you dont sound paranoid
you sound like a careing parent for your child

and i do NOT think schools are safe at all
you are right anyone could just come start sweeping up kids

its unorganized

I have been in schools that have an office in the front where people enter and someone will immediately come out and question why you are there.

I have also been in schools where you could wander aimlessly all day and never get a second look. I worked for a group home and one of our kids didn't come home on the bus, so I had to go to his high school to see if he was there. I walked up and down every hall, into gymnasiums, and around the grounds and not one person stopped me. I had to go into the office and "ahem" before anyone assisted me. I could have been a PO parent looking to abduct my son/daughter, a pedophile, or some sick person looking to plant a bomb, and nobody even cared.

No, I don't think most schools are safe at all. It's pretty scary that most post offices/court houses have better security than schools

I've worked in some elementary schools and I've always had to wear a name badge and sign in and sign out.

However, if I didn't do these things, I don't think anyone would've stopped me.

I guess that just explains the importance of teaching your children how to be safe, and parent/teacher communication.

It's so hard for teachers now to have so many students.....

In my school they are very tight & most schools sense 9/11. My school has weekly drills on how to handle these situations. Teachers & guards go crazy in my school even if a high schooler comes in. In my opinion every school varies.

I believe for schools to not being safe. Look at all this massacres in schools and universities. They were good schools but you never know when someone with a mental disorder can come to one and do something terrible.

My school is pretty safe and we have regular drills and stuff. However, it is very possible that a psycho could build a bomb and ship it to school. There would be no real way to distinguish a normal person from a person with a bomb. But again, life isn't completely safe anyways. People have sex a lot nowadays, and AIDS getting passed around isn't impossible. People die from swimming in unsafe areas, etc. Take whatever safety precautions you can and be as aware as possible, but don't let fear paralyze your life.

Could we try and avoid the stereotype that people with mental illness are all dangerous and bomb people?

Statistics show that people with mental illness are just as safe as healthy people.

If you say, "A sociopath", that's one thing. But people with mental illness are NOT dangerous or angry or terrorists.

I'll get off my soapbox now

I'm not tryin to stereotype any people with mental disorders or not. But there is a high school near where my b/f's mother and sisters live. The school along with a daycare is built right next to a state mental institution. When something goes wrong at the institution, the schools, daycare and anything in a certain mile radius would be locked down for protection. I'm not saying that these ppl are dangerous....you just may never know.

it doesnt take someone with a mental dissorder to go into a school and start shooting

and who in their right mind would go to a school and shoot?

someone darn mad without a doubt
doesnt mean they are crazy
doesnt mean the have a mental illness
again people are tagging mental illness on things like this these days
you have to remember some people are just cold hearted and cold blooded
doesnt mean they are crazy

The only time anyone would have to worry about anything like someone who has a mental illness breaking into a school is only if stupid contractors had a school built right by a state mental institution.

In my opinion, our kids are safer at home with their family than at school. Anything could happen at school such as incidents ranging from natural causes to violence. But yes things like this could also happen at home. I feel that my daughter would be safer being with me, her mother. Many schools have been increasing their security and doing safety procedures throughout the school year to protect their students. Geez back when I was in high school, if anyone even said a tiniest threat to anyone they'd be trouble and the police would be notified. We weren't allowed to say the word "shoot" b/c to the school it meant that someone wanted to kill someone. MY senior year in high school, the school finally gave the students id cards. In order to inside the high school, nowadays you have to identify yourself and whats your reason for being there before they allow you into the school. Even tho they've improved their security, my daughter is safer at home. I know i've said that a few times now.

anything can happen at home
anything can happen anywhere

are kids safer at home than school? in some cases
you never know whats gunna happen and where its going to happen at
i think more kids are probably kidnapped from home then they are from school

I don't think schools are safe at all & because of this I'm going to do everything in my power to be able to home school my daughter.

bernibaby-

Have you ever been in a mental institution? I have many times, and I was never scared. Most mentally ill people are very nice, just like most people in the general population. If they close the school when something 'goes wrong' I would guess that has more to do with paranoid parents than any actual danger.

Now a school being next to a prison, that would be stupid.

Codes to get in? Sign in/out sheets? The school in my town doesn't even have a fence around it and as far as I can remember the doors are always unlocked

So what are you saying? Are you assuming that all people with mental illness are being treated? My uncle was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder that he doesn't always take his medication for and let me tell you when he's not taking his meds, he's violent. You can't be around him because he has what I call rages where he'll trash his apartment, yell for no reason and tries to fight everyone. People with untreated severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder are more dangerous than the general population as a whole. Don't pretend like people with mental illnesses can't be dangerous, they can. There was a woman who lived on my street when I was growing up who had a boyfriend who in my humble opinion suffered from depression. They ended up breaking up and two years later he came to her house and shot her new boyfriend, her dog and then himself in front of her and her children. The same thing happened to my husband, he and his brothers and sisters saw their mother's boyfriend shoot himself in the head.

I believe some schools are safe and some are not. The one's in my area are O.K. but the reason I left my middle school is because someone brought in a gun and had a hit list and everything and MY name was on it. Didn't even know the freak and there was a bomb threat once. That school is gone now so I don't really know what it's like. Personally I don't want to send my son to a public school. Maybe a private one but those can be bad also. I dunno I have at least 4-5 years to think about that one.

Yeah my school sucks. If you leave a class then you get stopped in teh damn hall and need to show a pass. If you take a pill to school, they will think it's a drug and immediately expell you, even if it's not. No, my school is so paranoid, and we live in a REALLY SMALL TOWN.

There have been like, 3 crimes in the past 15 years and they want SROs at every corner of every hall(literally hardly any crimes here).

But in terms of guns and stuff, just walk in and start screaming to everyone:

"I've got machine guns, and yes they're lots of fun
I've got some bullets and I'm mowin everybody down"