As communities now decide on the best practice for going back to school, it has almost all been about COVID 19.
Safety, safety, safety, COVID, COVID, COVID…
Every family is in a different situation from perhaps two parents continually working, to having frail elderly grandparents, to children with special needs, parents out of work, threats of losing one’s rented apartment…the list goes on.
I have a major concern for schools over and above the threat of COVID and how they have plans in place to mitigate that.
Depending on where you live, many haven’t seen each others’ kids for several months now. In certain communities many haven’t even seen one another as parents. We certainly haven’t seen the teachers and other school staff.
With that, my concern away from COVID is what has affected individuals during this extraordinary prolonged lock down period?
Schools, staff, parents and students MUST be switched on to the chance of an individual coming to school purely set on doing harm to others.
My top post is always about how to survive a school shooting…it’s always the first post on the list as we move forward in time, it’s there for a reason:
https://bobshepherdauthor.com/2018/10/09/a-formula-for-surviving-school-shootings/
If you haven’t read it, just have a read through and get your mind set on the chance of something turning bad. If you have read it, then it may be the time to have a re read and refresh.
We live in a time of many people feeling fragile right now. For many reasons, there are people who are angry…the lock down, politics, the economy, loss of jobs, kids and parents locked down together for a good while, tempers breaking. Who knows the mindset of any one individual today irrespective of how they were back in the times of pre COVID and pre lock down?
I feel that if there was ever a time for an increase in school incidents (and that would include workplace incidents too as many prepare to return) it’s now, with so much uncertainty as to how we all behave, and what has happened to individuals over the last several months as they haven’t been seen.
Tough times for all…so be prepared and have a plan in the back of your mind, even though here’s hoping that it will never be needed. But as we all know, hope is not a plan.
Bob Shepherd 
Bob,
You make good sense, as always. There have already been family shootings as repressed rage boils over from the slightest things. As my Coast Guard friends say, “Semper Paratus.”
Joe