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Recently, the Maine Commissioner of Education and Governor Baldacci sent an edict out to all public schools, in response to the recent school shootings in other states, to revisit their emergency response plans.

The MSAD #20 School Board recently review updated plans to their security measures. “It’s prudent at this point in our society that anyone coming into the building come through one entrance that is monitored,” said Superintendent, Jeanette Condon. “I don’t think we’re at the point where we have to screen everybody, though.”

The new security plan calls for:

all doors except main entrances be locked at all times during the school day

doors are never to be propped open.

salesmen are to sign in at main offices

vendors must use buzzers in for access

all classroom doors to be locked at all times (but may be left open)

all staff who wear keys on lanyards are not to have them visible while on playground

all staff, substitutes and coaches will wear picture ID’s during the day.

all visitors required to sign in and wear visitor tags on lanyards.

“The janitors have approached me,” Condon told the school board, “and have told me they are in support of the mandatory ID cards for all staff. They are our ‘eyes and ears’ of the school and like the idea of being able to identify staff.”

Condon also informed the school board of a security test Fort Fairfield Police Chief Joe Bubar suggested trying on the staff. “Joe wanted to do a staff test. He suggested one of his reserve officers sneak into the building dressed in black and a black hood, and see how long it took for him to be noticed and how we would react.”

The staff would not be apprised of the nature of the test beforehand and would have no way of knowing the black-hooded creature was really just a reserve FFPD officer. “I told Chief Bubar we don’t subject staff to tests we know they are going to fail.”

“That’s incredible that Joe would suggest something like that,” said an irate Larry Girvan, who is a member of the MSAD #20 school board. “We have some very sensitive kids in this school and I think it’s horrible to suggest subjecting them to that kind of mental anguish unnecessarily.” Girvan indicated that he would take this matter to the town office if such a test were to be conducted at Fort Fairfield’s schools.

Also discussed were the options of adding internal cameras to the school buildings. “We have five cameras outside the buildings,” said Condon. “We just never got to the point where we needed cameras in the building.”

Currently, the PC-based video surveillance system at Fort Fairfield High School is capable of handling up to 16cameras. It is also internet-based so Chief Bubar can access video from the cameras from inside of the Police Department’s cruisers. Cameras would be used more for investigative purposes, should an event occur, rather than having a full-time staff member on hand to view the monitors. Some schools in other states have even gone so far as placing video cameras in the boys and girls locker rooms and showers. “Shower cams” were not discussed at this school board meeting.

“From my perspective this is unfortunately the way we have to go,” said Girvan, “but I’d like to see it fleshed out more before we commit to anything.”

Considering the fact that public schools across the country have completely removed God from their facilities, even so far as to not even giving Him credit for His creation, it isn’t surprising to many Jews and Christians that He would remove His protective hand from those schools and allow the resultant evil to move into the vacuum created in His absence - that is the “different world” many now cite us as living in who advocate for prison-style solutions. For now, school boards will try to thwart that evil with prison-grid style video cameras, locked doors and name badges; but, hopefully will come to their senses and realize those are really just duct tape and baling wire when it comes to actually solving the problem.