What's Going On: Express investigation reveals fixable flaws in school’s security
See something, say something.
These four simple words should be the mantra for every faculty member in every school in Montgomery County and beyond.
Lora Top, principal at Southwest Valley Junior High in Villisca, has ingrained that phrase in the minds of her staff and it was never more obvious than when we recently tested her school’s security protocols.
Following the advice of those four words isn’t difficult and it doesn’t cost any money, but it could be all it takes to stop a gunman from wandering the halls of your child’s school.
I really can’t give enough credit to Top and the Southwest Valley school for their efforts in securing their building and making it a safe place for children.
If it weren’t for a janitor propping open a door for a few minutes, the school certainly would have received an “A” in our recent study of school security. But unfortunately, that door was open and as a result, the building was unsecure if not for the briefest of moments. As a result, that one small act of negligence wiped out all the work Top and her staff had done in closing off the building as for a moment, it was vulnerable.
Unfortunately though, that’s the world we live in now. We have to prepare for the worst in regards to school security. We enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle in small town America where we don’t have to lock our cars or our homes every time we go to the grocery store.
But we do have to take every, single, possible precaution when it comes to our children’s safety.
My son started preschool this year in Red Oak so the issue of school security is an important one for me. I expect him and my daughter both to attend Red Oak schools and I want to be confident all the common sense procedures that should be in place are in place and are being followed.
Before conducting this investigation, I wasn’t sure they were.
Unfortunately, I was right as while Southwest Valley’s junior high was the most vigilant in terms of security (despite their shortfalls) Red Oak’s high school was the worst, by far.
When we checked the high school (and adjoining annex building) a total of seven doors were unlocked, including four at the high school.
Meanwhile, after entry was gained, no one said anything beyond hello to the stranger walking the halls.
See something, say something.
Most concerning for me though wasn’t the doors open that should be locked, or the lack of someone saying something. It was the general lackadaisical policy of an open lunch.
This is a practice of a bygone era in which juniors and seniors can leave the campus and go elsewhere for lunch.
I can remember this policy in place when I was in high school back in the 1980s, way before Columbine. My school stopped it because well, students would leave and wouldn’t come back.
This was at a time when the biggest school threat was truancy and smoking in the bathrooms and even then, my high school’s administration realized letting students leave the campus wasn’t a great idea.
In today’s society, where some students have the notion its okay to avenge a swirlie with a shotgun blast, it makes even less sense to let them go home and obtain such a weapon.
The good news is Red Oak’s school board is expected to discuss the district’s security protocols at its meeting this week. This topic was already on the agenda before results of this investigation were revealed, but I’m sure the stories will provide additional items of discussion. Hopefully, one of those items to be considered is to abolish the open lunch policy.
But if it’s not, I hope the one thing our investigation causes is a heightened sense of awareness and common sense procedures are in place to make sure our children are as safe as they can be.
It’s as simple as see something, say something.
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.