detected and stopped. Hardly worth consideration. That these things, like suicides, tend to be “infectious” is also easily dismissed. I don’t like the pseudo-prison lockdown of schools, either. I roll my eyes at robocalls followed by emails explaining that nothing happened today in Sector 42-alpha. But pretending this new social illness doesn’t exist is not an option, IMVHO. So if our job was to smile at your puns and applaud your mocking, and stop, without any further comment on the issue… um, okay. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/43 "2015-10-09T17:53:25Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yeah, there have only been three with multiple fatalities in the last week or so, with what appears to be a serious student-planned one detected and stopped. Hardly worth consideration. Well, I should have clarified that my kids are in _elementary_ school. AFAIK all of the ones you’re referencing were colleges, which is a whole different kettle of fish. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/44 "2015-10-09T18:04:00Z")
About ten years ago, a neighbor of a local elementary school called the cops to report a man watching the children on the playground at recess. The man was my husband, the school custodian, on his lunch break . . . wearing his uniform, which looked like your typical ugly blue school custodian uniform. Really? You couldn’t tell that he belonged there? ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/45 "2015-10-09T18:24:10Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Well, we may just have to disagree on this, because I’d wager that _most_ parents, meaning more than 50%, don’t care if they get these sorts of emails. I certainly don’t feel that I need to know how they handle a man taking a shortcut across school property. That most definitely falls squarely into the category of “unimportant minutia I don’t need to be bothered with.” While I agree, you mentioned in your OP that the authorities were contacted and responded. So if the police were at the school and that is not a common occurrence, I can see the office deciding to utilize their list-serve rather than have the office bogged down by calls from parents wondering what happened. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/46 "2015-10-09T18:27:31Z")
That’s a good point, cops don’t see a lot of action around here so for all I know they rolled up 3 deep with lights and sirens and caused a stir in the neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/47 "2015-10-09T18:56:50Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Well, I should have clarified that my kids are in _elementary_ school. AFAIK all of the ones you’re referencing were colleges, which is a whole different kettle of fish. I’m not sure of that. Certainly, there are differences, but the tendency to take a gun or two and go show the world how pissed you are seems to be rising, and since shooting other adults doesn’t make the big headlines any more, it’s devolving to shooting kids, now while trying to push racist/religious hot buttons to make sure the headlines are big enough. The incidence may be small, numerically, but I don’t think many of us can consider ourselves truly safe from such predations. Especially when there’s a wave of them, which tends to spark others. It’s a serious question, asked in all seriousness: What \*do \*we do about it? Overreact? Underreact? Pretend it won’t happen to us or anyone we know? Wish it away? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/48 "2015-10-09T19:21:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If there was a Catholic church nearby he was probably a Bishop. Possibly a Queen. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/49 "2015-10-09T20:03:26Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > My guess is this is a perfectly reasonable response, by a school official, with more info than we are privy to, who is more than aware that this all occured in front of the most hysterical mother of the lot. Maybe he knows she is likely to broadcast this simple event, framed by her hysteria and revelling in spreading fear. I’d wager there is such a mother in every school. > > The ‘clarify information’ is the tell to me. Also I’ll bet every parent who gets this knows which mother that is and why it was sent. THIS. There’s probably a lot more to the story. The one time I’ve seen an armed guard at a school that was on perpetual lockdown, it was a K-3 school in a quiet middle-class neighborhood in a rural Illinois city. It was also the school attended by kids that age who lived at the domestic violence shelter, and the guard was a contracted employee of that agency. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/50 "2015-10-09T21:26:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > But what exactly _are_ we supposed to do? Answers from those with kids in school, or having had kids finish high school no more than maybe ten years ago especially solicited. I’m actually a student in high school right now. We have lockdown drills, where the classroom lights are turned off and everyone crouches down in complete silence on the floor in the far corner of the room (where a potential intruder wouldn’t be able to see anyone from the door’s window). All the interior and exterior doors automatically lock when shut 24/7. There’s a running joke that if you have a math test you didn’t study for, just scrawl a vague bomb threat on a bathroom stall a couple periods in advance and the whole school will evacuate for the rest of the day (happened three or four times last year; once, a helicopter was involved). All of this, from what I’ve seen, is pretty standard. And yet . . . everyone knows full well that if someone really wanted to, there are dozens of loopholes to getting in the school, especially if you’re a student and know your way around. The couple of times I’ve visited our town’s elementary school recently, the level of paranoia was even higher - they seemed to regard me (pretty much the least intimidating person on Earth) as a potential threat. So, to answer your question: nobody really knows, but that’s not stopping them from trying. In terms of number of lives saved, it would be far more effective to spend time talking about depression and preventing teen suicide, but shootings are so widely covered the threat’s been blown completely out of proportion. Still, nobody wants their school on CNN . . . ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/51 "2015-10-10T10:11:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Strangers aren’t tolerated on school grounds any more. > > Should they be? No strangers. Only friends you haven’t met yet. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2015, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/52 "2015-10-10T10:22:24Z")
In my day, the only parts of my schools that were fenced were those adjacent to homes, and the purpose was to keep the kids off of the homeowner’s grass. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/53 "2015-11-04T20:10:06Z")
Jesus Fucking Harold Christ people, it happened again! > [@](#): > > An unknown adult male was seen on school property today. You know, I joked about a full lockdown in my OP, but they did it! Level one lockdown! > [@](#): > > A level-one lockdown means that students stay inside for recess and all outside doors are sercured [sic] The police responded and told him not to come back. I just love that language, an “unknown adult male” sounds so much more ominous than if they’d just said, you know, “a man.” Why, I bet that unknown adult male was even equipped with a penile organ! And trigger fingers! ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/54 "2015-11-04T20:37:50Z")
This would have been a complete non event when I was in grade school. Our school had no fences around it - the playground just ran right up to the woods so anybody could walk anywhere they liked… and (gasp!) nobody died. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/55 "2015-11-04T20:44:51Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > My sister in-law is one of these ninnies. On the first day of school this year one of my nephews teachers called him by his first name instead of his nickname. She flipped her shit and emailed the teacher in question, nephews counselor and the principal that the nephew should be called by the nick name. > > When she regaled us of her great victory she said, “If I wanted him to be called by his first name I would have named him by his first name and not his nick name.” > > I pointed out that she did, in fact, name him his first name and that his nick name is a combo of his first and middle names. > > She gave me the evil eye and changed the topic. When I was in third grade, we moved and I went to a new school. The teacher informed me that she didn’t believe in nicknames and I would be “Richard” when I was in her class. My cousin had had her the year before. My cousin is Nikki. It’s what everybody in her life calls her, but because her given name is Naomi, she was “Naomi” in that teacher’s class. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/56 "2015-11-04T20:47:58Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Here is why the OP is completely wrong, along with the ridiculousness of buzzers and what not in the name of school security: > \*\* > School shooting are almost ALWAYS done by people who have permission to be on campus.\*\* > > Think about it. How many shooting have been strangers off the street or an angry parent? None! They are always students or in the case of Sandy Hook the son of one of the workers. In other words, school shooting are done by people who the security protocols would not stop anyways. The Sandy Hook shooter’s mother was not a worker at the school. That was an allegation made at the beginning of the investigation, but it turned out not to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/57 "2015-11-04T20:48:49Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > This would have been a complete non event when I was in grade school. Our school had no fences around it - the playground just ran right up to the woods so anybody could walk anywhere they liked… and (gasp!) nobody died. Pretty much. The back end of the school property of the Middle School I attended literally faded directly into a medium-sized city park. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/58 "2015-11-04T20:50:03Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > When I was in third grade, we moved and I went to a new school. The teacher informed me that she didn’t believe in nicknames and I would be “Richard” when I was in her class. My cousin had had her the year before. My cousin is Nikki. It’s what everybody in her life calls her, but because her given name is Naomi, she was “Naomi” in that teacher’s class. Did your aunt flip her shit and bitch out several people at the school? ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/59 "2015-11-04T20:58:26Z")
[quote=“Amateur\_Barbarian, post:16, topic:734026”] These days, they often are. I find it annoying that in my very small town, things like signing my kids out of school requires prison-like multiple buzzer doors. This has taken some expensive re-engineering of schools that were built in the “open campus” days. OTOH, I don’t live that far from Sandy Hook. > [@](#): > > So the question stands: should strangers with no particular school or parent business be tolerated on school grounds these days, regardless of how well secured the grounds are? On the one hand, I get the OP’s gripe about overreaction to trivial things. On the other hand, just as you live near Sandy Hook, I live near Stockton Springs, where they had an incident with [this crazy dude](http://bangordailynews.com/2011/03/14/news/hofland-convicted-of-taking-students-hostage-sentenced-to-35-years-in-prison/). I don’t think someone should be presumed guilty of malfeasance, however. If the guy is just taking a shortcut across the softball field, there is no need to make a big fuss over it. I wouldn’t even feel it would be a horrible thing if the guy said a cordial, “hello” to one of the students as he passed by. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026/60 "2015-11-04T21:09:17Z")
So, slight updated on this thread bump of mine. Apparently the guy from today’s email is an HIV positive sex offender; I don’t think he’s a pedophile but he should still know better than to be on school property. Also, he’s black, which is really annoying because now I don’t know if the school officials were suspicious because of his behavior or because they’re racist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serious-incident-at-my-kids-school/734026.md?page=4)