by Lori Ronan

Created on: March 06, 2008   Last Updated: October 18, 2010

He pushes her against the wall and wants to assault her. She screams but no one is left in the school. She runs to a door where the offices are. The doors are locked. She is in a panic. She keeps running and she can see her assailant behind her. While running she takes her cell phone out and dials 911, the phone lands on the grass as the he grabs her from behind.

Two minutes later the police arrive. They find him on top of her. He was going to rape her. He has only managed to rip her shirt and bruise her neck and arms. Without her cell phone she might have been seriously hurt.

Some of the innovations in school design made to keep your child safe from intruders can actually hurt them in an emergency situation. Locked doors, high fences, closed corridors. The may keep the intruders out, but they can also lock your child in.

Many of the privileges of being an adult are denied students in public schools. The administrators are so caught up in zero tolerance they deny kids civil liberties that can save their lives. They live under the misguided premise that school violence is not a problem at their school. Sexual assaults, school shootings, and child abuse - they can happen at the best schools.

Your child misses their bus and gets stranded at school. The office is closed and the only telephone is in the office. When your child fails to come home on the bus- you drive to the school. Your child is sitting alone on a curb, trying to send you a psychic message.

Use the pay phone! Pay phones for the most part have disappeared from schools. Kids who take busses will walk many miles alone or take rides from virtual strangers when they cannot call home.

In fifth grade my son went on a school trip to D.C. As an asthmatic I made sure we packed his medicine, checked for local doctors and notified his chaperone about his condition. Every T was crossed and I dotted. He got off the train with a hundred and two temperature and we drove straight to the hospital. The other kids took care of him on the train and the chaperone "could not be bothered".

Another time the air conditioning went out in the school. Was I notified to pick him up as noted by the care plan he had. No, he came home wheezing and was sick for days.

In loco parentis (in place of a parent), giving the school care and control over my child. What evidence do I have that my local school is going to take care of my child as well as I would? It appears not a lot.

Cell phones are not a privilege anymore. They are a safety measure that ensures your child can find you and get help in an emergency. The schools can make rules about their use, like having them turned off during classes. Many principals and school board member send their children to school with phones - against the district policy - for they too know the dangers our kids face. I just have to remember the young girl that was not raped and it was because she had a cell phone and it saved her from a terrible fate.

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