Does Anybody on Here Think Its Ok for Schools to Lock Out Parents?

It might seem like a bit much but it if deters a child being picked up by a parent or other who is not authorized or a shooting, then I am all for it. Where I am a few years ago, a child was taken out of school by the father who was not on the approved list because he walked in and said he was X's father without any identification and caused a man hunt for him and the child.

Rules are made because of someone else doing something that causes harm or a problem to others.

I have no problem ringing a buzzer or speaking on an intercom to let the school know who I am and that I am here to pick up Sally or Bobby with proper ID.

the other S.

Are you saying you weren't let into the school or that you weren't able to go to the classroom?

Happy Valley is next to Portland. Portland Public Schools has had this policy for several years. Neighboring districts usually have policies similar to each other.

If you weren't buzzed into the school, how would they know who was picking up a child?

More information please.

I don't think there's a school in America that doesn't have locked doors. If I want to visit my kids' class, I call ahead and set a time to do so (usually in the form of volunteering). If I have to pick my kids up early, I get buzzed into the office and they call them to the office. What teacher would want parents waltzing in and out of their room all day? How disruptive!

I think you are off your bird. Why on earth do you think you should be allowed to disrupt classrooms at will? This is of course ignoring armed people getting in and shooting up the school which is also a good thing to control.

Even when we didn't have to be buzzed in I would never have gone to the classroom. If you want total access to your child at will, home school.

We always had to go through the office to sign our children out of school. The staff wants to know who is on campus and have a written record of it. I can't imagine parents barging into a classroom in the middle of school to take their children, that would not only be chaotic but very disruptive and rude to the teacher and the class.

My grandchildren's school will not allow parents to go to the classrooms to get children. The only way you can get into the school is by pressing a doorbell type of button which allows the office staff to check cameras to see who it is. If you show up out of the blue they won't let you in. If you show up and the child has a note sent in by the guardians that gives you the right to take the child out of the school they will let you in, photocopy your id and call the child down to the office.

Personally I wouldn't want any adult to be able to wander down the hall and enter a classroom. We just don't live in that world anymore. When 20 1st graders get shot to death that kind of revokes anyone's right to just walk into a school.

I prefer the safety or illusion of safety of it. My husband once was allowed to pick my stepdaughter up directly from her school classroom. Turns out he wasn't on any of the school paperwork and was officially not supposed to be able to get her from school at all. Without any safety checks, though, he was able to walk right in and leave with a child. If he had any notion of parental kidnapping, the school was a willing accomplice. Measures of safety for our children outweigh any inconveniences.

What planet are you on? This has to be a joke or a post poised to create drama of the day.

You'd be hard pressed to find any school any where without a buzz in system (FOR SAFETY)... (Remember Sandy Hook?).

Schools around here also have police officers in them.

Even if you buzz in to pick up your child, you do NOT go to the classroom to pick them up. The office employee goes to get the child as to prevent disruption as much as possible.

So tell me... You're really ok with NO security system in place at your children's school? You must not care too much for your children if you don't care about basic safety.

I always picked up from the office. Our school doesn't want parents roaming around the school either. I think the policy is perfectly reasonable.

it's our brave new world. i hate it, but i also understand where they're coming from.

it's also one of the things that made homeschooling way more attractive for us.

i understand the schools need rules, structure and routine, and that with america becoming more and more irresponsible with mental illness, guns and paranoia, safety rules are a sad necessity.

but if you want your kids to be under your control and not belong to the public school system, you've got to take them right out. you don't get to pick and choose which of the rules, structures and routines you can ignore.
khairete
S.

You don't need to go to your child's classroom to pick him up. My kids are 28 and 24 and even then we couldn't just walk to their classroom. When school was out, I pulled into the pick up lane and waited my turn to pick up my kids. If I had to pick them up early for a doctor's appointment or dentist appointment, I had to go to the office and they called the student down to the office.

Not sure what your beef is but I think your expectations are way off base.

I'd prefer the safety of it. We just go to the office and they intercom down to the classroom and your kid comes to meet you.

One teacher I spoke to preferred not having the disruption of parents coming to the room.

When we go to school functions we have to sign in and sign out and you have to wear a badge.

We've had that in place since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. All doors are locked. I wait in the office, while they call down to the room and ask the teacher to send my child out.

Our state also passed new laws so that only people who have background checks, including FBI fingerprinting, can volunteer in the school for any reason (since the Jerry Sandusky case, who was not in a school, but used his position as a volunteer with children to ID kids for molestation). So, our school is quite strict.

Is it inconvenient? Yes. Do I wish that schools could be both more open and guaranteed to be safe for our kids? Yes. But that's not reality.

Standard operating procedure at many, many schools.

It is not *your* school, it is a public place that people work to keep secure. At my son's last school, we went into the office, signed the child out (showing ID if they didn't know who you were) and then the school secretary called the classroom and the teacher released them.

Why do you think that the system should allow parents to interrupt instruction because they had to pick up their kid? Let the teacher and admin manage this. This is how your child is kept secure. New? Not hardly. The world is not all about our convenience. They make these choices based on safety, not the convenience of parents. And why the quotation marks around 'safety'? As someone with a mentally ill and unstable family member who might pop up, I was always relieved that the school would have stopped this person from taking my son.

Most schools I know of are like that. Around here, there are very strict safety measures. You are only allowed into the school if you are volunteering or if there is a class event/program that requires parent participation, but then, you must sign yourself in, get the photo ID sticker and place it prominently where it can identify you, and the staff remotely unlock the doors for you.

If you are simply picking up your child for a Dr. or other appointment, there is no reason or need for you to have to go to the classroom. Office staff will contact the teacher, and the student will be sent to meet the parent in the office.

Not only is this safer, it is much less of a disruption to the classroom than having a parent get the child directly from the classroom. I know you might say you'd be very quiet and wouldn't interrupt the class, but believe me, when someone shows up in the doorway, you've got 28 little people turning around to see who it is, and yes, this really is a distraction. This often requires the teacher to redirect the class to her instruction or their test-taking, or whatever they were doing when the interruption occurred. Imagine this happening several times during the course of the day.

With so much teachers have to cover in terms of instruction, assessment, and individualized attention for students who need it, there is just no time in the day for these kinds of distractions. I hope you can see this measure as being in the best interest of your child and all students and not be so bothered by it.

If there is a specific reason you need to go to your child's classroom, you might be given permission if you talk to an office member (or possibily the principal). Before we realized our son wourld do better at an alternative school, I was given special permission to walk him to his classroom each day. There will almost always be exceptions to the rule, so don't hesitate to ask.

This is about safety, but it's also about chaos. Have you ever volunteered at your child's school? I realize they all operate a little differently, but my son's school has about 550 kids. The students do a good job of walking quietly in the halls, but there are always classes walking through the halls on their way to gym or library or music. It's a busy place, and they really do not want parents walking around. It's just too much. It might sound like a crazy rule, but they really are trying to maintain a good learning environment.

Very valid points already written. Another point i want to bring up it is that you know your story and your family. Your child may be in school with other students that are from abusive families-court ordered no contact with a parent or in the foster care system or other issues going on that you won't know about. Locked doors is for everyones safety and it helps school staff to know who's coming and going. If you want to know what's going on in the class-volunteer. If it's just pick up and drop off, please follow protocol.

I hope this is a joke. Schools should 100% be locked down. All of my kids schools have a system...ONE door from the outside is unlocked. That takes you in to another area where more doors are locked to go in the school, and one door opens to the right or left into the office. You have to be vetted before you can go any further. I know everyone at my kids schools, but I still am asked for and have NO problem showing ID.

All of the schools in my area have had remodeling done, moving the offices in most cases, so that you cannot just enter the school. At my daughter's school, you have to ring the buzzer, get into the vestibule, then the buzzer rings for the office door. If a child is leaving school early, you meet at the office. Even when my older kids were little, I did not go to the classroom to pick them up. They were at the office. The only time I went to a classroom was if the teacher requested it or I had a meeting during a non-class time.

I think your expectations are insane and unsafe. My oldest kids are out of high school and even back when they started, there were safety rules in place that prevent unauthorized adults from walking into and around the building. All exterior doors are locked at all times except arrival time, and even then, they are manned with a teacher or staff member. If you need to enter the building, you press the buzzer, which is located below a camera, and the building staff can see who you are and buzz you in. You then immediately report to the front office. If you are volunteering or are there for a meeting, you sign the visitor's log and are issued a visitor's badge. If you are dismissing your student, the secretary calls the teacher and your student is sent to the office to meet you there, and you sign the dismissal log.

How would you like it if someone posing as a parent waltzed into school and into a classroom and then engaged in violent or criminal behavior? Wouldn't you wonder why that person was allowed to go where they had no business being?

Your child is a student. School is his space. Other than volunteering or attending an event, there is no need for you to go beyond the front office, and doors should be locked while school is in session.

You may be a parent who acts appropriately, who is quiet and respectful at the classroom door, who minds her business, who is safe and reliable and trustworthy, who is the kind of mom the teachers wish every kid had.

However, for every one of you, there are an equal (ok,probably more) number of parents who are intrusive, rude, noisy, loud, bossy, and disruptive. "Pssst...Junior! Are you ready to go? Hurry, mom's got a manicure scheduled. Oh, it's ok, Mrs. Smith, I'll just take him now." Or, when they're at the class room door, they think nothing of yelling "hey, Mrs. Smith, why is my kid at the back of the line? Are you racist?" (No, it's alphabetical, or he was the last one ready, or its a random thing). Chaos, disruption, lack of control, lack of accountability and care for the children - that's the result.

And those are the parents who are just annoying humans. You're not taking into consideration the custody-battling parents, the ones who have evil intentions, the ones who are abusive, the ones who are predators.

It's a sad fact, but it's the world we live in now. Be grateful that your child is in a safe situation.

Of course it's okay! What reason do you have to go to the classroom? In general, parents in a classroom are a disruption, and the child transfers attention from the teacher to whomever is at the door.

Our schools have been locked for years, and I haven't heard of any parents complaining. You ring the bell, the staff identifies you via the speaker/video, and you go to the office, and only to the office. The child is dismissed from class and sent to the office where the parent signs the child out. What possible problem could there be with this system?

Schools just cannot have parents roaming the hallways - that's where the greater danger is, frankly. The parent could go anywhere, do anything (from using a gun to taking another child), or a child could spot a parent or even a neighbor in the hall and go with that person, without the teacher seeing it happen if she has 20-25 kids to watch.

Read up on Sandy Hook and see if you think it's a good idea for a school to NOT have a locked door with staff vigilance.

What is your fear? Why do you feel it's essential for you to go to the door of the class? Is this your first experience with public school and large classes? I worked in a community center preschool, and even then, the parent had to check in at the desk, get a pass, and go just a few feet away to the classroom. We never had parents roaming the inner hallways.

I don't think it's a "new" safety system in most schools. I would imagine it's pretty standard operating procedure in the vast majority of schools. I'm glad parents (or any other adult) can't just randomly enter the school and go to a classroom. In fact, I'd be VERY hesitant about sending my kids to a school where that was accepted.

Are you a convicted sex offender?
There are issues with sex offenders being on school property - even if they are parents - and they definitely don't want them wandering around school.

If I pick my son up from school - he meets me at the office (or nurses office if he's sick) - I never go to the classroom.
This has been standard procedure for at least 10 years so it's nothing new around here.

Are they saying that you can't enter the school at all? Or that the staff needs to let you in?

I think that a large number of schools now require that parents be buzzed into the building by the office staff. At our school, there's an intercom button outside. The staff will verify your identity and then let you in.

I don't have any issues with the process. It only takes a few minutes.

I work at a local library and we have to notify schools a couple days in advance to let them know we are coming for a visit. We have to press a button on an intercom to talk to somebody in the office and they have to allow us in. I can understand that since you are the mother of the child (which I am sure they have this on file) that it would be frustrating that they are not allowing you to go in to pick up your own child. However, with all of these school shootings going on (especially after Sandy Hook) I like the idea that people are not able to just walk into the schools. Maybe a way to help with this the school should take pictures of the parents of the students so that way the school would know what the parent looks like so that way when they come and pick their child up without any hassle. But, I think I would appreciate a school going to such efforts to protect our children.

This is not new. My children are all in their twenties and oldest daughter 34. And the school has been locked since she started kindergarten. Parents wait outside the school. Either in cars in pickup lane or on grassy area. If you have a need to go in you ring the buzzer. Why do you need to go inside for pick up? Your child needs start building independence. This won't happen if you are hovering inside the school. And while it is your child it is also a bunch of other people's children. This rule is for the safety of all the children. Not the parents convenience.

Way before Sandyhook, way before columbine, in Illinois we had a woman named Lori Dann bring a loaded gun into a school in winetka Illinois. This law has been effect for many years.

I think the benefits outweigh the inconvenience. You can go to the office; I'm sure your child is capable of walking from the classroom to the office by himself/herself. If you let parents wonder the halls, then it's hard to know who has a legit purpose there and who doesn't.

Please tell me you're kidding. It is for safety. Would you want random adults coming and going from school all day? You really want the school to leave all doors unlocked and unsupervised? Our school (and our last school) will "buzz" you into the office. Then they will call your child to the office. Schools don't let you go back to the classroom for many reasons...some parents may interrupt their child's class with questions/arguments, etc. That is not in the best interest of the school (teacher conferences need to be scheduled). Second, what if a creepy parent says they're going to their child's class, but instead hangs out in the bathroom and acts inappropriately? I wouldn't want parents just "hanging out" at school. If you want to volunteer and have access to the children, most schools require a background check.

It's absolutely okay. It's for their safety. What if little Johnny's dad comes to the classroom and actually has a gun and shoots them all. It can happen. In my child's school if you want to go to the classroom, you have a background check done and become an approved volunteer.

Yeah, it is definitely worth it for the added safety. Also, at most schools I have been in, staff will still let parents in very quickly if you are picking up early, dropping something off, meeting for lunch, ecetera so you aren't really "locked out" because you can get in easily as needed. That way, creapy random people don't sneak in.
I guess at a small school that's not crowded, having parents frequently in and out isn't a big deal, but dismissal is a well oiled machine at the bigger elementary schools and having a bunch of parents in the halls would make it hectic.

This isn't just because of disruptive parents that they are doing this. It's also because anyone with a gun can walk into a school and shoot people.

I'm sorry that there are so many terrible people in this world...

I remember being super disappointed when my oldest was in K, and we were told we could not go to the classroom door to meet her at dismissal. We had to gather just inside the front entrance and wait for each class of kids to be walked down by their teachers. What a joy it had been to have eyes on this end of school action while picking her up from her preschool class door! All those cute little moments, she was still so little, she still liked having me around. I was a stay at home mom, and I didn't want to miss seeing that little glimpse into her school world every day. I remember complaining/venting to another parent of an older student, and she told me that sadly, the school had to adopt this policy because of one particular disruptive parent. I felt like this was a cop out, so they didn't have to confront "that parent" Eventually, I grew to understand why having that many more adults (even respectful ones) in the building at a busy and chaotic time was a huge distraction and nuisance to the teachers wrapping up/end of day routines.

Here in NYC, schools are very secure. Many schools have police officers sitting by the doors. No one can enter without signing in, showing identification, etc.

Is this a recent change for your child's school?

ETA: EVERY school in our district has locked front doors. You MUST be rung in and even to pick your child up - you sit in the office and wait. You sign out and show a photo ID and the verify YOU are allowed to pick the child up.

I do NOT want parents roaming the halls of my kids school. Sorry. Too many sex offenders and kids are easy targets.
______________________________

Welcome to mamapedia!!

Yep. Support it too. Why? Because there are psycho people out there. People looking for their 15 minutes of fame or out for revenge. Heck they don't even need a gun. Pipe bomb, knives, forks, whatever tool they want to. It's NOT just about guns. It's about bad people.

Do you want unhinged people walking through YOUR child's school? I don't think so.

you should NOT be walking the halls of your child's school if you are not volunteering there. He or she can walk from their classroom to the office. Our elementary school has group of 3 walk out - drop off and two return so no child is ever alone.

Junior high and high school? Yep - they can walk alone.

YOU going to a class room is HIGHLY disruptive. This is NOT about YOU. THINK about what your disruption does to the class and teaching. Not as bad if the teacher says "Johnny and Vince - you walk with Jimmy to the office". You come knocking on the door - the whole class gets disrupted.

Locked doors? YEPPERS!! Keeps unwanted visitors OUT.

Hope you step back and see the bigger picture here.

Well unlike a lot of people below I find some of these new "safety" measures to be absurd, like I really don't think they are going to keep anyone safe if the event of a real threat, but I digress, and I'll spare you my thoughts on specific examples.

However...your example leaves information out I think. Do you need to go to the classroom for a specific reason? Have you arrived before the actual dismissal time? Do you have a history of causing disruption (just asking!)? Going to pick up your child from the classroom is a distraction. It is a distraction for your child, the teacher and the rest of the students. Additionally, it could be a safety concern if you had nefarious plans up your sleeve. I mean, I'm pretty sure you don't, but surely the school doesn't know every single parent of every single student so there's no way to tell. If there's no real reason for you to go to the classroom, especially if it is before actual dismissal, then I see no problem with them asking you to wait.

Most schools I know will allow people in and out of the building fairly freely once the dismissal bell has been rung so that if you need to speak with the teacher or check out your child's artwork in the halls, etc. you will have time to do that.

Our elementary schools have one door that is unlocked. It opens right in front of the offices. In nearby towns they have 2 sets of doors and you must enter the first set, push a button, be questioned, then they decide to let you in or not.

Our higher schools also have the 2 sets of doors where you can enter then step directly into the office. Then there is a locked door going out of the office into the school.

But in every single one of these schools we sign in, get a sticker, and go to the classroom if I need to. BUT they argue with us and say it's very disruptive to go in the classrooms or even to knock on the door. That the kids get distracted and it makes it harder for the teacher to get them back on task. If they keep you in the office they know exactly where you are and what you're doing. Since they don't send an escort with you they truly don't know where you go or who you are interacting with. What if a kid said you pulled them into a bathroom and raped them...seriously, it's just better to stay in the office and wait.

So when we're simply picking up a kiddo we go to the office and sign them out while they're paged and told to come to the office to check out.

In all honesty I'd rather have a school that was too safe than one that lacks any safety at all.

This is a good thing! You want your child to be secure and safe! Our schools have done this for a long time now. It kept my lunatic ex husband from barging into classrooms twice - he got no further than the office ranting and raving about whatever. When I did my student teaching, schools were not locked. A very disturbed and dangerous father came in when I was solo teaching. He was not supposed to be around his daughter at all. He was on drugs and came into my room (kindergarteners) and thought I was the real teacher. He was actually sort of chasing me around the room as I tried to avoid him. If these new safety features were in place back then, that would not have happened. Be glad for these protections!

The only time I went to the classroom to pick up my son was in preschool and that was a very relaxed private school. In later grades, they would allow us to walk the halls to drop something at our kids hooks, like lunch or gym clothes, etc, but we signed in and the office ladies knew us very well. It would be chaos if 200 parents were wandering the halls to pick up 200 kids at their classrooms at 3 o'clock.

my childs school does this, you can't go to your childs classroom without a full background check. and since those cost time and money they have you wait in the office while they get your child. dropoff you can only go as far as the front door and then staff will tell you no parents

I'm a teacher and a parent. I love that people can't just walk right into the school. It's a huge safety issue to have the building open to just anyone. Even when I was a kid (a long time ago), the only door in our elementary school that was unlocked was the front entrance. Our world is even crazier now. Just a year ago there was a shooting that happened within a couple of blocks of one of our elementary schools. The school would have been a potential hiding place for the shooter if the doors had been unlocked. Same thing a couple of years ago when there was a police standoff with a guy just a block from another elementary school is our district. He could have easily run into the school if the doors had been unlocked. Keeping the doors locked saves valuable time when there is a potential threat outside of the school building.

It also cuts down on distractions in the classroom and hallway. As a teacher, having a parent randomly walk into your classroom (or a squirrel who managed to get through an opened door--true story) can be a real distraction. It is also a safety measure to protect students who cannot have contact with certain adults (like a noncustodial parent).

Will it 100% protect our teachers and students? No. But at least it is an extra measure that may buy some time in the case of a threat from the outside.

Our schools have been doing this for about 5 years. It's okay with me, all you do is buzz the door and check in with the office.

At our schools you have to wait in the office for your child to be called from class or even the nurse (unless the nurse wants to speak to you and sometimes even then she will walk out with the child to talk in the office).

Having a parent show up at the door of a classroom is so distracting to the whole room. Where as kids being called to the office, or to go home are just a quick pack up your stuff and go maybe a quick goodbye and the lesson goes on.

If you want to see your child in the classroom speak with the teacher about volunteering. Running a weekly reading group or making copies, etc. Then you are volunteering and it also isn't as distracting.

Part of it is safety and part is keeping the class flowing smoothly.

Better safe than sorry! I would be totally OK with it given what's been happening with mass shootings these days.

I'm fine with it.. safety is more important.. look what this world is coming to..