Overreaction in Trumansburg Schools
Yesterday afternoon, the Trumansburg Schools issued the following press release:
“In conjunction with New York State and Trumansburg police, the Trumansburg Fire Department and TST BOCES officials, student and visitor search and access procedures were developed this afternoon. Tomorrow morning, Friday, April 25, any and all students and adult visitors other than Trumansburg Central School District employees will be searched prior to gaining access to any school building while school is in session.
Beginning Monday, April 28, the district will indefinitely be in a “lockout” mode. While students and visitors will not be searched daily and will be allowed access through designated entry points at each building at the opening of school each morning, there may be randomly conducted searches throughout the remainder of the school year. After first bell, each building will have a single point of access for the remainder of the school day. All adult visitors will be asked to show picture ID such as a NYS driver’s license. The incident continues to be investigated by state and local police.”
I want to say first that I appreciate our the quality of our schools, and the dedication with which the teachers and administration members of the schools work to provide a healthy, safe environment in which our children can learn.
But, as I read and think about this new policy, it seems like an over-reaction to me. Of course, I don’t have all the information about what’s gone on in the schools. I don’t know what the police know. So, if I’m missing something obvious in what I’m about to say, please correct me.
Last night, the bags of parents attending an informational meeting about the bomb threats were searched before the parents were allowed to enter. Why? Were they suspected of preparing to launch an attack during the meeting?
My oldest son is a first-grader in the elementary school. Will he be searched tomorrow? Why? The threatening notes and firecracker were found in the middle school on more than one occasion. No elementary school student would have been able to access the middle school – not even an enterprising fourth grader.
I suppose it is possible that a middle school student might come up with a nefarious plot to give a firecracker or even a weapon of some sort on a younger brother or sister, even a kindergartener, and then attempt to meet that sibling on the playground to get the weapon. That might take place, but it seems extremely unlikely and an obviously risky ploy. It doesn’t seem worth a permanent “lockout” policy at the elementary school.
Also, the search of visiting adults, with the requirement of photo IDs, seems completely unrelated to the actual threat. Given the nature of the firecracker device that was found, it doesn’t seem to me that there’s any evidence of an adult working to help a middle school student plan a violent attack. The idea of an adult visiting the elementary school being suspected of bringing a weapon that would then somehow be transfered to the middle school seems extremely far-fetched.
What good does requiring adults to have drivers licenses to visit the schools do? Is there a reason to suspect that there is an adult who cannot drive helping a middle school student in Trumansburg to terrorize the students there?
These tactics seem designed to make Trumansburg residents feel that the Middle School is safe, while not actually being part of a reasonable approach to actually ensure safety. It’s a bad lesson for students at the Trumansburg schools to learn – that when there is a threat, a show of security should be made, even if the show of security isn’t related to the character of the actual threat.
Also, I worry about the lesson that Middle School students may be learning from this over-reaction. Some may conclude that writing threatening notes and making violent displays is a good way to get attention, and an effective way to gain power over adults.
A far more valuable lesson for students would be that attempts at intimidation will not be rewarded with extravagant displays of fear, such as are being prepared by our schools.
I understand why the schools are doing what they do. I appreciate the sentiment that motivates their actions. If there is a good reason for these very extensive security measures that I don’t understand, I’m receptive to hearing about them.
Seeing us discuss this matter can be a positive thing for our community’s children. Watching us become overexcited will not leave a helpful impression.
Update: This morning, the Ithaca Journal quotes outgoing Superintendent Tangorra as telling the meeting last night, “Say tomorrow we find this person, the threat is not over. I believe there are adults and students across the nation that are capable of this type of behavior.”
Mr. Tangorra, “adults and students across the nation” are not in Trumansburg. The people who are in Trumansburg are in Trumansburg. Please, let’s worry about what is actually happening in the Trumansburg schools, and not extravagant paranoid fantasies about what might happen if someone from a thousand miles away decides to come to our village and kill our children.
If you find the person who lit the firecracker, then yes, “the threat” is over. There is no other threat. This other “threat” involving adults and students from other communities coming here and making our children unsafe is nothing more than a fantasy.
Tangorra also apparently told the crowd that, “Parents have been very comfortable and always had easy access to their children in the school. Realize you’re that child’s parent, but you are a stranger to everyone else.”
Actually, Mr. Tangorra, the parents of the other children at the school are often not strangers to each other. They live in the same community, after all. To the extent that parents are strangers to each other, then that’s a problem that needs to be solved. Searching adult visitors because a middle school student blew up a firecracker won’t solve that problem.
There are now budget increases to pay for additional security staff being planned. I would rather that money be used as a start for a community center to bring us together, rather than unnecessary guards to send the signal that we should be afraid of each other.
I just returned from dropping my own first grader off at school. The security and police presence was pretty scary for her and her backpack was indeed searched. I was allowed to walk her to her classroom without being asked for ID (which was good because I didn’t have any on me and I think she would have wanted to turn around and go home with me if I hadn’t been allowed to walk her in)
I am sure the perpetrator is pretty pleased with all this extra attention.
Seems to me that this is a typical “damned if you do”, “damned if you don’t” scenario for the school district. On the one hand you have the loonies who want to shut the schools down for the rest of the year (these people seemed to be the most vocal at the forum last night). On the other hand, you have people who say “jeez it was just a firecracker, why worry”. I actually think the district has struck a good and responsible posture in the circumstances. I’m sure the elementary school kids (parents) will be upset, so will middle and high school kids (parents). Have you been to an airport (any airport) lately?
Richard, let’s talk substance. Precisely how is the school “damned” if it doesn’t search the backpacks of Kindergarteners or look at the drivers’ licenses of visiting adults?
How is it “responsible” for the school to be moving toward spending money on security guards that aren’t any more necessary than they were last week, when that money could go instead to our children’s educational needs?
In what way is it “good” for the Superintendent to say that, even if the person who lit the firecracker is caught, the threat will not be over, because there will always be some adult or student somewhere in America who might come to Trumansburg to do us harm?
A school, of all places, should be administered according to a logical assessment of actual needs, not a panicky emotional reaction.
We need school leaders who are willing to listen to community concerns, and then make reasonable plans that are not forged in a single fearful moment.
Honestly, as a parent of students in the Trumansburg School District, I would rather have school leaders being overly cautious than to just “sweep the issue under the rug”. Yes this may have seem like a minor event, but it could have had worse consquences.
As far as showing ID to get into a building, I am NOT against that. I have been a member of this community for years and I attended all three of the Trumansburg schools, HOWEVER, if I go into the office to pick up my child early…..how does the office staff (who may have never seen me before) know that I am who I say I am????
Louise, as a parent of students in the schools, would you rather have your fears affect the lives of my children, and the children of other parents?
The sign-in procedure at the front desk of the elementary school office has never led to problems before. What has changed now, as the result of there being a firecracker in the middle school, that changes that?
As for the issue being swept under the rug, State Police have been called in with search dogs to deal with a firecracker. How is that sweeping the issue under the rug? I see no danger at all of the issue being swept under the rug. I see a great danger of money being wasted and the open, healthy environment of our schools being smothered by an excessive, irrational security presence.
I also just returned to take my first grader to school and was quite upset and dismayed at the searches. Furthermore, when I went to go run on the track as I normally do after dropping my daughter off every morning, I was told by Tangorra to leave and even threatened by him to be escorted off by police if I did not do so.
The problem with this state of response is that it creates more fear and intimidation in the community. Although my daughter may not have understood what was going on this morning (the people checking her bag told her “they were looking to see what she had for lunch”), I believe the repurcussions are more far reaching. Ask yourself: Do we really want our young people to accept the presence of an increased police state anytime something goes wrong in our neighborhoods?
Jonathan,
If you read my post again I did not say it WAS swept under the rug.. I said : ” I would rather have school leaders being overly cautious than to just “sweep the issue under the rug”.
It’s not this situation that makes me think about this issue, I had always thought that ID was supposed to be shown to pick up a child at school (before the end of the school day). There have been many informatin sheets that I have received in the past that noted ID would need to be shown to pick up your child. I’m sorry if this is such an inconvenience to you.
These are just MY opinions and I am entitled to them just as you are entitled to yours.
Oh and for the record…do YOU have a child in the Middle School?????
Of course you’re entitled to your opinions, Louise. I want to hear them. That’s why I enable comments.
However, I and other people are entitled to question whether your opinions are well founded in fact and in reason. In a small community, we ought to be discussing these issues to make sure that what’s being done with our children in the schools is appropriate.
I do not have a child in the Middle School. I have a child in the elementary school – a first grader who was searched on his way into school today.
Think about this now: How did my first grade son being searched protect anyone’s children in the Middle School? How did the search of bags at last night’s meeting protect anyone’s children at any of the schools?
These kind of measures are being put in place to make frightened people feel reassured, but they do not have any actual benefit. I don’t think it’s appropriate for our schools to spend money on things like security guards in the elementary school when they’re just not called for in the current situation.
I’m fine with reasonable, effective security measures so long as they are necessary. I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend time and money on unnecessary security measures, and I am very worried that this great hub-bub that’s being made over a firecracker in a toilet is giving the unknown Middle School student exactly what he or she wanted in the first place: Attention and power.
It’s a very dangerous lesson that is now being given to children in Trumansburg: Write a threatening note, and make a little mess, and you can get all the adults in the school district running around like a bothered colony of worker ants. We should not be teaching our children that intimidation is a successful method for getting what you want.
It’s up to us as adults to show our children how to remain calm when there is a disturbance, and to take care of the problem calmly and without allowing our emotions to run out of control.
So, you fall in the “jeez, it was just a firecracker” camp. Others fall in the “let’s shut the place down for the rest of the year” camp. Who’s right? Both sides would apparently be happy to impose their views on the other. I personally view both positions as extreme and, as I said before, therefore believe the district has acted in a prudent and responsible manner given the circumstances.
No, Richard. That’s the camp YOU put me in.
You have yet to explain, Richard, how the current regime, in which kindergarten students in one building are searched and guarded by police to protect them from a firecracker-happy student in an entirely different building, makes sense.
You can’t just say that because it’s a happy middle between two extremes it must make sense. That’s not dealing with the facts of the situation. It’s an abstract theory.
If you can explain to me how having my son searched makes the middle school students safer from firecrackers, I’d love to hear about that. If you can tell me how having adults searched in the evening time as they enter the elementary school auditorium makes students in the middle school building safer today, then I’d like to hear about that too.
I would also like to hear what you think about Maria being escorted off the running track, as if her presence there was a danger.
I don’t think that vague platitudes about camps and extremes provide such an explanation. We’re talking about specific policies in specific school buildings here, Richard, not “camps”.
Louise, I can understand the “better to be safe than sorry” attitude but for parents who visit the school on a daily basis, is it really reasonable for them to be asked to show ID? Really, how many times have you been in the school and not been recognized as a familiar face by staff? I can bet never. It’s a small school…chances are if you have a right to be there,you’re recognized and if you’re not immediately recognized, I’m confident that queries would be made as to who you are and what you’re doing there.This morning was the only time I as a parent encountered unfamiliar faces at the school who also did not know me as well and they were not part of the normal staff and my children’s daily routine.It was very unsettling for myself and my child.
As far as I can see, the district’s response is about reassurance. They (correctly) knew that many parents would be upset & wanted to reassure them that measures were being taken, particularly today (as per the note)to intercept possible dangerous items.
Extreme…maybe, but having many families keep their kids home, which likely would have happened had they done nothing, is extremely costly in terms of lost state aid.
Don’t lets overreact about the overreaction! As far as I understand, the searches are just for today & in the future will only be occasional random searches. Parents picking up kids early SHOULD have to show ID, not only for safety, but (as is more frequently the reason) for custody issues.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel “reassurance” regarding the measures that have been taken. Prior to this, I had viewed the elementary school as as very nurturing environment for my daughter (particularly under the direction of Mrs. Lange). This morning left me with a sense of distrust; weren’t are young children, afterall, treated like suspects? These measures were inappropriate and unwarranted at the elementary school level.
A final note: not everyone may have a driver’s license (the most common form of picture ID), particularly if they can’t/don’t own a car! Isn’t a child’s (and hopefully a teacher’s) recognition of the parent enough?
I echo Maria’s thoughts exactly. Instead of reassurance, it just elevated the anxiety at the elementary level when it didn’t really even involve them in the first place.
I’m one of those people who do not even HAVE a photo ID! I’m sure that sounds pretty silly to some but that’s the way it is. Everyone at the school knows who I am…I’m assuming common sense will prevail here and the ID thing will be a non-issue. I’m a big fan of common sense and I probably have too much faith that other people are too but we’ll see.
what a redneck town…get out while you can.
Overeaction?! Here are the facts. A bomb threat note was found. An explosive device was detonated in the same location as the note was found. A second note was found threatening another bomb on Friday. At the location of the first explosion shrapnel-like pieces were found. This was a threat that was carried out and that was intended to cause harm to people or property at the school. You don’t stand by when that happens. If you do, the perpetrator knows he/she can get away with it and copy-cats are encouraged to try the same thing, usually sooner rather than later. In the face of this, I am astounded that the school has not been closed down until the perpetrator is found or until security devices can be installed. This was not a threat. This was a threat that was followed by action intended to harm people and/or property. I understand that children will be scared and concerned. That’s why they should stay at home until this has been sorted out.
i wonder who made the decisions for things to happen the way they did today. Were parents and teachers given input? It seems to me what makes Trumansburg feel so safe is the fact that so many people/parents are involved in what is happening in school and the community. The whole “neighborhood watch” mentality.
So wouldn’t it make sense to invite parents to be more involved at a time like this rather than locking them out of the buildings and treating them like strangers?
Aren’t the kids who make bombs usually the ones whose parents are disconnected from them and their activities?
Come on people! This was a prank by some pitiful local kid. Except everyone is so insular in this backward ‘burg who runs this place they get completely worked up and wind up doing more damage than the original moron. Find the little bastard with the 24/hr trigger happy police force we have here, expel him/her and be done with it. Send him packing to juvey boot camp.
Although I agree that the response was extreme, I disagree that the district should stop at finding the alleged perpetrator and “send him packing”. My guess (growing up in T-burg myself) was that this child felt disenfranchised in some way and needed/wanted attention. Trumansburg has many long-standing, unresolved issues such as the extreme social class and/or racial distinctions that exist here (many of the same problems that plague Ithaca). It is time the school district and the town address these issues.
I agree, Maria. This child needs counseling and mentoring – and a lot of observation, along with a strong regimen of community service. A short stint in juvenile detention may be called for, but I’m willing to withhold strong judgment until we know the facts of the case.
This child is young enough as a Middle Schooler to be reformed. Though that’s never easy, it’s worth the effort.
JC – as usual you are totally out of touch. It’s funny how you keep antagonizing liberals and conservatives alike. You’re so far left, you’ve ended up back at the facist right.
“Believe what I believe or you are uneducated and don’t understand the issues”
And that’s the camp WE put you in.
X – please don’t put quotes around words when I never said them. I never said those words, X, so don’t try to distort the situation.
Some people agree with me, and some people, like you, disagree with me. That’s fine by me.
I didn’t create Finding Ulysses in order to build my popularity. I did it so that people would have the chance to consider and discuss things that matter to the community.
That’s why I use my name, X. I may be out of touch to some extent with your beliefs, but I am not so out of touch that I have forgotten my own name.
Have you forgotten your name, X? Who are you? Do I know you? Do you even really live in the Town of Ulysses?
I would prefer that, instead of merely noting that I don’t think in a way that a lot of other people do (something I already know about myself), you would address the substance of the matter. I’d rather know if you think that what I’m saying makes sense, instead of whether it just happens to be popular.
So, can you explain to me how searching Kindergarten students in the elementary school building would prevent a student in the separate middle school building from lighting another firecracker in the toilet?
I was in NYC last weekend, and took the ferry over to the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island. Anymore, when you take this ferry, which also stops at the Statue of Liberty, it’s like going through airport security — take off your jacket, remove your belt, keys and purses and watches and change in the plastic bin, walk through the metal detectors. As we all know, these security measures were enacted after 9/11/01, and is part and parcel of the increased paranoia I think we’re all suffering from in the United States. The “what if…?” mentality. I can’t send my kid out to play because what if she were kidnapped? I can’t let my boy ride his bike to school because what if he were hit by a car? Lots of things could happen, but if we live our lives cowering at the possibility of the bad stuff, we’ll miss a lot of the good stuff.
I think bag searches are a bit over the top. MOST kids wouldn’t think of setting off a firecracker in school. MOST kids aren’t bringing contraband onto school grounds (and elementary school students — puh-leez! give me a break!) The bad judgement of one person throws the school into lockdown mode. One can only shake one’s head and hope that in the future we can will not be paralyzed by fear, because fear chips away at a sense of community, which is one thing that we’ve always been very proud of.
@Mary Bouchard et al,,,
Your “what if? mentality” comments resonate deeply within me, a lifelong resident of the Town of Ulysses who, despite having had the opportunity to travel far and wide, still consider T-burg my ‘home’ town.
A member of the class of ’63, I’d bet that the majority of guys (and a few gals as well) took firecrackers to school on occasion–I know that I did. As far as I can remember, there were no injuries sustained by anyone, other than to the pride of the principals, due to their inability to catch us. That was part of the game, too. Some were caught, some were suspended for a day or two, while others from some more-prominent families were not punished at all or merely had to serve ‘detention’. Today, it has been shown that all hell would break loose, and the kid might get kicked out of school permanently (always good for one’s education—NOT) and who knows what else might happen? Over-reaction? Hell, yes!
I should point out that this phenomenon did not start at 9-11, but many years before. (I agree it has in many ways exponentially increased since 9-11–and might well be proven a reason for 9-11!)
When/where I grew up, Taughannock Falls State Park was literally and figuratively my back yard, and I and many friends spent countless hours exploring the amazing gorge, and swimming or fishing in its many pools, including the devil’s bathtub. The more-adventurous of us (and generations prior) even climbed down to ‘the ledge’, and under/behind the water cascading over the falls lip–what a heart-pounding thrill! Later on, someone (a despondent Cornell student as I recall) committed suicide, with the result that the gorge was then fenced on both sides and arrests were threatened and applied to any who had the temerity to ignore them, or all lacking the guile not to get caught. Now it is all gone–what a shame that the intrinsic natural beauty has to be viewed through an ugly chain-link fence, and much of the beauty not seen at all!
Now, no one can enjoy the incredible beauty of the gorge above the falls that one could enjoy not so long ago, from inside the gorge. Now, no one can hike down to the gorge creek and catch beautiful browns and brookies, as we once could. What a loss! And that is only one instance of many that demonstrates how we are losing our freedoms, including the freedom to do what well-meaning, over-protective others might consider to be stupid and/or dangerous. In its place we have more laws, rules, regulations and penalties and far-fewer freedoms.
What we are also losing, and is perhaps even more dangerous to our society, is that the taking away of those freedoms means we are also taking away the chances/opportunities of experiencing risk, so that now, kids have little-to-zero opportunity to exercise any understanding of risk-taking, or indeed, valuable opportunities to develop or hone any challenge to, or confirmation of–their own common sense.
And the (d)evolutionary result? The insane lock-down of an entire school system; the implementation of invasive searches including all students and parents alike—no matter age or how-well-known and trusted; and the furtherance and instilling of a sense of fear in students and parents alike, and especially the insecure among us (who might not realize this is directed to them, even if I yelled it into their ear).
Much, if not most of the world is not like this, even after 9-11. Where the development of ‘common-sense’ is seen as a necessary part of growing up (ie. the rest of the world), it is left up to the individual (or parents) to determine the level of risk they should or should not take. This is the opposite of our present situation where there is a presumption of safety if ‘it’ is not fenced and/or signed specifically ‘prohibited’ and where a lawsuit is sure to follow, if the fence isn’t high enough or any other reason can be found to blame any accident/incident upon others, as opposed to the understanding that a fundamental part of growing up is the taking of responsibility for one’s own actions and well-being.
This I believe makes us all profoundly less-safe, and the long-term result of the continuation of this mindset is what I fear most–not some fellow-individualistic-semi-rebellious prankster with a firecracker who (as long as he isn’t destructive or dangerous to others) I anonymously cheer).
Regards,,,John Rice
I graduated last year, and even now, I still look back on the security as a HUGE overreaction to the situation. Number 1, it happened in the Middle School, so why have the security “upgrades” in the High School too? And Number 2, we didn’t have these measures until after the fact of that having happened; barely anything (if anything) was done to prevent this or at least try to “moderate”, etc., so things like this wouldn’t happen. But we all know that the administration would just say that “as soon as we take away the measures, someone will take advantage of the lack of security.” I say: so what! Punish that person, but don’t make all the students suffer.