What Do Parents Fear Most?
If I were to ask you, what are you most afraid of regarding your child and school safety? Would you answer shootings in school? Perhaps bullying? Or perhaps safety going to school and going back home? How about school building safety?
According to a national survey conducted by ADT Security Services, a good number of parents today greatly fear one thing – sexual predators. A news conference was held yesterday in Washington announcing the findings of the ADT National Back-to-School Security Survey. The survey was done late in July, with the results having a margin of error of about +/- 2.3 percent.
Business Wire reports:
Among the findings, nearly half of the respondents expressed concerns that a sexual predator could target their child while at school and more than a third have concerns that their child could be abducted by a stranger. A majority said they’d be willing to pay for additional security systems to help schools keep unwanted visitors off campuses.
“Through this survey, parents are making it clear they want local school boards to do more to protect children,” said Patrick Fiel, ADT’s public security advisor and a former head of security for Washington, D.C. Public Schools. “We need cooperation among adults and children, proper planning and more innovation to ensure that young students are as safe as possible.”
The highlights of the survey results are:
– 46 percent of parents said they were very or somewhat concerned with the security at their child’s school
– 45 percent of parents were very or somewhat concerned that their child could be targeted by a sexual predator while at school
– 38 percent expressed at least some concern that their child could be abducted while at school by a stranger
– 36 percent are concerned that a violent episode, such as a school shooting could occur at their child’s school
– 58 percent said they would be very or somewhat willing to pay for additional security at their child’s school
ADT is a company which provides security services, particularly in the field of electronics. It is actually a unit under Tyco International.
As I was reading the news report, I could not help but wonder why a large number of parents have this fear when in fact, most of the news that we have been hearing lately is about school shootings and school bus safety. I have not heard much about sexual predator and abduction incidents although I have to admit that when I was TV shows such as Criminal Minds, the sexual predator theme is present. Could this have anything to do with the fear that parents have? Or perhaps many incidents have happened that I have not heard about?
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Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: High School, K-6, News, Parents, People Involved, Predators, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues
Schools should be required to security check every visitor in this day and age.
700 children are abducted daily. WOW.
Though I cannot speak for the reasons other parents have the fear of sexual predators in schools, I can tell you why I do.
I do online news research for a child advocacy group. I have several google daily news alerts for keywords such as “School abuse”, “school punishment”, “teacher abuse”, “school discipline”, “school sexual abuse”, etc.
Not a day goes by that I do not receive at least three different news articles about the arrest or conviction of a teacher, substitute teacher, special needs teacher, coach, janitor, daycare employee,etc. for the sexual abuse of a student or child pornography, and it is males and females.
One website I found keeps a running list on teachers in the news:
http://www.schoolteachernews.com/scandal.html
Thanks for writing on the subject of child safety and I hope this answers your question!