What a great picture of our wonderful Santa Fe Middle School gym. I know my kids are safe and well taken care of there.

It was a good meeting, not that there was a whole lot of new information distributed, but it was good to have a solid presentation specifically about the schools.

The comments from the parents shows that many of us are on the same page and understand the future prevention lies with the community. Watch what is coming as I have a few to spotlight who already make a difference.

For some folks, it might have been new information... probably not for you, Frazgo, because you've been in the thick of it but for loads of parents, like myself, the experience was eye opening...

I particularly appreciated what concerns were brought up about the potential for racial profiling, as well as how to keep our teen youth busy, our need to redirect students from dropping out, and having visible security along the routes where students walk home after school... one father suggested that police cars should be parked a mile down the walk routes so that students would feel more secure (presently the police drive around the schools)... I thought that was a great idea. I know of TWO teens who were assaulted by gangs on different days while they were on their way home. One assault occurred in broad daylight after school, the other was after a football game at night. For the nights that football games take place, drive arounds would be a good idea, but the after school hours, having parked police cars down the road is a better plan.

It's likely that the bad flu going around town has prevented some parents from attending the meeting, but they can catch up with the KGEM rebroadcasts. Even though I attended the meeting, I've watched the rebroadcast twice because each time I've learned something new... I especially appreciate what Officer Tom Loy had to share about his experience with identifying gang behavior... stuff about parents needing to look at their kids folders to find if there's any monikering (nick names with graffiti-like characters) or the mention of tech, crew or "k" at the end of a nick name... whether kids have red or blue bandanas, blue shoe laces... these are subtle signs a parent may gloss over. Another thing parents need to be wary of is what their kids are doing online. Like the Mayor said, it's not just the gang stuff happening on Myspace to be concerned about, but the potential for kids to be putting their safety at risk with Internet predators. But as a parent, I'm relieved that the school has a firewall installed to block students from accessing those high risk sites.... at least some kids will be spared of the risk.

I can't wait for the next community meeting... for me, it feels like homecoming. My neighbors are wonderful.

Also, I'm RELIEVED that the high school will not resort to metal detectors! That's the last thing we need. Having visited Jerusalem, every market and site I visited had to be passed through metal detection and it just made me feel like a criminal... so can you imagine what that would do to the esteem of students trying to start their day of study? I applaud Superintendent , Dr Louise Taylor, for saying NO to metal detectors, and for telling parents they could relax because "friendly" dogs come into the schools once a month, unannounced, to sniff out munitions and drugs... so because the students are aware of these random searches, they are deterred from bringing them on campus.

Horton, you have a lot of good to say. I'm sorry if I implied everyone should have known as most all I talk with are sharing constantly what is put out by the district. It is what parents do.

No problem. Thanks anyways. Guess what? I was just at the High School when classrooms were evacuated at 2:10pm for something fire related. The Arcadia and Monrovia Fire Departments were dispatched and about a dozen trucks were there altogether, including police. One building, the 100 building, was allowed to remain in class. Don't know what it's about. I took pix though.

Thanks for the tid bit. My daughter actually called, students weren't scared or anything. According one of the counselors my daughter knows well it was a tiny electrical short that luckily never becamer more than a lot of smoke and stink.

We were lucky.

Horton Hears-- it was actually only the 100 building that was evacuated not the only building that "was allowed to remain in class."

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