Using Elementary Schools as Public Voting Locations

No profane language - so on a scale of 1-10 this is a mild rant.

Following the Parkland, FL shooting the Director of our local school district sent out an email to all parents outlining all of the security measures in place at all of our schools. Double layer of security doors at each front door entrance. Locked campus, etc... The email was reassuring.

Today we received an email from our 7 year old son’s school Principal advising us that tomorrow the elementary school will be used as a public voting location for the city elections. Upon further investigation it appears that both of the front security doors of the school will be open and the public will come into the interior of the school to the school library to vote. The library is located at the very center of the school. The library is also surrounded by classrooms on all sides.

I called the school and stated that in light of recent events this seems like a really bad idea.

The school said that the city determines the voting sites and they have no say in it. They also stated the School Resource Officer will coordinate with the county cops to keep the school safe.

I know that schools across the nation are used as public voting locations. However, times have changed. After discussing this with a county police officer (who also agreed this was a significant security issue) I have decided to keep my child home from school tomorrow.

I’m actually just as concerned about pedophiles, pervs, drug dealers, accessing the school during public voting as I am about someone with weapons. No telling if they will let the public voters use the same bathrooms as the students. I am pissed that my child will get an unexcused absence associated with missing school; however, keeping him home to keep him safe seems to be the only practical thing to do.

a reply to: Buvvy

id keep my daughter home too.

for sure

originally posted by: Buvvy
I called the school and stated that in light of recent events this seems like a really bad idea.

That's been a typical location for over a century. Now they've got you running scared.

a reply to: schuyler

I would rather be safe than sorry.

My son has asthma and he has to go to the school RN office for nebulizer treatments. That means he would have to walk solo across the path where the voters will be walking.

I don’t trust my 7 year son alone with strangers. I also don’t trust a single school resource officer + an unspecified number of police officers to keep an entire school safe when it is open to the public throughout an entire school day. Officers take breaks and eat lunch. Voting takes place at more than one school - there are only so many county officers available.

It would be safer if they were using an exterior temporary building that was completely detached from the school for voting. Then the public wouldn’t be entering the main portion of the school. That isn't the case. Tomorrow the front doors of the school will be wide open.

You are teaching your kids to fear everything and make sure someone watches them at all time.

Do you guys really think that’s good parenting?

Do you really think you are teaching your kids how to be an independent adults?

Odd, believe I recently seen this brought up elsewhere. I don't see where this is a new thing, from different states as well, from local elections to caucuses to voting for the POTUS. School children aren't in the voting area, the gym usually(has it's own bathrooms for example), unless they are allowed out of class to observe the voting.

a reply to: SocratesJohnson

I have already raised 3 kids to adulthood. They all turned out to be solid upstanding independant citizens. My older son is in the Army so I don’t think I taught him to fear anything. One adult daughter lives in NYC - she is thriving there. She knows how to watch her surroundings and take care of herself. Another daughter is attending college and living on her own. I would say my adult kids have turned out very well. I don't think it is reasonable for you to judge what I do and do not teach my kids based on one forum topic.

My 7 year old is not mature enough to appreciate all of the dangers of the world. We have gone over stranger-danger but I really don’t want to put him in a situation where he would need to put this lesson into practice. I feel it is prudent to keep him home. Yes - I will admit that I am acting with an over-abundance of caution based on recent headlines. That is my decision to make as a parent.

I do not send my son to school with a bullet proof backpack or a bullet proof vest.

I read that one of the kids at Parkland High School exited the school wearing a bullet proof vest. His Dad was a cop and sent it with him just in case. Was his Dad teaching him to fear the world or to be prepared?

a reply to: dreamingawake

Time are changing. Years ago kids didn’t use car seats. When I was little we would stand in the back seat and lean over into the front seat to listen to the grown ups while they drove. It wasn’t safe but it was what everyone did.

Using the center of an elementary school as public voting booth doesn’t keep the kids safe. It is just the way we have always done things.

If this was a remote building or an area that could reasonably be walled off with controlled access point I wouldn’t have an issue with it. This is smack dab in the center of the interior hallways opening to elementary classrooms on all sides. It isn't safe.

a reply to: SocratesJohnson

Yeah NO.
The school district sucks. Here if schools are used as voting places they are closed to the students for the day.

a reply to: Buvvy

I can't blame you for your concern. Holy hell, we can't even achieve a system by which positive identification of each voter is allowable without some paranoid asshat calling it "racist" and blocking it from being enacted. If you have no entry ID control, the location is unsafe, period.

originally posted by: Buvvy
a reply to: schuyler

I would rather be safe than sorry.

Your bunker mentality is imprisoning you. I think perhaps that's what they want. Hunker down and you can't do anything.

a reply to: Caver78

I would be ok with that too. If you need to use the school don’t have school that day.

The school just recently had us take an elective un-used bad weather day off (on short notice) because the school needed to use it prior to the end of the school year. The school could have easily scheduled the day off to coincide with voting day and kept the kids away from the voting public.

Poor planning.

a reply to: schuyler

On one hand the school brags about how safe the school is...then about a month later...in an email sent to all parents at the end of the day...

oh, by the way, tomorrow is voting day and the front doors will be unlocked and the school will be open to the public.

It isn’t exactly a consistent message. The hard truth is that schools, theaters, frankly any public gathering place is at risk these days. The world has changed a bit.

Acknowledging and adjusting my behavior accordingly doesn’t mean that I am living in a bunker - it just means that I am aware of my surroundings.

I recently went to stay at a hotel in the USA. As I pulled into the hotel there were police, FBI agents, etc... with K-9 units going through all of the cars. I had to get out of the car and let the dog search the car. I had a reservation at the hotel - to stay there this was a required search. Once the search was complete I was able to pull around to the valet and unload and check in. I don’t know who was staying at the hotel but precautions were taken out of an abundance of caution. If some politician or dignitary can take these types of precautions then I don’t feel silly for being a little cautious with my 7 year old.

Schools in my county close for voting.

And I’m with you, I would be very uncomfortable with that happening while my children were at school.

a reply to: Buvvy

I certainly would never try to tell you how to feel or what to do in your situation.
I DO agree in light of recent events that it seems a little untimely, both the email and the now email about voting.
I think as parents that we need to do what feels right for us and our children regardless,
In my county, in Tennessee, they use churches as primary voting locations.
Hopefully, if there are any other absences they can be excused. My county has a rather strict-ish policy regarding absences.

My public schools were open during polling hours...

I got a day off when I ran for mayor of my home town when I was a senior in high school.
Principal didn't know what to do or what the laws were.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Our schools are super strict about attendance too.

I have contemplated taking my son to the Dr. tomorrow for a check up and to get a doctors note. He hasn’t gotten a flu shot yet this season (I postponed the vaccine due to the low efficacy of the flu vaccine this season) - maybe we will do that tomorrow and get a Drs. excuse while we are at it.

There are ways to work around the attendance rules.

a reply to: Buvvy

Yes there are!
If he plays a sport, or is thinking about one, you could do a sports physical...

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Brilliant idea!!! He will like that much more than a flu shot.

a reply to: the owlbear

Ok - gotta know.

Did you get elected mayor?