Being prepared for an emergency
Andy Carvin, who writes the Learning.Now blog for PBS (and who also works for NPR helping us create new ways for our visitors and audience to interact with us and with each other) writes about how events like Virginia Tech, once again, act as a wake-up call for better emergency preparedness.
I have no doubt that universities that don't have mandatory cell phone requirements or SMS alert systems are going to take the idea a lot more seriously now. But will K-12 schools? I'm skeptical. There is enormous opposition to allowing students to possess phones on campus, even though many parents argue they're necessary for emergency communications.Some administrations will respond by saying the chances of a real emergency are slim, and students can't be trusted to use them responsibly. Yes, an emergency on the scale of Virginia Tech are few and far between, but smaller-scale emergencies do happen from time to time. When more school shootings happen - and they will happen - it's likely that more parents will be outraged by the fact their schools made it difficult or impossible to communicate with their children. And there will come a time when we will have no choice but to allow our students to carry communications devices. It may not be this month or even this year, but it will happen.
2:12 PM ET | 04-18-2007 | permalink
