Parents’ anger is misdirected at the Sun Journal. They should be looking at schools for answers.

In the past week, the Sun Journal staff has twice been accused of wanting to endanger school children. Specifically, a couple of parents of Sabattus Primary School students are angry that the newspaper sent a reporter to test that school’s security plan and then reported the outcome in today’s paper.

These parents argue that by exposing holes in school security plans, we are informing creeps and perverts how best to get into which schools. The ugly truth is that crooks already know how to get into schools. That’s why districts craft security plans.

The goal of this project was not to endanger children. Quite the opposite. Our purpose was to test local schools to see whether they followed their own safety plans and provide that information to the public. It’s an idea we borrowed from The Philadelphia Inquirer, and it’s a process employed by the state’s own Department of Education, which regularly conducts surprise and scheduled audits of school security across the state.

We can understand the anger of parents in Sabattus because, at Sabattus Primary, the staff did not follow its own plan.

In fact, the reporter who went to that school, a nonthreatening-looking young woman, was escorted through a door into a classroom wing by a teacher. She walked through the school for 15 minutes, including a stroll through the gymnasium where students were actively engaged in class. She wandered into empty classrooms and, when passing the main office, did not see any adult monitors. The only person visible in the office area was a little boy.

A mother who called to complain about our project denied that was possible. “Our teachers are trained to stop” people they see but don’t know, she insisted.

The staff may be trained, but on the day our reporter went to that school, the training did not transfer into action.

No one on our staff has any desire to harm children. We believe our report better protects children. Principals and superintendents in virtually every district we tested told us they appreciated the test because it demonstrates where work still needs to be done. It’s work that can be done before something awful happens in our schools.

On Oct. 24, the Sun Journal assigned 14 staffers to enter 37 schools in Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties to test whether the staffs at these schools followed their own safety plans.

We embarked on this project in the shadow of horror over a series of school shootings in the United States and Canada, but we realize the real danger to children and teens is not in school. There is certain danger for teens commuting to school in private cars, and there is constant danger for youngsters who abuse drugs and alcohol. Depression endangers children, as does poverty, and sexual and physical abuse.

The chance that a Maine child may be killed while studying in a classroom or walking through a school hallway is exceptionally slim, but since we know the sanctity of schools has been shattered elsewhere, we have a duty to our children to make schools as secure as possible.

And we don’t have to spend millions to accomplish that.

Surveillance cameras are good, but the attention of school staff can do more good more quickly than cameras in every hall. In most of the elementary schools tested, our staffers were politely confronted almost immediately. Staff attention waned in middle schools and was absent in a couple of high schools. Parents ought to be asking why.

We understand our schools are community schools and parents and visitors are welcome in these buildings, but schools and the children inside are also targets and paying attention to who walks in the front door in every building doesn’t seem too much to expect.

The anger in Sabattus is understandable, but it’s misdirected. Instead of being angry at the newspaper, concerns and frustrations are better pointed at school departments that are letting children down.

Copy the Story Link