The following are the current safety measures a Foster Middle School: Current safety measures at Foster Middle School Here's a look at main points of current policy: • Safety and security training for all staff • Districtwide safety audit for its campuses • Updated emergency preparedness plans • Scheduled emergency drills throughout the year • Two Longview police officers present each day • Video surveillance of campus and buses • Student Crime Stopper program • Daily announcements that encourage students to report illegal activity • Visitors must go through front office, have driver's license scanned through Raptor program • Campus volunteers given criminal history check • Dads' WATCH DOG program • Exterior doors locked throughout day • Students monitored throughout the day • Staff sweep halls, bathrooms, outside areas after every class change • Automated communication system in place to notify parents • Students take part in social skills program to encourage positive character traits • Staff includes full-time counselor, full-time community and parent liaison • Random backpack searches • Teacher-given student interest inventories to build trust and positive relationships • Random drug screening for students in extracurricular activities How are any of these current measures going to provide a safe working, and learning environment for our children and teachers? It won’t! Like I said before and I will say it again NO BACKPACKS, kids have no need for them they do not get assigned school books to take home like we did in school. Metal detection at entrances of the school with full screening of all who enter, along with bag search for visitors. This along with police on campus is the only way to assure the safety of our students and faculty. LISD what is it going to take for you to stop wasting my money on new school buildings , and supply the adequate measures needed to make our schools safe? THIS IS THE SECOND TIME in a calendar year a firearm has been found on the campus, along with drugs. Sure, people are going to bitch that it is a violation of privacy, and we are turning our schools into prisons, but in order to deal with today’s children whose parents don’t teach them right from wrong we need these measures to protect our children and faculty. Sure, grip about the inconvenience of having all teacher’s visitors and children having to go through the screening process, but my idea will not end up killing a student or faculty member. Is that what it is going to take to get proper security in our schools? The current safety policies of this school are an absolute joke. So just keep sweeping this under the rug, and patting yourselves on the back about how great our children are doing on their State test scores, meanwhile you need to keep in the back of your mind that one day the inevitable will happen because you didn’t take the time to protect our students and faculty. I speak from experience I happen to have been in a school shooting, and it forever changed my life, and guess what your current policies were the same in 1991. Thank You, Jason Bates