What's Going On: Finding a balance between safety and living in a bunker

 As a parent, I’m not sure there could be a more terrifying story than the one that came out of Springfield, Mo., last week when 10-year-old Hailey Owens was abducted in broad daylight blocks from her home. 

I don’t know if it was the sheer randomness of the act, the steely cold calculated violence, or the local connection, but this tragedy struck a chord with me in a similar manner to the terrorist acts of 9-11 and the Sandy Hook school shooting. 

While the magnitude of these events can’t even be compared, they are similar in the panic felt by people thousands of miles away. 

And as soon the panic starts to subside, the flood of paranoia and questions follow. 

However, for those of us not directly involved, the question that dominates our focus is how can we prevent this from happening in our home and our community?

It is interesting to identify common threads in answering that question. There are the obvious common sense solution such as metal detectors at airports, buzz key systems and intruder drills. 

But in the case of the abduction and eventual murder of Hailey Owens, many of those common sense protocols were already in place. 

Hailey wasn’t walking down a dark alley in an unfamiliar place in the middle of the night all by herself.

She was literally a block from her house, in the middle of the afternoon, with plenty of people in plain view.

And even when she was first approached by her attacker, her first instinct was to walk the other direction. 

Yet, she made the fatal mistake when her attacker called for her a second time, she took two steps towards his vehicle. Unfortunately for her, it was one step too many as he lunged out of his truck, grabbed her and threw her in, never to be seen alive again. 

So again, what can we learn from this tragedy and most importantly, what can we do to prevent it from happening here in southwest Iowa? 

Obviously, as one friend of mine pointed out last week when talking about this, we can’t change the “sickos.” The predators of the world who want to harm children are out there and won’t be changing their ways. 

So, we have to educate our children. Unfortunately though, it’s just not as simple as training them to run in fear anytime a stranger approaches them. 

First, we don’t want our children having to live their lives in a constant state of terror. That’s no way to live. 

Secondly, children need to learn to respect and trust authority figures. But again, that becomes all the more tricky when authority figures such as religious leaders or in this case, educators, are the ones committing the crimes. 

There are also changes we could and maybe should make from within the system. The idea of a walking school bus would help alleviate some of the risks of walking home alone after school. 

And maybe it’s time to reconsider the framework of school in light of the fact that many of these children walking home are going to a home absent of an adult due to the constraints of having to work. Maybe it’s time to consider a school day more aligned with the traditional 8-5 work schedule so when children do come home, there is a parent there waiting for them. 

But similar to the school shooter and the terrorist, the child abductor will continue to adapt and evolve in a manner similar to nature’s predators.

And while it’s important for us to adopt some of these common sense practices and to teach them to our children as well, it is equally important to recognize there is only so much we can do. 

Much like the school shooter or the terrorist, if someone’s only goal regardless of consequence is to abduct a child, even your child, they will probably be able to do it at some point and time. Unless you have unlimited resources in order to hire security teams to be on call 24/7 to protect your child, there will be a point and time where you child is vulnerable. 

There are extreme solutions to prevent these tragedies from happening to you and your family. Want to avoid terrorists at all costs? Live in an underground bunker and don’t ever come out. Want to reduce school shootings? Install prison-type security in our schools, regardless of the affect on the learning process.

But those are no more realistic than hiring a security team and keeping your child locked up in the basement. 

At some point, life has to be lived. After instilling all the common sense measures you ultimately have to put your faith in God, or fate, or karma or whatever to trust our children will be safe. 

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.