More specifically, I am thinking of a recent abduction that took place in Woodstock, Ontario last school year. For me, I was so entrenched in listening to the news, and reading everything about this little girl (Victoria Stafford) that I drove myself crazy. It completely broke my heart and I find that I am so naïve that things like this actually happen, that people would harm someone who is so incapable of protecting themselves, and that someone could take away the most important thing in a family’s life.
If you do not already know what I’m talking about, let me explain. Victoria Stafford was taken on April 8, 2009 while she was walking home from school. Initially, there was not an amber alert because the police did not think that it was an abduction, but that is a completely other topic. The only evidence that was found was a video of a woman walking Victoria away from the school. Days and days, there were search parties looking for her, then this turned into weeks, and then into a month. Her parents were outside of their houses on a daily basis with the news trying to get the word out that she was missing. It was not until late May that two people were arrested for the murder of Victoria Stafford.
There are so many questions that run through my mind when I think of this poor little girl. How didn’t anyone notice at the school? It also should make us think as teachers that we need to know where our students are, how they are getting home, who they are going home with, etc. My PS1 teacher had a list by the door. She had each child’s name on the list and wrote down each day, how they were going to get home, whether this be walking, taking the bus, or someone coming to get them, and who they were going to be with. These types of precautions are very important, as this can mean saving someone’s life. It’s really sad that we need to do this, that kids are not safe unless we take precautions like this.
Can anyone think of anything that we as teachers, or a school community can do to enhance awareness as well as safety in our schools?
These are just a few websites with an article and videos if you wanted to learn more about the case of Victoria Stafford:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/21/stafford-murder021.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxaKx6rlifI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdtt74frwnk
Okay, I agree this is bad, but it is pretty rare. The problem is whenever these things happen, they make news across the continent, whereas other more mundane dangers don't get the coverage. Following an incident with a streaker in Calgary, my daughter's school changed it's policy so all the doors were locked except the ones right by the office, the idea that this would prevent streakers (okay, any unauthorized adult) from wandering into the school. But I have to ask if this is an appropriate response. Because on the one hand, how often do people in office actually look up to see who is going by? There is a constant stream of parents wandering in to pick up their kids from school at school end, so would anyone in the office really recognize an outsider? And the actual result of the policy (latent dysfunction as I would say in the course) was that parents that used to park in the parking lot at the back of the school couldn't bring themselves to walk all the way around the school to the front door, now that the back door is closed to them, so all that traffic was transfered to the already over congested main road in the front of the school. As I watch parents and kids darting between moving cars sliding on the ice, cars backing up into illegal parking places, and parents making u-turns in front of the school, all because the door facing the parking lot in now locked, I have to ask which is the statistically more likely tragedy-- abduction, or a traffic fatality? But which one would make the national news?
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