By Ted Slowik
A group of parents is asking the Indian Prairie School District 204 board to close schools on Election Day. Is this an idea whose time has come?
I mean, face it, why should authorities be so extraordinarily cautious about denying unrestricted access to school buildings most days, only to throw open the gates when it's time to vote?
Who knows what sort of crazy, terror-minded individual would look for just such an opportunity to exploit? These are the times in which we live, and there are plenty of sad, sick people in the world. A sexual predator could be a registered voter, after all. Wouldn't it be safer to simply align the school calendar so that teacher institute days -- when children are not in class -- occur when the public is allowed inside schools to vote?
Is this brilliant foresight that could prevent tragedy, or much ado about nothing?
This is a joke, right? If the school can't be secured, then don't use it as a polling place. If the school is not in session, and most of our elementary schools are in neighborhoods, aren't we inviting sexual predators into our neighborhoods and making it more likely the kids will be OUTSIDE rather than in a supervised classroom?
Of all the things to be worried about in IPSD204, this is about the least of my concerns as a parent.
Unbelievable! This isn't much ado about nothing, it's plain stupid. Put that little bike helmet thing on your little kiddies' head and then keep them locked in the house - there, safe! Oops, do we need monitors for those potentially abusive parents?
Jane: Please explain "flattering themselves". I don't understand that comment. Also, I have voted at a school and the doors to the school were indeed open and unmonitored. The election officials do not and cannot be expected to monitor where people go before or after they vote. As Dave implied, the school administration needed to either close those doors or have someone posted there to make sure voters did not wander into the school. That said, what's the harm in scheduling school so that the children aren't there at all? Seems to be a benefit, but no cost.
A few volunteers to stand near the entrance to school proper from the voting area and this issue is resolved
Stupid idea, just plain stupid.
Wow, just wow.
The sick people of the world already have easy access before and after school and when the kids are outside at recess. Elections grant them no further access than they have already every other school day.
Voters and election judges are only in the entry areas of the schools. The gates to the schools are not thrown open with voters wandering all over the schools. These parents are flattering themselves. Nuff said.