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With people of the United States still feeling shock and grief over mass shootings, particularly the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, last month, school officials across this country we hope have embarked once again on the task of assessing security at their respective educational facilities and regarding students' participation in various activities.
While students and teachers get a break from what often is referred to as the classroom grind, not so for administrators and school boards, both of whom are tasked with assessing what went right and what went wrong during the just completed school year and what topics need addressed before children return to classes in late August or early September.
On May 31, the Wall Street Journal published an article reporting that schools across America had tightened security or were considering additional safety options due to what happened in Texas.
Locally, superintendents issues statements reiterating their safety protocols.
Some, such as Keystone Central, increased police presence at schools.
One point that the article brought out -- police access to school floor plans -- poses a question that needs to be asked and answered in every school district across this land.
L.A. School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Journal that, when he assumed his current administrative position, he was surprised to learn that emergency first responders did not have access to district schools' floor plans.
He recognized that that troubling reality would likely limit responders' efficiency and effectiveness if they were summoned to an emergency.
A question for school districts in our region:
-- Do emergency responders have floor plans of all of your buildings, including administrative facilities and offices?
-- Are emergency responders aware of all points of potential danger?
-- Are schools locking their doors during the day?
It would be good if every school district-sponsored a summer session where representatives of all local emergency services would have the opportunity to review in person the makeup of school facilities and security measures already put in place or proposed.
Meanwhile, what seldom or never is discussed by officials as they talk about their school security measures is how much transparency about those measures is necessary and appropriate.
To help district parents and other residents feel as comfortable as possible about their district officials' security aggressiveness, does there really need to be total transparency about what has been done, what is in the process of being implemented, what cannot be accomplished at this time and why, and what beef-up might not be possible until perhaps sometime after next year?
Should those who would hurt or kill children have the benefit of knowing?
As a newspaper, we value transparency in government and in public institutions, but right-thinking media know there are some situations when exceptions are necessary.
The details regarding districts' security measures in these violent times are one of them.
School officials should know how to inspire confidence in their ability to make the right decisions on this crucial topic without actually having to disclose all of the details.