At my daughter's school there was a rumor about a gun today being in the locker room. My daughter got four or five phone calls from her friends last night. I called the school before school started, and they said it was a rumor that had been investigated by them and the Sheriff Department, and that they had their normal security (I asked if they had extra).

I still noticed that a lot of students did not go to school today because of the rumor which made dropping her off easy. A friend did not have their child go to school today and was unhappy the school did not use their automatic system to alert parents and check all the lockers last night. They did cancel an assembly today and for PE had all the students walk as a group to the gym.

I am not sure the Principal had many good alternatives. My opinion is the Principal and whom ever else made the decision did not know the power of the rumor network, and is paying for that by having many students miss school today (which reduces funding, because the school gets paid, say $34 per day per student. So if 1000 students miss school, about 1/3rd of the school which looking at the parking lot makes sense, that is $34,000 the school is out).

Labels: School Safety, Schools