Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

PICKERINGTON CENTRAL

Parents?’ fears stall school gunman drill

By Charlie Roduta THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


The exercise would have started like previous safety drills at Pickerington Central High School.
School and classroom doors would have been locked. Hallways and bathrooms emptied. Students huddled away from windows. Officials would have swept through the school to make sure students were in a room and out of sight.
Then would come the real test.
An ''armed intruder'' would enter. ''Shots'' would be fired. There would be victims.
But the drill scheduled for yesterday ?— which would have been the school?’s first lockdown responding to a realistic situation ?— was called off after parents began calling with concerns.
Pickerington Central Principal Chuck Kemper says the drill will be rescheduled after he can figure out how to test the system without panicking students, staff members and parents.
The dilemma is one increasingly facing schools concerned about attacks such as the deadly ones in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin recently: How far do they go to make sure kids are prepared for the worst?
''You don?’t want to make this into a ?‘Halloween 13?’ event that scares the living daylights out of people because that misses the point,'' said Ted Feinberg, assistant executive director for the National Association of School Psychologists.
''The object is not to shock for shock value,'' he said. ''There should be a purpose and a message to the reasons that these activities are being done.''
Pickerington, which performs lockdown drills about once a month, planned the more-intense exercise to check the school?’s emergency plan with police, staff members and students, Kemper said.
''You never know when that is going to happen,'' he said. ''I want to be prepared, and I want to keep the building as safe as possible.''
Schools across the country have gone to similar lengths to test their plans, sometimes leaving parents unhappy.
Parents at a middle and high school in Wyoming, Mich., said their kids were traumatized after a drill last week where police officers in riot gear entered two classrooms with weapons, declaring that there was a threat. Students, who were not told it was a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls and patted down by officers. Bonnie Hedrick, executive director of the Ohio School Resource Network For Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities, encourages schools to develop drills that include all of the key players in an emergency situation.
But that doesn?’t mean students should be part of a realistic drill, experts say.
''Students should be part of a basic lockdown ... (and should be taught) that their most important role through a crisis is to listen to a teacher,'' said William Lassiter, manager for the Center for the Prevention of School Violence, in Raleigh, N.C.
Instead of using the entire student body, schools should look at other ways of involving kids, such as asking for volunteers, Lassiter said.
''The real purpose is not testing the school, but law-enforcement officers and emergency response teams,'' he said.

--continued

By Central Dad

Parents?’ fear stall school drill

The postponed Pickerington exercise would have reinforced the importance of safety drills, Kemper said.
''(Students) are very complacent about fire drills, and ?… I don?’t want the (lockdown) drill to be complacent,'' he said.
Students, staff and parents were warned to expect a more realistic, intense safety drill during the first week of November. But those warnings spurred speculation among students and parents about the exercise, leading to its postponement.
High-school and police officials had spent a month preparing for the 30-minute drill. Everything from the shooter?’s walk through the building to the ''victims'' was choreographed. If someone tried to stop the shooter, the exercise would have ended immediately, Kemper said. Members of the State Highway Patrol planned to observe the exercise. The Fairfield County sheriff?’s office and the Pickerington street department would have helped police shut down roads as part of the drill.
Kemper plans to talk to district officials and the school board about ways to improve communication with parents before he reschedules the drill.
Pickerington police say it will be worth the wait.
The drill is ''not going to be smooth,'' said Cmdr. Steve Annetts, but that?’s part of the learning experience. ''All it takes is one person that doesn?’t do what they?’re supposed to and then you?’ll have problems.''
croduta@dispatch.com



By Central Dad

My response - a novel


What I heard from my kids was a little different from what was reported in this article. It appears Mr. Kemper is ?“taking one for the team?” with his quotes. Let me tell you a little about my experiences with Mr. Kemper. My son is an honor student and athlete at Central, thus my moniker. He is a senior and by the grace of God he has had Mr. Kemper all four years. An incident occurred a couple of years ago that involved my son by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. An incident occurred of a serious nature that resulted in the expulsion of a couple of students. My son, for all practical purposes, could have been expelled with them but Mr. Kemper was willing to listen objectively and believed my son. He invested his trust in my son and he has not been disappointed in the return on that investment.

We found that Mr. Kemper sets the same standards for our kids as we do and there is effectively no difference in the rules and expectations for our kids whether they are at school or home. The expectations extend beyond the buildings at Central to extracurricular activities. We found that if we met Mr. Kemper?’s own children, we would meet kids much like our own.

We trust Mr. Kemper implicitly with our children. We trust he will see that they are educated, held to high personal standards and kept safe at all times. We never have worries about our children when they are in his care. The same can?’t be said for other principals in the Central District unfortunately. There are others who have no control over their school and we worry about our children?’s safety at all times. We have kids in, or have been through Ridgeview and Diley and I can tell you that those schools are powder kegs with a short fuse already lit and burning fast. I won?’t get into specifics as I wish to stay on topic with Central but Ridgeview Junior High could be nicknamed Ridgeview State Penitentiary with little stretch of the truth.

Mr. Kemper planned a safety drill that deals with current events. We hear stories of children no different than ours being slaughtered in their classrooms almost every week. We hear of schools confiscating ?“hit lists?” of children and teachers marked down for assassination. We see these events on the 6 o?’clock news every night but feel so insulated in our safe little haven of Pickerington where nothing like that ever happens. Nothing like that could ever happen. I am sure the families of those Amish children, although probably don?’t watch the 6 o?’clock news, never thought something like this ever could or would happen. I?’ll bet the parents of the girls who were first molested and then executed (can it get worse?) felt nothing like that could happen in their safe little area.

Mr. Kemper, however, has to set those ?“it can?’t happen here?” feelings aside and deal with the reality that many parents of the children he is responsible for will not accept. It can happen here. Mr. Kemper made a decision to be a pragmatist and be proactive in continuing to assure the safety of our kids by staging a drill to test the school?’s, the police?’s and the children?’s reaction to such an event. All plans were made and ready to go. Then the unexpected happened.

--more to come

By Central Dad

My response - a novel

Phones start ringing off the hook at Central, the District Offices and I am certain more than one or two board member?’s houses. Parents are outraged that a drill that is realistic, graphic and probably could be upsetting to children who have little exposure to reality from their parents. Parents call and demand that the drill be cancelled. Parents threaten many actions if it is not. Only one threat, however, strikes to the heart of someone who can make the drill be cancelled. The threat is that if the drill is not cancelled, ?“I?’ll vote against the levy and get as many people as I can to vote against it.?” Less than an hour later, the drill is cancelled. Other rationale for the parents?’ demands range from upsetting the children with ?“due to the graphic nature of this event, parents are strongly cautioned?…?” You know the rest because fully 75% of the television shows in prime time on both network and cable television carry the warning. Television shows (yes, even The Simpsons?” sometimes carries the warning) that without doubt these same parents let their kids watch. Many to most video games carry the warning but I?’ll bet we could find these video games in these same parents?’ homes.

Parents can rationalize the difference between the graphic nature of violent or sexually themed video games and television shows with ?“Aw, it?’s just fiction and not reality. No one really gets hurt.?” Perhaps if they saw the pictures from inside Columbine High or the Amish school or the many others, they would just think it was fiction and not real, too. I don?’t know because I don?’t understand parents like this. I am in the high hopes that at least one of these people responds to this posting to make their case because I am baffled at how avoiding the truth and facing reality is better for them and their kids that running a drill, albeit an intense one, that will prepare our kids for if something like that ever occurred.

When these events occurred at schools that I mentioned before, my wife and I sat down with the kids and did two things. We talked it through and we prayed. We talked about the reality and we prayed for the children and their families. We did not avoid the subject and we answered as many of our kids?’ questions as we could. We faced the reality just like Mr. Kemper was trying to face it yesterday. Let me also mention that I am not the only one enraged by the cancellation, my son and his peer group also are. Why, you ask? For the same reason mentioned in the Dispatch article. The kids think fire drills and tornado drills are so relaxed and ?“everyday?” that they are nothing more than a few minutes out of class. Even the bomb threats of a couple of years ago were never considered more than a good excuse to get out of class.

I also want to commend Police Chief Taylor for his involvement in this safety drill. Chief Taylor also appears to be a realist and, by the way, also has kids in the Central District. While I don?’t personally know Chief Taylor, I?’ll bet he deals with his kids much the same as my wife and I do.

--more to come

By Central Dad