Sermons and Confessions

My 2 boys are at the local school.  The ‘young apprentice’ has started Prep now and seems to be settling in well.  At the parent information night we were informed of the ‘lockdown’ practice they have at school.  This is the procedure the children are to follow if an unauthorised person is in the school.  Of course we didn’t have them when I was at school, that was a time before the american school massacres had happened.  The prep teacher was telling us about the fine line that she walks between getting the kids to practice hiding in the kitchen and scaring them to death.

 There is a fine line too with other areas of school security.  Recently the police had to be called to the school to deal with a man who was taking photos of kids from outside the school area and wouldn’t stop.  Totally understandable and appropriate behaviour from the school.  Contrast that with the reality of the daily pickup from the same school.  Every day parents congregate under and around the school rooms waiting for their kids to finish.  There is little alternative to this as the school has no on site parking and indeed many parents and carers walk to the school to pick up their kids.  Once every few months I get the opportunity to take a day off work and I pick up our kids.  I walk right through the centre of the school, a virtually unknown middle aged male figure.  If I did it a 12.30 it would, no doubt, spark a Code Blue.  Do it at 2.30 and no one bats an eye lid. 

This is not a criticism of the school, I see no other options for them.  Just a commentary on the very complex world we live in.