Safe At School | Justice Nation: Crime Stops Here

[0] Hi guys, Nancy Grace here.

[1] Welcome to Justice Nation Crime Stops Here.

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[18] Session four, safe at school.

[19] Your child spends seven to eight hours a day at school.

[20] Even getting there to the school bus on that school route.

[21] Did you know that one third of kidnap attempts in this country occur on a school route?

[22] One third.

[23] That is staggering.

[24] And then when they get to school, we as parents have to accept.

[25] that their peers mean the world to them.

[26] You can do everything possible at home to nurture them, to love them, to protect them.

[27] But when they put on that backpack and they head to school, when they walk through that schoolhouse door and it closes shut behind them, when that school bell rings, they're on the inside.

[28] We're.

[29] on the outside.

[30] And it is a different world in there and not always a safe world.

[31] Bathroom attacks, bullying, sex attacks, God forbid, school shootings, and even the teachers.

[32] Yes, the teachers can and have been a danger to children.

[33] I know.

[34] I have prosecuted them.

[35] I have covered their misdeeds.

[36] I've tried to track them down after they make off with a student.

[37] You know, sometimes I don't want to even think about it.

[38] But we have to.

[39] And not just think about it.

[40] Do something about it.

[41] We must keep our children safe at school.

[42] With me now, Adam Coffrin, former police officer and the founder of Safe Kids, Inc., Mark Klass, president of Klass Kids, advocate for children, and investigative reporter Marlena Schiavo.

[43] You hit me with a statistic that nearly knocked me over regarding school buses and school bus stops.

[44] Hit me. Well, it's actually school routes.

[45] And I know that we were going to talk about J .C. Dugard, who was waiting for the school bus when she was kidnapped.

[46] And this is something that just startled me when I heard it, because nobody's really done anything with this statistic.

[47] One third of all abduction attempts occur on school routes.

[48] Let that sink in.

[49] Sure.

[50] One third of all abduction attempts occur on school bus routes.

[51] So knowing that.

[52] We can cut abductions in this country dramatically simply by focusing on the school routes.

[53] And we can do that in high -tech ways with CCTV cameras, surveillance, things like that.

[54] We can do that in low -tech ways.

[55] We can do that in low -tech ways like having neighbors along the bus routes take turns watching the kids go to and from school.

[56] to and from the buses on a regular basis.

[57] Or even better than that is having parents take the kids to the bus and wait for the bus.

[58] And the same thing, if they're going to be going to school and taking the same route every day, they should be doing that with at least one other person.

[59] And they should know areas to avoid.

[60] And as we had talked earlier, they should know the safe houses along the route.

[61] And parents should go on the Megan's Law website and find out any registered sex offenders that might live along those routes and relay that information to their children.

[62] And if we were just to take those kinds of steps working within our communities themselves, we could cut abductions in the United States of America by a third.

[63] It's amazing to me that you will have a surveillance camera and gas stations out where the gas pumps are.

[64] You'll have them over the registers at a 7 -Eleven.

[65] You'll have them in all sorts of places.

[66] but not at the school bus stop where the children are.

[67] Another thing you said about neighborhood, it made me think of neighborhood watch.

[68] Everybody's all about neighborhood watch.

[69] Why isn't there a neighborhood bus stop watch where people take care of the bus stops for children?

[70] It's just twice a day.

[71] And, you know, Mark.

[72] We walk to the bus stop or we walk to and from school.

[73] It's about a mile and a half to our school.

[74] We would walk home, didn't think twice about it.

[75] It's not that way anymore.

[76] But it happens time and time and time again.

[77] And we've talked about those cases over the years so many times.

[78] Let's start with J .C. Duggar.

[79] You brought that one up.

[80] What happened, Marlena?

[81] Well, she was 11 years old.

[82] She was going to the bus stop and a man pulls up in a car and he rolls down the window and she looks in.

[83] And before anything even happens, he hits her with a stun gun and drags her into the car.

[84] And his wife was holding this poor child down as she came in and out of consciousness.

[85] been seen after that for 18 years, Nancy.

[86] 18 years, J .C. Duggar was missing.

[87] And another heartbreaking fact around that is the stepfather, J .C.'s stepfather, saw her getting abducted and tried to catch the car and couldn't.

[88] And I'm sure that cops first honed in on him because he claimed to have seen her last.

[89] He had nothing to do with it.

[90] In fact, he tried to catch the perp.

[91] How was she ultimately found, Marlena?

[92] Well, what happened was she had two children during her captivity.

[93] In other words, she was raped and she had children by her kidnapper by the name of Philip Garrido.

[94] And he had brought these two kids with him to a public place.

[95] They seemed off.

[96] And so, you know, he was asked to come in for questioning and with J .C. And at this point, J .C. finally saw this opportunity to tell the authorities her real name.

[97] And that's how she was found.

[98] It was it was the University of California Police.

[99] Yeah, the University, UC Berkeley.

[100] That's where it happened.

[101] What do you recall?

[102] Well, I recall exactly as Marlena said, that something seemed off about him and the two kids, and they did ask him to come in, and JC accompanied them.

[103] And it was at that point that they were able to pry this whole thing apart and find out that JC, in fact, was this guy's victim 18 years previously.

[104] At the bus stop.

[105] Now, she was on foot.

[106] She was walking toward the bus stop.

[107] The stepfather had carried her to a certain point.

[108] How did that work?

[109] Well, she was just walking up a hill, and I think he saw her in the distance, but then when the car pulled up before she got to the bus stop, he saw the whole thing transpire, and he went after her, but could not catch up on foot.

[110] Same thing happened with Ben Omby, if you might recall, the Missouri 13 -year -old going to the bus stop.

[111] His father also...

[112] Maybe the stepfather also saw the abduction happening and takes off on a bike to try to catch up with the assailant and, of course, couldn't catch up with a car.

[113] At a bus stop.

[114] Right.

[115] And then in a similar rural area.

[116] And what's so fascinating about that abduction is the same man abducted.

[117] two boys, right?

[118] And unfortunately, you know, well, fortunately, when they found Ben Ombi four days after his abduction, they come across Sean Hornbeck, who had been abducted four years earlier in a rural setting near a bus stop.

[119] Absolutely.

[120] Same thing.

[121] What is it about the bus stops?

[122] Well, school bus routes and school bus stops established very specific.

[123] patterns so you know almost exactly when the kids are going to show up every day where they're coming from off you're able to isolate the kids are by themselves you're able to put your plan together over a long period of time and if you have ill intention you're in a position to be able to pull off that kind of a crime without anybody seeing you simply because of the time of preparation the patterns that have been established etc. And you don't really expect kidnappings or violent crime to go down first thing in the morning when children are walking.

[124] But we're really serving them up on a silver platter to predators with school routes, which is someone walking to school or walking to the bus stop.

[125] Which is why people have to know about this statistic, which is exactly why they have to know so that they can put a plan together and prepare within their own community.

[126] Speaking of schools, there is the case of Kyron Horman, a little boy in the Pacific Northwest that gets taken to school, so we are told, by his stepmother.

[127] There's a science theory that day, so he's not going into his regular class.

[128] Dan mysteriously disappears.

[129] Years have passed.

[130] Kyron still has not been found.

[131] If what we are told is true, he went missing from the school, Marlena.

[132] Exactly.

[133] Like you said, he was at a science fair in the morning, and his stepmom said the last time she saw him, he was walking down the hallway around 8 .30 in the morning, and that was it.

[134] His first class, he never made it.

[135] And the school actually marked him as absent.

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[153] I've seen so many cases where children are abducted en route to school or right after school, but specifically en route, they're absent.

[154] The parents don't know.

[155] That leads me to Tad Cummings.

[156] Tad Cummings is actually a high school teacher who is married, has had children, they're grown.

[157] And he develops an inappropriate relationship with a little girl he's teaching.

[158] They have one of those teacher conference days.

[159] The girl's parents didn't know that.

[160] They thought she was at school.

[161] Instead, Tad Cummings abducted her.

[162] He is found in Tennessee.

[163] He's ultimately found all the way across the country and the Pacific Northwest at some commune.

[164] style living arrangement.

[165] Even the people in the commune knew something was horribly wrong.

[166] A tipster saved her life.

[167] In the case of Tad Cummins, I mean, this was sort of this long predatory behavior on his part because he was, he met her and it wasn't like he just one day abducted her.

[168] He started to, as they say, groom her.

[169] And he, you know, he...

[170] He started to develop a relationship with her on a very slow basis.

[171] And he and he kind of just lured her in.

[172] And they sort of started the secret relationship.

[173] And then one day they just take off together.

[174] And there was a part.

[175] of her that you know may have not even understood what was going on like she was sort of going along with it knowing maybe deep down that it you know wasn't a good thing um but you really can't hold a child responsible not at all it's not even though she may have had the idea wow this is this is not normal that i'm with a teacher still she's a child in the scenario Also, the school had been made aware of several instances, right?

[176] Right.

[177] They had been made aware of kissing.

[178] Other students had witnessed this man kissing this 15 -year -old girl.

[179] And there was one student who even said, I want to be taken out of this class.

[180] I'm really uncomfortable with the relationship between these two.

[181] So it had been brought up on multiple occasions.

[182] The school did nothing.

[183] The school didn't do enough.

[184] And the father didn't, her father didn't know in a good amount of time.

[185] The other thing is, even after they had been separated and...

[186] He was suspended from school.

[187] She was still she was still talking to him via text message.

[188] And that sort of went overlooked as well.

[189] So there are a lot of like holes in this case.

[190] And it's definitely never the child's fault because they're being overpowered by an adult.

[191] But you have to be involved.

[192] from a parental perspective and from the school perspective.

[193] It has to be a two prong effort.

[194] You have to be involved.

[195] One of the things that occurred there, and it's something that the school is obviously aware of, is there was a one on one relationship between a teacher and a student, which just can't be allowed.

[196] Teachers can't start spending more and more time with one student to the exclusion of other students.

[197] They're there to teach the class.

[198] They're not there to focus on the individual.

[199] And the school knew that.

[200] The school ignored that.

[201] And it could have been a tragedy.

[202] It was a horrible incident, but it could have been worse.

[203] My point is, nobody called the parents, smart class.

[204] Nobody called the parents, Adam, and said, Your child is missing today.

[205] This is an unexcused absence.

[206] Call us back.

[207] It seems to me that should be SOP, Mark.

[208] Well, it should, Nancy, because we do hear about these stories time and time again.

[209] So there needs to be policies within schools that if children do not come to school, that somebody within the family, one of the parents, is notified immediately just to make sure that child didn't disappear en route to school, make sure that there is a reason for that absence.

[210] Not only that, not letting parents know the child didn't come to class.

[211] For instance, in the Kyron Horman case, according to the witnesses, the stepmother and the father go to the bus stop to get him at the end of the day and he doesn't get off.

[212] And that's the first inkling that something's wrong.

[213] So the perpetrator had from 8 in the morning, 8 .30 until 3 .30, 60 miles an hour to get away with that child.

[214] Okay, so you've got the issue of demanding if your child is not in class and you have not called into the school or emailed, you need to be notified your child didn't make it to class, i .e. the Tad Cummings case or the Kyron Horman case.

[215] Also, who's picking up your children?

[216] Either they're getting on a bus.

[217] How many times have you heard about a child getting on the wrong bus or disappearing from the bus line?

[218] It hit home to me one night right before I went on air at HLN, and my makeup artist gets a phone call.

[219] They can't find her son.

[220] They can't find him.

[221] Arlington.

[222] She breaks down in tears.

[223] We get her out to get home.

[224] It turned out fine.

[225] But he had gotten on the bus, a different bus with a girl cousin, to go to a church event across town.

[226] But nobody knew.

[227] Why did it take until 8 o 'clock at night, this happened at 2 .30, before anybody figured out he wasn't on the bus?

[228] He went a different direction.

[229] So what can we do, Mark?

[230] Well, I think, again, I keep coming back to this.

[231] Number one, give our kids a cell phone so that we can call them and find out what they are.

[232] I think that certainly that's one thing that we can do.

[233] We need to start at the very local level.

[234] If they don't have a policy to notify you when your child has not come to school, we need to start with the principal and find out if there is a policy, find out why the policy wasn't implemented.

[235] If you get nowhere there, you take it up to the school board.

[236] You talk to the superintendent of schools.

[237] You make sure that your school...

[238] you were in sync regarding the disappearance of children or regarding unexplained absences.

[239] Getting in the car with somebody different at pickup or getting on a different bus?

[240] Sure, which means that you need school monitors, you need teachers monitoring the kids getting on and off the buses, that children are only able to get into the cars of authorized individuals.

[241] And if somebody that is unauthorized is coming to get that child, either they're stopped in their tracks.

[242] I think it's on the parent.

[243] The teachers are already overloaded with classes that are huge.

[244] The parent has to be the one to go to the school and say, I don't want my child getting on any other bus.

[245] I don't want my child leaving with anybody else but me. And if my child's not in class, I want to be called.

[246] I mean.

[247] Take ownership of your child's safety.

[248] I mean, Adam, help me out here.

[249] This is your specialty.

[250] Yeah, we look at buses.

[251] You know, why don't we check the kids into the bus?

[252] The bus driver knows they have a list.

[253] All right, these are the kids who are supposed to be on my bus.

[254] If I'm an extra student that walks on, you're probably on the wrong bus.

[255] If I'm missing a student, where is that student?

[256] We can start pretty quickly.

[257] Just like in role and the absence, if you're on the bus or you're not on the bus, or we have an extra body on the bus, who is this child and where are you supposed to be?

[258] And you look at the pickup, you know.

[259] A lot of schools even try to push pickup off and away from school so we don't have the congestion of traffic.

[260] Some schools have gone to permits that the parents will put in their windshields or in the corner to show that, yes, this is a parent you're supposed to be pulling up into the school.

[261] But some schools are open in the front.

[262] It's chaos.

[263] Students will walk down the street to a donut shop or a convenience store to get picked up by their parent so there's not the amount of traffic.

[264] So the older you get sometimes, and even in elementary, we'll see students walk a block or two away to get picked up.

[265] up in a less congested area and it goes back to the parents can beat the weight line correct um adam when i want to talk about violence in the school keeping your child safe in school for instance violence in bathrooms Bathrooms are, I mean, even in the public setting, no less the school setting, a secluded area that not a lot of people can see.

[266] And so when people go into bathrooms, even at schools, fights happen there.

[267] We saw recently back in the state of Ohio that a seventh grader commits suicide in a bathroom.

[268] And he was armed and ready to forbear for potentially a school shooting.

[269] And he was weighing out, do I commit suicide?

[270] Because of bullying and in the way I feel or do I commit a school shooting things in bathrooms are secluded and it was another student who walked in who ultimately spooked him that caused him to take his own life instead of potentially another school shooting.

[271] And so we look at the issues of these seclusion in bathrooms.

[272] Do we limit to one person at a time?

[273] So we look at how we don't put cameras in bathrooms, you know, for goodness sake.

[274] So the violence that's occurring in bathrooms is a hard topic in between the privacy right versus the amount of students you have to try to get to a restroom.

[275] The only thing I've been able to come up with is bathroom monitors.

[276] Right now, we already don't have enough money or they're not doling out the money that we...

[277] have to public schools for even teachers and substitute teachers, much less a bathroom monitor.

[278] But right now in public schools, private schools all across the country, bathrooms are the area where sex attacks are happening, beatings, even deaths in bathrooms at schools.

[279] Another issue regarding that is school bullying.

[280] Girls and boys.

[281] We started the issue in, believe it or not, pre -first.

[282] That would be kindergarten when we first encountered bullies.

[283] Bullies that young.

[284] Yeah.

[285] And we looked earlier at cyber bullying, which is one way, but you know, the classic, so to speak, old fashioned is in person.

[286] It's because you look different or you sound different.

[287] You have different colored hair.

[288] You are different than quote unquote, everybody else, or you're shy.

[289] You're an easy target for the people to, to exude control over or feel good about themselves.

[290] They have a group mentality about it.

[291] You know, this, this is the classic example that, you know, parents will stick up for yourself.

[292] Well, if you have four or five or six kids.

[293] You know, and you're the only person that's, you know, so to speak, the odd person out in that group.

[294] That's hard.

[295] You're eating lunch by yourself and you have a hard time getting friends.

[296] Maybe you tell teachers or you tell your parents.

[297] And, you know, as we've seen in some of these studies, it leads to suicide.

[298] It leads to, you know, your self -esteem is lowered.

[299] You don't believe in yourself.

[300] Grades, it's really a tumbling effect.

[301] I want to talk about Ty Smalley.

[302] I know that name rings a bell with all of you.

[303] Are you familiar with Ty's case?

[304] Yeah.

[305] And, you know, Ty was an 11 -year -old boy and who was being consistently bullied.

[306] And he did retaliate.

[307] And, you know, in some cases it stops the bullying, but in his case it didn't.

[308] And he was the one who got in trouble.

[309] Ultimately, he got suspended for retaliating against his bully.

[310] And what did he do?

[311] He felt despondent.

[312] He went home and he committed suicide.

[313] So it's a really tough it's a tough thing, you know, because you want to tell your child to defend themselves.

[314] Then they do.

[315] And then they're they're sort of the villain in the whole thing.

[316] Yeah.

[317] And we tell schools, you know, if you have a student and let's take high, for example, probably not in trouble, probably not in the principal's office, probably a pretty OK student.

[318] And all of a sudden they're getting into a fight or there's some sort of altercation.

[319] The school needs to look a little bit deeper because this might be the time when this, you know, that student has had enough.

[320] He's finally decided to push back.

[321] He decided to overcome his aggressor, overcome this bullying issue.

[322] And now, like Ty, okay, I did it.

[323] And then I get in trouble too.

[324] So it's like a lose -lose situation.

[325] I did what you told me to do.

[326] I stuck up for myself.

[327] And then I got called to the principal's office and suspended.

[328] Yeah.

[329] And he was already so fragile after all the bullying.

[330] Wasn't he a little guy, short in stature and very slight?

[331] And they made fun of him, called him shrimpy.

[332] Yeah, little Tim, I think, were some of the, yeah.

[333] And it got a lot meaner than that with the school bullies.

[334] He tried to talk to his parents.

[335] The parents had tried to intervene.

[336] He finally fought back.

[337] He was punished, was so despondent over it, he ended up committing suicide.

[338] Yeah, and I believe his mom also worked for that school and was reprimanded.

[339] by the school for her continually saying he's being bullied.

[340] We need to do something.

[341] We need to do something.

[342] And you look into his file and his file has no documentation.

[343] He was bullied.

[344] There was no documentation behind any of the allegations.

[345] And so it comes to where is there a breakdown of the school responsibility to take notice of what's going on, to provide that safe learning environment for students, to provide an area which if you are being bullied, it's not tolerated.

[346] It's not tolerated in the workplace.

[347] Harassment isn't tolerated, nor should bully.

[348] bullying be in school.

[349] Mark, what do you think?

[350] Well, I think that Adam said on several good points.

[351] One of the things that parents have to do is if they see signs of bullying, if their children become despondent, if their grades drop, if they become antisocial.

[352] Parents need to talk to their kids and then determine whether or not bullying is going on.

[353] And if in fact it is, they need to document that information.

[354] They need to document absolutely everything they can and then get a meeting with the school principal and without blowing up at the principal.

[355] Doing it in even tones and in a conversational way, talk about what's going on with their child and make sure that something gets into that child's record about the bullying so that it's not an incident where the parents think he's being bullied, the child knows he's being bullied, but everybody else is.

[356] Another thing is there is strength in numbers.

[357] In a recent incident I investigated, there had been a bully, a kid that was much bigger than everybody else, had been held back, I guess.

[358] And the bullying had gone on with multiple victims over years.

[359] But all the parents didn't know about each other.

[360] When it finally came to a head, there were nearly 30 parents.

[361] whose children, I mean, 30 sets of parents, so 60 parents, whose children had been bullied violently by the same kid.

[362] And it's not always the kid you think it will be.

[363] This kid, parents, wealthy, the dad, a doctor, nobody wanted to say a word until it finally blew up with a nearly fatal incident.

[364] I think the strength in numbers, if other children are being bullied by the same person, but by all accounts, document it.

[365] It just seems you have to do a backbend to make school officials admit there's a problem.

[366] Why is that?

[367] Are they afraid they're going to be sued?

[368] I don't know.

[369] Why that is, I think that they probably feel that they've got too much responsibility already as teachers, as principals, and as administrators, that just the whole idea, and we've talked about this a lot, that first of all, we can't put the burden of the issue on the shoulders of the children.

[370] It's up to us on all of these instances, whether it's at school, whether it's at home, whether it's on the playground, we have to take responsibility as adults to protect the children.

[371] And I think that perhaps sometimes those school administrators, those principals.

[372] feel they've already got too much responsibility, they're already too taxed with the resources they have, and they just can't take on that.

[373] what they would consider the extra burden of bully monitoring as well.

[374] And I'll add to that conversation, working in schools, you see the other side.

[375] When you confront, let's say, the bully's parents, and now you have a bullying issue sometimes from the parents.

[376] My son's not doing that.

[377] No, no way.

[378] Who's alleging this?

[379] What's going on?

[380] And now you have a conflict between literally the parents with the school in the middle, and they're playing referee to try to determine...

[381] Was there bullying?

[382] Was there not?

[383] What's going on?

[384] Is it happening?

[385] Is it not?

[386] And now, again, it burdens them in trying to investigate who is right here.

[387] What is it bullying?

[388] Is it not bullying?

[389] And in dealing with the opposite set of parents, sometimes is a deterrent for a deeper dive into what's really going on.

[390] You know, you can't address school safety without addressing school shootings.

[391] That is one of your expertise, Adam.

[392] The most recent one is the Parkland shooting.

[393] What went wrong?

[394] You know, you look at, and we've been saying since September 11th, right?

[395] See something, say something.

[396] And this is a case where a lot of people said something.

[397] You had multiple investigations of the shooter.

[398] You had people who identified his behaviors as problematic, yet he had managed to really serpentine the system.

[399] and some of the failures therein to eventually get to the point to where he went operational and took weaponry to school and began to shoot people.

[400] How did he get back into the school that day?

[401] I thought schools were supposed to be locked.

[402] What was that, an open campus?

[403] You could just come in and out whenever you wanted?

[404] So even though you have a closed campus, you have gates that can be open, he went to that school.

[405] So he knew where the gates were.

[406] If the gates are closed, let's say till one o 'clock and let's say there's an early release class, he may know the one or two gates that would have been open for students to come out.

[407] He would also know if students maybe propped one of the gates open so that way they knew how to leave.

[408] So he had very intimate knowledge of that school and how to get in.

[409] And because he was there, I would speculate that...

[410] Probably a lot of people saw him and didn't think twice because they had seen him around as a student and didn't think or didn't know he wasn't supposed to be there.

[411] Right.

[412] So what can we do as parents to protect our children?

[413] What do we need to look for in a school?

[414] We need to look, number one, that they have a plan.

[415] And we're not talking just a generic safety plan.

[416] We're talking about a plan for multiple incidents, whether it's a natural disaster, whether it's a fire and whether it's violence on campus, mass violence on campus.

[417] What is their plan?

[418] What are they talking to our students about?

[419] Is it simply just locking down into a classroom or are we empowering them to make decisions to maybe get out and be able to run away or to escape a dangerous situation, to be able to overcome an attacker if they come in that he or she comes into this classroom with whatever weapon.

[420] gun, firearm, a knife, a stick.

[421] What's the empowerment and what is the conversation about keeping them out?

[422] So the fencing and the cameras and all the things that we look at, but also the messaging to parents.

[423] What is a system to let parents know?

[424] Here's what's going on.

[425] Here's where to meet.

[426] to pick up your child.

[427] Here's the lines of communication.

[428] These types of things are really centric, centric in how you build out and away from them.

[429] Why is there such a knee jerk reaction against metal detectors at school?

[430] So metal detectors are a very interesting piece of technology, we'll call it.

[431] You think about an airport and airports are secured.

[432] You have one point of entry, one point of exit.

[433] And that's really the only way you can get in is through a metal detector.

[434] Whereas a school, let's say we set the metal detector, what prevents somebody's friend from throwing a backpack over a fence that I'll go and pick up later on or sliding something through a window?

[435] It becomes very hard to secure a campus that is also outdoors, that's not contained within a building.

[436] And then the other side of it is the perception, the perception of going through a metal detector, having your bag searched.

[437] I think today we're, because of amusement parks and because of the airports, I think we're a little bit more used to that.

[438] You know, the metal detectors in schools aren't always really efficient or effective if you have a porous school to where they can get weapons of some other type in elsewhere.

[439] You know, I agree with what you're saying, but I feel as if it could stop, if it could stop one incident.

[440] It's worth it because what we have suffered starting, you know, even before Columbine, really, and a string of city names.

[441] Marlene, when you hear Paducah or you hear Columbine or Parkland, you associate immediately with a horrific incident in a school.

[442] Absolutely.

[443] If you could just stop even one of those, I think it would be worth it.

[444] When our children are at school, it's completely out of our control.

[445] What happens to them?

[446] Or is it?

[447] You must know when your child is not at school or does not report to school.

[448] Have them email you, text you, phone you.

[449] Always, when your child isn't there, you should have already told them they're not coming to school that day.

[450] Always give the school a list.

[451] of who can pick up your child and a description of their car.

[452] If that changes, write or email or text the teacher and principal.

[453] All visitors must be required to sign in and show ID to see your child.

[454] When at the school, look to see if people are wandering the halls.

[455] Find out, are there background checks on all the employees?

[456] including the bus drivers.

[457] Make sure you know when there are school holidays or parent -teacher conference days when your child should not be at school.

[458] Go by the school to see, lay eyes on, or visit your child when you feel like it.

[459] If they say no, that's a problem.

[460] If you need an excuse, take a baby aspirin.

[461] and give them their medicine.

[462] Bring their water bottle.

[463] Take time to drive by when they're at recess and put your eyes on them.

[464] Let's talk about school buses and school bus stop safety tips.

[465] You must ensure, if possible, an adult waits with your children at the school bus stop.

[466] You know there are plenty of neighborhood watches.

[467] What about organizing a neighborhood bus watch?

[468] Know the path your child takes to and from the school bus stop.

[469] Talk to your school about checking students into the bus.

[470] Identify safe houses, if they exist, along the route your child takes so they can run to that house if they need help.

[471] Children are more likely to trust adults who know their names.

[472] Don't put their names on their clothing or their backpacks where a predator can use that information.

[473] If your child is approached on the way to or from the bus stop or at the bus stop, they need to tell their parents, the bus driver, and school officials.

[474] You must report suspicious vehicles near a bus stop.

[475] You must report suspicious people near bus stops.

[476] Your child must never approach a vehicle that stops near a bus stop.

[477] Speak to your school or the school board about surveillance cameras at school bus stops or on the school bus itself.

[478] Bullies.

[479] They will always exist.

[480] We can't get rid of them, but...

[481] How can we combat or prevent bullying of your child?

[482] First and foremost, you must have conversations with your children about bullies, about being bullied.

[483] And if there are concerns, take those concerns to the teachers and make sure you get it documented in the child's record.

[484] Then bring those concerns to the principal.

[485] And make it non -confrontational.

[486] You are asking for the principal's help.

[487] Is your child being bullied?

[488] Watch for these signs.

[489] They refuse to go to school.

[490] They're afraid of the bus.

[491] They suddenly begin complaining of stomach aches, headaches, fatigue.

[492] They wet the bed.

[493] They avoid interacting with other children outside of school.

[494] They talk about feeling alone or not fitting in at school.

[495] They seem depressed or they express feelings of helplessness or worthlessness.

[496] And most important, any communication about suicide.

[497] You are the adult.

[498] It's your duty to be on the lookout.

[499] To notice signs within your child, even unspoken.

[500] No one wants to think about school shootings.

[501] I don't.

[502] But I have to.

[503] And so do you.

[504] Make sure your school has a plan for multiple emergencies.

[505] Does the school talk to the students about the plan?

[506] Does the school...

[507] Empower students to fight back, to hide, to flee.

[508] Know the system the school uses to talk to parents like text or email.

[509] Does the school practice a drill?

[510] Just like maybe you had a fire drill or a tornado or hurricane drill.

[511] There has to be a lockdown drill that they practice with your children.

[512] It's not scaring them.

[513] It's arming them.

[514] It's empowering them.

[515] Find out if they do the drills and what the drills are.

[516] Also, be tuned in to inappropriate relationships at school.

[517] Listen to your child.

[518] Listen to the unspoken hints they give you.

[519] Teachers should not be having individual texting with your child or any child.

[520] They should not be on their students' social media.

[521] There are red flags even with other students.

[522] Other children that have inappropriate sexual behavior or knowledge, particularly in younger children, that's inappropriate.

[523] Late arrivals to class or excessive absences.

[524] Changes in personality.

[525] Increased time with one adult, referring to a teacher as a friend.

[526] Difficulty paying attention.

[527] Unexplained disciplinary or academic issues.

[528] Depression, anxiety, self -injury like cutting or burning.

[529] Even alcohol abuse?

[530] I know we don't want to think about it, but focus on your child's teachers.

[531] Look at their behavior.

[532] For instance, are they spending more time with your child than other adults?

[533] Close personal relationships with students?

[534] That doesn't make sense.

[535] Singling students out for special attention or special privileges.

[536] Time alone with a student.

[537] Time in private spaces or places with a student.

[538] Flirtitious behavior with a student.

[539] Off color or inappropriate remarks in class.

[540] Being too permissive with students and allowing misbehavior.

[541] Be attuned to teachers that engage in peer -like behavior.

[542] with the students, giving gifts to students, oversharing personal information with students, touching, kissing, tickling, hugging, wrestling, or holding students, even if they resist, exchanging personal notes, texts, or emails, or other communications with a student, taking a student alone, Anywhere.

[543] Even for ice cream or a soda after school.

[544] Giving your child rides unsolicited.

[545] All of these tips are red flags for you, the parent.

[546] You know, most teachers are caring and loving and want the best for your child.

[547] But it just takes one.

[548] And you won't get a second chance.

[549] The damage will be done.