School violence precaution -- or hysteria?

A school without bookbags? A school without lunchboxes? A school
without coats, jackets and hats?

In the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, schools across the
nation are searching for ways in which to prevent future tragedies. One
school district in Oscoda, Mich., has developed a series of procedures
that, while precautionary, are anything but conventional.

Oscoda Area Schools, located in the rural northeastern part of
Michigan, has been plagued by a series of bogus bomb threats over the
past two weeks. The most recent one occurred Wednesday at one of the
district's elementary schools.

Because of these bomb threats, the Board of Education in Oscoda and
the Oscoda Township Police Department have established what some parents
see as draconian new policies including:

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• Bookbags backpacks, coats and jackets are not allowed in school
  for the remainder of the year.
• Lockers are to be emptied and secured.
• Parent volunteers are to monitor the halls in the buildings.
• Walkie-talkies are to be purchased and used for communications.
• Pay phone use is restricted in the high school.
• All school phones are monitored.
• Lunches from home are to be placed in a clear plastic bag.

Todd Caraher, a parent who has three children at Cedar Lake
Elementary School in the Oscoda area, believes these measures are much
too stringent.

"What's the deal?" asked an upset Caraher of the measures. "These
are our kids. This is our school system, not theirs. Yet, they (the
school board) are dictating what to do with my kids, and I, as a parent,
have no say in it."

Caraher believes these bomb hoaxes are done by children who "know
how" to get out of school. They're doing it to get an extra vacation
day, but they probably wouldn't want to hurt anybody.

Robert LaVack, chief of police in Oscoda, agrees with Caraher.

"In none of these cases have we found any device," said LaVack. "I
don't think that it was their intention to harm anyone. The problem is
that you don't know that until you catch them and talk to them."

LaVack said so far three juveniles have been "petitioned" by the
police department and he expects to issue another petition soon.
Petitions, LaVack explained, are similar to arrest warrants for adults.
When asked about the almost dozen bomb threats that have occurred over
the past two weeks in just his township, LaVack said the police
department has identified suspects in all but about two of the cases.

Although Caraher said he appreciated the police department's response
to the bomb threats, he said he didn't appreciate how the new school
measures were just forced upon everybody.

"What I was really upset about was they never called a parent-teacher
meeting or a township meeting," Caraher said. "The decisions have
always been limited to a few -- the school board and police department.
They have parent volunteers walking the hallways, but it's an inside
circle."

WorldNetDaily repeatedly attempted to contact this "inside circle" at
the Board of Education, but members denied all requests for interviews.
Not even the teachers in the district were allowed to talk about the
bombing hoax incidents or the new measures.

LaVack couldn't understand why those at the Board of Education would
refuse an interview. In his opinion, there wasn't anything that took
place that shouldn't be made public.

However, he did defend the new policies by saying the measures taken
would allow the police to do as complete of a search as possible in the
shortest amount of time. He said searching through more than 1,000
bookbags and lockers each time a bomb threat occurred would not only
hold up the police but prevent the children from getting back to their
classroom work.

"We're trying desperately to find a balance between making sure the
kids are safe and searching the school properly," LaVack added.

LaVack said the police department has even "enlisted" some of the
teachers to help them because they know their classrooms better than the
police do, and if anything seems out of place, they should be able to
notice it quickly.

However, Caraher still believes the measures went too far.

A few days ago, Caraher sent his second grade son to school with a
jacket even though school policy said he couldn't do so. The day
happened to be cool and rainy.

As soon as Caraher's son walked into his second grade classroom, the
teacher made him take it off and took it away from him, only giving it
back to him after the school day had come to a close.

"This doesn't cut it for me -- not for my kids or anybody else's
kids," Caraher said.

Besides upsetting the kids, Caraher believes the measures violate the
students' basic human rights.

"I always thought school was supposed to be a place where freedom of
thought and expression and basic freedoms should thrive, not somewhere
where you have to go and it's almost like a jail," commented Caraher.

Regarding the jacket incident, LaVack said not allowing jackets was
not a police department recommendation, but when asked if the Board of
Education was over-reacting, LaVack was hesitant to comment.

"I really can't say that because they (the teachers) deal with school
problems eight hours a day every day," LaVack said suggesting the
teachers may know better how to handle the problem within the school.

LaVack also commented, however, that most of the teachers he talked
to didn't want to have to deal with the enforcement of the new
measures. Most just want to finish the year with a minimum amount of
disruption.