Tuesday Open Thread

From KING-5: apparently a drunk man wandered into Salmon Bay on Monday, January 6th and was found (not sure by whom) in a bathroom. He had entered via a door that is left open longer for students using wheelchairs.  All the rooms were secured and the man taken away by police/paramedics.  From the letter to parents:

"At approximately 9:30 a.m., a transient man entered our building and attempted to take shelter in a boy's bathroom.  We immediately called 911 and the district security officers, and teachers were notified to keep all students and guests in their classrooms.  Upon the arrival of police and paramedics, the man - who was very intoxicated but non-confrontational - left the building."

The district says it will be reviewing procedures to ensure the school can balance the need to maintain access for students with disabilities while also ensuring the security of the building.

KING 5 also spoke to one parent, who was volunteering inside the school when the security scare took place.  He said the staff remained calm throughout the 28-minute ordeal, and was happy with how it was handled.

Also, I know the first local Charter Application Forum was packed last night and Dora Taylor at Seattle Education blog was there and will have a wrap-up of the event.

Want to know if there might be continued growth in Seattle Schools?  My Ballard blog is reporting that Swedish in Ballard delivered over 1,000 babies last year.  First Hill Swedish delivered over 5600.  
What's on your mind?

Comments

Anonymous said…
The district says it will be reviewing procedures to ensure the school can balance the need to maintain access for students with disabilities while also ensuring the security of the building.

Seriously? More disabilities nonsense, implying the HUGE difficulty serving students with disabilities. We are to believe they are going to"try" to "maintain access" for students with disabilities?? Just 2 years ago they tried to kick out all the autistic students of Salmon Bay.

Get real! A drunk could wander into any building in the district. They pose no greater threat to students with disabilities than to any other student. And no, you can't corral people with disabilities into any location under the guise of "protecting" them.

Sped Parent
Catherine said…
The security solution is SIMPLE. SSD just makes their lives needlessly complicated. I just put in 4 commercial key code doors - one on a 1948 door - massively and simply programmable - simple to use - resistant to kids and the weather. These are used in marinas, government buildings, and oh you know... schools. They are less than $1K each, $400 for the programming software. If you want to go wild, you can power them and have them on wifi - that has government ready anti-hack protocols for about $4K more total. There's also an ADA remote keypad available - but I didn't put that in - but I recall it was also in that ball-park. For less than $10K - they could key code two doors - and solve this. Yet they sit around spending far more than $10K in staff time a year discussing something they never fix.
Anonymous said…
@ Catherine - Your post needs a "Like" button.

-ballard parent
Unknown said…
@sped parent, I don't think they were talking about protecting students with disabilities from transients. They were talking about the fact that students with differences in mobility can not access the same door of the building as the other students. So they have to have the side door open.

I would have to say, though, that that you do have a point. I was at a PTA meeting for Dearpark elementary where it was reported that a unknown man had wandered into a boys bathroom and had stolen toilet paper during the school day. He came in through the front door. It's not that hard to gain entry to any school through the front door and wander into a bathroom instead of going to the office and signing in--but maybe I don't look like a person who is homeless and has had to much to drink.

Frankly, the description of this incident as an "ordeal" has me scratching my head. What exactly did this person do besides enter the building and go to the bathroom?
Anonymous said…
Was hoping for an update on the Math Adoption Committee work? Any news to share?

-FedMom0f2
Catherine said…
@ballard parent - thanks. When I had to figure this out I was shocked at how affordable the solution was - in the scale of commercial products. These locks are also programmable so that they can unlock the door at high traffic times - for however many minutes you want. Then they lock themselves back up. Or for special events like PTA meetings.
Anonymous said…
Mary, the students at Salmon Bay are not mobility impaired. The building is nowhere close to being accessible for students with mobility issues. No worries. The district will NEVER fix that!

Would you ever hear about: reviewing procedures to ensure the school can balance the need to maintain access for BLACK STUDENTS while also ensuring the security. ? Or ensure need for, oh say, kindergarteners and safety?

Of course not. We ASSUME that our schools will be both accessible AND safe ... for everybody - well, everybody except students with disabilities. In that case, we have to think about it.

This is just more commentary fostering the notion that students with disabilities are nearly impossible to serve, even when their needs are identical to others. Eg. There's no more work making a building safe for kindergarteners than for students with disabilities. Yet, we hear about all the extra effort it requires for the students with disabilities. And this creates doubt as to whether or not it's even worth it.

-sped parent
Anonymous said…
From the Jane Addams Middle School Fusion Page (jams.www.seattleschools.org):

Jane Addams Middle School Information Night
Parents and students, please join us on one of the two February dates to tour the school and ask questions about next fall. We are excited about our planning and look forward to sharing up to date information with you.

Tuesday, February 11, 6:30-7:30 pm, JAMS auditorium
Tuesday, February 25, 6:30-7:30 pm, JAMS auditorium

JAMS Special Education Meeting 2/25/2014
On Tuesday, February 25 from 5:30-6:30, Executive Director McWilliams and other Special Education staff will be available in the JAMS library to discuss Special Education Services at JAMS for 2014-2015. This is prior to the all school information meeting that begins at 6:30.

-North-end Mom
WallyMom said…
Can Charlie offer a summary of the C&I meeting? Particularly the math curriculum?
mirmac1 said…
Sped Parent,

I'm with you on this one. Those kind of gratuitous comments must be called out for the drivel they are. Yes, it's all about balance: provide constitutional rights to the disabled versus adding an access card entry. Duh! If they can do it to the elevator at JSCEE, then they can very well do it at the few schools that actually offer ADA-compliant access!
Anonymous said…
Re Special Education staff meeting with JAMS to talk about middle school 2014-2015: are they meeting with community members in other regions too, to talk about special education services in other buildings?

wishful thinker
Dear Save Seattle Schools,

I am writing this on my own volition because I am extremely concerned about the future of CHS.

It is my understanding that there are 2 major set of transportation issues that, if passed, will deeply affect our student body.

The first set has to do with our School board.

On the chopping block are yellow school busses. These serve between 120 and 150 of our students.

I believe that Orca cards are also on the agenda to be cut. We currently have between 270 and 320 students who rely on these.

This ISSUE ALONE could affect 56% of our kids!

It is extremely important for us to make a strong visible showing at the School board which meets on Jan 22.


The second set has to do with Seattle Metro.

Right now, there is a proposal to reroute the 106 through MLK, bypassing Georgetown and CHS all together.
Bus 60 will also be rerouted to no longer serve CHS, Seattle or Georgetown.
Bus 36 will run every 30 minutes instead of every 15.

Combine these issues, and I don’t believe I am exaggerating when I state that we have a silver bullet to the CHS student population.

If this were to pass, they would make it really tough for a majority of our kids to get to school.

I see 2 solutions to solve the problem.


1) We build a parking garage, and lower the Driving age to 13 years of age.

Or

2) We come together to support our kids. We write letters to Seattle Metro, we attend the School Board Meeting . We get media attention focused on all of the great things that are happening here at CHS. We make signs.

I live off of Othello. I see our kids all of the time in my neighborhood. Trust me when I tell you that I love our neighborhood, but I will not walk alone after dark though it (Frankly, there have been evenings that I have insisted my 200 lb husband not walk home alone from the light rail…).

I am not nearly as cute or vulnerable as our students are.
They should not have to walk alone. As adults, let’s walk with them.

With great respect,
Michelle Maury
CHS Music
Anonymous said…
Garfield hazing student who was suspended sues the district. Took longer than I thought.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Assistant-Principal-Garfield-hazing-5132074.php

Gene
Anonymous said…
Voice your thoughts on Meany Middle School

While Middle School seems a long way off to many of us, it is high time to start gathering input and collaborating on the development of Meany Middle School. Meany, our neighborhood public middle school, is scheduled to reopen in 2017. The Meany School Design Advisory Committee (SDAT) has had four meetings and the project is in the pre-design phase. As parents, we'd like to start organizing members of the feeder schools to ensure that we gather community input regarding the programs, activities and any other opportunities you'd like to see offered to our neighborhood's 6-8th graders.

To join the first of these discussions, please come to a meeting in the Stevens Elementary School Library on Thursday, January 23rd at 7pm.

Don't miss this opportunity to make your voice heard!

I've been keeping updates to the planning project here:

http://meanyms.blogspot.com/

Ann D.

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