Reply to Searching kids’ bags at APS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There was a gun threat in 3rd grade at Escuela Key last year and the administration took the position that they couldn't search kids' bags because of privacy concerns.[/quote]

Yes, and not just Key admin. APS staff (Zach Pope?) told us at a meeting when parents asked why they didn’t search all bags in the third grade trailer, that that’s against policy because of privacy. He indicated that if they had good reason to believe a specific student had a weapon, they could search that one student’s bag, but not all the bags. [/quote]
Given the size and weight of a handgun and the specifity of the threat, I'm pretty sure they could have just patted down the mostly empty backpacks hanging in the hall without even needing to open them.  It was crazy that they didn't do anything.[/quote]

It was even crazier than that. They had a specific threat in a specific grade - that was by itself in a trailer so they knew the grade (limited number of possible kids who could have done it) - and it was a threat against a specific student. And he, and they, took the position that there was absolutely nothing they could do to check for weapons, even during the time when they didn’t have any idea which kid had written it and therefore really couldn’t have know if it was a credible threat or not. They seemingly based their whole response/lack of response on basically a feeling/assumption that kids that age don’t do this stuff. I guess we can debate the continued reasonableness of that assumption in today’s world. I thought it was mind boggling.[/quote]

Yes, it was. Many (most?) of us parents expected them to search bags and wanted them to do so in this situation. This was shortly after the first grader elsewhere in VA shot his teacher, too. [/quote]

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