By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer
April 29, 2007 12:22 am
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Muskogee school parent Rosemay Stewart recalls sensing a problem when she picked up her son at Grant Foreman Elementary School on Friday, March 30, and seeing campus police and upper level school administrators.
However, she said it was not until the following Monday that she received official notification of what had happened. A bomb threat had been called in, less than 20 minutes before the end of school March 30. School administrators said they had no time that day to contact parents of more than 400 students who go to the school.
Keeping students safe and parents informed can be a delicate balance. Area school officials say they are seeking ways to improve school security and public communication. For example, Muskogee and Wagoner public schools are looking at ways to send mass messages to parents’ telephones, e-mails or Palm Pilots.
House Bill 1512 requires all schools and colleges to have on file written plans and procedures for protecting students, staff and visitors from “natural or manmade disasters or emergencies.”
Incidents listed as manmade disasters include: Act of war, terrorism, chemical spill or release or power shortage requiring “outside assistance.”
However, a “thin line” separates how much of those procedures can be shared with students, parents or school patrons, said Gayle Jones, co-director of the State Department of Education’s Comprehensive Health program, which encompasses school safety.
“In our school crisis codes, there is no reason for students and parents to have some of that information, for example, codes schools have for lockdowns,” Jones said. “However, parents have the right to ask schools ‘Do you have a crisis plan.’ We want everyone to be informed, but parents also need to trust that school authorities know what to do in case of an emergency.”
Muskogee Public Schools Campus Police Chief Dan Hall said there are some safety procedures “we want to keep in-house.”
“We don’t want someone outside familiar with what we do,” Hall said, adding that someone with criminal or mischievous intentions might look at the procedures and find a way around them.
Stewart and other parents said they had heard that the caller told the school not to let anyone out of the building.
Hall confirmed the caller did say not to let anyone out of the building. However, he said the main reason was that police and officials wanted to search the school for suspicious items.
“With security in place, you keep the kids safe until you have enough information to make an educated decision,” he said.
He cited the 1998 incident in Jonesboro, Ark., in which two boys tripped a fire alarm, hid outside, then shot their classmates as they filed outside.
Muskogee School Superintendent Mike Garde said, “We have specific protocol depending on what is said by the caller.”
The Grant Foreman bomb threat was called into the district’s Board of Education Service and Technology Center at 3:10 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Parents had already arrived at the school to pick up their kids.
Hall said parents stood on the side of the street and did not cross the street while the school responded to the bomb threat.
“We even had police officers escort kids out the back door and walk to Hilltop Avenue,” he said.
The Muskogee Phoenix ran a two paragraph story about the threat March 31. A principal’s letter detailing the school’s response to the threat was sent the following Monday, April 2.
Muskogee School officials say the district is looking into a way to get messages to parents more quickly. District Facilities and Maintenance Director Wayne Johnson said the district is considering Honeywell’s Instant Alert System, which would enable principals or other school officials to send messages to parents and students through mass e-mail, telephone and text-messaging. Johnson said parents wanting to be included in the Instant Alert system would tell school officials how they would want to be contacted. He said the system could target specific groups or individuals to contact.
“It could be just parents, just people at certain schools or just freshmen at the high school,” he said.
Honeywell representatives are to explain the Instant Alert system to Muskogee administrators on May 8. Johnson said cost of the system, which is used by 2,100 districts across the United States, is based on the number of students.
At Wagoner, School Superintendent Janice Aldridge said the district is installing a School Messenger mass-messaging system which she expects to be online by the start of the 2008 school year. She said the basic program costs about $8,000, based on student population, plus $1,000 for additional software. She said the district is “digging up funds” to finish installing the system.
Aldridge and Johnson said their messaging systems also could inform parents of weather-related school closings.
Not all school districts are getting on the mass-messaging bandwagon.
Tahlequah High School Principal Nick Migliorino the idea of text-messaging parents “is intriguing to me.” He said Tahlequah Schools would use mass media and area emergency management systems to inform parents of emergencies.
“On a mass scale, our procedure in an emergency would be to notify the school board, make sure all school administrators are notified,” he said. “Then, God forbid, it’s a lockdown, get the word out to parents through radio, TV, public announcements.”
Migliorino said the district has multiple security cameras at each school. At his school, all visitors check in at the office and must show a photo identification and get a visitor’s lanyard. A student “ambassador” must escort visitors to places beyond the school office, he said.
The school also has a safety resource officer through the Tahlequah Police Department on campus.
Fort Gibson Superintendent Derald Glover said the district is seeking a grant to install Aiphone security door systems at each school entrance. Exterior doors at each school are locked, and the Aiphone would enable school staff to identify the visitor before granting access.
Johnson said MPS has 320 security cameras throughout the district. Each school except the high school also has locked exterior doors with delayed access only when someone in the school office recognizes the visitor. Muskogee High School has a security access gate.
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