www.schoolsecurity.org
ELECTION DAY POSES SCHOOL SAFETY CONCERNS
Expert says massive voter turnout and high emotions add to safety concerns.
The November 4th General Election, with massive voter turnout and high emotions, adds to already existing potential school security threats including non-custodial parents, sexual predators and others with ill intentions who might want to get access to schools, according to Kenneth Trump, a national school safety expert.
"It makes no sense that schools spends millions and millions of dollars on controlling school access throughout the school year only to open their doors a couple times a year to anyone and everyone without really knowing who is in their buildings," says Kenneth Trump, President of the Cleveland (Ohio)-based National School Safety and Security Services.
Trump, who has advocated for years to move polling places out of schools to other places in the community, notes that a small, but growing, number of communities have done so. Many schools instead designate Election Day as a professional development day for teachers while students stay home.
But many schools remain open for both education and polling, Trump says. Voters add to traffic congestion at student drop-off and pick-up, overloaded school parking lots, and strangers wandering around schools.
The expected large turnout for the 2008 Presidential Election, and the heightened emotions and polarization associated with this year's election, only heightens existing school safety concerns, according to Trump.
"Permanently moving polling places out of schools to other locations in the community is very prudent considering best practices taken to improve school access control in the past decade. Unfortunately, many elected officials and school districts fear political resistance by some voters in their communities, and have dodged the issue. Sadly, it will probably take a high-profile national tragedy to bring about this needed change on a large scale nationally," Trump said.
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