The End of the Innocense

The end of this school year brings a subtle yet great change. Over the summer a new security system will go into place and I will wear an ID card around my neck that will also serve as a swipe card to enter building doors. The main doors will have a camera and office personnel will connect with an intercom and visitors will be buzzed in. This is not in response to any serious incidents, although we have had our share of non custodial parent attempted pick ups. In our primary schools of 200-250 kids the ability to know and understand our families (and at times some quick thinking) has always been enough to stop any of these situations. In fact, we pride ourselves on being neighborhood schools as much as we can and work hard to develop those relationships where the school is stitched deeply into the fabric of the community.

And yet, the grant was there, the pre-audit by the police did reveal some interesting ways of looking at our school that we had not thought about before. It was cool that our network infrastructure that we worked so hard to build stood ready to be a part of a new security system. And, clearly the times are changing. Better to be proactive than at the other end of a sad, sad news story? On that I would agree. The most important thing that I do each day is that I take the most precious thing a parent has and keep it warm, happy, fed and secure for 7 hours and then I give it back. The fact that I get to stuff some knowledge into their heads, is merely a side benefit.

Maybe it will not be so bad, Maybe we will make it not intrusive. Maybe it will make us one more layer secure. But it will be different.