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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Attacks Resulted In Ramped Up School Security
Posted by:
Loudoun County News
()
Date: September 15, 2011 06:30AM
Attacks Resulted In Ramped Up School Security
Posted: Friday, September 9, 2011 8:45 am | Updated: 12:42 pm, Fri Sep 9, 2011.
http://www.leesburg2day.com/news/schools/article_833eca64-da66-11e0-b639-001cc4c03286.html
Visitors to any public school in Loudoun County have a few steps to go through before they can actually enter a classroom.
They ring a bell from the outside, which alerts the office staff to look out the window and, if they feel the visitor is safe, presses a button to unlock the door. Then, the visitor signs in-with their name, who they're visiting and time of arrival-before they slap on a bright, sticky name tag that announces they are a "visitor."
The steps have become routine to those who visit schools frequently, but most of it was not in place 10 years ago, before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"It shined a light on how schools in general are vulnerable," Hamilton Elementary School Principal Robert Marple said. "Especially for us being so close to Dulles and the nation's Capital."
Every Loudoun school had an emergency plan in place, but nothing could quite prepare the schools for the day that left a hole in the Pentagon, the twin towers in New York City toppled and almost 3,000 dead.
At the time, Marple was the seventh-grade dean at Farmwell Station Middle School in Ashburn. He and several administrators were gathered for their regular weekly meeting when a teacher's assistant ran into the room.
"She said something to the effect that the FAA building in Leesburg had been bombed," Marple said.
The administrators left the room to find out what had really happened. Then, they returned to come up with a plan of how to proceed. They agreed it'd be best to keep the students focused on the school day and let their parents explain the attacks to them.
"We made sure teachers didn't have the televisions on or the live feed from Internet because we didn't want students who may very well have a parent who was impacted by this hearing for the first time at school," Marple said. "We decided that maybe a message best served coming from a parent."
Within minutes, the school's phones were ringing constantly with parents on the other line wanting to check in with their children. Parents also filled the parking lot to pick up students for the day.
"We had runners who we sent to individual rooms," Marple said of how they pulled specific students out of class to meet with their parents. "We also had counselors ready to talk to anyone who needed to."
Students were given the next day off. When they returned to school the following day, each teacher and administrator approached the topic differently, depending on the age of the students. At the middle school level, Marple said they tried to return students to their regular routine.
"It was a tough day that first day back in session. Everyone had to put their game face on and provide kids with a good, safe day in school," he said. "School can kind of give students a sense of normalcy, so we told them we have a heightened awareness of what has occurred, but we're going to get back to the business of education."
Carol Winters, principal at Newton-Lee Elementary School, named after two men who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, described Sept. 11, 2001, as a life-changing day. At the time, Winters was an assistant principal at Lowes Island Elementary School. She said minutes after she heard about the attacks, several of the students' parents were automatically called to active duty. They came to school in their military uniforms to hug their children goodbye.
"No one had experienced anything like that, so we really didn't know quite what to do," Winters said. "We gave one another hugs or just offered a smile. It didn't require words."
Posted: Friday, September 9, 2011 8:45 am | Updated: 12:42 pm, Fri Sep 9, 2011.
http://www.leesburg2day.com/news/schools/article_833eca64-da66-11e0-b639-001cc4c03286.html
Visitors to any public school in Loudoun County have a few steps to go through before they can actually enter a classroom.
They ring a bell from the outside, which alerts the office staff to look out the window and, if they feel the visitor is safe, presses a button to unlock the door. Then, the visitor signs in-with their name, who they're visiting and time of arrival-before they slap on a bright, sticky name tag that announces they are a "visitor."
The steps have become routine to those who visit schools frequently, but most of it was not in place 10 years ago, before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"It shined a light on how schools in general are vulnerable," Hamilton Elementary School Principal Robert Marple said. "Especially for us being so close to Dulles and the nation's Capital."
Every Loudoun school had an emergency plan in place, but nothing could quite prepare the schools for the day that left a hole in the Pentagon, the twin towers in New York City toppled and almost 3,000 dead.
At the time, Marple was the seventh-grade dean at Farmwell Station Middle School in Ashburn. He and several administrators were gathered for their regular weekly meeting when a teacher's assistant ran into the room.
"She said something to the effect that the FAA building in Leesburg had been bombed," Marple said.
The administrators left the room to find out what had really happened. Then, they returned to come up with a plan of how to proceed. They agreed it'd be best to keep the students focused on the school day and let their parents explain the attacks to them.
"We made sure teachers didn't have the televisions on or the live feed from Internet because we didn't want students who may very well have a parent who was impacted by this hearing for the first time at school," Marple said. "We decided that maybe a message best served coming from a parent."
Within minutes, the school's phones were ringing constantly with parents on the other line wanting to check in with their children. Parents also filled the parking lot to pick up students for the day.
"We had runners who we sent to individual rooms," Marple said of how they pulled specific students out of class to meet with their parents. "We also had counselors ready to talk to anyone who needed to."
Students were given the next day off. When they returned to school the following day, each teacher and administrator approached the topic differently, depending on the age of the students. At the middle school level, Marple said they tried to return students to their regular routine.
"It was a tough day that first day back in session. Everyone had to put their game face on and provide kids with a good, safe day in school," he said. "School can kind of give students a sense of normalcy, so we told them we have a heightened awareness of what has occurred, but we're going to get back to the business of education."
Carol Winters, principal at Newton-Lee Elementary School, named after two men who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, described Sept. 11, 2001, as a life-changing day. At the time, Winters was an assistant principal at Lowes Island Elementary School. She said minutes after she heard about the attacks, several of the students' parents were automatically called to active duty. They came to school in their military uniforms to hug their children goodbye.
"No one had experienced anything like that, so we really didn't know quite what to do," Winters said. "We gave one another hugs or just offered a smile. It didn't require words."