Today was the first day back. When I saw the teacher I share my trailer with, the ESL teacher whose work was destroyed, I asked her if she spoke to the administration about security problems. She told me that since nothing has happened yet, there is nothing for her to worry about. When I reminded her about her destroyed work, she replied, "Oh yes, Ms. Suit, the APO, said that security in the trailers is a problem and it is being looked into." She kept coming up with reasons for the trailer to be left unlocked--reasons I was able to shoot down every time. She finally just left, resigned to what had happened.
Am I insane? Am I wrong to be so worked up about security? Is it better to just rely on history and say that since nothing has happened in the past nothing will wait happen in the future?
10 comments:
I'm not at all optimistic about security, but of course you aren't crazy to take it seriously. The people who voted for Bloomberg weren't crazy either--they just had bad information.
While you don't need to live in abject terror, you do need to take seriously the lack of security in your trailer. Just because something hasn't happened in the past, doesn't mean that it won't in the future. "Better safe than sorry." No, you are not crazy.
I thought the AP was going to do something?
so I have been promised!
Well, you know my advice. Safety is not an area where wait and see makes me comfortable... but this is far from me and my school.
i'm trying to get some of other trailer teachers behind me. So far, I am having no luck.
What about the parents? What about the kids themselves? What about others in the community? What about the police? Why aren't they all up in arms about this? And aren't there statutes that describe the school's responsibilities, like maintaining a safe environment? That's what laws and regulations are for. Schooling is compulsory, but schools have duties and responsibilities. I just can't believe all you can do is complain to people and ask them! Oh, wait, maybe I can believe it.
Not far from where I live, a nutcase walked into an elementary school and knifed 8 children to death in June, 2001. Nobody had ever really thought about security in elementary schools before that. Afterwards, it was all they could think about. I'm sure there are excellent reasons why it's so much easier to get things done after a disaster.
To quote a good friend of mine "It's all about the Benjamins". No one wants to spend any money. Truthfully, no matter how bad my trailer is, I don't want to lose it. Some of the rooms in the building are much worse and I know I will end up in one of them.
It's why we need a tougher union, starting at the chapter level. Why should you have to be afraid of being punished (given a bad room) just for trying to get a hazardous condition fixed?
These administrators make me so angry.
And why should it even be on one person? Good for you for trying to talk to other teachers. Collective action can start with a conversation. Sounds like in your school, though, teachers haven't gotten beyond looking out for #1 yet.
It is hard to get things going...
Last year I worked in a building that had to be evacuated due to a gas leak.
The principal who is wonderful and has safety protocols in place probably never in a million years thought she would have to use her evacuation plan. But she did on Dec 6, 2010 and I have to say under the worst situation, everything was taken care of wonderfully, especially with the smallest and youngest children in the district. Walking from the early childhood center to the middle school takes about 10 minutes but with the little babies, it took about an hour.
This is 1 day that anyone who was there will never forget, including the children. They thought it was cool to have a picnic lunch on the middle school gymnasium floor.
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