I want to follow up on
yesterday's Al's
Morning Meeting story about how journalists are attempting to "test" school
security by walking into schools unannounced.
Yesterday I gave you a couple of examples of a TV station
and a newspaper that did the test. One photojournalist was arrested. Now, I can
tell you that
The Philadelphia Inquirer
also tested school security. I believe this practice is full of legal, ethical
and safety risks. (See yesterday's column.) Still, the paper said its tests have
produced good results:
Open doors. Side or rear entrances that
should have been locked -- but weren't. School staff who allowed visitors to
enter without asking who they were or why they were there.
Even after the carnage at an Amish school in
Lancaster County
this week, a spot check by Inquirer reporters found a surprising number of
security lapses at schools across the region.
In spite of rules aimed at limiting public
access, reporters who fanned out on a single day walked into more than a dozen
schools unannounced and without being challenged.
One expert described The Inquirer's findings as jarring.
"What is shocking is the fact that not
only could this happen, but it could happen days after the spate of national
shootings that has been the discussion throughout our schools and our
society," said Kenneth S. Trump, a school-safety consultant.
"We are still, seven years
post-Columbine, suffering from Mayberry syndrome. If it can happen in a
one-room Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania,
it can happen anywhere," Trump said. "If they don't get that after
this incident, I truly believe they will never get it."
Experts agree that minimum security
standards should apply to all schools -- including a single access point and
careful screening of visitors.
A number of area superintendents say they
are considering tighter security measures in light of recent school shootings.
But thus far, no state or federal laws set
security standards for schools, leaving them up to districts.
The result, The Inquirer found, is a hodgepodge of safety policies that
leaves some schools vulnerable.
Inquirer reporters visited dozens of schools
in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. At some, they found locked doors and tightly
controlled access. At others, they found lax security, including some schools
that failed to follow their own rules:
At Springfield Township High School in
Montgomery County, where a student took a loaded gun to school this month, a
rear door bore a sign that said: "Doors must remain locked at all
times." It was open. A reporter walked through the door and into the
cafeteria, past scores of students gathered for lunch, and went unnoticed by
two plainclothes security officers on his way to the office. "Your visit
revealed a weakness in our external security," principal Joseph J. Roy
told The Inquirer. The district sent letters of apology to parents and pledged
to become more vigilant.
At the Chester
County Family Academy,
a charter school in West Chester, three classroom doors
were open, allowing entrance from the sidewalk. No one was at the reception
desk; a reporter walked into the school without being challenged. "You
have provided a community service," school founder Lorraine Anderson said,
promising immediate fixes. "This school is safer for kids because you came
here."
Kids and Concussions
When kids get conked on the head, it may be a more serious
matter than we first thought. The
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's department of sports medicine has a Web site that says concussion injuries happen more often than
you might think:
Approximately 10 percent of all athletes involved in
contact sports, such as football,
hockey and soccer, suffer
a concussion each season (Some estimates are as high as 19 percent.).
The
Washington Post looks at new thinking in this area that may lead to you
to talk with local athletic teams and doctors:
Research is rewriting the rules for the treatment
of juvenile concussions and for the hundreds of thousands of young athletes who
get "dinged" annually in the United
States. What was once considered "a
relatively benign condition," as a recent commentary in the journal Pediatrics noted, is being recognized as
a critical medical issue with distressing, potentially permanent consequences.
Growing evidence indicates that youth is not a plus
with concussions. When jolted violently from a hard hit or a fall, a juvenile
brain may be more vulnerable to harm and slower to heal. It also seems in
greater jeopardy of subsequent damage. Yet many pediatricians and frontline
practitioners are only beginning to adjust what they tell patients.
"It can be a very serious injury," said
Gerard Gioia, director of the sports-concussion clinic at Children's Hospital,
one of the few programs on the East Coast that focuses on such cases. "And
with what we know about the developing brain, it can be an even more serious
injury."
The story adds:
The burgeoning ranks of children in competitive
sports -- and heightened awareness of the danger -- have helped propel the
focus on concussions. With some of these athletes experiencing difficulties
long after their ostensible recovery, recommendations about managing such mild
brain injury became suspect.
"We've learned more about this injury in the
past five years than in the past 50 years," said neuropsychologist Michael Collins of the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The center has been the leading
researcher of sports concussions in the country, designing computerized testing,
dubbed ImPACT, that takes the guesswork
out of assessments. Its list of hazardous endeavors: not just football, soccer
and basketball, but ice and field hockey, skating, wrestling and cheerleading.
The
ImPACT Concussion Management page added some statistical background:
In the United States, the annual incidence of sports-related concussion is
estimated at 300,000. Estimates regarding the likelihood of an athlete in a
contact sport experiencing a concussion may be as high as 19 percent per season.
Although the majority of athletes who experience a concussion are likely to
recover, an as yet unknown number of these individuals may experience chronic
cognitive and neurobehavioral difficulties related to recurrent injury. Such
symptoms may include chronic headaches, fatigue, sleep difficulties,
personality change (e.g. increased irritability, emotionality), sensitivity to
light/noise, dizziness when standing quickly, and deficits in short-term
memory, problem solving and general academic functioning. This constellation of
symptoms is referred to as "Post-Concussion Syndrome" and can be quite disabling
for an athlete. In some cases, such difficulties can be permanent and
disabling. In addition to Post-Concussion Syndrome, suffering a second blow to
the head while recovering from an initial concussion can have catastrophic
consequences, as in the case of "Second-Impact Syndrome," which has
led to approximately 30 to 40 deaths over the past decade.
In summary, athletes who are not fully recovered from an initial concussion
are significantly vulnerable for recurrent, cumulative and even catastrophic
consequences of a second concussive injury. Such difficulties are prevented if
the athlete is allowed time to recover from concussion and return-to-play
decisions are carefully made. No athlete should return to sports or other
at-risk participation when symptoms of concussion are present and recovery is
ongoing. In summary, the best way to prevent difficulties with a concussion is to
manage the injury properly when it does occur.
Other
resources:
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting
is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials
from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis.
When the information comes directly from another source, it will be
attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
